If you have a bank that you really like you might wonder whether you should take out all of your financial products with them. These days banks will offer current accounts, savings accounts, mortgages, loans and credit cards and they may even offer insurance as well. You may wonder whether you should stick with the same place for all of these or whether you should go to different places for different products. There are advantages and disadvantages of each and it is a good idea to think them through so that you can decide what will be the best decision for you.
Convenient
It can be extremely convenient to have all of your products with the one bank. You will easily be able to deal with them all in one go, whether that is with one visit to a branch or one login online or one phone call. It can be easier to budget and track the money that you have as well and it will take less time. Having to log in to lots of different places or visit lots of different bank branches can feel tiresome and you might find it harder to check your balances and keep a check of what is going on with your money if it is not all in one place.
Trust
It is likely that you trust the bank that you currently bank with and that means that you will be happy to use them for other products. Using a bank that you have not used before can be scary as you may not know what they will be like. You could, of course, read reviews and talk to others about them first, but it sometimes can still make it tricky to decide whether it is worth using a different one.
Cost
If you stick with your bank, then you might be missing out on products that are better cost wise. For example, if you are taking out a loan, then you could find that there are other places that offer that loan which are a lot cheaper than the one that you are using. This could mean that by sticking with your regular bank you will end up paying out a lot more money than necessary. The same could be true for a savings account here you could end up getting less interest on your savings if you stick with your bank, compared with using a different one.
Value for Money
Value for money is also important. For example, when it comes to a loan, even if the cost is the same between your bank and another, there might be other features that could be better. Perhaps repayments are smaller so easier to manage or the customer service is better. Therefore, you need to think about every aspect of the process, not just the cost of it and then you will know for sure whether it is a better product or not.
It could therefore be a wise decision to not just choose your bank for every product that you take out. It is a good idea to have a good look around at what is available everywhere and that will enable you to make a good choice. You need to think about the fact that even if you trust your bank and they are convenient, they might not be providing you with the best value for money because they might be more expensive or not giving you such a good service for the money that you are paying. It is therefore worth spending a bit of extra time comparing the items available to be sure that you are getting the best deal.