Regular Savings Account

skullncrossbones

Hello!

I would like to open a regular savings account, already have an ISA, but would like a seperate account for emergency funds. I will only be putting in about £60 a month and would just like some advice on good accounts. Are e-savers good accounts to use? I'm a little cautious as I prefer to go into the bank and put the money in my account. Many thanks!

somethingcorporate

The best regular savers (rate wise) are currently First Direct (@8%) and Nationwide (@6%) but both require you to hold and fund current accounts.

"E-saver" is a term just applied to online accounts and do not give any indication as to whether they are any good or not.

Have you checked what your existing bank offer?

xylophone

http://www.northernrock.co.uk/savings/virginmoney/savings-accounts/Virgin_Easy_Access_E_Saver_Issue_2/?utm_source=MoneySupermarket&utm_medium=ListingsEasyAccessEsav2&utm_campaign=Savings

Might suit - set up a monthly standing order.

psychic_teabag

Be sure to read the T&C : many regular-saver accounts don't allow early access, so may not be a great place to keep an emergency fund.

AppleMatt

Norwich and Peterborough do a 4% regular saver with a minimum of £1 and max of £250, with no penalties for withdrawals.

It's 2.5% with a 1.5% bonus for 12 months
http://www.nandp.co.uk/savings/regular-savings/eregular-saver/

skullncrossbones

Thank you for your advice, I will look into them

I've looked at what my banks offer, but I'm always keen to see if theres better out there,

psychic_teabag

Several of the best regular-saver accounts are branch-only. They may well want to get you in front of a sales person to flog you some other product too.

(Just to be clear - when you said "regular savings" did you mean it in the sense of "plain old savings account" ? To most of us, a regular-saver account is one where you pay a fixed amount each month into the account and get more interest, but lose some access to the money.)

No-one has mentioned the list of regular-saver accounts at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/608697

seaurchin

I have kids Halifax regular saver accounts for my 2 Grand children which are just coming up to the 1 year point. My options according to the bank are to let them mature where upon the interest rate will drop from 6% to 2% or sweep the funds into linked Young saver accounts @ 2% interest and carry on making monthly payments into the regular saver account which would then remain at 6% interest for another year. There must be a better way to maximise interest as the regular saver account allows payments into the account of up to £100 per month by standing order and I can only afford to pay £10 per month into each account. There must be some way to recycle money out of the lower interest rate account to gain interest at the higher rate. Ts&Cs only allow 1 standing order payment into each account each month and standing orders cannot be payed from the young savers account.

a) Do I need to act now or by not taking any action should I allow the Halifax to change the accounts to young savers accounts at the lower interest rate before applying for new regular savers accounts?

b) How can I maximise the interest payments my grand children receive without having to increase my monthly expenditure?

psychic_teabag

ISTR you can get up to 6% in a Halifax Junior ISA. Is that an option ?

premierfella

Good advice as ever psychic teabag!

I was recently looking into Junior ISAs on behalf of my niece. The relevant differences for seaurchin to be aware of would be that (IIUC) one of the parents/guardians would need to open the account and hold an existing Halifax Cash ISA (or open one at the same time).

Seaurchin would also have no control over the accounts (only the ability to pay in). I only mention this as there is always the potential for families to fall out, and whilst the monies will be secure in the Junior ISAs (i.e. away from family sticky- fingers), there will be a reliance on the parent/guardian to transfer the Junior ISA if Halifax drop the interest rate and thus the risk that the funds in the Junior ISA could languish at pitiful rates if for some reason the parent/guardian takes no action (a low risk of course, but one to be aware of).

innovate

seaurchin, I haven't researched children's savings accounts, but I noticed there are a few Regular Savers for kids - - check out https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/608697. May be that's an alternative to Halifax, and may be you can move the existing funds.