Bank Switching and Regular Saving Strategy

ClarkeKent

Decided to have a go at switching accounts and regular saving using the current offers, all were opened/switched before April 2016. Have totted up this could generate just over £1k in bonuses/interest for the year.

Here is the monthly payment plan

1st of Month - First Direct £2000 paid in (from salary and other income)
2nd of Month - First Direct Saver(6% -£25 to £300, carry forward) £300 paid in (£3600 in the account when finished)

3rd of Month - M&S £1700 paid from First Direct
4th of Month - M & S Saver (6% -£25 to £300, carryforward) £250 paid in (£3000 in the account when finished)

5th of Month - Nationwide £1450 paid from M&S
6th of Month - Nationwide Flexclusive(5%) £500 paid in (£6000 in the account when finished)

7th of Month - TSB(always with £2k balance) £950 paid from Nationwide
8th of Month - TSB Saver £250 paid in (£3000 in the account when finished)

9th of Month - Yorkshire Bank £700 paid in and we are done. I will have to top this up for first 2 months so over £1k is paid in to qualify for the bonus. This account will be used for all my regular monthly spending. Nationwide CC card used for monthly spending too.

£509 is the cash balance require in YB to cover my monthly costs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yorkshire Bank Current Account Direct - £150

M&S Current Account- £100 Gift Card + £10 per month on Gift Card(£1k paid in)
M&S Monthly Saver - (£10 interest)

First Direct 1st Account - £100 bonus
First Direct Regular Saver Account - £117 interest from Regular Saving Account

Nationwide FlexAccount - Switch from HSBC - £35 cashback via Quidco
Nationwide Flexclusive Regular Saver £500 p/m - £161 interest
Nationwide Select Credit Card - £25 via Quidco.

TSB Classic Plus Account - £98 interest
TSB Monthly Saver - £82 Interest
TSB Monthly Saver - £120 Bonus & Interest[/I]

Bank of Scotland CC Card - £20 via Quidco
Co-op Switch - £150 Bonus

Halifax Switch (Aug) £100 plus £5 p/m

--Best Ins £210 7 months at £30 to Deduct

£1084 for the above
£1003 in Total including £81 fees below

£33 fees in missed payment via Tesco and Virgin CC, Tesco2 card in the process of switching.
Along with £20 missed over 4 months (£5 p/m) bonus lost from Halifax switch


£590 from Bank Switching
£1001 from Bank Switching including FD Savings Interest and M&S Month Bonus with Halifax Reward and TSB Interest


I will have to build up my balance of TSB Current Account (£2k so may knock some off this interest calculation)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Deductions BestI £217 7 Months
Additions SkyD £111 over 10 months Net Extras Loss £106
£130 on new desktop PC paid with Halifax and £29 Tesco CC
£100 towards Mac with TSB
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

CONDITIONS
First Direct 1st Account - Pay in £1k in first 3 months of switching, no DDs are needed. I opened a Savings Account and added £1 to avoid monthly fee.

M & S Current Account - Switch with 2 DDs for £100 Gift Card, Pay £1k to get £10 a month gift card bonus

First Direct Regular Saver - Save £25-£300 and you can carry forward unused allowances, 6% for 12 months.

M & S Current Account - Switch with 2 DDs for £100 Gift Card, Pay £1k to get £10 a month gift card bonus

Co-Op Current Account - £150 for 4+ Direct Debits. Get an extra £48 a year by paying in £800 per month.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts

It has been a bit of hassle with the paperwork, keeping track of existing payments, ensuring DDs are on all switch accounts etc. But having one account for payments and then other for spending in between the regular savers seems the best way to do it for me, as I want this process to be all about automation and simplicity. Using Trello (trello.com) has been very helpful in organising it all along with a Google Drive spreadsheet. But worth £1k if I can achieve that in a year, once the work has been done and its all automated.

There will be £17600 in the savings accounts at the end excluding generated interest.(£10k spend on cards, £24600 cash flow(£2050 per month), £18,000 free cash flow (£1500 per month) with £550 required per month in Yorkshire Bank to cover monthly stuff

Can any switching/saving gurus spot any errors/issues with this where interest bonus will not be paid or a better way of doing it?

£1156 cashflow from Savings and TLS
£1300 to monthly savers or £1050 if TSB excluded

colsten

My comments/questions in no particular order:

1. is there a particular reason why you are spreading the payments over 9 days?
2. assuming your YB account is the YB Direct: if you paid in £1K a month, you would get 2% interest
3. FD doesn't require a regular monthly deposit after you have been paid the switching bonus. A normal savings account with £1 in it will waive the monthly charge
4. you could earn an additional £5 a month if you included a Halifax Reward in your portfolio (and met the conditions for the reward)
5. similarly, there is the option for £4 a month from Coop
6. £5 a month in cashback from TSB if you spend £100 in contactless transactions (ends December)
7. there might be other switching offers (Coop, Halifax) that you haven't yet done
8. are you not skimming off the TSB Plus interest each month?

ClarkeKent

colsten wrote: »

My comments/questions in no particular order:

1. is there a particular reason why you are spreading the payments over 9 days?
2. assuming your YB account is the YB Direct: if you paid in £1K a month, you would get 2% interest
3. FD doesn't require a regular monthly deposit after you have been paid the switching bonus. A normal savings account with £1 in it will waive the monthly charge
4. you could earn an additional £5 a month if you included a Halifax Reward in your portfolio (and met the conditions for the reward)
5. similarly, there is the option for £4 a month from Coop
6. £5 a month in cashback from TSB if you spend £100 in contactless transactions (ends December)
7. there might be other switching offers (Coop, Halifax) that you haven't yet done
8. are you not skimming off the TSB Plus interest each month?

Colsten,

1) To ensure payments go out after deposit and avoiding any potential overdraft issues. As this will all be automated
2) It will fill up over £1k after desposits grow in Yorkshire Bank
3) First Direct looks like it has changed, first 6 months free then £1k deposit required - check charges info http://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/banking/current-account Happy to have this set all on auto pilot, once setup leave it for a year
4) Switching from a Halifax account, I am aware I am losing out on that £60 per year
5,7) Not bothered about coop - I have enough accounts here
6) Want to keep one account for spends(YB). Simplicity is the aim here
8) Not sure what you mean, £180 is the total interest from both TSB which I am happy to collect in April/May 2017 along with the rest

YorkshireBoy

ClarkeKent wrote: »

3) First Direct looks like it has changed, first 6 months free then £1k deposit required - check charges info http://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/banking/current-account

Better to read the T&Cs, page 6, as that (still, as they haven't changed) lists all the fee waiver possibilities, one of which colsten has already given you. From your link...

FD wrote:

Charges

Is there a charge for banking with first direct?
Banking with first direct usually costs £10 a month, but you will not be charged this fee for the first six months from account opening, or when you pay in at least £1,000 to your 1st Account each month, or maintain an average monthly 1st Account balance of £1,000, or you hold a selected first direct additional product. Take a look at our Account Terms and Conditions for more details of other additional products.

ClarkeKent

So open a standard "Savings Account" and stick a quid in when I open the Regular Saver at FD and I will never have to pay the 1st Account monthly fee? http://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/savings/savings-account

badger09

ClarkeKent wrote: »

So open a standard "Savings Account" and stick a quid in when I open the Regular Saver at FD and I will never have to pay the 1st Account monthly fee? http://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/savings/savings-account

That is correct

TomJ

ClarkeKent wrote: »

Can any switching/saving gurus spot any errors/issues with this where interest bonus will not be paid or a better way of doing it?

Just a thought; you might consider adding a HSBC Regular Saver for 6% on £250 a month as you can clearly meet the £1750 a month funding requirement to get the fee-free qualifying HSBC Advance account. If you don't like concurrent transfers, stick it at the beginning of your monthly cycle. You could reduce the amount paid into one or both of the 5% RS accounts to keep the overall amount paid into RS accounts constant. Like the other 6% accounts you can't withdraw cash early from it without closing the account and suffering an interest penalty; both the 5% RS accounts you have allow you to withdraw without penalty, with the Nationwide one being (as the name suggests) slightly more flexible in this regard.