Tesco Savings DDs

mt99

One alternative for DD is a monthly savings account for Christmas eg:

https://www.getpark.co.uk/budgeting/saving/how-it-works.jsp

No doubt others are available.

the downside is that you get your money back at Christmas but in vouchers so you have to spend at those stores, but at least it's your money unlike eg giving to a charity. Not sure what the minimum is though.

mt99

Another option is this (min £10/month savings):

https://www.glasgowcu.com/savings/christmas-saving/

surreysaver

I've just come across a very interesting website by typing in '£1 direct debit' into Google

EachPenny

djpailo wrote: »

I have always found it strange when people "keep things quiet". They are happy to learn about tricks from MSE but then don't want others to learn the same tricks. How strange is that?

The 'tricks' are still on MSE though for anyone who wants to look for them, or who needs to be pointed in the right direction.

The problem is with people who felt the need to regularly remind the entire world that "Tesco let you do £1 DD's"... even if exactly the same point had already been made in the same thread half a dozen posts previously.

I think you'll find the people who wanted to "keep things quiet" were very active and generous in sharing the knowledge... but just did it in a subtle way which was less likely to result in the 'trick' being stopped.

So not strange at all really.

mt99

Another way is to google 'credit union savings accounts'. Credit Unions offer savings accounts and are protected up to £85k by FSCS.

For example, this one offers a savings account with deposits by DD:

https://www.scotwest.co.uk/savings/

There are lots of others - you can probably set up 50 DDs if you put your mind to it!

EachPenny

youngretired wrote: »

...so looks like I'll be sacrificing 2 of either Co-op, Halifax or Barclays.

For me Halifax is the one which looks the most vulnerable to people cutting back on the number of current accounts. There won't be many options left to make a £3 reward worth having.

djpailo wrote: »

Maybe the saving grace is that the bank of england interest rate MAY go up in two weeks and therefore the savings products on offer may improve.

Even if the BoE rate does go up it would be extremely optimistic to think it would prompt the banks to increase rates on generally available savings accounts from the current 'good' 1.2-1.25% to anything like 2 or 3%. It will take a lot more than a BoE rate rise to have any appreciable effect on savings interest rates.

mt99

The Ecology building society regular saver accepts deposits by DD (1.5% interest, £25/month minimum) but don't tell anybody...

https://www.ecology.co.uk/savings/savings-accounts/regular-savings/

mt99

The Saga 'telephone easy access account' allows you to make payments into the savings a/c by DD but 1.you must be over 50 and 2. the interest rate is 0.3% so not good:

https://www.saga.co.uk/money/savings-overview/telephone-easy-access/account-conditions

mt99

The Westcountry savings Credit Union have a Christmas saver that you can set up with WEEKLY direct debits. There is a £1.50 a year joining fee though:

http://www.westcountry.org.uk/Christmas-savings

djpailo

EachPenny wrote: »

I think you'll find the people who wanted to "keep things quiet" were very active and generous in sharing the knowledge... but just did it in a subtle way which was less likely to result in the 'trick' being stopped.

So not strange at all really.

It was always going to be stopped eventually. The problem was not that it was shared, I suspect the problem was people set up the minimum direct debits possible and this cost money to process. I also suspect that people did not use the accounts to save any money at all, they probably took the money out straight away, and consequently it didn't make sense for Tesco to sell the product anymore.

I still think its strange that you think people sharing the product on these small forums had any major bearing on what Tesco does. It was freely advertised on their website. As I said earlier, I suspect it was how the product was used (abused), rather than the fact it was shared, which is what got it stopped.

The mistake to learn from is that when giving people advise on these accounts, it should be clear that they should be used properly and not abused so that everyone can enjoy them. The information should not be hidden, obscured, or informed in a "subtle" way - this may only add to confusion.