Savings restrictions

lucie_1985

For reasons beyond my control (work) I can't hold accounts with RBS/Natwest. As such I have my main current account which my salary is paid into with Barclays and a bills/savings account with Santander (the 123 account so I have cashback on bills and still benefit from interest). I also have a Barclays savings account and ISA. The issue is that there's a good chance that in the near future Santander and Barclays will also become restricted and I will need to switch my accounts. Is there anywhere where I can still make my money work?


Santander - c.£20k
Barclays ISA - c.£15k
Barclays savings - c.£17k


The Barclays rates aren't all that good but I have some home improvement plans so the funds need to remain accessible.


Thanks

Archi_Bald

Tesco, BOS, TSB, Lloyds

Or change your employer to a more reasonable one.

lucie_1985

It's not so much the employer as the industry I work in and retaining independence, another employer in the same field would have the same issues but different banks depending on work rotation.


Thanks though, I'll take a look

lucie_1985

None seem to get anywhere close to the advantages of Santander

Archi_Bald

Not sure where you are looking because all of them pay more interest than Santander does (none of them has an unavoidable monthly fee)

lucie_1985

They all have much smaller maximums for interest and no cashback, plus the added hassle of managing more accounts

Archi_Bald

You can stick £30K into them and get decent interest. Or you can stick your money into a single savings account and get paltry interest. Your choice.

lucie_1985

I appreciate the point that you are making although more accounts means more frequently needing to go through the switching process. I was merely wanting to understand whether there was a competitor to the 123 account.

YorkshireBoy

lucie_1985 wrote: »

...more accounts means more frequently needing to go through the switching process.

It's not necessary to "switch" an account to gain a decent interest rate. For example, 3 x BoS Vantage accounts would take care of almost all your Barclays savings* and likely treble/quadruple the return. Set up some cross-funding SOs and you need to do absolutely nothing until they either cull the account or the rate.

I was merely wanting to understand whether there was a competitor to the 123 account.

There isn't...unless you want to open another 1-2-3 as a joint, with a partner for example.


* Or, given the need for an upcoming spend, even your ISA funds.

lucie_1985

More accounts means more switching due to the nature of the job and certain providers possibly becoming restricted over the course of time whilst others become unrestricted causing a cycling of funds. Where the funds are with one or two providers there is a lesser likelihood of needing to move money out of restricted accounts and into unrestricted ones, if the funds are spread over four or five I'll spend a lot of time switching.


I have a joint 123 account but it is likely that I will need to close this and move the money in the near future due to restrictions imposed by employment.

YorkshireBoy

Looks like a plain old savings account or two then...paying a pitiful 1% after BR tax, and an absolutely dire rate if you're HR.

Or take a gamble and risk £20K spread across LBG. Would mean closing 4 accounts though if there's a conflict further down the line.