would you close older low interest rate savings accounts or leave open

anna42hmr

just in process of sorting all my finances, sorted my credit cards out so am now reveiwing my savings accounts

i have several accounts open at the moment which are:

Lloyds TSB - under £250 = 0.10, Over 250 =3.7% (as of 3rd November 08)
Tesco 6% (includes 1.5% bonus until October 2009)
Egg 3.25% as of 14th November
Sainsburys Internet Saver 3.5%
Alliance and Leicester Esaver issue 2 = 5% (as of 24th November)
Barclays fixed monthly savings 7.75% (fixed until November 2009)
Skipton BS Xmas account 6.55%
Natwest ISA 6.19%

I am trying to work out wether to close some of them and transfer the money to the higher rate interst accounts or would you leave them open (ie with the mimum operating balence, say £1 for example) and then if the other rates drop and these are decent i can just transfer the money back?
just so people know, i cant pay more into the cash isa as i am paid up for this tax years allowance and pay the max a month into the fixed rate monthly savers.

I know the lloyds net saver is the lowest, but i tend to keep a £100 or so for emergencies, as the money goes to my current account instantly when needs be (ie last time was to withdraw when my glasses broke and i needed to replace them unexpectantly)

i am considering mainly wether to leave egg and sainsburys open (ie with either what they have in now and stop paying into them, or to withdraw all but £1 and put the rest into one of the others, ie tesco, alliance and leicester or skipton) and then if the others drop so these end up being higher than the others i can then transfer the money out or the third option to close them completly

what are others opinions of this??

apt

I would leave £1 in both Egg and Sainsbury. The Sainsbury account has always followed bank rate changes quickly. That makes it poor in the next few months, but it could be useful when rates rise in the future. The basic Egg account will never be much use, but they have a record of making good offers like the 6.3% fixed account. It's easier to grab one of these offers if you've already got an account with them. You'll need to look around for a good instant access account before your Tesco 1.5% bonus runs out.

LittleVoice

anna42hmr wrote: »

Skipton BS Xmas account 6.55%
/quote]

That rate is reducing tomorrow. If the account was opened before this month then it will have matured on 24 November and now be paying less anyway.

You can have one Christmas Saver and up to 3 Special Savers running at the same time. So with an individual maximum of £250/month/account, that is a maximum amount of £1000 going into these accounts each month. Remember too that they need to be funded with a minimum of £10/month each if you want to gain the high rate of interest.

anna42hmr

apt wrote: »

I would leave £1 in both Egg and Sainsbury. The Sainsbury account has always followed bank rate changes quickly. That makes it poor in the next few months, but it could be useful when rates rise in the future. The basic Egg account will never be much use, but they have a record of making good offers like the 6.3% fixed account. It's easier to grab one of these offers if you've already got an account with them. You'll need to look around for a good instant access account before your Tesco 1.5% bonus runs out.

thanks for the help, i appreciate it, i have set up alerts via this site so i am reminded when the bonus ends so i can move it elsewhere, thats a good point ref the egg accounts, i didnt even think of that

anna42hmr

LittleVoice wrote: »

anna42hmr wrote: »

Skipton BS Xmas account 6.55%
/quote]

That rate is reducing tomorrow. If the account was opened before this month then it will have matured on 24 November and now be paying less anyway.

You can have one Christmas Saver and up to 3 Special Savers running at the same time. So with an individual maximum of £250/month/account, that is a maximum amount of £1000 going into these accounts each month. Remember too that they need to be funded with a minimum of £10/month each if you want to gain the high rate of interest.

do you know what the xmas saver will go down to? as their website still has the 6.55 on it, didnt know about the other special savers so thanks for that info. the xmas saver has only been opened in the last week or so

terry2

I would leave accounts open with minimum balance, at least one account with each bank. That way they still have a record of you and know who you are so you shouldn't have to prove your identity again if you want to open a better paying account with them in the future. Hopefully that would then speed things up.

anna42hmr

terry2 wrote: »

I would leave accounts open with minimum balance, at least one account with each bank. That way they still have a record of you and know who you are so you shouldn't have to prove your identity again if you want to open a better paying account with them in the future. Hopefully that would then speed things up.

good point about them knowing who i am

i have done that earlier today, many thanks all for the suggestions