5% Savings Loophole

wertyjmnb

The example given in the article has a problem with many (all my) bank accounts.
With these accounts standing orders only work on banking days. This means that if the day I select falls on Easter Friday the payment will not go until Easter Tuesday. Christmas causes a delay of 3-5 days depending on whether it falls near a weekend. To be completely automatic you need to allow 5 days between transactions

colsten

As long as the SOs will not make you go overdrawn, there is no reason whatsoever to leave any number of days between them. You can do them all on the same day. I do.

This thread might be of interest: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5215803&highlight=

inittogether

It's crazy that the automated process gets blocked on bank holidays. It's automated! It doesn't matter if staff are on holiday. If I do an online manual transfer on a bank holiday it goes within 2 hours!

ShawUK

colsten wrote: »

As long as the SOs will not make you go overdrawn, there is no reason whatsoever to leave any number of days between them. You can do them all on the same day. I do.

This thread might be of interest: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5215803&highlight=

Doing them all on the same day, would that cause a hiccup with the interest if they go the wrong way round, so E.G a flexdirect has 1k less then back to 2.5k for a few hours if the first SO gets delayed?

Eco_Miser

It's unlikely to make any difference.

I start the money-go-round each month by a faster payment out of one account, and end with a payment into that account. When I look at the statement later, the payment in is shown first, with the balance higher than normal, rather than lower as actually happened. If that's typical, then intermediate balances with a day are not relevant to the interest calculation.

The_Only_Homer_Simpson_UK

Hi All some recommendations please as having read all of the above a little confused as to what would be best .
OH has 2 x 123 santanders both at Max for 3% plus she has a Lloyds club account again max'd for the 4% She is a bsic tax payer
We have a joint FD current account my wages go into ( I am higher rate payer)
We have some cash above the £20k mark in her 123 accounts to work with so what would you recommend to do as being a higher tax payer ( next band up from Basic) is it worth me opening accounts ? or put all the monies into wifes name and just move monies around in hers?
some recommendations would be most appreciated
thanks
TOHSUK

Archi_Bald

It depends on how much money you have and for how long you want to put it aside. There are several interest-paying current accounts that your wife doesn't appear to have yet - at least £25,000 worth.

If you can invest your money for more than 5 years, S&S ISAs for both of you would take £30,480 assuming you haven't yet used any of your ISA allowance for the year.

Another option could be to pay a major lump sum into a pension as long as you can still do so. Depending on how much over the BR tax rate threshold you are, additional pension contributions might also get you back into BR tax.

UEF

How do you open up a 3rd Bank of Scotland account? I've managed to do the first one, then apply for a "Secondary account" online... am still only seeing the option for a "second account", not a third one, and in any case it doesn't seem to want to add it to my profile as before with the real 2nd account. Must the 3rd be added over the phone or at a later date online?

Spidernick

The_Only_Homer_Simpson_UK wrote: »

Hi All some recommendations please as having read all of the above a little confused as to what would be best .
OH has 2 x 123 santanders both at Max for 3% plus she has a Lloyds club account again max'd for the 4% She is a bsic tax payer
We have a joint FD current account my wages go into ( I am higher rate payer)
We have some cash above the £20k mark in her 123 accounts to work with so what would you recommend to do as being a higher tax payer ( next band up from Basic) is it worth me opening accounts ? or put all the monies into wifes name and just move monies around in hers?
some recommendations would be most appreciated
thanks
TOHSUK

You could always open a Lloyds Club Account in your name and then soon after open a Lloyds Regular Saver to get 4% and by the time it matures (in 15/16) the interest will be tax free (under current proposals) as long as your total interest as a higher-rate taxpayer will be under £500 for 15/16. I am planning to do this.

Alternatively, your wife could open the same regular saver account, if she hasn't already.

Doesn't First Direct have a 6% regular saver for current account holders? That might be an option too.

colmax

I don't have many direct debits as my bills are included. But I would like to do this. I have a couple of credit cards. If I set up direct debits to pay them off each month and then just spent a few quid on the credit cards each month would that count for the rules?