Worth the hassle of starting a new account?

tempuscat

Thanks to the geniuses on this board, we opened a savings account with ING two years ago. We also have another online savings account with Abbey National, an "eSaver" opened three years ago.

Both accounts don't seem to be paying the competitive rates they used to, but then it's the case that once you're hooked, you're no longer a potential catch but already caught.

We now have face a dilemma others here must have encountered in some form or other.

A small (emphasise 'small') pension fund has just matured resulting in an influx of £5,000 tax-free cash from the pension provider and a monthly payment of £80 from now on.

Both our ISA allowances for this tax year are fully subscribed, so what we'd like to do is stick the £5,000 into a savings account and then pay in the £80 a month 'pension', probably topping it up to, say, £150 a month maximum.

Question: should we now go on the hunt for a new instant access online savings account (we don't want a branch based account), into which we would transfer the new funds as well as the existing savings in the ING and Abbey accounts -- or should we really stop bothering about fractions of percentage points. . . and choose Abbey (or ING)?

Past experience has shown that time is money where earned interest is concerned; it's also demonstrated that closing accounts, opening new ones, transferring funds, setting up new standing orders etc etc can be lengthy.

We could, relatively speaking, transfer the pension payment from our bank account, and set up a standing order monthly savings payment, almost overnight where either of our existing savings accounts is concerned.

Whereas going for a completely new account will take considerably longer and, in real financial terms, probably not produce very much more earned interest than would've been gained by doing a "quick" transaction with our existing online accounts.

Any advice would be appreciated -- thanks!