Regular Savings Accounts discussion

ladyspacekitty

Hi. Apologoes in advance if I'm posting in the wrong place but I did follow the link from the article I was reading :rolleyes:
The table at the bottom shows interest over three years... how is this calculated 'cos I can't get figures to match no matter how hard I try!
Thank you.

lipidicman

Edit: might have the wrong article below, you didn't specify!

They seem to add up to me
For example £1500 average balance in A&L at 5% for a year, then 3.5% for two years
£1500x1.12 = £1680 ie £180 gain
(5%+3.5%+3.5%=12% ignoring compounding)

what specifically are you having problems with?

grumbler

ladyspacekitty wrote:

The table at the bottom shows interest over three years... how is this calculated 'cos I can't get figures to match no matter how hard I try!

Hi and welcome.

Approximate calculations (neglecting compounded interest):
£200*(12*3)/2*0.95%*3=£103
£200*(12*3)/2*4.5%*3=£486
£200*(12*3)/2*5.4%*3=£583

Exact calculations (£200 paid at the begining of every month):
Monthly interest rates:
(1+0.95%)^(1/12)-1=0.0788%
(1+4.5%)^(1/12)-1 =0.3675%
(1+5.4%)^(1/12)-1 =0.4392%

-FV(0.0788%,36,200,0,1)-200*36=£106
-FV(0.3675%,36,200,0,1)-200*36=£511
-FV(0.4392%,36,200,0,1)-200*36=£616

Here FV(...) is Excel function from Financial category.

Cee

I'm afraid its a bit late in the day for me so i've not read every post in this thread but just to point out that when the Halifax Regular saver's year is up and the funds and interest gets swept into a nominated account.

Saver Reward - Pass book account
Web Saver - Online
Halifax Premium Savers Direct - Telephone and internet viewable
Instant Saver - Atm Card account
Any existing Gold account the customer may already have...

The account is only closed if you choose to stop the standing order, if you want to continue to save for another year you can.

The customer receives a letter notifiying them of the end of the year and to remind them that the funds will be transferred, if they have taken out the maximum monthly saving, there is nothing stopping them choosing to transfer the funds to another account thats paying a better interest at the time.

The nominated accounts are purely there to empty the Regular saver into and to provide easy access to the customer, which is why each one serves a different purpose to the actual access to the funds.

Can I also mention here that if you are over 21 the Saver Reward, Premium Savings direct and Instant Saver are available at this point for as little as £1 opening.

If you were to choose to open them as a stand alone savings account you would have to find £500.00

Its worth considering this to get round this alone. If you stop your standingorder after a few months with as little as £25 per month in it, the account is closed and the funds turned into the nominated account, therefore you can open a savings account at a cut price cost of £51 in the space of 2 months!

LSW

Hi,

I'm new to all of this so not sure if I am posting this in the right way or going about this correctly, but I have a question that I hope someone can help with.

I am in the process of opening the A&L current account and 10% savings account.

The limit on the savings account is £250 savings a month which I will be putting in. I also have another £250 a month which I would like to save.

My question is: is it best to leave it in the current account (5% interest when in credit) or use another savings account which may have a lower interest rate.

I want to make the most of earning interest, and I'm worried that be leaving the current account in credit I wont be making the most of the £600 interest free overdraft facility.

If any one has any ideas they'd be much appreciated.

Thanks

josie

david78 wrote:

I am thinking of opening one of these but have a question. Perhaps someone who has opened an account could comment?

The account runs from 1 August one year, to 31 July the next year. (It then rolls on into subsequent years until it is closed). Interest is paid into the account at the end of the year (i.e. on 31 July). Interest is either paid at the standard rate (currently 2.7% AER/GROSS) or the bonus rate (currently 5.4% AER/GROSS).

If I open an account in February this year, I will only make payments into the account for 6 months (February to July). So will I get the bonus rate when interest is credited on 31 July?

Hi David,

I was told you would get it, but now they've bloomin' chopped it all back and you get a measly 5%, so I've been in today and closed my account.

Sometimes I wonder if it's worth moving your money around - I've now had a piddling amount of interest prior to the bonus and I could have left it where it was and not lost any days moving it about!

Josie :mad:

Cee

There is a new offer with the Halifax, if you open up a funded £1000 current account and fund a reg saver via standing order, you get £25 after 2 months of funding a reg saver ......

EagerLearner

Hi everyone,

I'd like to open a Regular Saver account, the top payers seem to force you to also open a current account though... we're FTB moving into our new home next month and don't want to cause any more credit searches etc than necessary, so I wanted a 'clean' savings account with no other products forced on me to get a good rate and not affect credit rating.

Investigating this further, I have found that going via Quidco, I can open a decent savings account with Cahoot, and get £20 from Quidco. As I am planning to save around £50 a month to that account, and I'll immediately earn £20 with no tie-ins - is this better than the regular saver?

Any thoughts are appreciated - thank you.

EagerLearner

grumbler

EagerLearner wrote:

...Investigating this further, I have found that going via Quidco, I can open a decent savings account with Cahoot, and get £20 from Quidco. As I am planning to save around £50 a month to that account, and I'll immediately earn £20 with no tie-ins - is this better than the regular saver?...

Open this account to get £20. There are no requirments for minimum balance and monthly credit. Then open 'clean' 7% Regular Saver with Halifax ...

EagerLearner

Hi Grumbler - thanks for your advice - I will open the Cahoot account tomorrow and also a Regular Savings account with Halifax too! Are there any linked products I need to have with Halifax? Also, will either of these need credit searches, as I want to keep these to a minimum... Thanks!

EagerLearner