Nationwide Flex Direct after 1 year

bjbyorkshire

Mine and Oh's Flex Direct accounts are 1 year old on 30th November so interest rate drops dramatically. I have other banks to move this money to so should I just transfer the funds leaving 0 balance or do I need to go into a bank to physically close these accounts now?

Thanks for any advice

YorkshireBoy

Presumably you also have a joint FlexDirect account? If not, that would take care of the balance from one of the accounts.

The answer to your question on closure will be found in your account T&Cs. But why not consider switching them somewhere for an incentive? Seems a waste not to...unless you've each already exhausted all the offers?

But, could you not benefit from free UK/EU travel insurance? If you could, maybe convert one (or both) of them to a FlexAccount?

polymaff

Definitely get rid of it - preferably as YB suggests, by switching it to a new account with a bank that offers a switching bonus.

Why - because you can't take advantage of a future FlexDirect 12 months at high interest until you've not had a FlexDirect account for at least 12 months.

Edit: 49 weeks ago we switch-destroyed our individual FlexDirects and converted the joint to a Flex (see YB, above) and are now champing at the bit to get another £7k5 back ito new FlexDirects.

bjbyorkshire

Thanks Yorkshireboy, I have opened a joint flex direct used money from elsewhere. Am thinking about 2 Tesco accounts for the Nationwide money but I didn't think about the switching idea. I would just have opened them as new accounts. I don't want to use these Tesco accounts for pensions etc to go into. I want them solely as savings tools and especially since they don't require direct debits. Could I switch without giving them salary details etc?

The travel insurance is not for us as we have to do pre existing illness details and no one wants us for annual policies, just 1 off stand alone travel insurance.

bjbyorkshire

Thanks Polymaff, I will delve into the terms and conditions tonight. It generally entails a trip into the bank to close them.

Can you point me to the link on here comparing bank accounts as I want to find a couple more that don't need direct debits, I'm struggling to find direct debits now.

I know you can pull DD's from the Tesco accounts but will need to find out how to do that.

I have a house sale pending so in the New Year will have to find more ways to maximise the income from that. Tesco 3 year savers are not a bad rate.

polymaff

bjbyorkshire wrote: »

Thanks Polymaff, I will delve into the terms and conditions tonight. It generally entails a trip into the bank to close them.

Can you point me to the link on here comparing bank accounts as I want to find a couple more that don't need direct debits, I'm struggling to find direct debits now.

I know you can pull DD's from the Tesco accounts but will need to find out how to do that.

I have a house sale pending so in the New Year will have to find more ways to maximise the income from that. Tesco 3 year savers are not a bad rate.

Don't hesitate. Learn how to use Tesco Internet Savers for creating DDs. It is very simple - just setting a regular transaction. I take it that you've exhausted 2.5%-plus bank accounts, or that you are talking about serious amounts of money from the house sale? £20k in each of a number of Santander 123 accounts yields more than a Tesco three year.

forestwn6

Make sure you close the accounts or you not be eligible for future savings account offers in one years time. We didn't and suffered.

colsten

polymaff wrote: »

£20k in each of a number of Santander 123 accounts yields more than a Tesco three year.

You are comparing apples with pears.

Of course you cannot get 3% AER on £20K with Tescos, but their 3% (on £6K) is 3% without any monthly charge - therefore better than a 3% account with charges. As is the BOS 3% (£30K between 2), as well as the Lloyds 4% (£15K between 2) and TSB 5% (£6K between 2). Not to talk about the £17K or so (£34K between 2) you can feed into 4/5/6% Regular Savers each year.

YorkshireBoy

bjbyorkshire wrote: »

...I want to find a couple more that don't need direct debits

I have a house sale pending so in the New Year will have to find more ways to maximise the income from that.

As a couple, you can get £130.5K into 3-5% paying current accounts as follows:


£6K @ TSB paying 5%
£7.5K @ Nationwide paying 5%
£15K @ Lloyds paying 4%
£30K @ BoS paying 3%
£12K @ Tesco paying 3%
£60K @ Santander paying 3%


And those are listed in account opening priority (as I see it anyway). Obviously you've used up Nationwide but I post it for the benefit of others.


Lloyds and Santander require DDs (easily sorted!), with the former needing to pay out each month.


If you've an income on top, or simply want to drip-feed from the 3% accounts, then you can get £1.3K per month into 5% and 4% regular savers from TSB and Lloyds respectively.

colsten

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

If you've an income on top, or simply want to drip-feed from the 3% accounts, then you can get £1.3K per month into 5% and 4% regular savers from TSB and Lloyds respectively.

Don't forget the 6% ones that take £800 per person a month.

Depending on where you live, there are also other 3-4% regular savings types, branch access only.

YorkshireBoy

colsten wrote: »

Don't forget the 6% ones that take £800 per person a month.

Depending on where you live, there are also other 3-4% regular savings types, branch access only.

True, but was trying to keep it 'in house'. Didn't want to frighten the OP off, as that would be another 3 current accounts to manage.


I'm thinking they might go down the Tesco 3 year fixed rate route (if the incoming funds are substantial) at 2.5%, rather than multiple current accounts anyway. We'll see what the OP says.