MAXing out regular saving accounts

Money_Muppet

Over the last couple of years I've been saving into TSB, Halifax and Nationwide current accounts and a First Direct regular saver. It has worked well, and I've had a decent return (considering the small amount I've saved). However it is quite time consuming as money has still been tight, so I've been jugging balances to make sure I meet minimum income into accounts etc.

However, now I'm getting towards a position where I would like to use one central dedicated account for savings, that I can use to feed money into regular savers - either by standing order or direct debit. Santander would be the obvious one, but I don't have enough to justify the fees.

Does anyone else here have a dedicated central account to feed their regular savers? What do you use and how have you got it all set up?

Vortigern

Be sure to read the terms and conditions for your regular savers. Many of them need to be funded from a current account at the same bank.

Otherwise I'd use a Tesco current account to feed the regular savers.

You'll get 3% interest while your cash is in the Tesco account and Tesco has the added benefit of processing standing orders on weekends, so your payment should always go out on the first of the month.

colsten

It totally depends on how much money is involved. A Santander 123 is only a potentially good idea if you can keep your lowest balance in it above about £10K. How much have you got at your disposition?

Dan83

I'd also say tesco

B_G_B

Dan83 wrote: »

I'd also say tesco

I would say what Colsten said. Tesco accounts (on their own) are not the best option if you've got (say) £20000 in feeder accounts.

Likewise, not the best option if you’ve got (say) £1500 in feeder accounts.

NectarCollector

Money_Muppet wrote: »

Over the last couple of years I've been saving into TSB, Halifax and Nationwide current accounts and a First Direct regular saver. It has worked well, and I've had a decent return (considering the small amount I've saved). However it is quite time consuming as money has still been tight, so I've been jugging balances to make sure I meet minimum income into accounts etc.

However, now I'm getting towards a position where I would like to use one central dedicated account for savings, that I can use to feed money into regular savers - either by standing order or direct debit. Santander would be the obvious one, but I don't have enough to justify the fees.

Does anyone else here have a dedicated central account to feed their regular savers? What do you use and how have you got it all set up?

Regular savers can only be paid into from their respective supplier I believe, meaning you need a FD account to pay into an FD regular saver, etc

Have you also maxed out their respective current accounts to gain max interest on those also? (£2500 for nationwide, but if you've had it for over a year you'd only be getting 1%, you might want to consider switching for 3,4 or 5% depending where you switch to. and £2000 for TSB)

colsten

NectarCollector wrote: »

Regular savers can only be paid into from their respective supplier I believe, meaning you need a FD account to pay into an FD regular saver, etc

that applies to some but not to all regular/monthly savers. My KRBS, Chorley and some other Building Society Regular Savers do not pre-req one of their other accounts.

Keeping money in any of the mandatory feeder accounts may or may not be a good idea - e.g. keeping up to £2,000 in a TSB Plus that feeds a TSB Monthly Saver could be a good idea but keeping more than £0 in a FirstDirect current account seems a waste of money.

Westie983

I think my FD/Santander is one of the few ones that say it has to come from the current account, some of them like HSBC/LLoyds say you need the current account to make the application.

HSBC, KRBS, TSB, Lloyds, Nationwide Don't have anything in the T&C's to say funding has to come from their current account, most say have to be paid by SO, or the frequency allowed, or that any withdrawals may have to go back to their current account, so worth reading the T&C's.

Special_Saver2

Have a look at post 9 on my regular savings thread for several feeder account options:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/608697

I used to use a Santander 123 account when I had a spare £20,000 but now that I no longer have that much spare cash sitting around, I use the Lloyds current account which also gives me free cinema tickets!

SS2

Sam_J12

You can't do what you want, because most regular savers require the money to be paid from the attached current account. I use my Club Lloyds account as my main savings account and do manual transfers. The method I use is to have standing orders set up to transfer money from the attached current account to the regular saver, and have this happen on the same day for each - 4th of the month for me. On the 1st/2nd I will transfer £1000 from my Lloyds current account (always have £5k in there for the 4% rate) to each current account (most require a minimum transfer each month of no more than £1000) and transfer it straight back to Lloyds, minus the amount I want to go into the regular saver. I then top up the Lloyds account from my Tesco current account. It takes amount 20 minutes of my time once a month.

colsten

Sam_J12 wrote: »

You can't do what you want, because most regular savers require the money to be paid from the attached current account.

Of course you can keep your money in a different account that pays interest, even if you have to channel it through another account before it reaches the monthly saver.