the richest man in atherstone

I've been using the A+L Premier Direct Current Account for around six months and thought it was about time I shared my views and experiences of it.

Background
My original motivation for opening a second current account was to keep my personal and business earnings separate. I looked into a number of dedicated business banking accounts but they generally had poor interest rates and additional fees and it seemed the only benefit I would get would be the ability to cash cheques using my business name instead of my real name. Being self-employed, all my business income was in my real name so I decided that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by using a personal account for my business pursuits. I was not planning to change my day-to-day personal banking provider - Lloyds TSB - although I am now seriously considering it.

About Alliance + Leicester
Originally a Building Society, the Alliance + Leicester floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1997, where it has been part of the FTSE 100 (the top 100 shares) ever since. It is the UK's seventh largest bank and has five and a half million customers. They are members of the Financial Services Authority Compensation Scheme, which means that in the unlikely event of them going bust, account holders can recover up to £35,000. They also subscribe to the Banking Code, which ensures that banks offer a fair deal to the public.

Opening an Account
Opening an account was relatively straightforward. I applied online and over the next week or two I received a number of letters from A+L in the post. The main letter contained a welcome pack filled with lots of information about how to use the account. Other letters included my debit card, card PIN, telephone banking PIN and Internet banking PIN.

That is more or less all there was to it, however I didn't opt to have my salary paid into the new account. A+L state that their 'Premier Switching Service' will make sure that salary, direct debits, standing orders etc. will all be transferred from your existing website without fuss, but having not experienced it, I cannot comment on this aspect of the account.

Benefits
I primarily chose the Alliance Leicester Premier Direct Account because of it's table-topping 6.5% interest rate (recently increased to 8.5%). Not only is it the best interest rate on the market for a current account, A+L guarantee that this rate will remain fixed until April 2009. Unfortunately, this interest rate only applies to the first £2,500 in the account. For anything above two and half grand, the interest rate plummets to 0.10%. This was not a major concern to me as I only planned to keep a maximum £2'500 in the account at any one time. Any extra would be siphoned off to a high-interest savings account.

When opening the Premier Direct Current Account, A+L also open a PlusSaver Savings account which has a 5.5% interest rate on balances up to £50,000. Although this interest rate is far from poor, I haven't really used my PlusSaver due to the better rates I get from other institutions such as
IceSave (6.10%).

My Premier Direct Account also came with a 0% overdraft facility of up to £1000 for 12 months. The size of the overdraft does vary according to personal circumstances but if you need to borrow a few hundred quid, this account can provide you with an interest-free solution . This was beneficial for me in the first few months for another reason (see below).

Finally, the account also has an optional 'Reward' credit card that earns a 'point' for every pound spent on it. The points can then be exchanged for gifts, but having taken a look what was on offer it didn't seem like a good deal. I decided to keep with my 4% Cashback Capital One Card instead. NOTE: The Capital One card is no longer available, however the Amex Platinum is a great alternative.

Requirements
To open a Premier Direct Current Account, you need be at least 21 years old and be able to deposit at least £500 each month. When I first opened the account, I didn't have the income to fulfill the latter requirement (due to my salary not being paid into it). Fortunately, I was able to use A+L's kind offering of a 0% overdraft - I transferred £500 of the overdraft to my regular current account and back again. I still don't earn £500 per month regularly, however my balance is now large enough that I can bounce the surplus between the two accounts.

Internet Banking
For a month or two after I opened the A+L current account, I found that the Internet Banking was quite slow and occasionally I would get an error. They now seem to have sorted this out and haven't experienced any problems at all this year.

Login comes in two phases. The first is a regular Customer No. and Password combination. On the next screen, A+L display an image and phrase that is chosen by the user the first time they login. This helps to ensure that you are indeed on the Alliance + Leicester website and are't been duped by an impostor. Also on this screen, you have to enter a PIN number before being taken to Internet banking.

The design of the A+L Internet banking website is not the best I have come across - I much prefer the simplistic design provided by Lloyds TSB. Despite the design, I found running the account via the Internet relatively straightforward and all operations are intuitive.

Summary
The primary advantage over other current accounts is the unbeatable 8.5% interest rate but the comparatively low monthly deposit requirement of £500 (most banks require £1000 or £1500) and the 12 month 0% overdraft facility go a long way to making this the leading current account for both personal and business use.

All in all, I've been very pleased with the Alliance + Leicester Premier Direct Current Account since I opened it six months ago - so much so that I am now thinking about migrating my personal banking over to it.