Two new regular savers paying 5% APR

penguine

Northern Rock: fixed until June 2011, pay in up to £250 a month

Nottingham Building Society: Fixed until Feb 2011, pay in up to £100 a month

Both must be opened in-branch.

apt

Although the Northern Rock regular saver has the limits re term and monthly amount that penguine spells out it's worth noting that it is extremely flexible for a monthly saver with a decent rate. You can make any number of withdrawals (the only limit is only one per day) and will still get 5% providing the balance does not go below £1. The minimum monthly payment is only £1. It is certainly a good account for those who only have small amounts to save and might need to withdraw money to meet unexpected bills.

RayWolfe

Shame it can be opened at a branch only!

apt

I also discovered when opening one this morning that you have to opt between the statement version funded by standing order after the initial payment or the passbook version funded by paying in cash or cheques in branch or from another Northern Rock account. You cannot top up the statement version by paying in at the branch. And you cannot fund the passbook version by transfers from an external account.

ctdctd

Opened mine today in branch at Northern Rock - statement version
Half an hour to see someone - even though the place was nearly empty.
Then half an hour for the paperwork - even though I had filled the form in already.
Advisor had to hand write another form saying I had not been advised, I was making my own decisions, and I didn't want to know about any more accounts.
Then two different types of computer screens needed to be filled in and finally I got my account number and assorted bumf.

Gawd knows how many hours I'd have been there if I'd asked about anything!!

I would say that's what happens when the State runs things but the Nationwide is just as bad. Reminds me how much I like internet banking!

jesthemagpie

Hi, this is my first post so here goes:
I have 14 years left on my mortgage of 180K. I took it out 2 years ago on interest only. My question is, i now have more funds avaialble about £700 a month and I have £5000 saved. Where could i invest this money, long term to have enough to pay off the mortgage at the end of the 14 years?
Many thanks
Jes

trynsave

The Northern Rock can be opened by anyone over 14, so perhaps a second alternative to the Halifax's 6% children's RS as that can only accept £100 pm.

Don't forget to complete an R85 as children's accounts aren't automatically tax free.

Essex123

apt wrote: »

you cannot fund the passbook version by transfers from an external account.

I'm not sure that this is correct. It's true that the passbook version is designed for deposits to be made at branch, however when I opened my (passbook) account yesterday I also asked for the BACS details to make standing order payments.

They didn't say this would be an issue, and logically the account should be able to take electronic payments regardless of the type of account document.

ctdctd

Essex123 wrote: »

I'm not sure that this is correct. It's true that the passbook version is designed for deposits to be made at branch, however when I opened my (passbook) account yesterday I also asked for the BACS details to make standing order payments.

They didn't say this would be an issue, and logically the account should be able to take electronic payments regardless of the type of account document.

From the summary box at http://www.northernrock.co.uk/downloads/summary-box/Fixed_Rate_Regular_Saver_summary_box.pdf

"● If a Standing Order is in place, additional deposits will not be accepted at the branch."

So it looks like an electronic deposit may change the account to the "Statement" type and you won't be able to pay into the account at branch after that.

Essex123

I'm not sure on that one.

I think once the passbook has been issued, NR will not change the account to statement based. Whether they would accept branch deposits after an electronic payment, I'm not sure. You could argue your payments are not a standing order but rather one off BACS transfers that you always do on the same date. NR would be unable to prove this either way unless the money is coming from an NR account.

Personally, I took the passbook because I like to have a document like that which I can get updated at any time. I plan to make the next 12 deposits for the full £250 by standing order.

Innys

Filled out the form and rang the branch to arrange opening an account. Fortunately they were fully booked with meetings so they said I could drop the form off with a cheque, they would do the paperwork and post the details of the account to me.

Managed to save myself half an hour of being sold stuff I didn't want!