Nationwide Regular Saver

Jana83

Does anyone have this savings account?

I'm asking purely because it doesn't seem like any other Regular Savings account I've seen. For a start, it has unlimited withdrawals when most accounts I've looked at have a limit of around 4 or 6. But most importantly, the amount of interest you earn depends on how much you pay in every month and not the total amount of money in the account?
The rates are these if you PAY IN these amounts per month:
£1 to £99 is 0.10%
£100 to £199 is 1.35%
£200 to £499 is 1.85%
£500 to £1000 is 2.50%

Also some other accounts I've looked have restrictions on where the money comes in from i.e. you can't pay in directly from another account from the same bank / BS. However I've read the T&C for the above and can't seem to see any mention of this?

Can I then, in theory, pay £500 from my Nationwide FlexDirect Current account into the Regular Saver on the 1st of every month, then return £400 back to the Current Account (leaving £100 savings) on the 3rd of the month?

Thanks for any help in advance

aleph_0

Jana83 wrote: »

Can I then, in theory, pay £500 from my Nationwide FlexDirect Current account into the Regular Saver on the 1st of every month, then return £400 back to the Current Account (leaving £100 savings) on the 3rd of the month?

No. The interest rate depends on the "Monthly increase in balance". So, in your case, the balance would only increase by £100. Note also, you are only allowed to increase the balance by £1,000 each month.

It is still a good product, though, fill it up with £1,000/month, at some point drop down to £500/month, and then if you run out of money, pull out e.g. £5,500 one month giving enough money to feed the account for the next year - effective rate roughly 2.3%.

rb10

You are absolutely right that this is a different sort of account to 'normal' Regular Savers.

Jana83 wrote: »

Can I then, in theory, pay £500 from my Nationwide FlexDirect Current account into the Regular Saver on the 1st of every month, then return £400 back to the Current Account (leaving £100 savings) on the 3rd of the month?

There's nothing stopping you from doing this, but it wouldn't achieve much.

The interest rate tiers are based on the increase in your balance during the month. In your example, you balance would have increased by £100, so you'd get 1.35% interest in that month.

opinions4u

Shop around. You can easily get 3% or more elsewhere.

Start at First Direct.

ColdIron

I've got one of these and the explanations above regarding the "Monthly increase in balance" are correct. It's an interesting account that might be worth looking at after you've filled up all the other usual Regular Saver and Current Account suspects (FD, 123, Vantage, Enhance etc). If you have cash left over and still want easy access you'll struggle to find anything paying close to 2% let alone 2.5%

Unlike most other Regular Savers you can achieve relatively high balances, £24K in two years. It also comes with a cash card you can use at ATMs to withdraw money. If you usually deposit £1,000 and find you suddenly need £500 you can withdraw it with no loss of interest

It's not an account for all circumstances but it fills a niche by allowing higher balances at reasonable rates while still allowing instant access should you need it

Jana83

Thanks for the clarification guys - I did think I'd got the wrong end of the stick!
I think I'll keep going with the two savings accounts I've already got and see what pops up next year (fingers crossed rates will get better).

itm2

I also have a Nationwide Regular Saver account, and was wondering whether there was a penalty if contributions were halted and the balance withdrawn? Would you still earn the full 2.5% (pro-rata of course) for those months where the balance did increase in line with the T&Cs, even if the balance at the time the interest was paid (in October) was actually zero?

Archi_Bald

itm2 wrote: »

I also have a Nationwide Regular Saver account, and was wondering whether there was a penalty if contributions were halted and the balance withdrawn? Would you still earn the full 2.5% (pro-rata of course) for those months where the balance did increase in line with the T&Cs, even if the balance at the time the interest was paid (in October) was actually zero?

Only way you would get 2.5% (pro-rata'ed) is if you increased your balance by £1K a month.

I am not 100% certain about what would happen if your balance (from your deposits) increased by nothing a month (i.e. you deposited nothing), but I think you would get 0% interest in that month.

If your balance were zero, you would get "whatever %" on zero, so the interest % wouldn't matter, would it?


http://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/instant_access/regularsavings/introduction.htm

itm2

Sorry I should have phrased my question more clearly. To put it another way - if I increase my balance by £500 each month for 6 consecutive months, leaving a balance of £3,000 after 6 months, then withdraw £2,950 in month 7 and cease contributions, will I receive 0.208% interest per month (i.e. one twelfth of the annual 2.5% rate) for each of the 6 months that I increased the balance by £500?

ColdIron

Yes that is my expectation, from the site -

We work out the interest you earn month by month, add it all up and pay it into your account once a year on 31 October.

Archi_Bald

You would have to confirm with Nationwide, but I reckon you would get no interest at all for any month in which you made no deposit. You should get the respective %age for the months in which you met the conditions.