nationwide accounts

gele

Keeping this as brief as poss. Dad is elderly. He likes branch accounts. He has money in a saving account earning little interest. He wants to keep his existing current account which doesn't pay enough interest to warrant transferring the savings into. Is there anything stopping him opening a nationwide flex direct account as well and paying 2500 in immediately [for the 5% interest] then continuing to pay 1000 a month into it from his savings account but immediately transferring most or all of this 1000 into a nationwide regular saver for higher interest there? [I understand the 5% is only on £2500 then its 1% after.] Thanks

glentoran99

I dont think transfers between accounts count as 'paying in' to meet the terms of the accounts

bowlhead99

True,
"To benefit from all this account has to offer, you'll need to pay in £1,000 per month (excluding internal transfers)"

But if the £1000 a month into the Flexdirect is coming from an account somewhere outside of Nationwide, that's fine.

If that account somewhere outside Nationwide is a savings account rather than a current account, he may not be able to send it over direct every month (because some banks don't allow standing orders out of their savings accounts directly into other banks). In that case he could simply standing order it from his savings account to current account at the other bank, and then standing order it from the current account at the other bank into Nationwide Flexdirect.

gele

The initial 2500 would come from his existing current account with Halifax. The 1000 was going to go from a Santander saving into flex direct then on to regular saver but it sounds like that's not poss.
Dad could only fund flex if he transferred £1k from Halifax current account to flex and then £1k from Santander to Nationwide regular saver and he would find this confusing/too much messing all at once.
I suppose he could just do the £1k per month to regular saver from Santander savings by standing order couldn't he?
[need to check details but I think his Santander saver pays 0.75 and regular pays 3%] or is that account only available if you have a flex. Getting confused myself now!

gele

bowlhead I appreciate what your saying regarding how he could fund flex from existing current account but as he wouldn't be withdrawing from flex it would build up at a low interest rate once over 2.5k which is why I was hoping he could transfer the excess to a good paying regular saver. Hope Im making sense

bowlhead99

gele wrote: »

The initial 2500 would come from his existing current account with Halifax. The 1000 was going to go from a Santander saving into flex direct then on to regular saver but it sounds like that's not poss.
Dad could only fund flex if he transferred £1k from Halifax current account to flex and then £1k from Santander to Nationwide regular saver and he would find this confusing/too much messing all at once.
I suppose he could just do the £1k per month to regular saver from Santander savings by standing order couldn't he?
[need to check details but I think his Santander saver pays 0.75 and regular pays 3%] or is that account only available if you have a flex. Getting confused myself now!

Yes I think you are getting yourself confused.

The Flexdirect needs to receive £1000 a month from some external source, to keep paying the 5% for the next year. After that the 5% rate will reduce anyway, it is a short term promotional offer. And you don't really want more than £1000 in flexdirect because you earn zero on it. So, the logical thing to do, once you've got £2500 in nationwide flexdirect, is to receive £1000 into it from some external source, either manually or by standing order, and then pay out £1000 the same day or the next day into the nationwide regular saver.

To make it work you need to put £1k in and take £1k out of the flexdirect account, to meet the terms and conditions but avoid it building up. So paying direct from santander savings to nationwide regular savings would not be the way to go, even if you could. The nationwide regular savings can just be fed by automatic standing order from the flexdirect account. You just need to work out the most efficient way to get the £1k into nationwide flexdirect each month.

If your santander saver allows you to do that (i.e. feed the flexdirect) by standing order, fine. If it does not, he would have to move it manually.

---
That then achieves your goal of using the £2.5k balance in nationwide FD for a high rate and then moving it on to nationwide regular to build up a decent pot at a decent (but lower) interest rate.

However:

To be honest it seems a bit of a faff to be feeding a nationwide regular saver from his low interest santander savings account at only £1k a month, taking an entire year to move £12k. During that time, most of the money will still be sitting in the low interest santander savings account. Is there any reason why he couldn't open a Santander 123 current account instead? That would pay 3% on a £12k balance for the entire year. In fact he could put up to £20k in there, earning the 3%.

If he then wanted to get the small amount of extra interest on £2.5k at nationwide, he could open one of those too, but it is only a short term offer for the first 12 months before reverting to a lower rate. If he wants to minimise the number of accounts and banks, and is already a Santander customer with his savings account, just ask them to open a 123 current account for him and forget Nationwide. Then he just needs to meet the T&Cs of that account - which might just involve bouncing money back and forth between Halifax Current and Santander 123 on monthly standing order, and having a couple of token direct debits.

badger09

bowlhead99 wrote: »

To be honest it seems a bit of a faff to be feeding a nationwide regular saver from his low interest santander savings account at only £1k a month, taking an entire year to move £12k. During that time, most of the money will still be sitting in the low interest santander savings account. Is there any reason why he couldn't open a Santander 123 current account instead? That would pay 3% on a £12k balance for the entire year. In fact he could put up to £20k in there, earning the 3%.


If he wants to minimise the number of accounts and banks, and is already a Santander customer with his savings account, just ask them to open a 123 current account for him and forget Nationwide. Then he just needs to meet the T&Cs of that account - which might just involve bouncing money back and forth between Halifax Current and Santander 123 on monthly standing order, and having a couple of token direct debits.

My thoughts exactly!

OP, I've finally persuaded my 76 year old sister to open a Santander 123 account. She won't contemplate internet banking, in fact she won't contemplate internet, but that's another story:p

She has in fact transferred some cashback generating DDs to this account but that's not essential. She is however delighted with the monthly interest after getting between 0% & 0.5% elsewhere.

Talk to your dad about it

YorkshireBoy

gele wrote: »

[I understand the 5% is only on £2500 then its 1% after.]

as he wouldn't be withdrawing from flex it would build up at a low interest rate once over 2.5k

Your understanding is wrong. The account pays no interest at all on balances over £2,500, neither during the introductory period nor after.

The 1% rate is payable either...

1. By opening a secondary FlexDirect account (or 3), or
2. At the end of the 12 month introductory period.

colsten

The FlexDirect is supposed to be an online account, not a branch one.

Why not make life easier and start 2 TSB current accounts instead of the FlexDirect? Keep the total in each under £2,000, then there is no need to skim off an interest. Mind you, to get interest, you must manage them online, too.

bowlhead99

colsten wrote: »

The FlexDirect is supposed to be an online account, not a branch one.

So is the TSB one you mentioned

Why not make life easier and start 2 TSB current accounts

Because although it does give you the nice headline rate on a bit more money -unlike the Nationwide one, tsb's regular saver is only max £250pm and only 2%. So once you've maxed the current account(s), you then have to move on to the next bank. If you're an OAP and reluctant to do much messing about, it's probably easier just to get a current account somewhere you already have an account, like Santander, and slap a much greater amount of cash into it as suggested above.

castle96

how many Flexdirect accounts can you have (single, not incl joint)