How much can you save?

tara747

tinkerbel wrote: »

hmmm sound good, I no way earn £1500 a month though.. do you think you can just transfer in that much once a month and then back out?

Yup. That's what I did, as their interest rates are rubbish! :rotfl:

gallygirl

That's what I've been doing since last April. Transfer in £1500, as soon as £300 is taken into ISA I transfer the £1200 back out again.

Will wait to see interest accrued shortly. Obviously it will be ok, as they would have written & told me otherwise. I mean, they wouldn't take my cash & not intend to pay me interest would they "insert banned roll eyes smiley here".

Hunt will be on soon for next year's ISA. What's the chances of the top 5 accepting transfers in :rotfl:

tinkerbel

gallygirl wrote: »

That's what I've been doing since last April. Transfer in £1500, as soon as £300 is taken into ISA I transfer the £1200 back out again.

Will wait to see interest accrued shortly. Obviously it will be ok, as they would have written & told me otherwise. I mean, they wouldn't take my cash & not intend to pay me interest would they "insert banned roll eyes smiley here".

Hunt will be on soon for next year's ISA. What's the chances of the top 5 accepting transfers in :rotfl:

Hold up!!? I'm confused sorry!
I mean the first direct current account (join us and get £100, leave and get another £100?)
Are we talking about the same thing?

gallygirl

tinkerbel wrote: »

Hold up!!? I'm confused sorry!
I mean the first direct current account (join us and get £100, leave and get another £100?)
Are we talking about the same thing?

Sorry, didn't make myself clear. I joined FD year (but no £100 ) as their ISA was at 7% (but regular saver so APR works out at only around 3.55%). I had to put £1500 a month in a month but didn't want to use it as my main account so I transfer funds in from offset savings a few days before regular saver for £300 comes out, then transfer the remaining £1200 out again.

tinkerbel

ooooh wicked thanks sorry for being rude earlier I was just confused! I get it now though. I allready have an isa this year so would probs just be looking at the current accout...

the_rabbi

LucyTheDwarf wrote: »

Your web saver rate is rubbish. You can get 3% for a year with the AA Internet Saver. It accepts faster payments, but cannot send them. The Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct Current Account can be used as a savings account to earn you 6% on balances up to £2500. Ideally, plonk £2500 in there, remove £500 each month and pay it back in to meet the account criteria, with the remaining £500 in AA.

No sense stopping a regular saver mid term, as you'll get only the standard lower rate of the websaver on the date you close it - i.e. peanuts. Also, if it is 3.8%, that's not too bad really.

The ISA - again you can do better. Santanders Direct ISA is 3% and accepts transfers in - never withdraw cash from an ISA, but ask your new provider to organise the transfer (you'll have to complete some forms). THis has a year's bonus of 2%, so after a year you'd get only 1%, therefore you'll have to be prepared to transfer again in a years time (rates may well be better than too!). Failing that, First direct offer 2.75% fixed til August 2011 - so you get a good rate for 18 months - it's delaying the next tranfer date rather than gettign rid of it, I'm afraid.

As you're a taxpayer now, you benefit from putting your money in ISAs to get your interest tax free (have you used this year's allowance?). However it's worth remembering that sometimes the poor rates in ISAs mean youre better off in a normal account - however it's up to you whether you save in an ISA or not. Personally, I will continue to use ISAs, as once int here the money earsn tax free interest as long as it is in the ISA. If you dont'use your ISA allowance you lose it - and I am still dreaming of a return to the good olds days (HSBC Online ISA 6.5% mmmmmmmmmm I wish) when you actually got a very good deal with the ISAs.

To work out whether an ISA is better than a normal account "gross up" the ISA rate by dividing by 8 and multiplying by 10. This will give you the equivalent rate you have to earn in a normal account to beat the ISA rate.

with the ISA i think ill risk leaving it in their its virable rate so i hopeing itll go back up once the interest rates improve and becuase i dont really want to start from 3500 again and building up but the other advice sounds cool and i might give the other a look thanks for your help and advice most helpful x

LucyTheDwarf

It's unlikely the rate will go up again, in my opinion.

Banks are businesses after all, out to make a profit - they offer great rates to get new customers in, then they lower them sneakily over the following years, hoping customers won't notice, or wont be bothered to move their dosh.

Seeing as they have your custom already, why would they bother increasing your rate? It would only cost them more, and decrease their profits.

LucyTheDwarf

zag2me wrote: »

I'm just asking to take it to another thread, this sticky is for discussion of how much we have all saved not individual bank fraud cases A few other people asked to stop as well, not just me. Lots of people subscribe to it and want to hear about the savings people are doing. There is a whole forum section on bank stuff here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=20

Minidanni make sure you post the link when you make a new thread, I'm interested how it all turns out as well. Good luck

You gotta feel sorry for her... she got quite a mauling from the bank accounts forum for posting a thread about her fraud... that's really not an option for her anymore.

tara747

LucyTheDwarf wrote: »

You gotta feel sorry for her... she got quite a mauling from the bank accounts forum for posting a thread about her fraud... that's really not an option for her anymore.

Really? I hadn't seen that thread.

LucyTheDwarf

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2252145