A&L 12% Premier Regular Saver Is Back To Replace Withdrawn 8.1% ISA

mleonard79

Hi Everyone,

As many of you may know A&L's 8.1% Premier ISA which has been available with their Premier Current Account for the last few months has now been withdrawn as of 30th April as announced a few weeks ago. It has been replaced with the 12% (Gross AER) Premier Regular Saver that used to be attached to this account prior to the introduction of the ISA in February.

If you open a Premier Current Account you can also get the 12% Regular Saver and you can save from £10 to £250 per month for 12 months up to a total of £3,000 in it. The A&L Press Release (pdf) has all the details of the account but it seems to be exactly the same as before. To see the figures on what you can earn in interest in a year by doing this read Milarky's great post on the maths involved.

Regards

Michelle

tonyfu

This sounds like a better deal than the Barclays ISA then?

My meagre savings are starting to feel travel sick - they've never moved around as much as they have in the last couple of months!

Tony

Kazza242

A&L have actually launched TWO 12% regular savings accounts from today. The first one, Premier Regular Saver issue 3, is a re-launch of the previous offer which was available until early February to new Premier Current account customers only.

The second account, called Save & Protect is open to existing Premier Current account customers, BUT and there's a big but, they must purchase Life, Life and Critical Illness or Critical Illness cover from Legal & General). The second account is not worth it IMO, but the first account is worth a look if you qualify as a 'new' Premier Current account customer.

Both 12% regular savers are now on Moneyfacts, here.

debbie42

What's the position with someone who opened the isa last financial year and topped it up with this years contributions at the beginning of this one? Does it still pay the 8.1% on the 6K?

I'm off to look at the pdfs now, apologies if it covers it there.

dancingfairy

This sounds like a better deal than the Barclays ISA then?

My meagre savings are starting to feel travel sick - they've never moved around as much as they have in the last couple of months!

I guess the Barclays ISA is better in that
a) it's tax free
b) it has an interest rate of 6.5%
as the regular saver is not an isa (as far as I can see) and the interest would be roughly equivalent to 6% of the total (you halve the interest rate to find the equivalent rate as the money is being drip fed in so some earns a lot of interest and some not so much so the avergae is about half of the interest rate on the end balance).

However
c) there seems to have been a lot of problems opening the barclays isa
d) if the money is in a high interest account waiting to be fed into the regular isa it would increase the interest rate overall and therefore would be higher than barclays.

If you don't like moving your money around so much maybe go for a high but consistent rate with your money rather than looking at those that pay bonuses and constantly rate changing? Personally I like rate chasing but it's not for everyone.

mleonard79

Kazza242 wrote: »

The second account, called Save & Protect is open to existing Premier Current account customers, BUT and there's a big but, they must purchase Life, Life and Critical Illness or Critical Illness cover from Legal & General). The second account is not worth it IMO, but the first account is worth a look if you qualify as a 'new' Premier Current account customer.

Both 12% regular savers are now on Moneyfacts, here.

Hi Kazza,

Thanks for that - I hadn't noticed that second one (mind you I only tend to keep really up-to-date on things that affect their Premier Current Accounts range.) The second one sounds very sneaky and to be avoided to me too - my first reaction to any savings account that requires you to open something separate with it is alarm bells ringing (like that Abbey super ISA!) Thanks for the info.

Regards

Michelle

mleonard79

debbie42 wrote: »

What's the position with someone who opened the isa last financial year and topped it up with this years contributions at the beginning of this one? Does it still pay the 8.1% on the 6K?

I'm off to look at the pdfs now, apologies if it covers it there.

Hi Debbie,

Yes it should still pay the 8.1% on both deposits - or whatever rate it may drop to as it is possible they will drop the rate of the ISA since they are only tied into keeping it at least 1% above base rate (which is 6.25% at the moment and should be at least 6.5% if interest rates go up as is highly mooted to happen next Thursday.)

Regards

Michelle

Milarky

With this account being marketed once again, it is possible to re-qualify as an 'ex regular saver' customer. These accounts have been maturing since last October and so it was possible to have grabbed the 12% rate previously after immediately closing the current account and re-applying after a wait of three months I believe...

mleonard79

Milarky wrote: »

With this account being marketed once again, it is possible to re-qualify as an 'ex regular saver' customer. These accounts have been maturing since last October and so it was possible to have grabbed the 12% rate previously after immediately closing the current account and re-applying after a wait of three months I believe...

Hi Milarky,

Yes you believe correctly - you just need to have closed the account 3 or more months ago to re-apply and get the offer all over again

Talking of Premier/Premier Direct Accounts - how did you get on with trying to get away with getting the Premier Direct Account while you've still got a Premier one? Did they actually open it for you or notice their mistake?

Regards

Michelle

Milarky

mleonard79 wrote: »

Talking of Premier/Premier Direct Accounts - how did you get on with trying to get away with getting the Premier Direct Account while you've still got a Premier one? Did they actually open it for you or notice their mistake?

Yep! Account was opened with a 12 months 0% overdraft on 27th April, viewable online. Next a chequebook arrived. No card as yet. They have even transferred some cash for me from the Premier account to the Premier direct account (so, no deception there) I've now written cheques to the value of the O/D and used them to apply for one regular saver and add to another...... (ho ho!)

mleonard79

Milarky wrote: »

Yep! Account was opened with a 12 months 0% overdraft on 27th April, viewable online. Next a chequebook arrived. No card as yet. They have even transferred some cash for me from the Premier account to the Premier direct account (so, no deception there) I've now written cheques to the value of the O/D and used them to apply for one regular saver and add to another...... (ho ho!)

One arm really doesn't know what the other arm is doing there - I've seen them pay out referral money when rules have been contravened many times but I never thought they'd be stupid enough not to realise someone already had a Premier Account when they applied for another one!! :rotfl:Mad but great for you all the same

Regards

Michelle