Icesave account ... Account holder opinions/experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Optimist

Icesave interest rate up to 5.95% from May 18

Woodyrocks

Hey Optimist, I have just received an email saying as much. Here is an excerpt from it. I am so made up I had the idea of stashing most of my savings in my A&L account leaving only about £1500 in my icesave (currenly have £5250 in icesave) but I now think I should just shift the bulk of my A&L savings in there since it is now the market leader by far.

Easy Access Account interest rate increases to 5.95%AER*

We are pleased to inform you that the interest rate on your Easy Access Account will increase from 5.70%AER to 5.95%AER with effect from 18 May 2007.

Unlike many other savings providers, we guarantee your interest rate will be consistently competitive. We guarantee it will exceed the Bank of England Base Rate by at least 0.25% until 1 October 2009 and thereafter not be lower than the Bank of England Base Rate until 1 October 2011.

Make sure you are making the most of this great rate!

With our consistently competitive interest rate, it pays to save as much as you can. Why not set up a regular transfer every month into your Icesave Easy Access Account – simply log in at icesave.co.uk, select “Make a Transaction” and follow the on-screen instructions.

24/7 access to your account

Remember you can see and print off all your transactions, including any interest earned whenever you like by logging in at icesave.co.uk – we recommend you check your account online at least once a month.

Thank you for saving with Icesave.
Yours sincerley

Optimist

Woodyrocks wrote: »

Hey Optimist, I have just received an email saying as much. Here is an excerpt from it. I am so made up I had the idea of stashing most of my savings in my A&L account leaving only about £1500 in my icesave (currenly have £5250 in icesave) but I now think I should just shift the bulk of my A&L savings in there since it is now the market leader by far.
[/B]

Well not quite the leader they are still beaten by ICICI as they have put their online account up to 6.05% effective from the 18 May.

[Deleted User]

icesave has been problem free ever since we joined. However I am ever watchful having been sucked in and been spat out by ing. I transferred money from icesave today to go into ns&i index linked certs. Always best to spread the assets around and I have cash in northern rock silver savings, currently at 5.81 but will be 6% 9th june

I emptied the ing accounts as soon as they started playing games and today finally closed the accounts containing all of 21 pence. Much though I like icesave I do have a feeling that they may eventually go down the same route. We`ll see

kingmonkey

Remember they have a rate guarantee until 2011

Paul_Herring

Optimist wrote: »

Well not quite the leader they are still beaten by ICICI as they have put their online account up to 6.05% effective from the 18 May.

The various problems I've had with ICICI in the past don't make the extra 0.1% worth re-opening an account. It's only an extra 80p per £1000 saved per year after tax.

Woodyrocks

kittie wrote: »

icesave has been problem free ever since we joined. However I am ever watchful having been sucked in and been spat out by ing. I transferred money from icesave today to go into ns&i index linked certs. Always best to spread the assets around and I have cash in northern rock silver savings, currently at 5.81 but will be 6% 9th june

I emptied the ing accounts as soon as they started playing games and today finally closed the accounts containing all of 21 pence. Much though I like icesave I do have a feeling that they may eventually go down the same route. We`ll see

I know what you mean about spreading the assets around Kittie. I am really torn as to what to do about this tbh. Can I be nosey and ask what kind of problems you had with ing? I really hope Icesave stay cool :A

[Deleted User]

woodyrocks, I didn`t have any problems with the actual usage of ING. The reduction in interest rates is what made me move. It is important to get the money working instead of idling in a low - interest account

I have arranged transfer of some funds from icesave so that we can buy more ns&i index linked certificates in a few days time. My dh and I will also be setting up cash ISAs with ns&i. We won`t have to worry about the index linked certs keeping up with inflation so that`s a good chunk of our savings taken care of

I was left with various relics of accounts after using various institutions in order to get the best interest rates. I have only been tidying up and have closed ing, alliance and leicester, nationwide, egg money. To date I have icesave, northern rock silver savings, ipswich target saver 1 at 8.45% and my main bank is smile

former_student

masonic wrote: »

Yes.


The interest rates are slightly different, but over the course of the year you earn interest on interest in the monthly situation, which balances things out. You'll probably earn a few pence less for monthly interest if you are a taxpayer, because you'll pay tax on each interest payment, which gives ever so slightly more to the taxman compared with one payment at the end of the year. The difference really isn't worth worrying about.

Regarding your statement indicating that montly interest would be lower than Yearly rates, I believe this statement is incorrect as I got the following response from Icesave in relation to a similar question.

Account balance X interest rate% /365 interest earned per day:
Interest earned per day x days in month monthly interest rate

However you choose to get your interest either monthly or annually it
works out the same.

The net rate currently for annual interest customers is 4.56%.

jem16

former_student wrote: »

Regarding your statement indicating that montly interest would be lower than Yearly rates, I believe this statement is incorrect as I got the following response from Icesave in relation to a similar question.

The statement by masonic is not wrong as he explained the effect of tax on your interest.

Whether monthly or yearly the interest rate is exactly the same - 5.7% AER.

However due to tax being taken off each monthly payment as opposed to one yearly payment. there is a very slight difference in the amount of interest actually gained over the course of a year. However it's so small it's not really worth bothering about.