How our current accounts calculator works

The current account calculator calculates the running cost of each current account, using information provided by the user when they answer questions such as “Account usage” and employing some basic assumptions. The calculator then checks through all the current accounts available and calculates the money that can be earned and the costs of running each account.

In order to build a calculator that applies to everyone and to ensure customers are not required to answer pages and pages of questions; we have to make certain assumptions which are outlined below. Please note the assumptions are applied across all accounts, so the ranking of each account in the results table is not affected.

• Each month is of equal length
• The money being paid in and taken out of the account does not change from month to month
• All interest charged or earned is calculated on a daily basis
• Each month is divided into an ‘Account in credit’ portion and an ‘Account in debit’ portion. It has been assumed that there is a linear relationship for each of these portions. In other words, when an account moves from its maximum balance to either its minimum balance or zero, whichever is greater, an equal amount of money leaves the account each day. The same applies to the debit portion of the month
• Any overdraft used is assumed to be an authorised overdraft agreed by your provider. If the overdraft you require is more than that offered by a particular provider for a particular account, that account will not be included in the results table
• For student and graduate accounts it has been assumed that if an interest free overdraft is available from a provider, the overdraft offered, will correspond to the amount of time since studying started or graduation took place. The maximum overdraft the provider offers for that particular year will be used by the calculator
• If an account has a variable rate determined by negotiations between the provider and the customer, this account will not be included in the calculator. The only exceptions to this rule are student and graduate accounts which have an interest free overdraft with a maximum amount you can borrow. In these cases an overdraft is assumed to be available at 0% up to that maximum, but for any users who show under the “Account usage” they will exceed the maximum overdraft, these accounts will be excluded

The calculator looks at many variables when calculating the money earned or costs incurred in running each account. These include some of the following:

• Overdraft rates - if tiered - i.e. there are different rates according to the amount borrowed - the correct rates are applied on the balance
• Interest free or discounted introductory overdraft offers
• Interest paid on credit balances - if tiered -i.e. there are different rates according to the amount in credit - the correct rates are applied depending on the balance
• Account fees if applicable
• Overdraft usage fees if applicable
• Any overdraft buffers available
• Monthly account funding required
• Is an overdraft facility available? If the user goes overdrawn, but the account does not offer any overdraft facility, the account will not be shown
• Student and graduate interest free overdrafts offered by different providers. Due to the nature of these accounts we also take into account how long it has been since the user started studying or graduated
• For student and graduate accounts with interest free overdrafts and a standard overdraft rate, interest is charged only on the portion of the balance which exceeds the maximum interest free overdraft amount

• Users can opt to filter out or include accounts based on the features and preferences they require. If a user for example opts to see only accounts with overdraft facilities we will filter out all accounts that do not offer this facility
• All earnings, costs and savings on an account are calculated over a period of one year. Shorter or longer periods are not available