Alternative to Lloyds Vantage?

guitarman001

Hi all,

Firstly many thanks to all as I've gotten a lot of help with moving money around lately. To date:

-Have 3 Lloyds Vantage accounts - soon enough only one will be full up due to moving monies out of the other accounts to those below.

-NS&I index-linked account was opened in June 2010 and I've received roughly 10% on my money in there so far - matures next year (I understand I can roll it over).

-transferred shares out of iii and into Hargreaves - also opening a Hargreaves S&S ISA to drip-feed £100 pcm into a Vanguard fund.

-Opened a Halifax current account which I'm putting £1k in each month (then removing a couple days later) in order to get £5 per month.

-Opened an account with First Direct for their 8% rate - £300 per month and no charge as I opened their e-saver product as well.

-Currently in the process of opening the two-year 4% Santander fixed-rate ISA which I'll put £5640 into.



I have also received welcome letters from HSBC as I was going to use their 6% rate... but in hindsight I think I've perhaps got enough on my plate right now - what do you think? I'm debating phoning them up and cancelling the account already.

One thing I'm still unsure about is transfers between accounts. I set up standing orders but each with a leeway of 4 days (e.g. Lloyds transfer to Halifax on the 10th then back from Halifax to Lloyds on the 14th to allow for Sat & Sun). The leeway days are days I'm not getting any interest so is there any way I could minimise this?

Anyway! With further savings coming in (unless I move to Europe!) I was wondering if there is a better alternative to the Lloyds Vantage accounts? 2.4% net isn't too bad considering it's easy access but it's not the best either. What do you use when all your other accounts are full? Do you just open up as many 'regular savers' as you need? Or when all these products mature (nightmare! Do you then actually cancel the accounts?), is it not easier to move ALL the money into one big savings account - so you do one lump sum into one savings account and use a regular saver to keep other savings going?

Thanks in advance..!

guitarman001

One thing I have to add. If anybody invests in funds with Hargreaves Lansdown, I noted a while back that they charge £1-2 a month on top of the AMC.

My question is... how do you pay this £1-2? If I pay in £100 a month which I then instruct them to buy Vanguard fund units with.. is the £1-2 taken from that £100? Or do I have to put an excess £1-2 in the account or...?

This is the blurb they sent me:

The platform fee of £2 per month would be deducted from the Vantage account automatically on the last day of each month and is initially taken from the income account. If there isn't any income available in this account we will deduct the fee from any cash balance on the capital account and failing this from any monies in your Loyalty Bonus account. If there are insufficient funds in all three accounts then fees may be taken from other ISA accounts held in your own name or the Vantage Fund & Share Account (if applicable). Any fees still due will remain outstanding until monies become available in any of these accounts or we would notify you to pay the outstanding fees in due course.

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Seeing as will be going for accumulation (dividends re-invested) then I wont have any money in the income account. I don't know the difference between the capital and loyalty bonus accounts - must check.

jennifernil

You can minimise loss of interest by moving the money yourself via internet banking. Money going between Lloyds and Halifax now goes as an instant transfer if you do it yourself.

If you are trying to build up your savings, rather than needing easy access, you could move your matured regular savers to a fixed term, fixed interest account for a better rate.

Most Regular Savers end automatically and they will put the funds into some very poor rate of interest account if you don't move them yourself.

You can then start new regular savers.

6% is worth having if you have the spare cash.

guitarman001

I thought the only way to transfer cash between accounts was by standing order?

YorkshireBoy

guitarman001 wrote: »

I thought the only way to transfer cash between accounts was by standing order?

I've already answered that question for you on your other thread just a few days ago...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=53706655&postcount=73

To repeat...you're simply asking for trouble as well as losing money doing the monthly merry-go-round by SOs.

guitarman001

Ah yes I remember! I tried again just now using Direct Debit and it finally worked (I selected company instead of person last time) - much appreciated!


I've decided to leave HSBC alone for now despite having applied for it! It would mean £300 (First Direct) + £100 (Hargreaves fund) + £250 (HSBC) every month which is perhaps a bit too much for me. Got an Indian chap on the phone who says that I should call back on Monday to formally cancel the application.

psychic_teabag

guitarman001 wrote: »

One thing I have to add. If anybody invests in funds with Hargreaves Lansdown, I noted a while back that they charge £1-2 a month on top of the AMC.

My question is... how do you pay this £1-2? If I pay in £100 a month which I then instruct them to buy Vanguard fund units with.. is the £1-2 taken from that £100? Or do I have to put an excess £1-2 in the account or...?

See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4002673 which suggests you can tell them which account to use by default. You might choose to ask them to take it from the non-ISA account, and deposit it into there monthly, to avoid it coming out of your ISA allowance. (If I understood correctly.)

guitarman001

Thanks, I remember posting on that not long back as well!!
I've put £10 in the ISA for now - I wont be using the full allowance..!

MoneySaverLog

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

To repeat...you're simply asking for trouble as well as losing money doing the monthly merry-go-round by SOs.

If you had at least £1,000 in each of the 3 vantage accounts then this is where a standing order may work out, but you'd have to maintain that and to get the best rate you need 3-5K in each vantage account.

With less than £1k in the account and regular standing orders could result in going into OD taking into account weekends and bank holidays I agree.

I'm probably OCD with checking my Lloyds Internet banking anyway, check at least once a day so just as easy to do a instant transfer

Gromitt

MoneySaverLog wrote: »

I'm probably OCD with checking my Lloyds Internet banking anyway, check at least once a day so just as easy to do a instant transfer

Once a day ? I check my every weekend before I go out and thought that was a little on the excessive side.