• Credit Cards
• Personal Loans
• Mortgages
• Bank Accounts
• Savings Accounts

Current accounts

Current accounts quite simply allow you to keep your money in a bank and access it in a variety of ways. It’s often not convenient to pay by cash or move your money around as cash but with cheque books, debit cards and online transfers it’s possible to pay bills and make other payments directly from your current account.  Read more...>

	Barclays Bank 17.9% EAR overdraft with no monthly fees	0%	£1000
	Barclays Additions Active 3% AER interest paid on balances over £1	3.00%	-
	Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct Feature packed current account with a superb interest rate + benefits	8.50%	£500
	HSBC Bank Free telephone banking and 24/7 Internet access	2.50%	-

Like other accounts current accounts also allow you to receive money that’s paid to you as a cheque or bank transfer. 

Although there are some offer based exceptions, generally current accounts are not designed to be savings accounts so they do not pay a high rate of interest on the money in your account. The idea of a current account is not to so much to help you to save money as much as helping you to use your money easily.

Current accounts are not intended as access to easy loans so spending more than you have in the account and going overdrawn will result in penalties and overdraft charges which can be quite high.  Some current accounts may include a small interest free overdraft facility but this is a special feature and not one generally available to current accounts. 
 
All high street banks run current accounts for their customers and the differences between them can be hard to spot.  Features such as overdraft facilities, interest rates on overdrafts, interest on remaining balance or higher interest on a balance over a certain amount may all be part of the choice. 

New current account customers are much sought after by banks as they are more likely to go on to use other services from that bank, so introductory offers and incentives are often available to new customers.