NatWest savings builder

charoniv

For this account you need to increase the balance by £100 on the previous month.
Haven't looked at the ts and cs yet but I would assume this is done by the last day of the calendar month.
Means that if you think you might need to use the money sometime or want to put in more than you can just leave then move the money out before the end of the month leaving £100 more than the previous month then put it back in again.
Haven't calculated but the few days loss of interest will. E better than losing a month if you are working on a reducing balance.
If you end up static you'll be worse as you'll probably lose getting on for a month but you can adjust the end of month balance as you go.

A lot of effort for 1.5% on 5k (probably 1.3% after movements) but would that work?

RG2015

Hi charoniv,

I have this account and you have to increase the balance by £100 each month measured on the penultimate working day of the month (very strange). Unusually for regular savings accounts, you can deposit as much as you like on day one. The interest is stepped at 1.5% up to 5k, 1.0% on 5k to 10k and 0.2% on anything above 10k.

I have on occasion moved more money in (say £1000) then moved it out before the critical day and have received the extra interest.

I aim to keep the balance below 5k to always get 1.5% so one month I will have to sacrifice the interest of about £6.25 so the net received will be about 1.35% as you say.

Having maxed out my Santander accounts (1.5%) and Nationwide accounts (5%) the 1.35% from NatWest is worth the effort for me.

jimjames

No sure if you have a reason but I can't see why you'd bother with this account when you can get vastly better interest with tsb without the hassle

charoniv

Already have a NatWest current account and nothing else seems to give much interest (0.01%).
Like to keep NatWest just in case something goes wrong with the others. It was my first account and seems to function ok - it's one of the easier online interfaces.

And from a quick look I don't see anything at TSB that would match this.

RG2015

NatWest was also my first account (40 plus years). Good online platform and mobile app but their savings rates are rubbish apart from the 1.5% up to 5k.

And neither can I see anything at TSB where you get 1.5% (or 1.35% for the pedantic) instant access for up to £5,000 ongoing. However I would be happy to be proved wrong as sharing information is what this forum is all about.

charoniv

We look fairly similar. I have Santander and Nationwide too.
Also Egg (now YBS) but that just shows how old I am, that's handy because you can always transfer money without a card reader. It's down to 0.6% now .

40+ for NatWest too. They ran an advertising campaign saying you could go to your local branch and set up an account to be ready for when you arrive at university. I went to my local branch and they said there's not a lot they could do - turned out they could, they just didn't realise it.

I've tried First Direct 3 times because of their famed customer service (umm!) and they were doing reasonable things but they've messed things up and been difficult to contact each time so I've always dropped them.

jimjames

3% with tsb current account, obviously instant access as it's a current account

charoniv

Ah - missed that.
Only £1500 but the extra £10 / month might make it worthwhile - but only for 18 months.

Not enough to tempt me to open yet another account.

RG2015

Hi jimjames,

Okay, 3% on £1,500 is good as is the £5 per month cashback for two DDs. I'm not sure though about twenty debit card payments per month for the second £5 per month.

I already have six current accounts with Natwest, Santander, Nationwide and Tesco and I prefer the NatWest Savings builder as a (relatively) simple savings account with a decent ongoing rate for £4,500 to £5,000.

jimjames

charoniv wrote: »

Ah - missed that.
Only £1500 but the extra £10 / month might make it worthwhile - but only for 18 months.

Not sure where you say the 18 months? I've had it for the last 3 years although rate was recently cut to 3%. Plenty of other options at the same sort of level without the hassle of Natwest

YorkshireBoy

RG2015 wrote: »

I already have six current accounts with Natwest, Santander, Nationwide and Tesco and I prefer the NatWest Savings builder as a (relatively) simple savings account with a decent ongoing rate for £4,500 to £5,000.

BoS would give you twice the interest Santander does (and a 1/3 as much again from June) on £15K.

Presumably you have the 5% AER regular saver at Nationwide, running alongside the current account?