Question about multiple current accounts and saving

RustyBug

Hi,

I've recently gotten a steady job and looking to start saving properly. I currently have a halifax reward account (the one that pays £5 a month if you pay in over £1000). I am then putting money into a halifax ISA that I recently renewed to get better interest.

I've been looking at setting up the TSB 5% upto £2000 current account. This requires that you pay in £500 a month.

My question is, can I have my salary paid into my halifax account to get the £5 reward, then transfer £500 of that into the TSB account a month to make use of the high interest on the TSB account. Then anything over the £2000 limit pay that into my ISA?

I'm new to all this but is that a legit way to do things? Will it work?

I may even set up a regular saver so that I pay money out of the TSB account into that and just keep topping up the TSB account to £2000.

Sorry about all the questions, I just want to make sure I have it correct in my head.

Dobbibill

yes you are quite right, you can continue to have your salary paid into your Halifax account and just transfer over at least £500 to TSB. Make sure you meet all the other criteria to earn interest which includes registering for Internet Banking and then turning off paper statements and correspondence.

Good luck with the savings

YorkshireBoy

You seem to have the gist of things, but...

1. Halifax requires only £750 a month, and

2. Your thread title says "multiple", yet you've only got 2 accounts!

Finally, why on earth do you want to put your surplus cash in a circa 1% paying ISA when you can get 5/4/3% in current accounts which, even after BR tax, pay much more than the ISA?

RustyBug

Dobbibill: Thanks for that. So I could take this even further by opening a first direct account to make use of their 6% regular saver and pay money from halifax to TSB to first direct? Is there a time limit or can I just setup standing orders for one day after another?

Yorkshireboy: Sorry. I had gotten it into my head that it was £1000. Multiple means more than one doesnt it? :P But yes, I see your point, I am looking into others down the line to take though such as the first direct one for their regular saver.

Paying into the ISA for now because that is what I currently have set up. I'm planning to do small steps over the next few months to get everything in order. My worry is if I try to make too many changes at once I will just make a mess. Baby steps. Appreciate your response though.

DreamerFTB

Have a look here for a few more useful current accounts paying higher interests.

jimjames

If you have under £2000 savings then there is no point using any other account than tsb and Halifax, certainly not an ISA.

RustyBug

Agreed, for now my savings aren't much more than that. The ISA is just going to be used for now because I already have it. Like I said previously I don't want to do too many things at once and lose track.

Thanks DreamerFTB, I'll certainly look into that.

YorkshireBoy

RustyBug wrote: »

Multiple means more than one doesnt it? :P

Not round these parts.

An account...a couple...a few...several...multiple

I have around 30, so I'd put myself in the 'multiple' category.

But to your next steps...how long before you have £3-4K? If quite quickly you may as well open a Nationwide FlexDirect account, which will cover you for 5% AER on up to £4.5K for the next 12 months. All you have to do (after reading the T&Cs of course!) is transfer £1K from TSB to Nationwide and back again once a month.

jennifernil

I would just send money to a FD account (if you open one) direct from Halifax, keep the £500 to TSB separate.

I have several accounts and prefer now to make most of the payments manually rather than use SOs as weekends and bank holidays can mess things up. I usually try do all the movements on the 2nd or 3rd of the month.

I do use SOs to send money from my main account to the regular savers (FD and M&S via their current accounts and Club Lloyds direct into the saver), and to Santander to pay the DDs.

I am using TSB (5%), Club Lloyds (4%) , Bank of Scotland (3%) and Santander current accounts at the moment.

BOS accounts will appear on your Halifax banking, so are easy to transfer money into/out of.

originator

I have the same accounts as above and much prefer to move the money manually.

YorkshireBoy

originator wrote: »

I have the same accounts as above and much prefer to move the money manually.

I used to be the same, but with TSB, Lloyds, BoS, and Tesco (which isn't listed above), I now cross-fund these by internal standing orders...simply to cut down on admin.

The only ones I manual transfer to/from are Santander, Nationwide, and YB.