Regular Savings Accounts Article Discussion

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  • Hi guys, this is my first post. Haven't looked through all the pages, so sorry if this has come up before.

    I'm wanting to open a first direct current account as well as a regular saver account. As you probably know, I would get £100 for opening the current account, and £100 for closing it if it is within 12 months. The regular saver offers 8% but if you close it before a year elapses, then it seems as though it transfers to their bog-standard savings account which is 1.05% I believe. And the regular saver will automatically close if you close their current account.

    So the way I see it, I could either open the current account, keep it open for more than 12 months. So this would yield £100. Regular saver would yield £123.62 for a total of £223.62 over the year, assuming I deposit the max every month.

    Alternatively I could open a first account and a Norwich & Peterborough regular saver (4%, the best rate open to anyone). Close the 1st account after 6 months, bagging £200, open another current account with another bank which hopefully would give some sort of bonus (£100 again maybe?). I would also gain £51.75 from the regular saver over a year if I save the maximum each month. So I would gain a minimum of £251.75 over the year, but potentially closer to £350.

    Have I been correct in all my assumptions? Mainly, is it definitely true that if I close my firstdirect current account before 12 months that the firstdirect regular saver would convert to a normal savings account, therefore losing that great 8% interest for the entire year?

    Thanks in advance.
  • pqrdef
    pqrdef Posts: 4,552 Forumite
    Have I been correct in all my assumptions? Mainly, is it definitely true that if I close my firstdirect current account before 12 months that the firstdirect regular saver would convert to a normal savings account, therefore losing that great 8% interest for the entire year?
    Yes. And there are quite a few other hoops to jump through to get the £100 leaving bonus.

    When looking at regular savers, remember that the default option is just to put the money in an ordinary savings account at around 3% before tax, so all you get for jumping through extra hoops is the extra interest over and above that.
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  • polymaff
    polymaff Posts: 3,903
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    edited 23 December 2011 at 3:45PM
    I believe that MSE's statements regarding this account are wrong. You can be a Premier customer without paying any fees - and hence have access to the 8% account.

    AIUI so much passing through your HSBC accounts each month or so much in savings accounts and you get Premier for free.
  • kegrad
    kegrad Posts: 6 Forumite
    Has anyone tried the Dunfermline building society for a regular saver? They're advertising "Platinum Monthly Saver (Issue 1)" that pays 5% and doesn't seem to have any conditions about other bank accounts etc. You have to open it in branch though, so might only be good for folk in Scotland!
  • Biggles
    Biggles Posts: 8,209
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    kegrad wrote: »
    Has anyone tried the Dunfermline building society for a regular saver? They're advertising "Platinum Monthly Saver (Issue 1)"
    Plenty of reference to it on the main Regular Saver thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=608697.

    It should be made a 'sticky' for ease of reference, but nobody ever seems to get the hint!
  • amiehall
    amiehall Posts: 1,363 Forumite
    polymaff wrote: »
    I believe that MSE's statements regarding this account are wrong. You can be a Premier customer without paying any fees - and hence have access to the 8% account.

    AIUI so much passing through your HSBC accounts each month or so much in savings accounts and you get Premier for free.

    You need £100k in savings with HSBC to qualify.
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  • qaz
    qaz Posts: 63 Forumite
    hi

    can anyone explain this to me pls, the part i dont get is underlined

    ta

    gThe maximum balance allowed increases monthly by £300, so if you only deposit £100 in month one, you could deposit £500 in month two (as the allowed max balance then will be £600). Technically, in the final month, you could deposit the full £3,600 minus the amounts you've already put in, though you'd miss a lot of the benefit this way as interest accrues daily on the balance at the time.
  • qaz wrote: »
    hi

    can anyone explain this to me pls, the part i dont get is underlined

    Technically, in the final month, you could deposit the full £3,600 minus the amounts you've already put in, though you'd miss a lot of the benefit this way as interest accrues daily on the balance at the time.

    You are allowed to make up at a later date for any payments of less than £300. So you could make small payments through the year and then in the last month make a big payment to bring the balance up to £3600. However, you would not earn much interest doing this because interest is not calculated on the final balance it is calculated daily. One way of thinking about this is to reckon that roughly speaking the interest you get depends on the average balance through the year. If you pay most of the money in at the end of the year the average balance through the year will still be very low so you won't get much interest.
  • qaz
    qaz Posts: 63 Forumite
    ah right i must be getting thick....thanks
  • veryintrigued
    veryintrigued Posts: 3,843
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    edited 12 November 2012 at 9:18PM
    Just to advise that Nottingham BS will be launching a 6% regular saver on Thursday / Friday.

    It'll be a branch only and maximum £100 per month.

    Maybe a help to some.
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