Doing the maths

SallyG

No good at percentages - trying to learn :
my FD Reg Saver has just added £96.99p gross to my £3600 hard saved at the rate of £300 a month for 12 months from July 2010
[can't find the 2010/11 reg saver interest rate on the FD website- I remember it sounded good at the time]
Seems paltry- what's the real annual rate of interest?
Please show working out?

Lokolo

£100 of £3600 is about 2.8% (100 / 3600 * 100), but as a regular saver it would be about double that so I reckon the interest rate is 5%.

http://www1.firstdirect.com/1/2/rates/fd/savings-accounts;jsessionid=0000CaqGtAQgrdZkg1UaHBh1dlN:11qks5bhc

Oh look - previous rates, Effective for all Regular Saver accounts opened between 26 August 2009 and 31 October 2010, 5%

jamesallen

As the above poster said, to work out a normal % just divide interest by capital, and multiply the result by 100.

To work out a regular saver's interest, divide interest by average capital - in this case £1800.

96.99/1800 = 0.053883333... *100 = 5.39% I would have thought.

To get the actual interest rate you had, you also need to work out the rate on the account which funded the regular saver.

MoneySaverLog

At a rate of about 6.8% AER £300 per month would grow as follows

3696.90 (Assuming you are not leaving this in for another month)
3396.90
3079.45
2763.79
2449.91
2137.79
1827.44
1518.83
1211.96
906.82
603.40
301.7 (1/12*0.068 = £1.70 interest after 1st month)

From my working out

Milarky

The amount paid was correct.

[8% only became available last October - so the OP was getting 5%]

Average balance £1950. Interest Rate 5%

£1950 x 5% = £97.50

The difference from this to the actual amount (a mere 51p) is due to the odd months when the standing order dates would be either fall on a Saturday, Sunday or a bank holiday - and be held over to the next working day.

@OP get in and apply for the 8% Regular Saver today
http://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/savings/regular-saver-account

From the Horse's mouth

That's fixed for 12 months. So if you saved £300 per month for 12 months, you'd receive returns of approximately £156 gross (£124 net) in interest after 12 months. Interest is calculated daily and paid on the 12 month anniversary after account opening.

Average balance £1950. Interest Rate 8%

£1950 x 8% = £156.

bigfreddiel

SallyG wrote: »

No good at percentages - trying to learn :
my FD Reg Saver has just added £96.99p gross to my £3600 hard saved at the rate of £300 a month for 12 months from July 2010
[can't find the 2010/11 reg saver interest rate on the FD website- I remember it sounded good at the time]
Seems paltry- what's the real annual rate of interest?
Please show working out?

i cannot believe people enter into a financial agreement wihout understanding what its all about even at this basic level

i think i should be a banker - sounds like a licence to print money!

fj