Cheery's country living adventure

Tescodealqueen

Just typed up a pm about it but your inbox is full. If you clear space i can send it

Karmacat

Ooh, this is interesting! I had a Virgin Regular Saver last year, Cheery, and I definitely managed it online, so maybe they've changed their TandC, which is a shame.



With sending stuff to keep accounts open, I think people set up automatic direct debits - I know thats what I'm going to do, for my new NatWest account When the dust has settled, that TSB one would be good for me too.

Tescodealqueen

Karmacat wrote: »

Ooh, this is interesting! I had a Virgin Regular Saver last year, Cheery, and I definitely managed it online, so maybe they've changed their TandC, which is a shame.



With sending stuff to keep accounts open, I think people set up automatic direct debits - I know thats what I'm going to do, for my new NatWest account When the dust has settled, that TSB one would be good for me too.

Have sent you a pm

Dobbibill

Cheery - Nationwide also do a current account that pays 5% on £2500 (although only for the first year) and quite like TSB just requires funding per month. A quick standing order between TSB and Natiowide would sort that out for both accounts

You and Mr Cheery could have one of each allowing you to tuck away £8k between you at 5%.

It's regular saver is also at 5%, allowing £250 pcm in.

Nationwide also do a 'refer a friend' offer of £100, this is for a switch though. If you opted for this, one of you get a referral from someone else then the referred become the referrer and refers the OH. This gives you an extra £300 between you

Cheery_Daff

Ooh this is all very exciting, thank you! :j I will read properly when I'm not in the supermarket queue :rotfl: TDQ I have cleared PMs now!

Cheery_Daff

Right, home again now So, it looks like there are a couple of options...

* T$B 5% on up to £1500, have to pay in £500 a month, linked regular saver is 2% (pay in £250 a month)
* N@tionw!de is 5% on up to £2500, have to pay in £1000 a month, linked regular saver is 5% (pay in £250 a month)

I'm going to leave Mr Cheery out of this I think. He is NOT a fan of messing about with finances, online things etc, and while it's good to make some more dosh, there's a certain point where the hassle is not worth it.

I don't mind doing all the set up etc on joint accounts, but I don't want to have to actively manage someone else's account as well as my own :eek: So I'm going to keep things simple for the sake of my sanity

So, would this work?

* Transfer savings to P0st 0ffice (1.5%) - they can sit there for as long as they need to, and be moved about at will.
THEN transfer £1750 as a starting balance to T$B (5% on £1500), and immediately transfer £250 to the regular saver (2%). After the interest is calculated, transfer £500 back to the P0st 0ffice.
THEN transfer £2750 to N@tionw!de as a starting balance (5% on £2500) and immediately transfer £250 to the regular saver. After the interest is calculated, transfer £1000 back to the P0st 0ffice

Next month...
* Transfer £750 to T$B, and immediately transfer £250 to the regular saver. Regular saver now at £500, current account now at £1500, and the required monthly £500 has been paid in. Transfer £500 back out to P0st 0ffice once interest has been calculated
* Transfer £1250 to N@tionw!de, and immediately transfer £250 to the regular saver. Saver now at £500, current account now at £2500 and the required monthly £1000 has been paid in. Transfer £1000 back to P0st 0ffice once interest has been calculated.

Following month (I will stop after this!)
* £750 to T$B, and immediately transfer £250 into regular saver. Saver now at £750, current account at £1500, £500 payment made - transfer back out after interest.
* £1250 to N@tionw!de, and £250 of that to the regular saver. Saver now at £750, current account back at £2500, required £1000 paid in - and transferred out again after interest.

Is that how it works? Feel slightly guilty using a current account as a savings account but I suppose if they minded they'd demand a full switch - as far as I can see this meets all their terms and conditions.

Are there downsides?
* credit checks - would opening all those accounts (although there are only 2 current accounts) in quick succession make a difference?
* keeping track - need to be organised! All rates only last a year so would need to set up a system to check
* Can set up automatic transfers from the P0st 0ffice account - but I'd need to make sure these didn't continue if there wasn't enough money in there!! :eek:
* Need to check what happens if I DON'T pay in the required amount each month - is the whole offer void? I'd still be able to do it by transferring wages in and back out again if necessary

Feel like I'm missing something...

Dobbibill

If you don't pay in the required funding one month, you don't get interest. Funding the following month will restart this

Does the PO account allow standing orders?
If so you could opt for SOs as follows.....
PO -- TSB £250 (to fund regular saver)
PO -- NW £250 (to fund regular saver)
TSB -- NW £1000 (to meet funding criteria)
NW -- TSB £1000 (to meet funding criteria)

This means that TSB & NW just swap funds and always keep the same balance so you are only pulling what is needed for the regular savers out of the PO.

Set up SOs for regular savers at the beginning of the month, set up TSB & NW in the middle of the month to avoid missing out due to a bank holiday

No need to monitor TSB or NW as they take of each other, just cream off the interest in each account monthly

Cheery_Daff

So doing that should APPARENTLY (and I'm QUITE prepared to believe my calculations are off!!) get us £360 in interest over the year, plus 1.5% on the decreasing amount in the P0st 0ff1ce account (which will run out in the middle of the year so I'll have to do some jiggery pokery transferring things from wages/the normal current account and back in again).

Quite the faff... :eek: but worth it I think?

Cheery_Daff

Dobbibill THANK YOU :kisses3: That makes far more sense than the tangle I was imagining :rotfl: Didn't occur to me to get them to just keep swapping :rotfl:

Although I've just checked the PO T&Cs... Had to nominate a linked bank account and I THINK you can only transfer to/from there... Tiny bit annoying but you can't have everything! Still, that just involves

Transfer from PO to main current account of £250 at the start of the month, then SO from main account to TSB and NW for the regular savers.

Then TSB & NW (which are current accounts, so should be able to take SOs) just transfer to each other.

PO calculates interest daily & I opted to have it paid annually in March (cos the rate was ever so slightly higher)
TSB calculates (actually, I can't see that easily and I'm running out of steam for financial calculations so I'm going to have a cuppa and some lunch instead :rotfl: :rotfl: )

Dobbibill

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

So doing that should APPARENTLY (and I'm QUITE prepared to believe my calculations are off!!) get us £360 in interest over the year, plus 1.5% on the decreasing amount in the P0st 0ff1ce account (which will run out in the middle of the year so I'll have to do some jiggery pokery transferring things from wages/the normal current account and back in again).

Quite the faff... :eek: but worth it I think?

Cheery, I too could be slightly off with these figures but I'm sure it will end up being somewhere in between


T$B classic plus - £75 over the year
NW flex direct - £125 over the year
T$B monthly saver - £30 annually
NW regular saver - £75 annually
Total £305 a year


Once you get into a routine, it'll be a doddle

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

TSB calculates (actually, I can't see that easily and I'm running out of steam for financial calculations so I'm going to have a cuppa and some lunch instead :rotfl: :rotfl: )

T$B calculated daily and paid monthly (1st working day of the month, used to done on the 2nd working day and backdated to the 1st but since their IT glitch in April/May it seems to do it when it feels like around this time)


NW calculated daily and paid monthly (normally the last day of the month, weekend dependant)


You've done really well with all those calculations this morning and deserve a bit of a rest with some nice lunch and well earned cuppa

Enjoy