Battle of the Banks?

We're looking to change banks.

For varous reasons, for the first time ever, we are probably in a position to save some money, so I want to have:

1. A current account for everyday transactions, which preferably has a decent interest rate.
2. One or more savings accouts, preferably with instant or quick access, with reasonable interest rates.
3. Both with good online and telephone banking services.

In about a year, our current mortgage deal ends and I'd quite like to then transfer the mortgage to the same lender so we can 'offset' against the savings/current account.

From the legwork I've done already it looks like First Direct or Intelligent Finance are the two main contenders (Smile and Egg are also both in there too, but with Egg I'd have to have the current account with someone else, and I'd rather not - for simplicity, and there was something that put me off going with Smile, but I forget what it was now...).

So, can anyone advise, which is better First Direct or IF?

(also looking to switch credit cards, but I think I know which to go for there).

Even cheaper CDs on the internet...

Handy hint if you have an American Express card and buy CDs online. Most CDs are cheaper on cd-wow.com if you use this web address:

http://www.cd-wow.com/amex/

On the three last CDs I bought from them, one was £9.24 instead of £9.99, another was £6.24 instead of £6.99 and the third was £6.99 instead of £7.99.

Plectra and inflation...

This year marks the 20th anniversary of me starting to play the guitar. I think I improved over the next two years and have kind of stagnated ever since. But in one regard I am better than most guitarists I know - I don't lose plectra very often![1]

I bought six of the things yesterday and it must be over a decade since I last bought some. I thought that since so much time has passed, they would have increased in price in that time, but I bought them yesterday at 3 for a pound (i.e. 33p each). I'm sure when I last bought some in the mid 90s they were about 30p each and, thinking back further, they were about 25p each when I started playing. That's only an increase of 33% in 20 years. Or an average increase of 1.4% per year. This is well below the UK inflation rate which has been varying between 2.5 and 4.5% for the past couple of years. (As far as I can tell from a very quick internet search, inflation since 1990 has averaged a little over 3%.)

On thinking about it, guitars haven't increased in line with inflation either. In 1994 I bought a nice electric guitar for £199. Today you'd pay about £250 for an equivalent model - again an increase way below inflation. All this means it is much cheaper to play the guitar today than it has ever been. Cool. Rock on!

[1] One of my friends, and I think it might have been you Gareth, once had personalised plectra made with his address on them and an 'If found please return to...' request on them. Dunno if anyone ever returned them though.