Best online savings account with fast payments

property.advert

Looking for a savings account with faster payments. Obviously, best rates possible :rotfl:

alanq

What do you mean by Faster Payments? NatWest e-Savings account (no longer available) allows usually almost instant payments directly from the savings account. Nationwide requires funds to be moved to a current account first. Virgin Money transfers take place directly usually "within a few hours". Coventry Building Society transfers while direct do not take place until the following working day. (The transfers are not started until end of day and so can be cancelled or amended until the end of day).

Payments are allowed to arrive up to the close of business the next working day.

Gromitt

How much do you intend to put there? If your looking for the best rates, your probably better off using a current account. TSB, LLoyds, BOS, etc (upto 5K), even Santander if you have a few DDs (upto 20K)

property.advert

What do I mean by faster payments ? Exactly that, near instantaneous transmission of funds from the savings account to any other institution account which accepts inward faster payments. This has been around for a few years now.

For the context of this thread, I'm not interested in multiple current accounts with multiple direct debits flying around everywhere. A few savings accounts with five figure maximum balances accounts would be acceptable.

Amounts involved will reach six figures within a few months.

alanq

property.advert wrote: »

What do I mean by faster payments ? Exactly that, near instantaneous transmission of funds from the savings account to any other institution account which accepts inward faster payments.

My point was that not all institutions offering Faster Payments do so on a "near instantaneous" basis and many required use of a linked current account with the same institution. Clearly the accounts that you wish to consider are a subset of all the "Faster Payment" offerings.

For "near instantaneous " transfers I think that you must restrict yourself to the big clearing banks + Nationwide all of which pay low interest rates. Nationwide (as far as I know) only performs external transfers via one of its current accounts. Ditto First Direct.

The only Bank that I know of with "near instantaneous" transfers directly from a savings account is NatWest.

Wherever the funds have come from not all accounts that accept Faster Payments in make the new funds available "near instantaneously".

YorkshireBoy

What's more important...a decent rate or "near instant" FPs?...because you're not going to get both in one account without using current accounts, which it seems you don't want to do.

Have you read the best savings account article? What about moneyfacts? What's your research thrown up so far?

YorkshireBoy

alanq wrote: »

The only Bank that I know of with "near instantaneous" transfers directly from a savings account is NatWest.

Tesco do instant FPs, but only pay 0.75% on their Internet Saver.

innovate

Don't expect to be able to send a 6-figure sum instantly by Faster Payment. Even high 5 figures might not go instantly, and all outfits have daily limits. Some quite low, like £25K.

You can pay for a CHAPS transfer of any size, and that will usually arrive same day if you arrange for it before whatever the bank's daily cutoff time is.

innovate

property.advert wrote: »

Amounts involved will reach six figures within a few months.

You are aware of the £85K (£170K for joint accounts) safe limit per financial institution, are you?

property.advert

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

What's more important...a decent rate or "near instant" FPs?...because you're not going to get both in one account without using current accounts, which it seems you don't want to do.

Have you read the best savings account article? What about moneyfacts? What's your research thrown up so far?

You are right of course that there is most probably a trade off between ease of access and rate. What I was hoping for was a sort of upgraded (for technology and faster payments) version of the ING account from a few years ago.

It isn't a long term (less than 12 months) exercise so locking the money away is impractical. Plus, the balance will grow month on month.

Just talking with Sainsburys, they have de facto instant transfers (by midnight same day) and offer 1.55% to £100k. I wonder who is better ?

property.advert

innovate wrote: »

Don't expect to be able to send a 6-figure sum instantly by Faster Payment. Even high 5 figures might not go instantly, and all outfits have daily limits. Some quite low, like £25K.

You can pay for a CHAPS transfer of any size, and that will usually arrive same day if you arrange for it before whatever the bank's daily cutoff time is.

Santander is £100K. Haven't checked others recently but I've sent £35k by NatWest so £10k would seem an outdated limit.