My new shiny multiple accounts!

DreamerFTB

Hope this will help also other people that want to start now saving with current accounts from scratch like me.

For the last 2 years and 6 months I had just one current account with HSBC (now Advance), after reading the stories in this forum I have been inspired on saving.

Today I have 4 current accounts and 2 saving accounts and I have to open a few more...

I have a total of around 35k in savings and I want to maximise the interest, so today I opened:

• 1 HSBC Saving Together, filled with £300 (should be £10 monthly interest)
• 1 TSB Plus, filled with £2k and set a SO up for £500/monthly (should be £6.52 monthly interest)
• 1 Lloyds Club, filled with £5k and set a SO up for £1500/monthly, needs 2 DDs too (should be £13.08 monthly interest)
• 1 Nationwide FlexDirect, waiting for activation by post, will fill with £2500 and set a SO up for £1000/monthly (should be £8.15 monthly interest)
• 1 Tesco Internet Saver for the DD (have to wait for them to contact me for activation)
• 1 Instant Access Savings Account for the DD (have to wait for them to contact me for activation)

then I was planning to open:

• 1 Bank of Scotland Vantage, will fill with £5000 and will set up a SO for £1000 (should be £9.88 monthly interest)
• 1 Santander 123, will fill with all the remaining money (around £20000) and will set up a SO for £500 and the 2 DDs (should be around £35.00 monthly interest)
• 1 Halifax Reward, will have to sort out how to get the switching offer (creating another current account somewhere else) (should be £5.00 monthly interest)

SOs will be done in circle between accounts. I am missing a few switching offers (like FirstDirect) and Regular Savers, but would like to threat them separately after I am done with this.

Am I missing something? Can I do anything better?

So far I should get around £90 monthly just shuffling money around and filling some forms! :eek:

I know that I could apply for another TSB Plus if I do a joint application, but will have to discuss it a bit with my partner (she's afraid of banks! )

YorkshireBoy

Unless you're making some cashback at Santander I'd leave that one alone for the time being.

I'd be spending some time persuading your partner to open accounts (sole, and joint with you), and maximising the 5% and 4% accounts...and the 3% accounts without monthly fees.

eg between you, you could have £7.5K at 5% with Nationwide (albeit only for a year), £6K at 5% with TSB, £15K at 4% (plus another £800 a month at 4% in their regular savers) at Lloyds...so that's around 4.5% average on almost £30K. Just split your remaining £6.5K in a brace of BoS Vantage accounts for a 'clean' 3%.

Of all the above, only Nationwide requires external funding. All the others can be internally funded via cross-firing SOs.

PS, Santander is nearer £40 a month with a £20K balance.

No_Santander

rolling 2 regular savers at HSBC and First Direct?

I read M&S bank offers monthly saver as well.

After initial set up, it would be on Standing Order. On balance, interest would be 6% gross.

Putting money into ISA opens doors for a lot more stuff but guess that would be considered as investment but not saving.

DreamerFTB

No_Santander wrote: »

Putting money into ISA opens doors for a lot more stuff but guess that would be considered as investment but not saving.

What do you mean? At the moment I am moving money out from my ISA to these new current accounts since it's paying a miserable 1.5%.

escapee

DreamerFTB wrote: »

What do you mean? At the moment I am moving money out from my ISA to these new current accounts since it's paying a miserable 1.5%.

Basically it's all a gamble, anyone of those high paying current accounts could pull its rates overnight and your interest could decrease rapidly.

Alternatively an ISA provider could offer a higher return on one of their products and to take maximum advantage, it would take you three financial years to put all of that money back into an ISA wrapper.

colsten

Club Lloyds needs 2 monthly paying DDs

BOS Vantage does not need any DDs, and you can have 3 of them

No_Santander

I guess you only used Cash ISA.

I am referring to Cash and Share ISA, which is a tax free wrapper for investment.

There are ISA Millionaires in the UK now. You can see reports on The Telegraph.

colsten

escapee wrote: »

Basically it's all a gamble, anyone of those high paying current accounts could pull its rates overnight and your interest could decrease rapidly.

can't see where the gamble is. You know exactly how much interest you get if you fulfill the pre-reqs. If the interest rates go down, or other terms change, they give you 2 months notice. Plenty of time to look for alternatives at the time

escapee wrote: »

Alternatively an ISA provider could offer a higher return on one of their products and to take maximum advantage, it would take you three financial years to put all of that money back into an ISA wrapper.

The likelihood that ISA interest rates will go up any time soon is quite remote.

colsten

No_Santander wrote: »

I guess you only used Cash ISA.

I am referring to Cash and Share ISA, which is a tax free wrapper for investment.

There are ISA Millionaires in the UK now. You can see reports on The Telegraph.

There have been ISA millionaires since 2003. They are all into long term investments, and anybody who can afford to invest long term should be considering S&S ISAs and/or SIPPs.

escapee

colsten wrote: »

Plenty of time to look for alternatives at the time

If there are any alternatives at the time.

colsten wrote: »

The likelihood that ISA interest rates will go up any time soon is quite remote.

Quite remote, but no one knows for sure! I've spent over ten years building up my ISA wrapper and wouldn't want to move more than one year's worth of allowance away - on the off chance the market picks up or a provider offers a decent return on a fixed rate product. I am still keeping everything crossed for when my 4.25% Halifax 3yr ISA matures in May (kicking myself I didn't tie it up for the full 5yrs @ 4.5%).

As you can see, my crystal ball isn't the best!

jimjames

escapee wrote: »

Basically it's all a gamble, anyone of those high paying current accounts could pull its rates overnight and your interest could decrease rapidly.

Alternatively an ISA provider could offer a higher return on one of their products and to take maximum advantage, it would take you three financial years to put all of that money back into an ISA wrapper.

Not really an issue if you're spending that money is it? I'm making a guess that a FTB would be spending it on a deposit not holding long term.

The chances of an ISA being launched with a rate higher than these accounts is nil at the moment and for the foreseeable future.

You need to bear in mind that the number of people doing this is limited even on a site like this there are people who say it's too much hassle and the number with cash to fill a 123 as well as the other accounts is very small too.

escapee wrote: »

Quite remote, but no one knows for sure! I've spent over ten years building up my ISA wrapper and wouldn't want to move more than one year's worth of allowance away - on the off chance the market picks up or a provider offers a decent return on a fixed rate product. I am still keeping everything crossed for when my 4.25% Halifax 3yr ISA matures in May (kicking myself I didn't tie it up for the full 5yrs @ 4.5%).

If you have spent 10 years building up an ISA balance that begs the question why would you keep it in cash? For that length of time and longer S&S ISAs are a far better option.