Regular Savings Accounts

Unbelievable_2

ED - Sorry, I haven't got an account with Birmingham Midshires - I have been trawling and thought it might fit the bill for victoriapavier.

But you are right of course - she would benefit if she uses Martin's drip feed method and I don't know if that would be possible from the Midshires account or how quick they are to move money.

Do you have a Derbyshire account and, if so, do you drip feed into it from some other savings account?

ED

I have the Derbyshire Bdg Soc a/c for regular, monthly saving. It's drip-fed via Standing Orders arranged so funds reach the a/c as close as possible to the 1st day of each month (to maximise gaining interest @ 5.85% gross! :-))

I avoid Standing Order deposits leaving the source a/c on Thursdays or Fridays (avoiding nil interest during the weekend). My method is for £'s typically to leave the source a/c Tuesday, arrive as cleared funds in Derbyshire a/c on Thursday (earning nil interest for just 2 days).

I also have to take into consideration that the day before Standing Orders leave my source a/c, I need to fund it adequately – usually via online transfer from a savings a/c with the same financial institution. Other people rely on overdraft facilities, but I have rather a lot of regular, monthly savings a/c's to fund. (I sold my home and am unlikely to use my capital for a year; or several years; to buy another home.)

It's handy being able to go online to adjust payment-day, month by month. Hence, it's OK for funds to leave on Sept. 29th to arrive Oct. 1st. (Otherwise the £'s wouldn't earn interest with Derbyshire till Oct. 7th – because, to avoid weekend @ nil interest, departure from source a/c would be done Tuesday Oct. 5th.)

Ideas for suitable funding a/c's for Standing Orders to regular, monthly saving include :

1) Alliance + Leicester :
Premier Plus Current a/c @ 5.37% gross (5.50 AER) for up to £2,500 bal
[However, my experience has been negative, so far, of trying to set up Standing Orders via A+L (perhaps because Derbyshire Bdg Soc's a/c number for the monthly a/c is "00000000", which I've learned on MSE needs to be swapped to "99999999"?!) Also, A&L failed to respond adequately to simple email enquiries, insisting instead on lengthy telephone queuing.]

2) Norwich & Peterborough Bdg Soc :
Gold Current a/c @ 2.96% gross (to pay via Standing Order)
NetmasterGold Saver @ 5.10% (for lump sum until Internal Transfer needed to Gold a/c)

3) Coventry Bdg Soc :
CallSave Money Manager a/c @ 3.15% (for Standing Order payments)
NetSave a/c @ 4.85% (for lump sum until Internal Transfer needed – OK till 8pm Mon-Fri, 4pm Sun)

Additional suggestions welcome, folks.

Does Birmingham Midshires have a suitable a/c from which to make Standing Order payments?

Anyone know if Leeds & Holbeck's current a/c works swiftly in tandem with their Online Saver a/c (5.30% interest till next March)?

Nationwide's e-Savings (5% interest) in tandem with FlexAccount (0.50%) seems, to me, to pay too little.

Halifax plc's Web Save a/c @ 4.90% is also uncompetitive.

ING Direct's 4.89% gross (5.00 AER) is also too low for me. Likewise Egg @ 4.75% gross + Abbey's eSaver @ 4.60% (excluding 6-month bonus).

Yorkshire Bdg Soc's e-Saver (@ 5.20%), happily, has reduced minimum balance requirement to £250 (was £1,000) but I believe the Society lacks facilities for outward Standing Orders. Anyone found differently?

Personally I absolutely 100% could never recommend Cahoot to anyone. They have continually failed to provide efficient service to me, June–date, or to address my complaints about their system failures. However, I'd be interested to learn from folk with experience of successfully funding a regular, monthly savings a/c via a Cahoot current a/c that itself is funded from Cahoot's Introductory Rate Savings a/c. What procedure do you use? Do you go online on a Monday to transfer £'s from IR Savings a/c to Cahoot current a/c, and on Tuesday £'s leave via Standing Order, arriving Thursday as cleared funds in your regular, monthly savings a/c with a bdg society?

Anyone here currently fund a regular, monthly savings a/c using a combination of source accounts not listed above and earning greater interest?

quinlanmd

I'm using the Cahoot savings/current account method (although this is probably of limited use to others now that the 5.65% account has closed). No problems so far (although there are a few of the Reg Savings accounts that I haven't been able to check as regards receipt of monthly subs).

Cahoot's customer service may be somewhat lacking, but with the backstop of an authorised overdraft, I am comfortable with this arrangement (particularly as I can keep my regular banking separate and use the DD method to credit into Cahoot from my regular bank's accounts without losing interest).

MSE_Martin

The Regular Savings Account article has been updated with the details of both the Abbey and Halifax's new 7% acccounts

crana9

I can't find details of the 7% on the Abbey site..

http://www.abbey.com/future/savings/putaside/putaside_month_sav.html is all i can find and its still the 6.5%

david78

Me too crana9. Halifax is still showing the old rate too. According to Martin's article, the Halifax becomes 7% from tomorrow. Don't know when the Abbey becomes 7%.

I'm going to wait until next week to make sure I get the right rate. I am going with Halifax because I already have an account there and only have about £50 or so to put away each month,

One thing I've noted in Martin's article: it says you can feed these accounts from a standard savings account. But these don't allow standing orders, or do they?

isasmurf

As Martin says, both accounts become 7% from tomorrow.  Confirmed through Moneyfacts

Now, I've never been tempted by these accounts previously (partly because they are offered by the top two banks on my most hated list), but perhaps this is too good an offer to miss.  

So a few questions to help me decide which one.  If I recall you can't take money out of the Abbey account during the year without reducing the interest rate, but what about the Halifax?

Both accounts require a monthly DD set-up.  No problem with that, but can the amount be changed?  I'm thinking I'd probably want to transfer money across to them quickly, and when (if) I was running out of money to transfer across to reduce the DD.  I think this would be more of an issue with the Abbey account with the higher allowed monthly transfer.

crana9

does anyone know:

if you opened a FRMS with abbey at 6.5% does your rate go up, or is it only open to new customers?

crana9

oh yeah and:

you can feed it from a savings account if you transfer money from the savings acct into the current acct..

Abbey requires SO set up not DD. you can't change the amount it's for once you have decided. you could put the max deposit in though and commit to a relatively low monthly sum, however.

Speculator

does anyone know:

if you opened a FRMS with abbey at 6.5% does your rate go up, or is it only open to new customers?

Just spoke to Abbey and they confirmed that the new 7.00% applies to existing savers as well as new accounts.

In other words, if you opened their 6.50% monthly saver recently, the rate will be increased to 7.00%.

from thisismoney website......

However, the most significant difference is that Abbey will pay the higher rate to existing account holders, but Halifax will not. Existing Regular Saver account holders will continue to receive 6% (4.8%). 'This is still an extremely attractive rate of interest,' says the Halifax.