Instant Access Savings Accounts Article Discussion Area

whambamboo

MSE_Martin wrote:

I had originally included both in the email, but frankly the note in the tip was too long to explain the differences, so I cut it down. I always see the tip note as a primary headline and ask people to read the article, as it says,

"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Loads of other rates have shifted too, so do read the Updated Article: [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Top Instant Access Savings Account[/FONT]"

As for why ICICI over Icebank

1. ICICI is available to everyone from £1, and encouraging people to start saving is important. Icesave requires a minimum £250.

I can't say I agree.

Here's last month's article:

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:eYpMWO2PvBIJ:www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi%3Fnewsid1098730527,15721,

Here's what it said (the google archive will update soon)

THE TOP PAYERS

Surprisingly, instant access and no-notice accounts rule the roost ahead of accounts requiring you to give notice to withdraw cash. Instant access means it allows immediate withdrawals via a branch; no-notice means as it’s an internet/phone account, in practice it takes a few days to get the cash in your hands. The following are all instant access or no-notice.

The Top Payer If You’re Saving More Than £5,000

Alliance and Leicester’s DirectSaver* No-notice account pays a whopping 5.38%, providing you’ve a minimum £5,000 and maximum £100,000 balance. It’s available online or over the phone.

The only negative is that in any calender month you make a withdrawal, no interest is paid. Still, those looking for a simple long term place to stash cash should be fine, but if you regularly access the money then don’t use this account, instead use the account below.

Two quick tips about this account. If you are withdrawing money, always do it at the beginning rather than the end of the month as then you minimise the lost interest. Plus, its security limits prohibit online withdrawals of over £10,000 to external accounts, or £25,000 to another A&L account. If you need to withdraw more, simply phone up and after security checks you can withdraw as much as you like (providing you've got the cash that is!).

The Top Clean Account (and for those with less than £5,000 savings)

The internet-only UK arm of Icelandic bank Landsbanki is offering 5.2% on its Icesave no-notice account. It requires a minimum £250 to open it and guarantees the rate will always be at least 0.25% above the Bank of England base rate until Oct 2009 and will at least match it until October 2011.

Don’t worry that you’ve probably never heard of this bank, it is regulated by the FSA so you have the same protections as with other banks and it is also a member of the Banking Code.

Alternatives to boost the rate

Those who want to have savings of a bit more, or a bit less, are over 60, or fall into various other categories should consider a few other alternatives.

• Are you opening the account with less than £250? ICICI's HiSAVE* internet account pays 5.15% and guarantees to pay at least 0.25% more than the Bank Base rate until the end of 2007. You only need £1 to open it and it’s a clean (no tricks) account.
• Saving over £5,000 and want more frequent access to your cash? The Bank of Scotland’s Instant Access Savings Reward account pays 5.25% on balances up to £250,000, and allows unlimited access with no penalties. However part of this interest is made up by an introductory bonus, and the rate will drop by 0.75% after a year

So last time around, you were headlining both the article and the email on the (commission-paying) Alliance & Leicester, which had a FIVE THOUSAND minimum balance (and plenty of tricks, which I criticised earlier in this thread), with Icebank as second-best (as this month).

Savers with less than £250 only merited a footnote under 'Alternatives to boost the rate'.

So I'm not sure I agree on the balance issue, as last month you were happy to recommend the £5k-minimum A&L account, with a note later on for less-fortunate savers.

2. ICICI has been running 18 month and while initial feedback was bad, over the last year most of the feedback has been very strong. However as yet Icesave has almost no feedback or track record. Both are FSA protected.

There seems to be plenty of people with Icesave accounts (I am among them) and no notable problems.

Yet ICICI is getting bad feedback even today, this one was posted this morning:

I opened an account earlier this year and it took ages to get everything working. Although it is a joint account, only one set of access information works and we have been unable to clear up why the other info does not allow access.

There are often problems accessing my on-line account and when you call customer services, it is always a case of taking around 48 hours to sort it out. They also promise calls they never make and DO NOT RESPOND TO EMAIL sent from your account at all!

I decided to transfer all the money out of the account as I do not feel it is worth the hassle and I basically do not trust them at all. The instruction to move the money has not been carried out and email asking why not replied to.

The extra interest is NOT WORTH THE HASSLE! When I eventually succeed in getting my money back I will simply close the account.

I can't see how this can be a reason for choosing ICICI: it's clearly worse on this issue. Icesave complies with the Banking Code's minimum standards for customer service where ICICI does not.

3. Icesave of course does have a longer guarantee, which is why in the 'guarantee your savings ' section it is covered again and recommended as a prime account.

This appears to be a reason to favour Icesave not ICICI. In my view it's very important, as the average person is not interested in changing accounts every 2 months when rates change. You could promote this account to lazy money savers as good till 2011. Let's be realistic: the likes of A&L's saver won't be good payers in 2011, but a very large number of people will still be invested there - but Icesave is still going to b e fine in 2011. I'm sure you're aware that people won't switch every time the rate changes - it's far too inconvenient for most peole, and with Icesave you won't have to. I think this is an extremely strong selling point for Icesave. It's like the credit card balance transfers - you have always listed the ones with longer interest-free periods,

So to favour ICICI you list customer service, which is a bit odd, given the evidence that India-based ICICI is not good, Icesave's minimum balance of £250, but there was no problem listing the £5k-minimum + dirty tricks A&L account last month, and the fact that Icesave has a much better guarantee, which is actually a reason to choose Icesave rather than ICICI.

In my view Icesave is far and away the better account, paying well above the base rate, which is quite unusual, and with a very long guarantee. I'd say that savers should grab it now, it's such an obvious best buy, and there's no guarantees they'll still be accepting new savers next year.

As I say, this is the problem: you say that Moneysavingexpert is 'different' from other money-saving sites, which you criticise for being commission-driven here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1148661420,18378,#difference but in cases like this there's the strong suggestion of commission influencing editorial judgement: by putting ICICI first, in a high-profile article and email sent to 500,000 people (or whatever the number is) to people it clearly has a fairly major impact on the bottom line. I couldn't come up with the real numbers, but if 5,000 people sign up to ICICI and you get £20 a time, that's quite a lot of money. But to me it's clear that people would be better off with the 'get it and forget it' (for five years) Icesave.

robster312_2

I am considering opening an ICICI Hi Save account with its high 5.45% interest rate. I tried phoning them and spoke to a foreign lady who I could not understand that well. She assured me there is no maximum amount you can have in the account. Is this true and how safe is it (over £1million)? I have also read some articles which are not all positive, which describes how customers have problems entering their account and that they don't get much help when contacting the bank.

Am I wise to invest my money into this account? If not then which is the best account to choose if I want to deposit over £1million and that has the same high interest rate?

whambamboo

robster312 wrote:

I am considering opening an ICICI Hi Save account with its high 5.45% interest rate. I tried phoning them and spoke to a foreign lady who I could not understand that well. She assured me there is no maximum amount you can have in the account. Is this true and how safe is it (over £1million)? I have also read some articles which are not all positive, which describes how customers have problems entering their account and that they don't get much help when contacting the bank.

Am I wise to invest my money into this account? If not then which is the best account to choose if I want to deposit over £1million and that has the same high interest rate?

Icesave is also 5.45%, and better than ICICI in my view because there is a good interest rate guarantee till late 2011, and probably better service. ICICI might not be the best place to keep £1m.

If you have £1m surely you have some kind of financial advice?

I assume you have substantial non-cash investments (several million), which are being wisely invested, £1m really is a large amount of cash to be on deposit.

robster312_2

As this is the first million I have made then I am new to this investing. I am 26 years old and require good financial advice on the best savings account to invest such an amount.

robster312_2

As this is the first million I have made then I am new to this investing. I am 26 years old and require good financial advice on the best savings account to invest such an amount.

whambamboo

robster312 wrote:

As this is the first million I have made then I am new to this investing. I am 26 years old and require good financial advice on the best savings account to invest such an amount.

If you require good financial advice you will have to pay for it. I'm not sure I'd trust the average financial adviser to act in my own interests though, so https://www.fool.co.uk seems interesting if you want to educate yourself....

But now that you have £1m, it's a little odd to just stick it in the bank. A savings account is not an investment: after 40% tax there will be effectively no income after inflation.

When I make it to a million my goal will be to turn it into two million. Leaving the money in the bank will never do that....

MSE_Martin

whambamboo while I strongly disagree with you about ICICI feedback (trust me I get piles of the stuff) I've reread my piece and take the point about the balance between the two accounts in the article. I've rejigged it slightly and will ask the team to make the changes on the site, hopefully at sometime today.

martin

koru

Martin

May I suggest that perhaps the Coventry First account also deserves a mention? They guarantee the rate will be 0.6% above base for the first year. They haven't yet reacted to the last increase in base rates, but they update the rate within a month, so it will soon increase to 5.6%.

The one year guarantee will take a new customer to the end of November 2007, which is effectively as long a guarantee as ICICI, but with a higher interest rate in the meantime and a very good reputation for customer service. Plus you can also use it as a current account, which is a big bonus.

For some people it won't be the best choice, but for some I think it will, so doesn't it deserve a mention?

MSE_Martin

As coventry first requires a monthly payment - its in the current account article not the savings account article

martin

(it would be more fitting in the regular saver, but then the rate isn't high enough)

LittleVoice

colina wrote:

I am not prepared to open an account with this compnay, they want to know far too much about me.

I too withdrew from opening an account with ICICI - back in the summer - though I did provide them with a lot of information.

The reason? - There was a delay in their getting back to me about the account opening and when I phoned to chase the call obviously went to a call centre in India. The person there said they could track what was happening if I gave him my address etc.

I didn't provide details but checked their registration with the Information Commissioner. They did not declare transferring information to India but this is what would have happened if the Indian employee had searched the database even if it was held on a server in the UK. Today I couldn't even trace that ICICI are currently registered with the Information Commissioner at all.