The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

PloughmansLunch

phillw said:

Frequentlyhere said:
I have to say I really don't like this model at all. Easy access is not easy access if you're penalised for using the account the moment you withdraw, and when you can get 3.4% genuinely easy access there's no benefit to doing so.

Last week 3.25% was actually good. It is easy access, it's no different to the 2 or 6 access accounts. You just have to ignore them when you're looking for something for storing a float in.

If, for example, someone had a full £10k HSBC OBS, when would be the best time of the month to withdraw in order to not get the mickey mouse interest?

cricidmuslibale

PloughmansLunch said:

phillw said:

Frequentlyhere said:
I have to say I really don't like this model at all. Easy access is not easy access if you're penalised for using the account the moment you withdraw, and when you can get 3.4% genuinely easy access there's no benefit to doing so.

Last week 3.25% was actually good. It is easy access, it's no different to the 2 or 6 access accounts. You just have to ignore them when you're looking for something for storing a float in.

If, for example, someone had a full £10k HSBC OBS, when would be the best time of the month to withdraw in order to not get the mickey mouse interest?

On the very first day of the following month! (You would then need to use another easy access or notice savings account elsewhere to maximise interest for that month.)

Band7

cricidmuslibale said:

PloughmansLunch said:

phillw said:

Frequentlyhere said:
I have to say I really don't like this model at all. Easy access is not easy access if you're penalised for using the account the moment you withdraw, and when you can get 3.4% genuinely easy access there's no benefit to doing so.

Last week 3.25% was actually good. It is easy access, it's no different to the 2 or 6 access accounts. You just have to ignore them when you're looking for something for storing a float in.

If, for example, someone had a full £10k HSBC OBS, when would be the best time of the month to withdraw in order to not get the mickey mouse interest?

On the very first day of the following month! (You would then need to use another easy access or notice savings account elsewhere to maximise interest for that month.)

Once you have your money out, you can request closure of the OBS via Chat and open a new one the next day. A bit laborious, and not worth it when there are better alternatives, but technically possible. I don't know whether they tolerate it if you do this regularly.

aaj123

Band7 said:

cricidmuslibale said:

PloughmansLunch said:

phillw said:

Frequentlyhere said:
I have to say I really don't like this model at all. Easy access is not easy access if you're penalised for using the account the moment you withdraw, and when you can get 3.4% genuinely easy access there's no benefit to doing so.

Last week 3.25% was actually good. It is easy access, it's no different to the 2 or 6 access accounts. You just have to ignore them when you're looking for something for storing a float in.

If, for example, someone had a full £10k HSBC OBS, when would be the best time of the month to withdraw in order to not get the mickey mouse interest?

On the very first day of the following month! (You would then need to use another easy access or notice savings account elsewhere to maximise interest for that month.)

Once you have your money out, you can request closure of the OBS via Chat and open a new one the next day. A bit laborious, and not worth it when there are better alternatives, but technically possible. I don't know whether they tolerate it if you do this regularly.

Does anyone disagree that such products are launched by banks with an implicit assumption within their business case that many customers will get unwittingly caught out by the conditions and lose a fair bit of interest while not being aware of it until much later? This way, the bank gets to advertise an account that in theory has a good headline rate but which effectively costs them a lot lower.

phillw

PloughmansLunch said:
If, for example, someone had a full £10k HSBC OBS, when would be the best time of the month to withdraw in order to not get the mickey mouse interest?

If you put £10k in the account then you want to withdraw it all on the first of the following month, otherwise the total AER starts going down as the interest above £10k won't be receiving the 3.25%

But I wouldn't put any money in one right now, if you have any in already then the 1st of the month is the best. Though if you're a day or too late then it's not exactly the end of the world, it's only those days that the interest is low.

Winchmore_Hill_Shot

Band7 said:

Winchmore_Hill_Shot said:

I'm showing my ignorance here, but does anyone know whather the Family Account will accept debit card transactions from someone other than the account holder.  So would my wife be able to open an account and fund it using one of my Halifax debit cards.

don’t know the answer - though why would she not use her own debit card(s), and why wouldn’t you have your own savings account?

Because of the Halifax reward scheme.  It would be a useful dump for the £500 I need to spend on my DC every month.

aaj123

Winchmore_Hill_Shot said:

Band7 said:

Winchmore_Hill_Shot said:

I'm showing my ignorance here, but does anyone know whather the Family Account will accept debit card transactions from someone other than the account holder.  So would my wife be able to open an account and fund it using one of my Halifax debit cards.

don’t know the answer - though why would she not use her own debit card(s), and why wouldn’t you have your own savings account?

Because of the Halifax reward scheme.  It would be a useful dump for the £500 I need to spend on my DC every month.

Thanks buddy. Time to get myself the Halifax reward account again. I dumped it after rates went up and made keeping a balance of £5K all the month clearly suboptimal for just a £5 reward.

Winchmore_Hill_Shot

where_are_we said:

Winchmore_Hill_Shot said:

I'm showing my ignorance here, but does anyone know whather the Family Account will accept debit card transactions from someone other than the account holder.  So would my wife be able to open an account and fund it using one of my Halifax debit cards.

My OH has a Skipton account which we both deposit funds into using our debit cards. OH is a non tax payer and can utilise the 0% £5000 starter savings allowance so funds are mostly in OH`s accounts to avoid paying tax on the interest. Skipton allow you to submit another`s card, but ask for address details. Therefore it is possible Family Building Society will allow similar.

Just rang them and they don't allow this.  I'd forgotten Skipton do that.  Maybe that's where I should go?

aaj123

Winchmore_Hill_Shot said:

where_are_we said:

Winchmore_Hill_Shot said:

I'm showing my ignorance here, but does anyone know whather the Family Account will accept debit card transactions from someone other than the account holder.  So would my wife be able to open an account and fund it using one of my Halifax debit cards.

My OH has a Skipton account which we both deposit funds into using our debit cards. OH is a non tax payer and can utilise the 0% £5000 starter savings allowance so funds are mostly in OH`s accounts to avoid paying tax on the interest. Skipton allow you to submit another`s card, but ask for address details. Therefore it is possible Family Building Society will allow similar.

Just rang them and they don't allow this.  I'd forgotten Skipton do that.  Maybe that's where I should go?

I checked out Skipton and indeed their base rate tracker account makes good sense in another way too. Its 2.9% for now but guaranteed to be 1.1 below BoE for 24 months. Could be a useful one to keep in the pocket. And yes, it serves the debit card use case too.

alternate

The tiers have changed a bit.  Used to be High Street Banks and Challenger Banks - with the smaller challengers pushing their rates up.  Now the challenger banks have been around long enough to be a tier of their own, I usually call them internet banks.  The new challengers being the apps only banks, like Chip and Zopa, having to pay the top rates to get the money in.