Hi Rinskil and welcome to the forum.

The Co-operative Bank "Cashminder" account has been used by a lot of our members over the years. It's available if you're in a trust deed and you can use your local post office for some transactions if you don't have a local branch.

There's been some support here for the basic Barclays account as well.

The Co op and the Barclays basic accounts appear to be the 2 main ones and there seems to be little or no issues with them.

Mark

thank you for that. Unfortunately the nearest branches are 1 1/2 hours away but it is an option. Has anybody had any dealings with TSB or Nationwide?

Hi Rinskil.

There are a couple of people here who have operated Nationwide accounts during their trust deeds.

However, technically we understand that their account criteria precludes people that are in protected trust deeds so if you use them you'll have a risk that the account could be closed. That would obviously be very inconvenient at the least.

I don't think you need to go to a Co-op branch to open an account. As mentioned, your post office should be able to handle things like paying in cheques.

I'm afraid I don't know about TSB but most banks do offer a basic account that is open to people while they're in trust deeds so well worth asking them.

I think TSB should be fine - I've never heard of them being problematic anyway.

I have had a cashminder account for over 4 years now and never been in a branch, opened the account over the phone, can pay cash & cheques in Post Office. As long as you don't go overdrawn then no problems.

5 1/2 years with the co op here and never been near a branch. Account is perfect with online and mobile phone banking.

paul

Hi Rinskil

I, too, have a Co-operative Account. Opened online and operated online with no issues. I have never been near a branch in over 5 years.
I can use all cashlines and I deposit money into any Post office branch (cash appears instantly and Cheques take a little longer to appear in the account).

I have never had an issue. On one occasion I accidentally went into overdraft and I received a letter or notification to say if I brought it into balance they would not charge me - what a joy! I was genuinely impressed.

Unless you specifically need to go into a branch for anything specific other than banking money, you should be able to do everything online.