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There are three main types of bank account. The right one for you will depend on your circumstances and what you want to use it for.
Basic bank accounts are simple accounts that allow you to pay in and withdraw money, and set up direct debits to pay bills. They don’t usually have overdraft facilities. This sort of account might suit you if your finances are very straightforward, if you haven’t had a bank account before or if you have a bad credit rating.
Current accounts have more features than basic bank accounts, such as debit cards, cheque books and overdraft facilities. Some pay interest, but usually at a lower rate than a savings account.
Savings (or deposit) accounts offer interest on your money but may restrict your access to it. You may have to give notice to withdraw your money without incurring a penalty.
A convenient way of getting cash is an important factor when it comes to choosing between accounts. Think about the following.
If you’ve mislaid the details of a bank or building society account, there are account-tracing schemes that can help you locate your money. See the section ‘Tracing lost money’ for more details.
To find out more about choosing an account and shopping around for the best financial products, download our Money matters guide.
‘I had been with the same bank for most of my adult life. In the past I had never really thought about moving from one to another – I had always kept my savings in the same building society too.
‘A while back I started to look at whether I was getting a good deal. I wasn’t paying any charges for my current account but I wasn’t getting any interest to speak of on the balance either. I switched to another account that paid a better rate of interest. It wasn’t too difficult and the bank helped me change the account over. The rate is lower now than when I opened the account but it all helps.
‘I find I quite enjoy looking out for the best rates and moving my savings about. It’s become a bit of a hobby. Since the credit crunch started I’ve investigated what protection there is for savings. Not that I have more than £50‚000 in one bank – if only!’
Download the guide Money matters (PDF 2MB)
Download the guide Managing your money (PDF 3 MB)
Age UK has launched the more money in your pocket campaign - to help us claim all the money we are owed. Last year‚ Age UK helped put more than £100 million in unclaimed benefits in the pockets of those of us in later life and our carers. Help us to do better this year.
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The British Bankers’ Association is the leading association for the UK banking and financial services sector. They will be able to help you trace a lost bank account.
Building Societies Association is a trade association, representing mutual lenders and deposit takers in the UK including all 52 UK building societies. They will be able to help you trace a lost building society account.
My Lost Account website offers a free service to help you trace lost accounts.
Downloads
A download is a document (like a research report, a leaflet, or an application form) that can be transferred from our website to your computer. You can download a file, view it on your screen, print it, or save it to your computer.
PDF stands for ‘portable document format’.
Most downloads on this website are PDFs. We use this format to ensure that the document looks the same on everyone’s computer (website pages, by contrast, appear differently depending on how people have set their computer up).
Computers use a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader to download PDFs. If you try clicking on a link to download a PDF and it doesn’t work, you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader onto your computer.
The process is quite straightforward and is free.
PDFs cannot be changed. If you need to be able to type into a downloaded document (for example, if we are offering a letter template that you need to put your name on) we will provide it as a Microsoft Word document rather than a PDF. You can then download it, type into it and save it to your computer.
Downloads will open on your computer in a new browser window.
Inside this window (below all your web browser menus), there will be a toolbar with options for you to print or save the document.
Close the browser window to return to the Age UK website.
We have made every effort to make our PDFs accessible to screen readers. Here is an overview of your accessibility options available in Acrobat Reader. Please ensure that you have downloaded the latest version of Acrobat Reader from the Adobe Reader website to ensure that they are included in your version of the programme.
You can use Adobe Reader to read a PDF out loud with the following shortcut keys:
You can also convert a PDF into a web page by following these steps:
You can convert a PDF document into a text file for use with other software and hardware such as Braille printers by opening the PDF and choosing ‘Save as text’ from the File menu.
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