Any bank accounts that suit our needs?

Waffle_On

I received a letter today that our Lloyds Vantage account was having what's left of the pitiful interest rate removed.

I was looking into switching current accounts anyway, but this is the proverbial boot up the bum.

In addition, I have a second current account with Lloyds which I have recently been building up a bit of cash in (approx. 9k), as I have just started maternity leave. This is earning no interest at the moment, and I have been looking for somewhere to put this that will earn reasonable interest but still give instant access without penalty should we need it. We're unlikely to be building up any more savings in the coming year so regular saver accounts are no help.

Our current account is always in credit with a reasonable balance.

I was looking at the Santander 123, however, I would want to have some separation of the funds into separate pots - even if that's just a visual thing on online banking. If it weren't for the monthly fee we could just open two.

Does anyone have any suggestions that might work for us, or know if the Santander account allows you to divide your money when it is all in one account?

YorkshireBoy

There are 2 of you.
Lloyds Club will pay 4% AER on £15K
Where's the problem?

ceredigion

Lloyds paradoxically


Edit; Yorkshire boy beat me to it because i couldn't spell paradoxically.
Then I had to check that it was actually the word I was looking for.

bigadaj

ceredigion wrote: »

Lloyds paradoxically


Edit; Yorkshire boy beat me to it because i couldn't spell paradoxically.
Then I had to check that it was actually the word I was looking for.

Ironically?

Waffle_On

I had a look at that account, but discounted it because of the interest stopping at 5k, plus there being a minimum pay in to avoid the monthly fee.

I guess you are suggesting opening 3 of them (one each and one joint), then moving money between them each month? I can't see a clause to stop that counting, that I have seen with other accounts.

YorkshireBoy

Doesn't sound like you have/will have enough cash for 3, being as you need >£4K for the 4% AER. Unless you can muster up another £3K from somewhere?

RichyRich

Two Lloyds and one TSB would cover it.

YorkshireBoy

RichyRich wrote: »

Two Lloyds and one TSB would cover it.

I was working on the fact that since they were looking at paying a £60 a year fee for 3% AER at Santander they already had £13.5K worth of 5% accounts at Nationwide and TSB.

Waffle_On

We don't have any accounts with TSB or Nationwide set up at the moment. We won't have the time to think about it over the coming months, so I want to keep things as simple as possible, with as few accounts and as little money moving around each month as possible. I'm already starting to suffer with baby brain! Opening a whole load of accounts is not going to work!

I would prefer to avoid having more than 2 accounts, but need a reasonable rate to be worth switching. We have more funds in an ISA if required, but I'm still undecided about what to do with that. I'm also very conscious that our income starts dropping this month, and we may need to dip into some of the savings to see us through the next year.

There seem to be so many hoops to jump through to get a reasonable rate anywhere - between minimum monthly pay in, not allowing transfers from other accounts, minimum direct debits, monthly fees and having to use the switching service etc etc, I'm so confused! I am happy to get a bit less than the 'best' rates in order to make it all easier.

ceredigion

If you really want to keep it simple, look at Tesco's only 3% on the first 3K you can have two each. But there is no DD or funding requirements

Doctor_Duke

As well as the Lloyds Club you can always feed a monthly regular club saver account from the excess over the £5k? Get a free magazine too or cinema tickets.