Best savings account?

emily_jackson

I'm looking for a savings account which I could pay into whenever I wanted, but would make me give notice whenever I wanted to withdraw, so I'd have to be more disciplined! I bank with Nationwide and Lloyds, but Nationwide said they don't have such an account and the Lloyds website was really confusing, does anyone know of any suitable accounts? Thanks!

enjoyyourshoes

Why not deal with your indiscipline first ?


MSE rate standard bank accounts over all savings accounts, but they are all instantly accessible:-


TSB classic plus (5%) max £2000, £500 in per month


Lloyds club 4% max £5000, £1500 in per month 2 DD's and also do RS fro £400 pm and 4%


Santander 3% max £20000 £500 per month.


All these and more will be available to you once you can change the paradigm from a 'need it now spender' to a saver ?

enjoyyourshoes

Just had an epiphany:-


1. Have a regular savings account (1st Direct and HSBC advantage current account holders can access RS at 6%) also Lloyds as above.


2. RS are annual accounts that allow you to save regular ammounts per month. 1st max monthly amount is £300, HSBC advantage is £250 ad Lloyds is £400


3. You don't get the interest till the 12 months are up (linking into your indiscipline)


4. At maturity (12 months) put all the money into a stocks and shares ISA (investment trusts buying into stock, bonds, commodities you name it they invest in it) Do bit research and see what floats your boat, great for medium term investing (more that 3 years)


5. Restart your RS and do it all over again


As S&S ISA returns are variable you can apply your desire to 'buy' by trading in poorer performing investment trusts and buying new ones !!

Eco_Miser

What you want is called a Notice account, (eg 120-day notice account, 90-day notice account) and lots of banks and building societies offer them. Ask a search engine which.

guitarman001

I want a savings account where I can put in £1500-2000 a month as all my accounts are now overspilling.
There seems to be no answer to this - my money is now effectively dead.

bowlhead99

I assume from your other posts you already have the Nationwide regular saver for £1k a month and M&S, Firstdirect and Lloyds for the rest? And if you don't want to buy a house yet or put more money in the stockmarket, you could use longer term deposits (2,3,4 years with penalties for breaking early but higher rates than the instant access stuff).

Other than that, think of the ~1-1.5% you get on a 'normal' account as being an 'investment' in the asset class called 'cash'.

You have said previously you don't want to put more money into stock market because that's overvalued and you don't want to put money into property because that's overvalued. It would seem that having a cash savings account paying nil real return is giving a positive return over your expectation of the returns from the other market opportunities. So, your money is not dead, it is invested into the best market opportunity that you have found. All your current accounts and savings accounts are very liquid which will be perfect for buying into the housing market and stock market and bond markets when everything is on sale.

If you think there is value to be found by waiting to go into the 'other' markets, then each month your cash is sitting there, it is getting closer to being able to buy those other things at a low price and make a great return. So if you change your mindset you will not be frustrated that you are holding useless, limp, flaccid, dead cash.

Of course, perhaps those other asset classes are not going to come down in price any time soon and so it would have been better to be in them, but as you've rejected them, you just have to wait and see whether that was the right choice.