ICICI Bank UK HiSave account

jjlothin

I need to keep money in easy access and I've recently been informed by Virgin Money that my account will be dropping from 1.6% Gross† P.A/AER to 1.41% at the end of March.


I see the ICICI account is currently paying out 1.5% - has anyone heard if that's about to drop too?


And if anyone has information about an easy access account that's paying more than either of these ... !

alanwsg

I don't think you've got that right, The only easy access account ICICI are offering at the moment is the HiSAVE Savings Account at 0.50% AER.

However, they have just increased the rates on their fixed rate bonds.

jjlothin

alanwsg wrote: »

I don't think you've got that right, The only easy access account ICICI are offering at the moment is the HiSAVE Savings Account at 0.50% AER.

However, they have just increased the rates on their fixed rate bonds.

I got it from http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest ...


Mind you, I have to admit I don't really understand what AER means so maybe I've misunderstood!

alanwsg

OK, well ... that refers to ICICI's "HiSave remittance account" which, if you follow the link, you will see is "designed for money transfers to India".

I don't quite understand what's going on there, maybe someone else will come along and explain. In any event, I don't think I'd switch from Virgin just for an extra 0.1%.

jjlothin

alanwsg wrote: »

OK, well ... that refers to ICICI's "HiSave remittance account" which, if you follow the link, you will see is "designed for money transfers to India".

I don't quite understand what's going on there, maybe someone else will come along and explain. In any event, I don't think I'd switch from Virgin just for an extra 0.1%.

Thanks for following that up, Alan - how peculiar! You'd never know from what it says on the MSE site that it's anything other than a reasonably good (for these days!) savings account.


And yes, I'm certainly reluctant to shift for such a small gain ...

talexuser

It's an account with 1.5%, unlimited withdrawals and 85k guarantee, so a good deal now. Sending money to India is irrelevant if you have no use for the facility. The Britannia 1.5% only has 4 withdrawals a year before significant loss of interest so is less convenient in that respect. Only better deal I know is Nationwide 1.7% if you have been a member for 15 years.

ColdIron

AA Internet Extra at 1.5%, bonus but unlimited withdrawals
http://www.theaa.com/savings/internet-savings-account.html
Or current accounts at ~3%

jjlothin

Thanks, talexuser and ColdIron! I wonder how likely it is that the ICICI and AA accounts will remain for much longer at 1.5%?


I wouldn't have known the Virgin account was about to drop if I hadn't been an account-holder and thus received early notification ...

talexuser

Well who would have said in 2009 that 5 years later base rates would still be 0.5? My 2-3% accounts are all losing bonus now, last I got in as replacements were 1.7% and 1.6% couple of weeks ago and you can't even get that now. We are in for a l-o-n-g period of low rates to pay off the national debt unless there is another global/euro crisis or inflation goes through the roof.

Camper2

Hi was drawn to this account as high (well better than the rest!) easy access at 1.5% with no limit on withdrawals - next best is Britannia @ 1.5% with max of 4 withdrawals.
Although it is set up for transfers to India it doesn't really matter if you just keep your money in the account and collect the interest BUT when I checked the charges.......... it costs £20 for a CHAPS transfer.

Does that mean that if you do try to withdraw your money (takes 24 hours) to your linked UK account it will cost you £20 every time?

If that is the case then the 1.5% isn't so hot after all

innovate

You can make normal withdrawals up to £50k per day. CHAPS would only be necessary if you wanted more than £50k on the same day. £20 for a CHAPS transfer is at the lower end of what banks charge for CHAPS

http://www.icicibank.co.uk/personal/faqs/managing-my-hisave-account.html#link21

There are current accounts that pay more than 1.5%, if you are prepared to shuffle some money about once a month.