Is There a Best Time to Depost in Regular Savers?

scoot65

Hi everyone!

I've recently opened three Regular Savings accounts with LLoyds TSB, Yorkshire BS and Nationwide.

At the moment I'm making deposits into all accounts on the 25th of each month.

With regard to maximising interest over the year, does it matter when the deposits are made or is it best to have then go in at the beginning of the month?

Many thanks.........

Nick_C

Obviously, the earlier in the month you deposti, the more interest you are getting.

More importantly, its not a good idea to transfer the same day every month by standing order.

Movements from your feeder account to your RS account are likely to take 4 working days - e.g - send the payment early on a Monday, and should reach your account on Thursday, 3 days loss of interest. Send it on a Friday, it won't get there until the following Wednesday, 5 days loss of interest. Even worse if your transfer spans a bank holiday.

So send the money on the first Monday of each month (or Tuesday if first Monday is a bank holiday).

And beware, a standing order for 25th December probably won't reach the RS account until January, causing you to miss a payment and potentially breach conditions by making two deposits in one month!

Milarky

I use a calendar (saved to favorites) to plan ahead if setting/changing payment dates. Here it is for the current calendar year

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/print.html?year=2007&country=9&typ=2&display=3&lang=en&space=1&months=12&month=1&hcl=2&wno=1&hol=1&fdow=1

you can save the link and tweak the parameters like 'year' and 'month' quite easily.

You might prefer to experiment with using a series of future-dated 'single' payments rather than a standing order which you change frequently. This depends on how your bank allows you to operate your account of course.

As Nick_C points out alway make payments from as early in the 'new' month as possible - avoiding crossing weekends where you can (most regular savers stipulate a cut of date of about 21st of the month anyway - so that you 'cover' yourself)

On the other hand - if you can bear to wait another six months or so all payments from bank/savings accounts will potentially be speeded up to 'same day' and active timing of such payments will become a thing of the past!

scoot65

Wow! Thanks for the swift responses!

You've both raised some very good points which I hadn't thought about. I'll change my method of timing deposits accordingly.

Thanks again.........:beer:

Special_Saver2

I am going to link this thread to my regularly updated Regular Savings accounts thread as I think it will prove useful to people who are new to these accounts. It will also prevent the same question being asked again in the future. Thanks Milarky and Nick_C. Of course, if anybody else has any other advice, please post below.

tom188

In the case of 12 month ones, open on the last day of the month, next deposit on the first of the next month (provided conditions allow such). Therefore all deposits are in the account for a minimum of almost 2 months.

Mikeyorks

And ... for continuous ones ... watch that, in the first year, you will likely finish pushing 13 payments at the Reg Savers, if you maintain initial payment dates. So check the T&Cs and tweak the dates in the final months to either avoid a 13th payment - or let it happen it if it's beneficial to you (and allowed - even though it will likely be swept out alongside the earlier 12 payments).

Then reset the dates in the 2nd year in order to maximise the Interest.