Top Bank Accounts Discussion Area

soulsaver

murphydavid wrote: »

Oh yes and if you are interested in smallish annual amounts you can make a further £64 by opening; within 123; a £200 a month regular saver at 5%. Don't know if you can do it with a 123lite

colsten wrote: »

Santa regular saver pays max 3%. Regular Savers paying 5% are available elsewhere, and with higher monthly max amounts.

...and you can do the Sant 3% with a 123 lite.

murphydavid

colsten wrote: »

Santa regular saver pays max 3%. Regular Savers paying 5% are available elsewhere, and with higher monthly max amounts.

Yes it was 5% last June fixed for 1 year so mine is still 5% at the moment (till next June) Just shows how vigilant one needs to be. So £38/a interest if starting now.

colsten

soulsaver wrote: »

...and you can do the Sant 3% with a 123 lite.

Yes but you'd only do a <5% one if you have more money than your 5% accounts would take. Which is still a whopping £1,050 a month between them if you can do them all, plus there are the TSB Plus accounts, and some still haven't done a FlexDirect. You'd probably also feed them from current and/or savings accounts that pay better interest than Santander.

NB. I still have Santander accounts myself; not here for Santander bashing, just for facts.

bashful

soulsaver wrote: »

Check you maths and your typing...;)

Eh? What did I do wrong - sorry to be dim

soulsaver

colsten wrote: »

Yes but you'd only do a <5% one if you have more money than your 5% accounts would take. Which is still a whopping £1,050 a month between them if you can do them all, plus there are the TSB Plus accounts, and some still haven't done a FlexDirect. You'd probably also feed them from current and/or savings accounts that pay better interest than Santander.

NB. I still have Santander accounts myself; not here for Santander bashing, just for facts.

I wasn't arguing, just providing a fact . in response to the question s/he asked..;)

murphydavid

bashful wrote: »

Eh? What did I do wrong - sorry to be dim

You said "I had about £25,000 of savings in my 123 and was getting about £25 pm interest and also about £6.60 cashback on various direct debits totalling about £444 pm."
Not that it changes the gist of what you are saying and the subsequent interesting discussion it provoked but my gues is he might be referring to 25+6.6 = 31.6*12 = 379.2 and thats pa not pm. both very small possible errors.

Or he may have thought you were getting interest on £25k for which 1.5% interest is approx 31.25pm but Santander only pay on the first 20k so £25pm is about correct.
P.S. If you do nothing else I would move the £5k that is getting 0 interest and get some interest on it.

YorkshireBoy

murphydavid wrote: »

You said "I had about £25,000 of savings in my 123 and was getting about £25 pm interest and also about £6.60 cashback on various direct debits totalling about £444 pm."
Not that it changes the gist of what you are saying and the subsequent interesting discussion it provoked but my gues is he might be referring to 25+6.6 = 31.6*12 = 379.2 and thats pa not pm. both very small possible errors.

Or he may have thought you were getting interest on £25k for which 1.5% interest is approx 31.25pm but Santander only pay on the first 20k so £25pm is about correct.

I read it differently. Brian has monthly DDs totalling £444 in value, which generate a £6.60 cashback payment each month (approx 1.48%).

colsten

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I read it differently. Brian has monthly DDs totalling £444 in value, which generate a £6.60 cashback payment each month (approx 1.48%).

That's how I read it, too

polymaff

bashful wrote: »

polymaff wrote: »

Because, when you allow for the fees, the resulting rate is not a "top" rate. Even with £20k, paying £60 per year out of the £~300 annual interest brings that rate down to, at best, an easily-beatable 1.2%.

I too thought Santander 123 was a good account but, looking at the recommended accounts on the main MSE site this morning, it doesn't appear to figure on any "best of" lists.

I had about £25,000 of savings in my 123 and was getting about £25 pm interest and also about £6.60 cashback on various direct debits totalling about £444 pm.
. ...

What alternative accounts should I be looking at? There seems to be a split between recommendations for savings and bank accounts per se.

Keep the 123 - but as a lite account - then put all that cash into something earning more that the £21 (the 123 full 's interest minus the excess fee of £4) you've been receiving per month. At present the Marcus account will deliver £31.25 per month for the first 12 months and £28.12 thereafter - both of which makes that £21 look pretty feeble.

And if you are a savings taxpayer - the comparison gives even more reason to lite-en up.

bashful

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I read it differently. Brian has monthly DDs totalling £444 in value, which generate a £6.60 cashback payment each month (approx 1.48%).

Dead right :T I realise now that I could have worded that better - sorry!