Advice on "The oneaccount"

VLT

Hi,
This is my first post on the forum so I hope it's in the right place! If not i'm sure the more technical out there can move it for me.
Seen the ads recently for the "one account" and wondered if anyone out there had any views/advice or experience which they could share.
I have had a search but couldn't seem to find it mentioned anywhere else, but I apologise if it's been covered before.

yus786

Your search criteria may have been incorrect.

Here's a couple to get you going:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=407460&highlight=one+account

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=408421&highlight=one+account

VLT

Thanks for that, I'm now even more confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yus786

VLT wrote: »

Thanks for that, I'm now even more confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You will find that there are two types of people - those who HATE the one account (high interest rates, loads of better current accounts out there etc etc) and then you'll find those people who LOVE the one account and i'm one of them.

OK - before i get my head bitten off - yes the rates are HIGH but as i have at least 35% in saving and due to the flexibility - i don't mind paying that bit more.

Best thing to do - is post your ACTUAL concerns/questions and am sure someone will help you. No use posting a 'What is your view' type of question as that has been dealt with time and time again

HTH

Rick62

The OneAccount has a very high interest rate. There are other lenders with fully Flexible or Offset mortgages at much better rates of interest if that is what you want.

Mr_helpful

in my experience you cant fault the customer service at one account but thats only my personal experience others may say different. Of course the higher the rate the better for your savings. If you have over 50% you are laughing

blisteringblue

yus786 wrote: »

You will find that there are two types of people - those who HATE the one account (high interest rates, loads of better current accounts out there etc etc) and then you'll find those people who LOVE the one account and i'm one of them.

OK - before i get my head bitten off - yes the rates are HIGH but as i have at least 35% in saving and due to the flexibility - i don't mind paying that bit more.

Best thing to do - is post your ACTUAL concerns/questions and am sure someone will help you. No use posting a 'What is your view' type of question as that has been dealt with time and time again

HTH

Firmly with yus786 on that one.

I know it is expensive but I know how much extra it's costing me each month and you have to make up that much elsewhere (spending on credit cards and settling once a month, stoozing on 0% credit cards, good old fashioned savings etc etc).

If you are diciplined its the most flexible account you will find, but if you are not overpaying and have nothing to offset then it's not going to be worth your while.

jamesd

The One Account has a high interest rate. That can sometimes be made up for if you within the same month put in and take out something around half of the total mortgage value. The high interest rate makes the saved interest look very attractive, but since you're paying more interest in the first place, it's misleading. I've never seen anyone say anything other than good things about their customer service and the flexibility of the account is excellent. The problem is the high price you pay for it. When comparing with other mortgages they tend to use old-style annual interest calculation mortgages, not the cheaper and more modern daily interest types; this makes the One Account look less expensive than it is.

If you are on a longer cycle than within the month, consider an offset mortgage instead of the One Account current account mortgage, since the rates are much lower and you end up with enough flexibility. For an offset mortgage to pay you need to be putting something around 30% of the mortgage amount in the offset account, because you lose interest on the money you're saving and that reduces the benefit of the offset of the mortgage interest. If the money can go in a cash ISA instead, you can actually lose money by offsetting because cash ISA rates are typically higher than mortgage rates at the moment.

Offset mortgages cost something around 0.25% more than non-offset flexible mortgages from the same lender. If you're planning to stash away savings and not take them out except once a year or less, you may find that a normal flexible mortgage with overpayment and drawdown features is sufficient and cheaper. It's quite likely that just putting the money in a cash ISA is a better deal.

If you're keen on cash ISAs, Intelligent Finance offers an offset mortgage which lets you offset with ISA money. This lets you put the money in other ISAs when their rates are higher than the mortgage rate, then swap to the mortgage offset account if the mortgage interest rate is ever higher than the normal cash ISA interest rate. This way you preserve your cash ISA pot.

Generally, if you have a cash ISA allowance you don't fully use, the cheapest approach today is an interest only mortgage with the difference between interest only and repayment plus any overpayments going into a high interest cash ISA. That's been true for a few years now and looks likely to continue for anyone who is able to get competitive mortgage deals. Then you keep on accumulating the money in the ISA until you have enough to repay the mortgage or until mortgage interest rates become higher than cash ISA rates.

wymondham

We are about to start our OneAccount next week, and by all accounts we should have paid off the mortgage in about 14 months (small mortgage!)
Our dealings to date have been excellent, with good service each time we have called or used their website to 'chat' (this works really well!). I know the rate is not the best, but I could not find anything near that approached the flexibility they offered. sure, it's not for everyone, but I'm fed up of renewing my mortgage every X years and paying arrangement fees/exit fees etc. I wanted a mortgage that would be for the life of the loan, and would work automatically to a large extent (I'm lazy and would forget/not bother transferring money to an offset!). The charges to open an account are tiny compared to others as well.

I'll post again to let you know how it's going!

VLT

Thanks for all your comments and advice, i'll take them back to OH and discuss!

Pinklepurr

I've had a One account in the past and ditched it for a regular repayment mortgage as I was not disciplined enough with it. That was entirely my own fault but i can see how it would be good for those who are very good with their money. I am not sure if it is different now, but when I had it, all our savings were in the same "pot" so when we closed it down we had to re-mortgage for the whole debt and start savings from scratch.