Halifax £5 per month current account

YorkshireBoy

guitarman001 wrote: »

Maybe I'm just not getting it.

You're paying tax on the interest your £15K is making at LTSB at the moment.

Until such time as you use this to pay down/pay off your mortgage, that money would be better sheltered from savings interest tax...and the 'safe' vehicle for that is a cash ISA.

guitarman001

Tax as in what I lose going from the gross interest rate to the net interest rate, right? But if there is little difference between an ISA rate and the NET regular account rate then what's the point?

Gromitt

You can get an easy access ISA @ 3.35%. Your Vantage account is about 3% minus tax, so ~2.4%.

10K @ 2.4% = £240
10K @ 3.35% = £335

Difference: £95/Year.

Halifax: £60/Year.

So your doing the later but not the former seems a little daft.

Mike_J

Although the Halifax only allow one £5per month reward account per person, I think you may still be also able to get a joint account. £15 per month for getting paid, switching some money around, just in time for it to all go out on bills.

guitarman001

Seems a good rate but is it with the dreaded Santander, or managed by post, or..?

guitarman001

Mike_J wrote: »

Although the Halifax only allow one £5per month reward account per person, I think you may still be also able to get a joint account. £15 per month for getting paid, switching some money around, just in time for it to all go out on bills.

I'm single so don't think I can get a joint account, but thanks!

MoneySaverLog

guitarman001 wrote: »

OK so.... so far I have 3 Lloyds Vantage.
Just opened the Halifax account and waiting for docs to arrive.

Just looking at FirstDirect now... so you can close the account after a year and open a new one to get the 8% again!? Do you need to KEEP the £1500 in the account each month, or is it a switch job like for the Halifax account?

Might look at 2-year deals...

How about company bonds? Actually, they're usually for 5+ years, right?

You don't actually have to fund First Direct every month with £1,500 you can open up a savings account (Not regular saver) put £1 in and they wont charge you.

You'll get 8% on their regular saver which you can save £300 a month. You have to pay this from the first account (their current account)

HSBC do a similar 6% regular saver where you can put an additional £250 a month. Again you have to have their "Bank Account" for the funds to leave from . You also have to fund this bank account with at least £500 per month. But what you could do is set it up so that £550 goes from your main bank account to HSBC Bank Account and then from there a Standing order of £300 from HSBC to first account.

Then your £250 leaves HSBC and £300 leaves First account for their respective regular savers.

That's what I do, it's all set up on autopilot and I don't have to do a think other than make sure £550 of funds are available in Lloyds TSB on the 16th of the month for the first Standing Order :-)

Both regular savers will allow you to open new accounts after 12 months but you'll have to find another home for the savings as you cannot just leave them in at the 8% and 6% rates unfortunately.

I have a target to fill up the 3 vantage accounts by the end of next year too, money from the regular savers I plan to put into next years ISA. I still have to put another £1,000 into my cash isa this tax year but will start filling the vantage accounts soon.

guitarman001

Yes, but like you say, you need their 1st account in order to get to the savings account (not reguar saver) and when I go online, that asks me for my current bank details. I don't want to be transferring my salary into a new account

I take the points about the ISA rates but there's always some little niggle... like I say, not keen on Santander from what I've heard, not keen on postal operations (other than NS&I) etc...

guitarman001

I'll check out HSBC if it's less hassle, thanks! It says if you're a grad you can get 8% from HSBC, so well worth it! Going to check out the application now!
EDIT - seems the grad account is only if you've graduated within two years!

YorkshireBoy

guitarman001 wrote: »

...when I go online, that asks me for my current bank details. I don't want to be transferring my salary into a new account

They're not asking so they can transfer your salary...only you can do that. They're asking because they offer a switching service (which you don't have to take...unless you'd like £100 for switching?) for your SOs & DDs etc.

I take the points about the ISA rates but there's always some little niggle... like I say, not keen on Santander from what I've heard, not keen on postal operations (other than NS&I) etc...

You could get 2.75% (for a year) with Halifax...and you could have got 3% up until recently. I'm sure there are other ISAs meeting your requirements, ie online management and not Santander, which will pay a good bit more than your net Vantage rate (but only on around £5K of your £15K this tax year of course).