Save the Change Scheme

Scoobs2006

Hi.
I have just joined L TSB for their current account save the change scheme. New Year Start Saving.
If any of you use Save the Change i was wondering how much you have saved over a year. I understand everyone has different spending habits but im just curious.
Thanks

gallifreyangirl

I would be interested to know too as I have joined TSB and I am using save the change myself too.

takman

Which bank/s have you used this past year for debit card spending?.

If they offer it you could export your statements over a year in CSV format and import them into excel. It would then be easy to use a formula and calculate how much you would have saved over the last year.

Scoobs2006

Good idea. Will look into this.. anyone who has actually done the save the change please let us know your saving figure

colsten

As you said, people have different spending habits and anyone else's experience with this scheme is not very meaningful. The important thing is how much you can afford to save.

The other thing that's not meaningful is the interest TSB pay you in this scheme. You'd probably do better if you kept the money in your TSB current account, up to £1,500. Anything above that you could transfer to a savings account which pays at least 3 or 4 times, or perhaps even 10 times as much as what you can get in TSB.

I doubt many of the MSE Forum users are using this or similar schemes, if any at all. These schemes are not expert money saving.

PeacefulWaters

You're saving by taking money out of an account earning 3% interest and putting it into an account earning how much?

Scoobs2006

My point is, the scheme will benefit people who are not proactive savers. I like the idea that it can be set so i do nothing but still saving behind the scenes & whos to say i cant move the money to a higher rate saving account.

ceredigion

Scoobs2006 wrote: »

My point is, the scheme will benefit people who are not proactive savers. I like the idea that it can be set so i do nothing but still saving behind the scenes & whos to say i cant move the money to a higher rate saving account.

Scoobs, For What I can gather you are a youngster at Just 21 years old. Fair do for trying but please listen to this old hand.
You have current accounts with Halifax including a overdraft of £xxx, and Santander (hope it is the light version). You also have two credit cards with outstanding balances all be it at 0%.
From that I can only assume you don't have any savings, please forget "save the change" at 0.40% be more disciplined save in you new TSB account at 3% and pay you debts down.

colsten

Scoobs2006 wrote: »

whos to say i cant move the money to a higher rate saving account.

You can do that without having your money moved first from a 3% AER account to a 0.4% AER account.

But as others have said, pay off your debts before you think of saving anything.

Kim_13

As others have said, TSB's range of saving accounts pay much less interest than their Classic Plus paying 3%. For anyone who was given an alternative current account by TSB, there's nothing to lose by using Save the Change, as the current account won't pay any interest (unless you have a student account or under 19's one, as these do pay some interest.)

Most MSE'ers if doing anything like this would be manually transferring the extra, to ensure that it goes somewhere that earns a respectable amount of interest. There are a number of savings challenges in this section which may interest you: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=267

The Virtual Sealed Pot challenge is the most similar to 'Save the Change.' The guideline is to do a transfer a week but some do more often than this.

Anthorn

Scoobs2006 wrote: »

Hi.
I have just joined L TSB for their current account save the change scheme. New Year Start Saving.
If any of you use Save the Change i was wondering how much you have saved over a year. I understand everyone has different spending habits but im just curious.
Thanks

Depends on how much you use your debit card. I had it with Lloyds Bank and I previously had it with TSB. But now I use Save The Change with the Moneybox app. On average I save £10 per week which I don't really miss because each amount is very low.

For me Save The Change is a convenient way of saving small amounts but due to the bank's dismal interest I wouldn't leave it in for a full year: Probably leaving it in for a month is long enough. Using Save The Change to invest in an ISA is for me much better.