Are you a bank savings tart?

Archi_Bald

badger09 wrote: »

If I told you, I'd have to kill you:shhh:

If only everyone would stick to that excellent advice

bcooney

My husband and I have 4 current accounts between us: A Nationwide one, a joint one with Santander, and two individual ones with Santander. The Santander ones all require a monthly pay in of £500 to get their interest. The joint account has our salaries paid into it. We then use a £500 allocation that goes round all the other accounts each month: On 8th it goes from Nationwide into my individual Santander account; on 15th, back to Nationwide; on 22nd, into my husband's Santander account; on 28th, back to Nationwide. (You could do the same thing, substituting the Santander joint account for the Nationwide one.) Sounds complicated, but takes care of itself once the payments are set up. The only challenging thing is to remember that, at different times, £500 in an account is not 'really' there: It's just in transit on its way from one account to another. For a bit of discipline that way, we've earned a lot of interest over the 3 Santander accounts. (Sadly, not so much from November.) We've also had a lot of pleasure in using the banks' systems to our benefit. The consumers' revenge!

AndyLaw

I made £1852 in free cash from the banks. Here's how.

The banks offer you this money in three ways. First by paying switching bonuses when you move a current account using the Current Account Switching Service. Second by offering enhanced rates on what are nominally current accounts. Third by offering headline grabbing rates on 'regular saver' accounts.

I had one current account with Co-op, which I wanted to keep. Therefore I opened another Co-op current account online, and immediately switched it to Clydesdale in exchange for £150. That was so simple, I repeated the process with M&S (£100), Halifax (£125), TSB (£100), Nationwide (£100), HSBC (£120). An easy £695. Admittedly the M&S payment was a voucher, but I needed some new pants anyway. I missed out on the First Direct offer payment as I have had an account in the past with them, but apart from that I think I got them all. Some of the banks require you to transfer Direct Debits - so I moved Direct Debits into the account to be transferred prior to initiating the transfer. Some require you to pay in a certain amount per month, so I set up standing orders to 'circulate' the same lump sum around the accounts each month.

The second way the banks pay you is by offering interest-bearing current accounts when you switch to them. These accounts have a maximum deposit, above which there is no interest paid. This amount is now falling but last year banks that fell into this category were Clydesdale (2%) Bank of Scotland (3% two accounts), Halifax (£5 per month), Lloyds (4%), Nationwide (5%) and Santander (3%, via the well-known 123 account). By repeating the steps above and transferring cash from existing savings, which were paying 1.6% at the time - I made an extra £765 in interest. The best savings account is now only 1%, so although the rates on the reg savers are falling, their relative value in respect of basic savings accounts remain.

The final way to get paid is by opening the accounts that the banks reserve for existing customers - M&S (6%), Lloyds (4%), TSB (5%), HSBC (5%). (Again these rates are about to fall, but do your sums anyway). These are typically 1 year accounts, and offer eye-catching annual rates if you pay-in regular amounts, but you only get the full rate on the first payment, subsequent payments, which sit in the account for less than a year, attract less. However with a bit of jiggery-pokery on the spreadsheet, you can work out the actual rate of interest. Comparing this to the 1.6% I was getting in my savings account, yielded a further £242 in interest. With a further £90 from an HSBC ISA account, which paid a bonus £10 per month to compensate for a rubbish interest rate, and the £60 a year from TSB just for using contactless payments for stuff I would have bought anyway, yields the grand total of £1852 , risk-free although not entirely tax-free.

** STOP PRESS on reading the blog I realised I missed the 3% Tesco offer on their current account, and I could have a third BOS account at 4% - so you could probably call it 2 grand **,

There are some catches. First, you need to have savings available to move into the accounts in the first place, although this won't affect the first category of payment (the switching bonuses). Second you need to be organised, so that the accounts are set-up, managed and funded. Third, of course, you have to think that £1852 is worth the bother. I have to admit that for ages I was the sort who'd have one current account and one savings account – I just couldn't be arsed with the faffing to make a hundred quid. My mind was changed when I actually worked out how much I would make in total – 1800 quid makes you sit-up even if 100 doesn't. Also the Current Account Switching Service, surprisingly, given it is set-up by the banks, actually works really well.

One other criticism of this serial accumulation of current accounts is that it damages your credit score. My credit score has indeed been affected by opening a lot of credit accounts in a short period (even if I am in credit on all of them). However in my case it is not a major hit, and I am certainly still receiving the continual stream of offers for cheap loans and credit cards, so I guess I am still an attractive proposition for the lenders.

In conclusion, if you are well-organised and you have some modest savings earning an interest rate that has plenty to be modest about, then what are you waiting for?

colsten

ratechaser wrote: »

For heavens sake man, shhhhhh!!!!! :mad:

Just sayin' it again

Maximum_Saving

I use a pen and paper to look at my bank accounts. I have accounts with First Direct, TSB, Halifax and Nationwide. I also have a travel account with Norwich and Peterborough.

ceredigion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhY-Y0I8DkY

Mary_Sheila

Started "tarting" about 2010; currently :

2 Santander 123 accounts (1 sole, 1 joint) - £40,000 at 1.5%
3 Bank of Scotland accounts - £15,000 at 3%
2 Club Lloyds (1 sole, 1 joint) - £10,000 at 2%
Tesco Bank - £3,000 at 3%
3 TSB accounts (2 sole, 1 joint) - £4,500 at 3%
Nationwide Flex account - £10 at 1%, but it feeds 2 regular saver accounts that earn 5% (£500 per month) and 2% (£1,000 per month)
First Direct - balance at 0% but it feeds regular saver at 6%
M & S Bank - balance at 0% but feeds regular saver at 6%

One Santander account pays required amounts to BOS, TSB, Nationwide, M & S Bank, First Direct and one Club Lloyds account; the other Santander pays to the second Club Lloyds account. Each account (apart from Nationwide, M & S and First Direct) has a corresponding reciprocal standing order to send an amount in the reverse direction. Most of these accounts also have corresponding Regular Saver accounts for amounts from £200 to £1,000 which earn 2%-5%.

For an extra Direct Debit, I give £1 a month to a Charity that can collect monthly donations via Direct Debit.

I have eight Regular Saver accounts with four different Building Societies that pay interest at 2.00% to 3.5% for long-standing members for monthly amounts between £100 and £500. The accounts have durations of 12 months, 2 years and one is currently continuous (I've been saving there for 5 years so far, balance now over £8,000). On maturity of each account, its balance is returned to Santander to help feed other Regular Savers.

parydiso

When I switched my personal current account to the Co-operative Bank I first moved my Ebay and Paypal direct debits to the account I was switching from. This took a bit of planning, but they count as active direct debits, even though I don't use Ebay or Paypal very often. I also have a mobile phone for my business that was my third direct debit, and I set up a direct debit on a credit card that I pay off every month - this keeps me from any late fees if I forget to pay the balance off on time. I got my £150 in about ten days.

When I upgraded our joint current account to the Nationwide Flex Direct account I also opened the Flexclusive Regular Saver account, into which I am saving the maximum amount of £500 each month. This is a 5% interest savings account, good for 12 months. At the end of the 12 months they will close this account and roll my savings + interest over into their standard savings account. At that time I will look for other savings options, hopefully there will still be some other 5% savings accounts I can access.

Flex Direct offers a no fee overdraft for one year (as well as 5% on the first £2500 positive cash balance). I paid off a £1600 loan that I was being charged 5.9% interest on by using the free overdraft, and am paying off that overdraft in £300 a month installments. I have saved myself about £80 in interest by doing this, and in three months (god willing and the creek don't rise) will have paid all the loan money back into the current account.

I don't have any spectacular, mad bank account switching stories to share I'm afraid, but I do have a cracking spreadsheet that tracks all of my little schemes and it sure keeps me on target. I have one remaining balance on a zero interest credit card, which finishes in ten months. I originally divided the card's balance by the number of zero interest months offered, and set up the direct debit to pay it off, then I chopped the card up in the shredder. Each month when the payment is taken from my account, I highlight that month on my loan amortization tracker worksheet in purple because that month is paid off, man!

JustAnotherSaver

Reading this thread .... smh.


Is there any good reason why so many of you responded with some attitude?

Don't tell me it's because you don't want the banks having an idea of your big 'secret'?

Always see those MSE guys getting these kind of responses on the threads. Can't see why it's necessary tbh.

colsten

Kindly refer to post #2.