BoS monthly anniversary

surreysaver

Hello

I've recently opened a Bank of Scotland 2% current account. Could anyone advise me what the monthly anniversary would be so I can ensure my £1k is between dates? Would it be on the date I opened it, or do they have some other way of working it out? What happens if my standing order clashes with a weekend and it end up 2 (or more if there's bank hols) days late, and misses a monthly anniversary - would a monthly anniversary be extended if that falls on a weekend too?

molerat

BOS use calendar months so your SO needs to be paid in that period. Interest is calculated to 1st working day of the month and paid on the day after so will be affected by weekends and bank holidays but your DD must be paid in the calendar month.

surreysaver

Brilliant. Thanks for your response. That is helpful, as I have set up the SO to be on the same day as my other money movements to reduce the number of times each month I need to move money to and from my offset mortgage. Its just the SO day would co-incide with the day I opened the account!

EachPenny

surreysaver wrote: »

Brilliant. Thanks for your response. That is helpful, as I have set up the SO to be on the same day as my other money movements to reduce the number of times each month I need to move money to and from my offset mortgage. Its just the SO day would co-incide with the day I opened the account!

Do you only have the one BoS account? You should be able to open 3. You can also shuttle money between them to meet the pay-in criteria. I actually do manual transfers to and from a Halifax account, but apparently it works fine to move the money between BoS accounts.

If you have more than one current account and they are all funded with at least the amount of your highest minimum pay-in then it shouldn't be necessary to involve your offset mortgage at all. You should be able to simply set up SO's between the current accounts just to move the money around.

The only thing to watch out for is if one of the accounts normally only has a small balance in it (like the Halifax Reward) because you obviously don't want to have a stonking great SO coming out of an account which is nearly empty. Likewise if you temporarily reduce the balance on one of the current accounts, make sure the funds are returned before the SO is due.

If you plan it correctly all the SO's will take place without you needing to do anything yourself.

surreysaver

Only the one (at the moment!). I'd still need to fund them, though, as I'd need to provide funds for the Regular Saver (I presume I can have one Regular Saver per current account?). But having more than one BoS account would mean mucking about with direct debits too to maintain the T&Cs, unless you know a way around that too?

EachPenny

surreysaver wrote: »

Only the one (at the moment!). I'd still need to fund them, though, as I'd need to provide funds for the Regular Saver (I presume I can have one Regular Saver per current account?). But having more than one BoS account would mean mucking about with direct debits too to maintain the T&Cs, unless you know a way around that too?

Only one regular saver per customer, not per Vantage account. But Halifax also do a regular saver.

As the regular savers only pay 2% you may as well just stick the money in additional Vantage accounts.

The interest tiers are being removed on the 11th, so then it will make no difference whether you have £5k in one or £2.5k each in two.

Getting as many DD's as you need is simple. If you search the forum you'll find out how. But if you decide to go for one of the charity options make sure you give them enough to make it worthwhile - charity £1 DD's are not really fair.

surreysaver

Well, I'll put £5k in each! I want DDs that are simple and can be managed online - I'm ok faffing around while I'm signed off sick with a broken ankle, but once I'm back at work I won't have the time or the energy to muck around ringing companies up. I've got a few DDs, but I don't want to move them from my Santander account otherwise I'll lose my cashback I earn from them!

Once again many thanks for your help - you are saving me a lot of leg work!

EachPenny

The best DD's to go for don't require any further action from you once you have them set up and checked to make sure they are working (v. important that bit!). Better still, you get to keep your money and from time to time can send it back to where it came from. Which is the idea situation for savers. As they say, every little helps.

By the sound of it you aren't really up to doing much 'legwork' at the minute. Hopefully you'll be fully recovered soon.

surreysaver

Yes, already looking at that savings account. As it happens I opened one of their fixed savers the other day, so already have an Internet log for them. Is it possible to have two direct debits a month from the same current account to the same account and it count as two separate direct debits?

EachPenny

surreysaver wrote: »

Yes, already looking at that savings account. As it happens I opened one of their fixed savers the other day, so already have an Internet log for them. Is it possible to have two direct debits a month from the same current account to the same account and it count as two separate direct debits?

I believe it works so long as you have different references, and possibly it would be safer to have them on different dates too. It also depends on the exact T&C's and policies applied by the current account bank.

However there are two different (non-ISA) savings accounts offered, it is easier to have one of each and that way you clearly have two different DD's being taken from the current account - if you see what I mean.

surreysaver

I understand. Probably best to be safe. If I have the full £5k in each BoS account, that would earn me about £8pm in interest, so two DDs at £4 each should save me having to chase the interest earnt back to my main current account too!