interest paying savings accounts for churches

BobTB

:cool::TMy church used to have a savings account, which paid interest. However, the bank recently withdrew the account and switched us over onto a non-interest paying account. Does anyone know of a bank or building society, which offers an interest paying savings account, which a church would be eligible to benefit from? We do not want to commit to 'locking money away' for a lengthy period of time. Any help on this will be much appreciated.

opinions4u

Scottish Widows Bank might do the job.

http://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/bank/savings/charity_interest_rates.html

BobTB

Thanks! This looks like a really good lead. I see that to hold this account you need to be registered as a charity. I trust that our church has this. It looks like this is exactly the type of account that we require, and with only 7 day notice for withdrawals, we still can access our money to meets needs as they arise. Brilliant!

Yorkie1

Don't assume that your church will be a specifically registered charity - by which I mean it has a Charities Commission number. We registered only a year or two ago when, I think, the rules changed; I'm not sure we could have done so before then and were covered under other rules. Just double check with your PCC treasurer.

BobTB

Thanks for this. I spoke to our treasurer yesterday and I believe we are registered as a charity. Hopefully, everything is in order. Thanks.

spenderdave

For Methodist churches the Central Finance Board (http://www.cfbmethodistchurch.org.uk/). For other churches you can use their sister organisation http://www.affirmativedepositfund.org.uk/ They offer money market rates but still pretty low under current circumstances. For current accounts (as against saving) you are unlikely to find anywhere to pay sensible interest on smallish amounts.

BobTB

Thanks for this. I have checked out this lead and see that 1.3% interest is being offered, which is not quite as good as the Scottish Widows 1.6% for a 7 day notice option. However, I appreciate this lead as we were previously unaware of any interest paying accounts being offered to churches/ charities.
Regards.:j

Ifts

If you are registered as a charity then there are some more options in this link:

http://www.fairinvestment.co.uk/charity_savings_accounts.aspx?cmpid=005&gclid=CIO7ms2S7bACFSghtAod9w6ntg

I know in your original post you state that you don't want to commit to locking the money away for a lengthy period of time, but maybe have a mix of the two to achieve a better rate overall?

http://moneyfacts.co.uk/compare/business/charity-savings-accounts/

Keep what you think you need in a easy access account and put the rest into a term deposit?.... just a thought.

Also I saw these articles that may be of interest to you:

http://moneyfacts.co.uk/guides/business/where-to-find-the-best-paying-charity-accounts091211/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/mar/26/charity-bank-account-earning-enough

Ifts

Virgin Money has launched a best-buy savings account for charities which pays 2.6 per cent before tax.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2171912/Big-savings-boost-charities-Virgin-launches-new-best-buy-savings-account.html#ixzz20QdAqAix