Is it worth...

Vxs

Putting my current, Nationwide Flex account balance of £3000 into savings??

I am able to put some money aside each month lately and its nearing the end of the month, Payday soon and I am still in credit by about 3k.

I have an E-Savings account with Nationwide and a regular Savings account. But I never use them and don't even know their interest rates.

Is it worth moving the money in to the E-Savings account on such a little amount of savings? I don't think I'm gaining interest on my Flex Account but with such a little amount of spare money is the interest gained worth it?

plus on any given day my car could break or I dip in to the money anyway for X amount number of reasons.

Basically Im wondering how much spare cash in a current account people keep before putting it in to savings?

enthusiasticsaver

I am confused - doesn't a nationwide flex direct pay 5% anyway on up to £2500 or is the flex a different account in which case I would switch?


The flexclusive regular saver is one of the best out there as it lets you put in £500 per month and pays 5% as well. E saver rates will be rubbish.

enthusiasticsaver

Sorry and the answer to your question is all my current accounts earn interest which are better than any savings account. I think you should move your Nationwide flex to a flex direct and open the regular saver. If you are able to put £500 per month away that is the maximum but if you are unable to do that you can put in smaller amounts.

masonic

Most of my cash is in current accounts because several of the accounts paying the best rates available are current accounts.

Vxs

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I am confused - doesn't a nationwide flex direct pay 5% anyway on up to £2500 or is the flex a different account in which case I would switch?


The flexclusive regular saver is one of the best out there as it lets you put in £500 per month and pays 5% as well. E saver rates will be rubbish.

My current account is just a regular: FlexAccount opened up in the year 2000 roughly lol I'm pretty sure I don't gain interest on this account but might be wrong? to be fair the last few years I've been in my overdraft anyway, only recently started sorting my finances out.

My Nationwide E-Savings online says: Gross interest rate 0.45% and Net interest rate 0.36%

My Nationwide Savings Account online says: Gross interest rate 0.25% and Net interest rate 0.20%

if I go in to my Flex Account there is no info on interest rates on the account in the online website??

Maybe I should close the Savings account and E-Saver and open another? and move my current account from a normal Flex to something else?

bowlhead99

You are right, the 'normal' FlexAccount which you opened back in the day does not pay interest so that's why there is no info on interest rates on the account.

Essentially the normal flex account gives you a package of 'flex' benefits if you make minimum deposits into it. These include free travel insurance and the ability to access other 'flexclusive' products such as a preferential priced mortgage, decent credit card, a regular saver account which pays more than the standard one, an ISA which pays more than the standard one, etc. But apart from letting you have all that stuff they don't actually pay you any interest.

Another type of account with flex benefits is FlexPlus. This has a monthly fee but a wider set of benefits: travel insurance is worldwide instead of European, you get car breakdown cover, mobile phone insurance and some other stuff. You still get access to all the other flex products (mortgage, savings accounts, credit card) AND you get 3% interest on the first £2500 of account balance.

The other flex account is the FlexDirect, which doesn't have a monthly fee and has a higher minimum deposit to qualify for the features (£1k pm). But the deal on that one is 5% of interest on the first £2500 of account balance for the first 12 months, and then 1% of interest on the first £2500 after that 12 months.

So, there are different products with flex in the name. No problem to swap between them every so often. I'm using the 'normal' FlexAccount like you, and don't get paid interest on the money in that account - but I do have a £500-month regular saver account set up which earns me 5% and I have a mortgage and credit card which are both reasonable products.

For your needs you could open the Flex Direct to get interest on the first £2500 and start dripping the excess into their Flexclusive regular saver. After a year when the Direct account stops paying the high rate of interest and your regular saver account has run its course, look at what options are around and re-evaluate.

LXdaddy

bowlhead99 wrote: »

For your needs you could open the Flex Direct to get interest on the first £2500 and start dripping the excess into their Flexclusive regular saver. After a year when the Direct account stops paying the high rate of interest and your regular saver account has run its course, look at what options are around and re-evaluate.

Agreed.
And at the end of the year CLOSE the Flex Direct account, you can use a Nationwide Flex account instead) then a further year later you can open another Flex Direct account and get the 5% interest on £2500. (assuming that's still available and good value 24 months from now!)


You have to CLOSE the account, not just take all the funds out as I found to my chagrin so I have to wait a while longer before I can get the Flex Direct again.

Vxs

Thank you for the very comprehensive reply.

If & When I change to a FlexDirect do Nationwide just rename the account or do I have to swap all my direct debits and get new cards etc?

Also is the Flexclusive Regular Savings another account I would need to open or do they open it up with the FlexDirect? I am guessing the Flexclusive regular saver isn't the same as my current Savings Account with them?

So many products and similar names I am tempted to just keep my current FlexAccount and just find a Savings account to put spare cash rather than change current accounts but then I am probably not being very savy doing so. I do want access to the money if required ASAP.

My maths is horrendous but lets pretend I kept £2500 in that FlexDirect account for 1 year at 5% how much interest is that gained?

Thanks for the replies.

LXdaddy

Vxs wrote: »

Thank you for the very comprehensive reply.

If & When I change to a FlexDirect do Nationwide just rename the account or do I have to swap all my direct debits and get new cards etc?

if you change, yes you would need to move the direct debits etc (not sure if they would do this as an account switching service)


When we opened Flex Direct accounts we kept the original Flex account - basically we used the Flex Direct accounts as savings accounts, kept 2500 in them and did standing orders to bounce £1000 from flex to flex direct and back again (if you are worried about not having a big enough balance left in the flex account do the bounce the otherway - ie Flex direct to flex and then back again).

Also is the Flexclusive Regular Savings another account I would need to open or do they open it up with the FlexDirect? I am guessing the Flexclusive regular saver isn't the same as my current Savings Account with them?

Yes flexclusive Regulare Saver IS a different account to any other similarly or differently named account

So many products and similar names I am tempted to just keep my current FlexAccount and just find a Savings account to put spare cash rather than change current accounts but then I am probably not being very savy doing so. I do want access to the money if required ASAP.

Sceptics among us might think that the similar names are designed to confuse the unwary into thinking they have accounts paying small interest when in fact they have a different account paying zero or miserable interest rates... I couldn't possibly comment.

My maths is horrendous but lets pretend I kept £2500 in that FlexDirect account for 1 year at 5% how much interest is that gained?

Thanks for the replies.

well 1% is one hundredth, so 1% of £2500 is £25
so 5% is five times that so £125

That is Gross so tax needs to be deducted - at basic rate that would leave £100

YorkshireBoy

Vxs wrote: »

If & When I change to a FlexDirect do Nationwide just rename the account or do I have to swap all my direct debits and get new cards etc?

Yes, and no...in that order. It's simply an upgrade.

Also is the Flexclusive Regular Savings another account I would need to open or do they open it up with the FlexDirect? I am guessing the Flexclusive regular saver isn't the same as my current Savings Account with them?

No need to guess anything. All the details are on their website. The regular saver has some eligibility criteria to be met. Simply having a FlexDirect current account qualifies you!

So many products and similar names I am tempted to just keep my current FlexAccount and just find a Savings account to put spare cash rather than change current accounts but then I am probably not being very savy doing so. I do want access to the money if required ASAP.

Upgrade to the FlexDirect. Job done!

My maths is horrendous but lets pretend I kept £2500 in that FlexDirect account for 1 year at 5% how much interest is that gained?

Windows, and most/all other operating systems have a built in calculator. Surely you can use that? If you were buying my used car off me and asked for a 10% discount, would you then expect me to work it out for you?

If you really can't use a calculator the answer is £122.25

EDIT: Just in case you're wondering why this isn't £125, it's because since the account is full you can't earn the AER of 5%, only the gross p.a. of 4.89%.

bowlhead99

£2500 x 5% for a year = £125.

You might end up with a new card in a different colour or something (dunno, never really use mine) but the account number and sort code will probably be the same and there should be no issues with your direct debits which will work just as they do now (if the account number changed they would change the direct debit mandates for you). It is just a different product name from the current account you already have and will be converting - you are not opening a brand new account as a new customer who needs a new account number assigning to them.

The flexclusive regular saver account is different from your existing savings account, it is designed for people gradually putting away more and more savings so it only allows a maximum deposit of £500 a month but pays a good rate on it. It does not automatically get opened when you open a flexdirect although if you went into a branch to do it you could do them both at the same time. I opened mine online by simply clicking some buttons. You don't have to wait until you have a flexdirect to get it, you could open it now if you wanted - as mentioned, I have a normal flexaccount and the flexclusive regular saver and do not have a flexdirect account.

But sounds like it would be a no brainer to at least open the flex direct account if you have a salary (or can move money around from another bank) to meet the £1000 a month payin requirement of the flex direct, because you get the £125 for keeping your £2500 in the account for a year, whereas at the moment you get £0 for keeping your £2500 in the normal flexaccount for a year.