Monthly Interest Accounts

YorkshireBoy

With my stoozing activity, I'm a little worried about having too much money in one name with one financial institution. I currently have an ING account (which I'm very happy with) which holds £30K, so I think I have two options...

1/ My wife opens an ING account in her name.

2/ I open another account with another institution.

If I go for option 2, my requirements would be monthly interest, easy access, quick transfers, and a high rate of interest.

I've done some research and I'm looking at Cahoot, but need some questions answering from the experience of others...

1/ Is Cahoot "easy" to operate and "quick" with transfers? (ING have both these features).

2/ Are there any other providers I should consider? I've checked Moneyfacts but Cahoot seems to come out best.

TIA
YB

lipidicman

£30k is fine, much above that and you lose the banking protection thingie (cant be bothered to look it up right now)

You should really be focusing on maximising your interest and A&L at 5.35% would do that (although interest isnt monthly this is only necessary if you need the income) - bung up to 25k in there and use ing to do the quick bits!

Stonk

Bradford and Bingley eSavings, perhaps? 5.25%. The monthly rate works out the same as the annual rate (which makes a change - normally you get penalised for taking a monthly rate). It works through your current account in the same way as ING, A&L, etc. I just opened one, and it seems OK so far.

YorkshireBoy

Thanks for the replies so far.

Lipidicman wrote:

...although interest isnt monthly this is only necessary if you need the income.

I know but its kind of a psychological thing - you can see your pot growing month by month!

Stonk wrote:

Bradford and Bingley eSavings, perhaps? 5.25%.

I'd looked at this one but it has a minimum £1K operating balance, and as this will be my back up account (and if stoozing were ever to come to an end) I can't guarantee I could keep more than this amount in the account - at least without some shuffling around of my monies!

Kazza242

YorkshireBoy wrote:

I've done some research and I'm looking at Cahoot, but need some questions answering from the experience of others...

1/ Is Cahoot "easy" to operate and "quick" with transfers? (ING have both these features).

2/ Are there any other providers I should consider? I've checked Moneyfacts but Cahoot seems to come out best.

TIA
YB

1. I've got a Cahoot savings account - albeit the 5.65% intro one. I find it easy to operate, although, you should bear in mind that transfers from it to external accounts do take an extra working day to arrive. For example, if you initiate a transfer on Monday from your Cahoot savings account, it will arrive in your external bank account on the Thursday.

You have the option to set up a direct debit mandate on the account which will ensure that you won't lose any interest when transferring into your Cahoot account. You do need to give four working days notice when setting up this type of transfer. Of course you can also make BACS transfers, if you prefer.

2. There aren't many other competitive products offering monthly interest. I would steer clear of First Direct's e-saver account. If you make a withdrawal from the account, they do not pay you any interest (on your whole account balance) for that month.

pennies2pounds_3

Try http://www.capitalone.co.uk

Walletwatch

I'm sure you've taken this into account, but if your wife is not a tax-payer, you could go for the option of her opening an account, and putting the bulk of the money in her account instead, to earn tax-free income.