Any 8%+ Reguler Savers

mary

RayWolfe wrote:

* I'm so fixated that I don't even use standing orders but bank transfers so that I never lose out the weekend days. ;-)

Do explain please. The majority of my regular savers STOs go out on the 1st of the month. Now 1st October is a Sunday, so payments have to leave on Monday 2nd, or if the 1st was a Saturday, then it would be the 3rd on a Monday. So, logically, the money providing that has to be over the weekend in your current account to make sure it's ready for exit on the next working day. As I pay out roughly £4K per month on regular savers, this does not come all from income (I wish), it's recycled money. So what doesn't come in as income, the remainder from savings is transferred during that week preceding, arrives in my current account on a Friday and then is put into the Online saver over most of the weekend and then early on a Sunday morning I transfer it out to Lloyds (my bank) current account so when the STOs go through around 11 p.m. on Sunday, the money is there to be cleared out. Anyone know an improvement on this?

baldbloke_2

mary wrote:

Do explain please. The majority of my regular savers STOs go out on the 1st of the month. Now 1st October is a Sunday, so payments have to leave on Monday 2nd, or if the 1st was a Saturday, then it would be the 3rd on a Monday. So, logically, the money providing that has to be over the weekend in your current account to make sure it's ready for exit on the next working day. As I pay out roughly £4K per month on regular savers, this does not come all from income (I wish), it's recycled money. So what doesn't come in as income, the remainder from savings is transferred during that week preceding, arrives in my current account on a Friday and then is put into the Online saver over most of the weekend and then early on a Sunday morning I transfer it out to Lloyds (my bank) current account so when the STOs go through around 11 p.m. on Sunday, the money is there to be cleared out. Anyone know an improvement on this?

Just as an aside I must add that I attempted a similarly complex but successful system to yours until a year ago when I was suddenly taken into hospital for a few days and found myself an inpatient over the period when my transfers and balance-juggling were due. I have never been in such a panic over my financial affairs as I was then. I had to give my online details to a trusted friend along with clear instructions on what needed doing. Neither of us were happy about the arrangement.It was a dreadful few days - and I have since simplified things by dealing only in DDs and SOs for essential matters. It was a hard lesson at the time. Just a caveat.

mary

I have that anxiety whenever I get on a plane, even though I have treble checked everything in theory to cover the next month's payments. Beyond that if calamity struck as it did with you, unfortunately, the SOs and DDs would still function, but there probably wouldn't be the money coming in from elsewhere to keep them supplied. It does remind us that we are human!!!

rangers_fc

I find standing orders to be far more practical, than Direct Debits the problem with the latter is you have no control of when the transaction takes place. Whereas with a standing order you stipulate the date call me a control freak but I by far prefer the SO. With most of my SOs for regular saver accounts I change the date to take into account the day of the week so most transactions take place on a Monday for a speedier service. On a side issue I recently opened a Bank Of Scotland Instant access Savings account and dually intended putting the funds received from my Cheshire regular saver that had just matured into it. I was very dissapointed to find it takes 6 working days for the funds to transfer from the cheque to cash ridiculous or what.

mary

Does it not matter therefore that you change the date each month and the amounts do not arrive at the regular saver on the same date, every month?

I thought that if they leave your account on the 1st of the month, they then have the best chance of being in your regular saver account for the longest period of time during that month, even though you are left with the incoming money into your current account hanging around over that weekend beforehand

ED

baldbloke wrote "I was suddenly taken into hospital for a few days and found myself an inpatient over the period when my transfers and balance-juggling were due."

Such an instance has always been one of my fears. Hence my relief at being able to 'feed' most of my monthly savings accounts via Coventry Building Society's hybrid savings/current account Coventry First (5.35% AER interest), so at least I know the funds are there.

mary wrote "I have about a dozen regular savers, but many of them state specifically you have to have a Standing Order. So I haven't wanted to rock the boat and try to change to a BACS payment in case I fall foul of the rules and then drop to an abysmal rate."

My fears, precisely, Mary! However, unless someone here knows differently, perhaps monthly deposits via BACS are essentially identical to deposits via Standing Order. Please can anyone confirm this as definitely true?

If so, we folks could each month simply go online to make a BACS transfer to each account, ideally on the first working day of each month - eg for October we can choose Monday, 2nd Oct.

I have long avoided the weekend-in-transit situation by adjusting Standing Order dates for each month, so if the 1st day of the next month falls on a Friday, I delay the SO till the Monday following that, so it reaches is destination on the following Wednesday. Cleared funds arrive only a day late, but at least they don't spend 2 extra days earning nil interest.

Aside : these methods are used for feeding monthly savers allowing flexible deposit dates. Those 'fed' from a bank's own current account (eg HSBC, Halifax, Abbey, Barclays, A+L) are handled differently.

RayWolfe

Sorry to be so late in coming back.
I have 8 monthly savers. In every case bar 1 (Abbey 8%) the accounts were set up by post/online and the institution did not see my completed SO form ('cause I never did one, they didn't ask to see it, they said send it to your bank when completed.) Point is (except Abbey) they didn't want to know the date. Abbey completed the SO for me, asked for a date, I gave them one, they gave me back the form, it went in my bin and I juggle the dates to suit Ray's Weekend Law (never have money in transit over a weekend). Some of them have been running for years (Halifax 7%) and no one; not even Abbey has raised any problem or issue.
As for hospital, I do worry (I used to worry about The Bomb, but I've learned to live with it ;-) ) but if I was conscious, I could train my wife to release payments as due, and anyway they're all in her name. All the payment details are recorded as regular payments with my online bank and she knows how to use that. If I were dead, I probably wouldn’t bother.
As for reminders, I have then all recorded in my software so it's impossible to miss them, but I agree, you need to be disciplined ... and mad!
Hope that helps
Ray

Dagobert

ED wrote:

RayWolfe wrote:

I'm so fixated that I don't even use standing orders but bank transfers so that I never lose out the weekend days.

Anyone here had any problems by using BACS instead of Standing Orders to feed monthly savings accounts?

I have 16 regular savers and with the exception of Abbey I make all transfers by BACS avoiding the weekends, just like RayWolfe.

Dagobert

mary wrote:

Does it not matter therefore that you change the date each month and the amounts do not arrive at the regular saver on the same date, every month?

No, it does not! I change my payment dates every month to avoid weekends and bank holidays.

The only exception: Barclays regular saver has to be fed via a SO on Barclays current account, which must leave the money on the same date every month.

If you read the T&Cs of your regular savers you will find that they only specify that a payment must be received every calendar month.

mary wrote:

I thought that if they leave your account on the 1st of the month, they then have the best chance of being in your regular saver account for the longest period of time during that month, even though you are left with the incoming money into your current account hanging around over that weekend beforehand

It is advantageous to open a regular saver towards the end of the month and make all following payments at the beginning of the month. This way the money spends a greater proportion in the higher interest regular saver.

However, if payments span a weekend you needlessly lose interest for 2 days.

Kazza242

mary wrote:

The majority of my regular savers STOs go out on the 1st of the month. Now 1st October is a Sunday, so payments have to leave on Monday 2nd, or if the 1st was a Saturday, then it would be the 3rd on a Monday.

I adopt a slightly different strategy from some of you. If the 1st falls on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, then I send the payment to my regular saver so that it hits the regular saver on the 1st - or as near to the start of the month as possible.

E.g. in November, the 1st falls on a Wednesday, therefore the payment will leave my interest-paying current account on Monday October 30th. It will then get there on the 1st, so my money is earning the higher rate for more of the month. I also avoid the weekends.