The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

ForumUser7

alwall said:

Shawbrook needed a nudge to pay me  the correct interest rate.
I noticed that they were paying me 2.28% instead of the 3.02% monthly interest advertised (3.06% Annually) . 
Needed both a secure message and a phone call before they sorted it out

IIRC - Shawbrook releases new issues with higher rates, but does not increase the old issues. Therefore, customers do have to message them to get the rate increased. 

cwep2

flobbalobbalob said:

cwep2 said:

For those with amounts in excess of £50k.... There are other threads on this board which discuss these options.

For us newbies, can you give us some links please.

Money Market Funds: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6424655/money-market-funds/p1
also: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6421073/where-to-hold-cash-in-a-sipp-or-s-s-isa

You have dealing fees to buy and sell these (like a deposit and withdrawal fee) and be careful of providers that charge a %age management fee, although this is often capped. iWeb charge £5 dealing fee but nothing else, so if you use say the Royal London fund mentioned in these threads (currently returning above 3.9% daily) and put £50k in for 30 days, you'd probably get >£160 gain (interest) if you took it out, £10 fees (2x£5) which leaves >£150 interest = north of 3.6% return. Obviously the more you put in and longer you hold it, the lower the impact of the fees. 
These funds aim to track/beat SONIA rate, you can see the history here: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/fromshowcolumns.asp?Travel=NIxSUx&FromSeries=1&ToSeries=50&DAT=RNG&FD=1&FM=Jan&FY=2013&TD=21&TM=Feb&TY=2023&FNY=&CSVF=TT&html.x=171&html.y=22&C=5JK&Filter=N but if you look at the 1yr performance of these funds, bear in mind that most of the last 12 months interest rates were lower so the return is an average! Look at 1m or 3m performance when BoE rates were above 3%.

Gilts: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6396294/gilts-101/p1
These are like fixed rate accounts if you hold them to maturity. Lower rates than say 1yr fixes *but* some of these have low coupons (interest) eg Jan2024, April2024 so most of the yield is in form of capital gain, and Gilts are exempt from CGT, so as a higher rate tax payer, the Jan2024 Gilt yields around 3.6%, pays a coupon of 0.125% and the rest of the 3.5% is basically tax free. Dealing charges apply again which will probably erode the yield to closer to 3%, and ideally you hold these to maturity, but they have the advantage that you can sell if you need access to it (unlike some fixed savers) and for higher rate tax payers this 3% is equivalent to almost 5%. Similar but less accessible than Premium Bonds, but for those higher rate tax payers that have maxed out these options and want to stay in cash assets rather than equities it might be an option worth looking at.

Gilts have got a bad rep as not being 'safe' given the recent moves in interest rates, but the key thing to bear in mind is that when you buy the Gilt, if you hold it to maturity you know exactly how much you will get paid and when and it's backed in full by the UK govt, so just like people that put money in 1yr fixes in Feb 2022 at 1.2-1.4% and had buyers regret a few months later, but were locked in, they still got their capital and interest back if they held on. So the current price/value of Gilts held may go down, but the payments you locked in when you bought them are 100% safe if you hold it until it matures. Also long dates Gilts move more than short dates ones with interest rate moves as the main payment (when it matures) is further away.

Anyway I've probably gone on to long for this thread, apologies for those who don't care.

Pompeydave1967

We had to message Shawbrook bank 2 issues ago , within 4 hours upgraded but the last issue and increase was automatically put on to our a/c - thanks Shawbrook 

10_66

Re Chip.  I can see that they state "Any funds that you deposit will be processed into Chip then stored in your own personal FSCS-eligible ClearBank account".  Apologies if a naïve question, but are the funds FSCS protected for the period between  deposit with Chip but before being stored in ClearBank?

liamcov

In the Chip app under Your Account -> Your Membership, it says 'Your current plan will refresh on The, 16 Mar 2023' - any ideas what this is referring to?

ForumUser7

liamcov said:

In the Chip app under Your Account -> Your Membership, it says 'Your current plan will refresh on The, 16 Mar 2023' - any ideas what this is referring to?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/01/chip-new-price-plans/

bazza55

liamcov said:

In the Chip app under Your Account -> Your Membership, it says 'Your current plan will refresh on The, 16 Mar 2023' - any ideas what this is referring to?

Yes looks like they have 3 plans available, 2 of which costs a monthly fee and so a monthly invoice.
Chip (free), X (£4.99 per month), X (£5.99 per month)

liamcov

How do I withdraw money from the Kroo app? All I see is adding money or sending it to a Kroo contact - I just want to transfer to my bank account.

bazza55

I did a test transfer from Santander of £10 to Chip, everything went through fine.
I then tried a second transfer for a larger amount and Santander had flagged the transaction. After speaking to them they said that it failed a name match, even though the name on the Chip account matches and is exactly the same.
So who knows if this was just a bit of an oversight by Santander not wanting funds to be released, because the Chip account has only recently been opened, although why did the £10 go through ok, or because Chip operates slightly differently and the instant saving account is held by Clearbank.
Anybody else experienced a name check issue from their bank while transferring?
I used the OpenBank feature too.

janusd

SeriousHoax said:

Chip 3.15%

https://www.getchip.uk/savings-accounts/instant-access-account

i'd held off getting a Chip account, but @ 3.15%, I thought i'd give it a go... sadly, I can't link it to my main current account (as it has no app and when using their Open Banking method, it seems to fail (yet other sites have no issue with my banks OB))... secondary current account not an option (though as i've added my card, I'm trapped in a failing OB loop) - I could probably use one of the others, but that's too much hassle... so have told them to close it... hopefully takes less than the fortnight it took Kroo.

no great loss to me as I have other instant accounts paying a greater rate and I can't really think of any likely circumstance where I might need money *now* as opposed to in 20 minutes time.