Fix Your Savings Rate NOW! Article Discussion

A.Jones

molar wrote: »

Did you guys already have funds in your variable rate web savers or Halifax current accounts before today? I've funded my web saver today but it won't allow me top open a fixed rate account.

Yes, I took most of the money I had in my current account (balance is always kept about £2500) and my variable saver (which had about £2000 in) and stuck it in the fixed rate. I put £4000 in at the fixed rate of 7%, and following on from sosos posts, it looks like just in time. When I say just in time, the difference in interest at the end of the three month period compared to getting the 6.75% rate is probably only going to be about £2 after tax! :beer: It will buy me a half.

PRINCESSKERRY

PRINCESSKERRY wrote: »

They still have two Barclays Wealth accounts as of this morning if anyone wanted a 3 or 6 month fixed bond, the 6 month has an interest rate of 6%.
The min deposit is £10,000.

Just spoke to Barclays and you need to open a current or a savings account for this but at the present time they have no plans to withdraw or reduce the rate on this product. The woman thought it would take a week to open both accounts and she could see no reason why this would not still be available.

TheBearNecessities

OK, quick question folks as you all seem to be more clued up on savings accounts than me...probably because i've never saved much before!

I have no savings but want a savings account i can make monthly deposits of about £100 into and withdraw in only a few months...for a deposit on a rented flat.

I realise this means that the interest rate is almost irrelevent because the figures are so slow...

...but i also want to have a long term £50 / £100 / £150 per month saving.

what do you reckon is the best idea for me beacuse i've read the article and the whole thread and i've looked into a few savings accounts, but some are £500 minimum (and one was £1Million minimum or something lol). and one put me off because it said "To take full advantage of this offer, your inital deposit should be for the full amount you'd like to invest.".

basically the £50 per month i want to save is very small but i'm practicing the art of finding the best accounts for when it does start to matter.

any tips?

jd84

If you have more than £500 a month going into a HSBC current account you can ring 0800 130 130 and ask for the 8% fixed regular saver at up to £250 a month

TheBearNecessities

contact i don't know if that was for me or for everyone (or both!),

but that is exactly what i need...a 'regular saver' except i don't have the HSBC account so that may well take a while to arrange in which time i lose the high rates.

basically, what are the best 'fixed rate regular savers'?

i bank with HBOS.

gunnaknow

I've just filled in forms online for BM's 6 month fixed rate and Anglo Irish's 9 month fixed rate. On completion they both said that I'd recieve the forms to sign, in the post and that I should send these off with my cheques. The concern that I have is that I'll have to withdraw my money from my high interest internet savings acounts, into my current account, so that I can write the cheques.

Is there a chance that I could lose eligibility for the fixed rate deals whilst my cheques and forms are in the post, or whilst they are being processed? If that happened then I'd have my money stuck in my current account and would have lost interest from taking the money out of my savings accounts. How much chance is there of something like this happening?

How long will it take to transfer my money from my internet savings accounts to my current account? I remember there being a £10,000 limit for each transaction, when I transfered my money from my lloyds current account to my KE and A&A internet savers. It took several days to get all of the money tranfered because of this limit. Will I have the same problem if I want to do the reverse and send money from my internet savers to my current account? Wouldn't there be a risk of going through all of this and the fixed rates deals being removed in the middle of it all? I would have lost alot of time and interest if this happened.

Could I perhaps send the cheques off before having transfered the money to my current account and then do a CHAPS for the whole lump sum in one go, to get it into the current account in time? I'd really appreciate your advise, it's so tiring to figure it all out. Thanks.

Transalper

I put a deposit in Julian Hodge Bank fixed at 6.4 gross for 1 year.
http://www.julianhodgebank.com/personal/rates/savings_rates.asp
This application has to be in by Tues. they will honour these rates until then!

Pandora123_2

PRINCESSKERRY wrote: »

Just spoke to Barclays and you need to open a current or a savings account for this but at the present time they have no plans to withdraw or reduce the rate on this product. The woman thought it would take a week to open both accounts and she could see no reason why this would not still be available.

It looks like these accounts are only available to non-UK residents.

butterfly72

sosos wrote: »

I have just opened a 3 month term at 7%. The application process took less than 5 minutes. Once my new account was created, I clicked on it to view details. Interest Rate is 6.59% Gross p.a.

I admit I'm not the savviest when it comes to banking, but I would assume that the advertised 7% would be the gross figure, thus perhaps 6.59% looks more like a net amount. Go figure :rolleyes:

Mines also showing 6.59% which is the new 6.75% rate. I've phoned them as I applied last night and it was showing 7%. I got put through to another 'department' and they are going to pass it on and investigate?! I said to them, what do you mean investigate? It says in black and white on your screen when I opened the account and funded it! She agreed, but said that they still needed to look into it and call me monday. I mean really - just change the rate! What a lot of hassle for 0.25%.

jem16

butterfly72 wrote: »

Mines also showing 6.59% which is the new 6.75% rate. I've phoned them as I applied last night and it was showing 7%. I got put through to another 'department' and they are going to pass it on and investigate?! I said to them, what do you mean investigate? It says in black and white on your screen when I opened the account and funded it! She agreed, but said that they still needed to look into it and call me monday. I mean really - just change the rate! What a lot of hassle for 0.25%.

I'll be phoning them tomorrow about this as well. I have even saved a screen shot of the rate just in case they change it!