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Halifax Guaranteed saver account

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I currently have a Barclays Current Account with a e-savings 4.7% interest paid quarterly. Having been with Barclays all my life (past 8 years) I know I can do better and am not overly kean on Barclays as a bank for sales and other reasons. I can't for the life of me find details on penalities if any for withdrawing from the Barclays e-savings account, can anyone advise on that?

I'm considering;

Halifax Ultimate Reward Current Account 6.18% AER - I can only assume paid monthly?
Halifax Guaranteed saver 5.25% AER paid annually - if you cancel 6 months in for eg. do you get the 5.25% accrued paid there and then? If you only keep the minimum £5k in for half the annual year, do you only get the 5.25 for half the year?

Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct Current Account 6.10% - I can only assume paid monthly?
Alliance & Leicester Direct Saver 5.8% paid monthly.

I quite like the benefits of the Halifax reward current account with insurances and all. But I'm not sure how much I'd lose out if for eg. I closed the savings account 6 months in, or didn't manage to keep it above £5k for the full year. Can anyone offer me some info and advice? Thanks in advance.
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Comments

  • Nipper78
    Nipper78 Posts: 59 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Hello, advice please!????
  • Nipper78
    Nipper78 Posts: 59 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Can someone please respond on, thanks.
  • Woodyrocks
    Woodyrocks Posts: 1,913 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Hey Nipper, I am no expert but I am quite good at rummaging through the boards (using the search option if nec'). I came across this on the instant access savings thread. As it says i would have a look at Martin's article on the front page on the best regular savers out there right about now.

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=2681382&postcount=12
    DEBT FREE AND LOVING LIFE
  • Afahmaep
    Afahmaep Posts: 297 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Nipper78 wrote: »
    I currently have a Barclays Current Account with a e-savings 4.7% interest paid quarterly. Having been with Barclays all my life (past 8 years) I know I can do better and am not overly kean on Barclays as a bank for sales and other reasons.

    Can anyone offer me some info and advice? Thanks in advance.
    Well to get the ball rolling.
    Do you have other savings? e.g Isas. Do you have a regular income? Will you need access to the original amount? How much can you save on top? How much are we talking about? A hundred pounds, thousand pounds etc. Because you already have an e-savings account maybe the current Icesave 5.7% would suffice.
    Old Saying Once bitten twice shy
    Modern Saying Once Sh*t on Twice Bye!
  • Nipper78
    Nipper78 Posts: 59 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    I've read the article, thanks. Well I'm considering the Halifax/Alliance & Leicester savings accounts which have a 5k minimum, and that's all I have roughly hence debating it as I'm not too clear how much I'd lose out if I withdrew and/or went below the 5k limit for a period of time. With Barclays although nearly 1% lower APR it doesn't seem to have minimum or withdraw penetalties, but these are things I'm not clear about on any of the accounts. I have 1200 p/m coming in of which I usually stick £400 in the savings.
  • Afahmaep
    Afahmaep Posts: 297 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Nipper78 wrote: »
    I've read the article, thanks. Well I'm considering the Halifax/Alliance & Leicester savings accounts which have a 5k minimum, and that's all I have roughly hence debating it as I'm not too clear how much I'd lose out if I withdrew and/or went below the 5k limit for a period of time. With Barclays although nearly 1% lower APR it doesn't seem to have minimum or withdraw penetalties, but these are things I'm not clear about on any of the accounts. I have 1200 p/m coming in of which I usually stick £400 in the savings.


    I'm not an ISA expert but I would do my utmost to get £3000 into the 2006/2007 ISA allowance BEFORE April 5th when it expires and goes into the 2007/2008 year. i.e 3 days. This is tax free. Maybe even a Barclays ISA.
    THEN think about your next option.
    Barclays have a 6.5% ISA next year as well so don't throw in the towel with them yet.
    Old Saying Once bitten twice shy
    Modern Saying Once Sh*t on Twice Bye!
  • CLAPTON
    CLAPTON Posts: 41,865 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    these are very complicated accounts with all sorts of restrictions, minimum amounts, max number of withdrawals, special terms until august, minimum payments in current a/c etc. small print not fully available online etc.

    to me this say best avoid unless you really know what you are doing.
    with, if you forgive me for saying, relative small amounts of money i would suggest you keep it simple ..go for something you can see at a glance is good for you and gives you ready access to your money.

    and barclays have no penalties for withdrawing from their esaver ...its totally flexible if not a very good interest rate.
  • Nipper78
    Nipper78 Posts: 59 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    No I'm not considering an ISA as I want access to the money occasionally, plus I'll most likely be nearing 10k by the end of the year so would then need to start dilly dallying with 3+ accounts which I don't want to do, I do want to keep it simple hence my options as outlined.

    As I said I'm looking at going all with one bank. Barclays whom I'm with have a 4.5%ish savings with no minimum and they dont seem to penalise me for withdrawals.

    If I move it will be a current and savings account with either Halifax or Alliance and Leicester both at roughly 5.5%. My main reservation is the 5k minimum because I may need to withdraw and may also drop below 5k for a time. If I had 5k in the accounts for 6 months then went below, could I cancel the accounts and get the 6 months at 5.25 for example? I'm swaying to Halifax at 5.25% as it allows 4 withdrawals a year with no penalty. A & L have 5.8% but you lose the months interest.
  • Afahmaep
    Afahmaep Posts: 297 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Nipper78 wrote: »
    No I'm not considering an ISA as I want access to the money occasionally, plus I'll most likely be nearing 10k by the end of the year so would then need to start dilly dallying with 3+ accounts which I don't want to do, I do want to keep it simple hence my options as outlined.


    If I move it will be a current and savings account with either Halifax or Alliance and Leicester both at roughly 5.5%. My main reservation is the 5k minimum because I may need to withdraw and may also drop below 5k for a time. If I had 5k in the accounts for 6 months then went below, could I cancel the accounts and get the 6 months at 5.25 for example? I'm swaying to Halifax at 5.25% as it allows 4 withdrawals a year with no penalty. A & L have 5.8% but you lose the months interest.

    I have Current Accounts with both Halifax and A&L and would choose Halifax as the better. Look at the new 6.1% High Interest Account from Halifax which requires a £1000 minimum deposit per month but pays 6.1% up to £2500 matched with a Halifax Saver of some kind.
    Old Saying Once bitten twice shy
    Modern Saying Once Sh*t on Twice Bye!
  • Nipper78
    Nipper78 Posts: 59 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    LOL, I know, again I've put that myself in the opening post. Its only just better AER than A & L's current account, whereas A & L's savings account has a better APR. What was a simple opening request for advice on specific things has somehow been turned a bit complex. Let me re-iterate my 1 main question and hope to get some comments surrounding that.

    If I had 5k in the accounts for 6 months then went below, could I cancel the accounts and get the 6 months at 5.25 for example?
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