Current account interest and moving money question

Golden_Witch_Alys

How do I find out when interest is calculated? For example, do I have to have £2.5k in my Nationwide account at all times to get the most interest out of it?

Golden_Witch_Alys

Also for regular savers, does the money just have to be in at the end of the month, or until the end of the year?

eskbanker

Golden_Witch_Alys wrote: »

How do I find out when interest is calculated? For example, do I have to have £2.5k in my Nationwide account at all times to get the most interest out of it?

You look at the Ts & Cs and apply common sense - most accounts pay interest based on the daily balance, so yes, if you want full interest then you have to leave the maximum amount in the account every day.

There are some quirky accounts (NatWest Savings Builder for one IIRC) where interest (or perhaps it's more accurately labelled as bonus) is paid based on comparing a balance on one day with the same day in another month, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

Edit: same principle for regular savers, the very principle of which is that they're used to build an accumulating balance! You can withdraw from some (again check Ts & Cs) but it's self-defeating to do so when it'll reduce your interest....

Ballard

Interest is calculated daily on the cleared balance. At the end of the calculation period all the interest is credited to your account. Thus you don’t need to keep the full amount (or indeed any cash) in your account each day to earn interest.

agrinnall

Golden_Witch_Alys wrote: »

How do I find out when interest is calculated? For example, do I have to have £2.5k in my Nationwide account at all times to get the most interest out of it?

Assuming this is the FlexDirect account then yes, you need to have £2,500 in the account at the end of every day in order to maximise interest. You can move money out and move it back in the same day if you need to.