alliance and leicester e saver rate 6.56%

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deano72 wrote: »

idealy would be withdrawing on the 1st but in realalty probly not..so can u drop some names of thses clean accounts please,,,would be good to have a shop around

here are a few..

http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/savings/bestbuys/internet-savings-accounts.aspx

exel1966

Might be adviseable for you to click on the savings link at the top of the page where you'll find this and lots more.

There’s currently a clear winner on rate, paying far more interest than anywhere else. All the following top accounts are either instant access, meaning you can withdraw cash immediately via a branch; or no-notice, which means as it's an internet/phone account, in practice it takes a few days to get the cash in your hands:

The Top Clean Easy Access Accounts

• 6.55% from £100, online access with strongest rate guarantee
  My top pick is Kaupthing Edge* at 6.55% AER, and guarantees to be at least 0.30% higher than the Bank of England base rate until 1 February 2012, meaning it’ll be a high, if not always top, payer until then. The account is online only and you need £100 to open it.
  Kaupthing is the UK offshoot of a big Icelandic bank, yet this isn’t an issue as for all intents and purposes it operates like a UK bank. It’s signed up to the Banking Code and is totally covered by the UK compensation scheme meaning, like every bank, the first £35,000 per person saved there is covered (see Are your Savings Safe? for more).
• 6.52% online if you've less than £100, but no rate guarantee.
  Two accounts pay a smidgeon less than Kaupthing yet you only need a pound to open them. Birmingham Midshires e-Saver pays 6.52% and Bradford and Bingley's* Internet Saver 6.51%, and this guarantees to at least match the base rate until January 2010.

exel1966

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi just to say on this. We always put as all the crucial detail as possible in the guide, and very strongly try to get people to read it.

The job of the weekly email is a tough one. It's a large mainstream audience and as I always say for most people "saving 'em £1,000 is easy, getting them to do it is the challenge". Therefore we try and put the headline in that urge people to dump their big 4 saving account paying a peanut and moustache hair in interest; yet at the same time encouraging them to actually come to the full guide and do the proper reading.

I think Deano72 is a prime example of those who do NOT read the guides. (No disrespect deano)

And the hundreds of others who ask questions in the forum without reading the guides you've spent years working on. Many of the questions asked in the money forums have been answered in your guides, yet many people don't seem look their to find the answers, even those who are not new to the site.

My personal feeling is that the guides need highlighting and bringing to the forefront a little more.

epsilondraconis

My wife and I have just opened two A&L e-Saver accounts - largely for the 2 x £20 cashback. Well, when I say just opened, mine is now opened approximately 2 months after applying; however we are still waiting for my wife's account to become active.

After receiving the all of the details to enable me to deposit money I logged into my account and saw the following text:

Moving money is quick, easy and secure with our internet banking ‘Quick transfer’ facility.

Wow, quick, easy and secure - it was the word quick that caught my eye (as I assume it will always be easy and secure). We currently have a B&B savings account and it takes 4-5 days for the money to finally appear in the account. Anyway, I clicked on the 'Quick Transfer' facility and duly authorised payment of £2 from my nominated current account (non-A&L) so the account is active and I receive the £20 cashback.

I was flicking through the literature that came with the savings account and noticed that it is also possible for me to transfer money from my bank account to the A&L eSaver account via BACS. So I log onto our HSBC current account and transfer £1 (I used a different amount so I could see which arrived first).

I log out of HSBC and then into the A&L eSaver account and during the time it took me to do that (1 minute perhaps), the £1 had been credited to the account.

That was yesterday. Today the A&L 'quick trasnfer' £2 deposit still hasn't appeared - to be fair it hasn't been taken from the HSBC yet either.

I guess it is because the money being transferred using the A&L method uses the DD mandate I set up and so takes longer than the new quick BACS system.

I just thought I'd highlight this for anyone that was interested.

Edit1: Regarding the withdrawl restrictions - I didn't read any of the MSE guides before applying for these accounts. In this case it wasn't needed because the A&L website makes the restrictions perfectly clear (in my opinion).

Edit2: Also changed the text as some incorrect information showing.

LucyTheDwarf

I opened (well, ish) the A&L e-saver, purely for the £20 cashback. This was back in May. I only ever intended to put in £10 or so, as I hate accounts that penalise you for withdrawals.

I have never received the account details. I was due to receive log in name and password via post, and something else via email (can't remember now). Never got any of it. The direct debit was set up, as I can see it in the online banking of my current account, but nothing else has ever happened to get the account actually opened!

As soon as I received the cashback (which I duly did, without putting a single penny into the account), I cancelled the DD, gave up on A&L, and I doubt I'll ever use them again... if they can't manage something so simple as posting me a log in and password, I wont trust them wth my money - no, not even £10!

MarkyMarkD

I'm glad that epsilon at least agrees that the interest terms are clear.

There's a difference between something being different to some other accounts - and, to be fair to A&L, HSBC introduced this sort of interest term before they did - and something being a scam.

Having said that, I don't see any point in those who bank anywhere but A&L using the account. If you DO bank with A&L, it's a benefit to be able to transfer funds instantly in and out of your current account.

When A&L's current account does faster payments, even that advantage will disappear - apart from the fact that I don't expect Kaupthing Edge to be doing faster payments in the outbound direction.

The "1st of the month" restriction is way over-blown IMHO. I have had A&L's eSaver and DirectSaver, both of which operate like this, for a year or so and have put money into and out of each of them. It's no hardship to remove the whole balance on the 1st day of a month when you know you'll need it, and to put the spare funds somewhere else until the end of the month, then returning them to the A&L eSaver/Direct Saver account on the 1st of the following month.

If you have an account like this and use it for all of your savings, you'll obviously come unstuck. But if you use it for longer-term savings, keeping a bit of "ready" savings elsewhere, then it's fine.

epsilondraconis

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Having said that, I don't see any point in those who bank anywhere but A&L using the account. If you DO bank with A&L, it's a benefit to be able to transfer funds instantly in and out of your current account.

I agree - it was the 2 x £20 cashback that won me over. They'll probably be closed soon after the cashback is received.

MarkyMarkD, the way you describe your use of the A&L eSaver accounts is the same as I applied to the HSBC bonus saver accounts when we had them. They too had the same withdrawl restriction which meant the rate would drop for a month the withdrawl was made. My wife and I each had the HSBC bonus saver account (opened for the 2 x £20 cashback) and if I knew we were likely to need some of our savings, I would withdraw it all from one of the bonus saver accounts at the beginning of the month and immediately switch it to the other bonus saver account.

Anyway, can't write anymore at the moment, I'm off to see if there are anymore savings accounts that will give me cashback.;)

Pendle_Gazza

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

If you have an account like this and use it for all of your savings, you'll obviously come unstuck. But if you use it for longer-term savings, keeping a bit of "ready" savings elsewhere, then it's fine.

I agree with MarkyMarkD - it's a useful British bank to place money with that you know you don't need to touch. You can place easily gettable money in a different institution - also extra useful if you're concerned and want to split amounts exceeding £35K.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the account - mine was setup quickly and efficiently, and has caused me no problems. Once Santander get hold of it, I might of course revise my opinion!

Steve_xx

Pendle_Gazza wrote: »

I agree with MarkyMarkD - it's a useful British bank to place money with that you know you don't need to touch.

This useful British bank is about to become a Spanish bank!

MarkyMarkD

Whilst I get your point, Steve, no, it's not. It will still be a British bank, regulated by the FSA and subject to the British FSCS, just with Spanish ownership.

That's different to something like Kaupthing or Icesave, which are not British banks in any sense.