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Top five current accounts


24.06.05


As competition between the banks increases, we select for you the best current accounts
Five best banks for credit interest

1 Alliance & Leicester
Premier Plus Current Account
Interest rate: 5.00%
Customer service rating 3
Contact: allianceandleicester.co.uk. Tel: 0500 95 95 95

2 Cahoot
Current Account
Interest rate: 4.35%
Customer service rating 3
Contact: cahoot.co.uk. Tel: 0870 240 0289


3 Lloyds TSB
Classic Plus/Select Plus/Gold Service Plus/Platinum Plus
Interest rate: 4.00%
Customer service rating 5
Contact: lloydstsb.com. Tel: 0800 015 0163

4 Smile
Current account
Interest rate: 3.30%
Customer service rating 1
Contact: smile.co.uk. Tel: 0870 843 2265

5 Halifax
Current Account
Interest rate: 3.04%
Customer service rating 4
Contact: halifax.co.uk. Tel: 457 20 30 40

Research from Norwich and Peterborough Building Society found that 63% of people didn’t know the rates of interest that applied to their account. Rates on credit balances can vary from 0.10% to the 5.00% offered by our winner Alliance & Leicester. So if you know you’ll never be overdrawn, our top five credit balances table offers the most attractive options.

Five best banks for authorised debt

1 Alliance & Leicester
Premier Plus Current Account
Interest rate: 0% for 12 months
Interest-free amount: by agreement
Unauthorised rate: 8.00%
Customer service rating: 3

2 Citibank
Sterling Current Account
Interest rate: 0% for 12 months
Interest-free amount: £1,000
Unauthorised rate: 29.80%
Customer service rating: not rated

3 Nationwide
FlexAccount
Interest rate: 7.75%
Interest-free amount: none
Unauthorised rate: 24.90%
Customer service rating: 2

4 Clydesdale Bank
Current Account Plus
Interest rate: 8.29%
Interest-free amount: none
Unauthorised rate: 33.51%
Customer service rating: 5

5 Norwich & Peterborough
Gold Current Account
Interest rate: 8.80% EAR
Interest-free amount: none
Unauthorised rate: 24.90%
Customer service rating: not rated

If you expect to be overdrawn often, make sure your overdraft is authorised, then base your choice of account on the level of authorised overdraft. For this reason our best account for debit is based on authorised overdraft alone.

Best of the best
1 Alliance & Leicester Premier Plus Current Account
Interest on credit: 5.00%
Interest on authorised debt: 0% for 12 months
Customer service rating: 3

2 Nationwide FlexAccount
Interest on credit: 3.00%
Interest on authorised debt: 7.75%
Customer service rating: 2

3 Smile Current Account
Interest on credit: 3.30%
Interest on authorised debt: 9.90%
Customer service rating: 1

4 Cahoot Current Account
Interest on credit: 4.35%
Interest on authorised debt: 10%
Customer service rating: 3

5 Intelligence Finance Current Account
Interest on credit: 2.75%
Interest on authorised debt: 9.80%
Customer service rating: 2
A good bank account needs solid customer service as well as a good balance of credit and debit rates. Our ratings reflect those of the Which? survey in April. The following banks received top ratings: Smile, First Direct, Intelligent Finance, Nationwide and the Co-operative Bank. The worst were: Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Clydesdale Bank, LloydsTSB, NatWest, Woolwich and Yorkshire Bank. This has been reflected in our ‘Best of the Best’ results. Produced by weighing up the rates and filtering the results to remove the worst customer service offenders.

Key: 5 is the highest score; 1 is the lowest score