Instant access with fast pay

apt

Drawback of Tesco - 1.5% of the 2.75% rate is a 12 month bonus plus the hassle of having wait for and use a card reader. Providing you have got more than £3000 the Lloyds Vantage is a much better account. If you have more than the £21,000 that can fit into 3 Lloyds Vantage accounts and need quick access then the Ulster Bank Pathway is better than Tesco.

oldfella

Lloyds track record on faster payments is not good if you need to rely on it

D1zzy

oldfella wrote: »

Lloyds track record on faster payments is not good if you need to rely on it

Online has been fine since Mid -October - £1000 transaction limit, £10K daily limit

(damn sight better than halifax - whose rules seem to vary on an hourly basis !)

cottager

I've only just received paperwork on the Ulster Pathway, but have read here you also need a card reader -- makes sense as it's part of RBS group. Bonus interest rate of 1% is only for 6 months and min of £10k funds to get it (underlying base is currently 2.60%/2.08% at the moment, so still not too bad).

So like many others there are conditions of one sort or another with the Pathway, which I think is what G_M was drawing attention to when posting about the Tesco account... where yes, you also need a card reader (and the opening process could be rather tortuous unless they've improved it since earlier this year!), but once open and you have the reader it's a very straightforward account with the advantage of Faster Payments in both directions. Any previous Natwest/RBS account holder, or indeed Nationwide (and I think Barclays?) would probably already have a reader which should work fine with the Tesco account anyway.

I've also opened an AA Internet Saver (3.15%/2.52% including 12m bonus) just to keep as a fallback, but no Faster Payments outbound as yet.

D1zzy

apt wrote: »

Drawback of Tesco - 1.5% of the 2.75% rate is a 12 month bonus plus the hassle of having wait for and use a card reader.
.

You only have to use a cardreader to setup new payees and they will always do that by phone for you. Personally I like the accounts with large bonus rates -at least you know at least that bit is good for 12 months

Rollinghome

D1zzy wrote: »

(damn sight better than halifax - whose rules seem to vary on an hourly basis !)

And a maximum daily fp transfer of £1K if you're lucky.

G_M

apt wrote: »

Drawback of Tesco - 1.5% of the 2.75% rate is a 12 month bonus plus the hassle of having wait for and use a card reader. Providing you have got more than £3000 the Lloyds Vantage is a much better account. If you have more than the £21,000 that can fit into 3 Lloyds Vantage accounts and need quick access then the Ulster Bank Pathway is better than Tesco.

The OP is moving from NatWest e-savings, so already has a (NatWest) card reader.

lloyds Vantage is fine (in fact good) and I have 5 of these too, but the tiered balance/interest rates makes it less appropriate for a daily-use savings account.

Ulster rate drops after only 6 months, and has a min investment.

So, while these others have their place, Tesco is still the only account to meet this specific need.

alared

The Tesco has a bonus of 1.5% for a year which is the very reason he has to move from Natwest.
The only account that has no catches and as good a rate is: http://www.skipton.co.uk/savings_and_investments/e-savings/web_saver/

D1zzy

alared wrote: »

The Tesco has a bonus of 1.5% for a year which is the very reason he has to move from Natwest.
The only account that has no catches and as good a rate is: http://www.skipton.co.uk/savings_and_investments/e-savings/web_saver/

Agree reasonable rate -but it's not fixed & if it drops he'll still have to move again. At least going for an account with reasonable bonus you know that you have that for at least a year.

D1zzy

alared wrote: »

The Tesco has a bonus of 1.5% for a year which is the very reason he has to move from Natwest.
The only account that has no catches and as good a rate is: http://www.skipton.co.uk/savings_and_investments/e-savings/web_saver/

Agree reasonable rate -but it's not fixed & if it drops he'll still have to move again. At least going for an account with reasonable bonus you know that you have at least that, for a year. (Oh except for Ulster )

(as already posted - I like bonuses )