Breaking Through, Travelling On

beanielou

Regular savers Z~~You can go off folk :rotfl:

Karmacat

ZTD wrote: »

There are a number of regular savers, but some are tied to current accounts. The T&Cs on current accounts vary, some require DDs, others just need a certain flow of money.

So, take £2,000 from savings, push it into Current Account A (which has a carefully crafted amount of money already in it to maximise interest), which moves it to CA-B, which splits some off into a Regular Saver, and the rest into CA-C, which does the same, but diverts to CA-D which has a couple of DDs, and a sweep back into Savings...

Just be careful, I had enough regular savers last year that my CA ended up feeling very poor...

Hmm, yes, I realised last night that the money in my easy access account is going to run out, because I now have two Regular Savers. Which is fine, as I've said, I want to get some money out of stocks and shares anyway.

Z - thing is, though, when I open a new current account, I don't want to close my old account :think: :question: so I need to figure out which is doable, in that situation. Is it TSB?

ZTD wrote: »

I would try to avoid having anything fixed over the "Brexit" cut-off. Yes, it could all going swimmingly, but equally there could be carnage.

Hopefully the EU "bail in" provisions will be the first thing to be shot behind the bike shed...

Oh drat, that never even occurred to me about Brexit _pale_ Yep, a year it is, then.

beanielou wrote: »

Regular savers Z~~You can go off folk :rotfl:

:kisses3:

Save

Karmacat

Okay, I need to get going on this if I'm to take advantage of the cooling off period. So, on this page: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/?tab=sect8

its a mix of "Best Bank Accounts" and "Regular Savings Accounts"?

I've been really reluctant to close my existing current account, as I've just opened a Regular Saver, but I do mean *just* - its only been open a month. So I could lose that and it wouldn't be so bad.

So, I'm looking at First Direct to switch to, its second on Martin's Best Bank Account page, and this is FD's own page: http://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/banking/current-account?fd_msc=PCS0000017&WT.mc_id=FSDT_Aggregators_fdCurrentAccountsAggs2017_exclusiveCUR_Textlink_DR_MSM_CurrentAccountControlListing%2525C2%2525A3125-MSE125_AG2661

It now sounds like it'd be crazy *not* to do this, as opposed to staying with the ISA I picked out yesterday, which is 1.41% over **three** years :eek:

Please chip in, all and sundry, about the path I've outlined above (and below in point form):
- use cooling off period to withdraw from the isa I picked yesterday.
- apply for the First Direct current account, set up the relevant direct debits to keep it fed, then set up a Regular Saver.

Anything I've missed?

LadyTC

Hello

I'm a newbie on here and not sure where this post should go so I've posted it in the pensions thread too!


I have been advised by a family member to increase my pension contributions rather than pay down my mortgage due to my very low mortgage rate/higher tax relief. Myself (56) and my partner (55) hope to both pack up at lest full-time work in 5 years time and like Frugal90 we want to do more travelling - particularly around the UK. We also want to be mortgage free asap and plan to use some of the pension money to help pay off the mortgage.

The same family member has recommended that I sign up with Retireeasy to do some mortgage/pensions/lifetime planning and it costs £3 per month which is pretty low. Has anyone on here used Retireeasy and it is any good, worth the money etc? Are there any similar tools out there - I can't find any on google.

I'd prefer to DIY rather than have the expense of an adviser if I could find a decent online tool. We contacted one adviser who wanted £1500 to do a lifetime plan for us which seemed a lot.

Grateful for any help.

Lady T

Karmacat

Hello Lady TC - I'm glad you've posted your query in the pensions thread - its sure to get wider exposure there, because this thread is actually my diary - its supposed to be about being mortgage free, but as you can see its morphed into being about my pension.

What your relative describes for you is the logical thing to do, but it still may not be right for you. You could follow one path or the other, or a compromise of doing a bit of both - take your time to figure it out. You can see my figuring out in the last few posts about opening a particular isa or a particular cheque account, this stuff takes a while!

I hadn't heard of retire easy, which seems to be an ordinary retirement planner - I found their website and there's a basic free option https://www.retireeasy.co.uk/ Personally, I wouldn't use the paid option, particularly not if I hadn't already done a lot of work myself.

There's also a thread on this forum about it, which seems to be okay http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5513625

There are lots of retirement planners, though, even the big pension funds have them too. There are personal finance blogs to read - google "personal finance blogs uk" and see what you come up with.

HTH

LadyTC

Sorry Karmacat and thanks for your help.


Regards


Lady T

Karmacat

Not a problem! People are bound to get lost in the boards and sub boards and threads, its a huge site. Thats why I didn't just leave it at "this is my diary" :kisses3:

You can see I'm asking for votes of advice myself on here keep posting, you'll do fine.

beanielou

First Direct idea sounds good to me
* I am no expert though *

SuperSecretSquirrel

Hi KC, the only thing I can think to add is if you're happy with your current account you don't have to switch it. Nothing to stop you opening a sacrificial account from a provider that offers no sign up bonus, sticking a few pounds in there, shifting a couple of small direct debits over to it, and the following month switching THAT account to FD. Then you still have your existing account, plus an excellent FD account, and a switching bonus

I keep a few dormant accounts hanging around for this very purpose. Donor accounts that can be quickly setup with a couple of DDs and then switched to bag a bonus

Please read the FD terms, there used to be a monthly fee if paying in less than something like £2000pm, but this was waived if you held a savings account with them (£1 balance sufficient). May or may not still be the case, worth checking. Of course the attached regular saver is well worth signing up for while you're at it too

rtandon27

SSS - thank-you for the brilliant idea of the 'sacrificial' account! OH & I have been lamenting the missed deals as we are both happy with our current banking providers! Dilemma solved!