The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

refluxer

ChewyyBacca said:

Cymergy: Did you close the account/ previous Issue?

All,
Is there any benefit in keeping the earlier issues in Building Societies at an operating balance of £0 or £1 (as per T&Cs) & not closing it?

I can't see any obvious benefit to keeping a previous issue of an easy access savings account open after opening a new issue. People sometimes keep accounts open (with a £1 or even £0 balance, depending on the account) in order to retain their status as an existing customer to make applying for future accounts a lot easier, but this is normally only done when the account in question is the only account you hold with that bank and you're transferring the funds away to a different bank.

Expotter

S_uk said:

Al Rayan Everyday Saver increased to 3.22% AER

It's actually 3.22% Gross

https://www.alrayanbank.co.uk/savings/everyday-saver-issue-3

dcs34

Newbury Existing Member saver - now at 3.5% by the way - does anyone know if the £4000 annual deposit limit includes or excludes any withdrawals made during the year?

For example, if I've paid £4000 in this year, and then I withdraw £2000 at the start of 2023/24. Can I return the £2000 and pay an additional £4000 for that year (taking the total to £8000), or am I limited to to paying in £4000 only (taking the total to £6000)?

Having read the T&Cs it doesn't seem entirely clear to me, although I know they only bought in this £4000 / year fairly recently within the last year.

mebu60

ChewyyBacca said:

mebu60 said:

muffinhead said:

What happens to the interest from the old account in this instance?

Usually included in the balance transferred. I have just done the same with Cynergy. Previous interest amount added to capital and now earning interest at the new higher rate. 

Cymergy: Did you close the account/ previous Issue?

All,
Is there any benefit in keeping the earlier issues in Building Societies at an operating balance of £0 or £1 (as per T&Cs) & not closing it?

Yes. Cynergy has an explicit 'transfer & close' option.

Only if it's your sole account with that institution.

S_uk

Expotter said:

S_uk said:

Al Rayan Everyday Saver increased to 3.22% AER

It's actually 3.22% Gross

https://www.alrayanbank.co.uk/savings/everyday-saver-issue-3

I was going by what was on Moneyfacts:

mebu60

pecunianonolet said:

2010 said:

muffinhead said:

2010 said:

refluxer said:

2010 said:

I thought I read in some earlier posts (weeks ago) that Paragon don`t automatically increase the issue you have and you do have to open the latest issue and transfer it over.

No - it's actually the opposite, or at least that's been the case for the last year or so up until now. With their Triple Access accounts, it's common for previous issues to receive an increase and end up on a higher rate (often for quite a while) than the currently available issue.

I've had their Triple Access Cash ISA (Issue 8) since the middle of last year and it's had around half a dozen rate increases since then. It got a boost to 3.20% last week, whereas the current issue (12) is on 3.10%. For that reason, I've been able to stick with Issue 8 without the need to change it and the corresponding Triple Access (non-ISA) account has also operated in the same way (at least up until now), as my partner has one.

If the post above is correct though, then it sounds like they may have done things differently this time and opening a new issue might now be necessary.

Just been on the Paragon site and closed issue 11 @ 3.1% and transferred balance to issue 12 @ 3.25%.

All done in a couple of minutes and the three withdrawals limit start again.

What happens to the interest from the old account in this instance?

Whenever you close any account the interest is paid along with the capital.

Same here, got 0.01 in interest transferred over to issue 12. However, on Cynergy it never gets transferred for me, only added to the expected interest forecast you can see. 

Be sure to select 'transfer and close' from the picking list on Cynergy. You have to scroll down, it is not visible initially. 

Expotter

S_uk said:

Expotter said:

S_uk said:

Al Rayan Everyday Saver increased to 3.22% AER

It's actually 3.22% Gross

https://www.alrayanbank.co.uk/savings/everyday-saver-issue-3

I was going by what was on Moneyfacts:

Yes, that's right. The expected rate is the Gross rate. Just a clarification, so people don't think it's a lower rate than the rest, AER equivalent is 3.27%

phillw

OceanSound said:
Interesting to note the following on Chip website (https://www.getchip.uk/the-blog/how-we-protect-your-money):

What would happen if the safeguarding bank fails?

In the unlikely event that ClearBank Ltd were to fail, and your funds were in the safeguarding account, then your funds would not be FSCS eligible. You would have a contractual debt claim against the bank for your outstanding funds, but there is no guarantee that they will be returned to you.
UK banking rules require banks to hold sufficient capital to meet their costs and ensure against creditor calls in the event of liquidation, but your funds would not be protected by FSCS.

How FSCS cover works for money held in trust accounts

For all savings accounts other than the Chip Prize Savings Account and Chip Instant Access Account, both powered by ClearBank

It's been repeatedly said, but I believe "Powered by ClearBank" means you have an individual account at ClearBank that is FSCS protected. So as long as your money is in the chip prize savings account or chip instant access account, then you only need to worry if ClearBank goes bankrupt (though we'll have to deal with how we get money out of ClearBank if chip goes under).

Expotter

Regarding Authorised Payment Providers by the FCA, Chip being one of them, it was reported today:

Crackdown on payment firms to avoid fresh crisis
City regulator threatens to close so-called shadow banks unless they ‘ensure customer money is safe’

• The Daily Telegraph
• 17 Mar 2023
• By Simon Foy

PAYMENTS providers have been ordered by the City watchdog to strengthen their controls as fears of another financial crisis continue to haunt markets.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) threatened to shut down so called shadow banks – which offer deposit and transfer services without a banking licence – unless they “ensure your customers’ money is safe”.

In a letter to nearly 300 chief executives, the regulator instructed businesses to build up their financial reserves, eliminate potential money laundering and ensure they are managed appropriately given their size and complexity.

While a source close to the FCA said the warning reflected its “long-time priorities”, the unusual intervention comes as regulators scramble to avert a global banking crisis.

Matthew Long, director of payments and digital assets at the FCA, said the watchdog “remained concerned that many payments firms do not have sufficiently robust controls and that, as a result, some firms present an unacceptable risk of harm to their customers and to financial system integrity”.

Mr Long criticised payment companies in the UK for having “significant issues with governance, oversight and leadership”.

He said this included “a lack of appropriately knowledgeable and experienced personnel to provide payments services and issue e-money, including among key functions such as money laundering risk office and other compliance staff ”.

Mr Long said the watchdog welcomed the competition and innovation in payments after new firms were encouraged to open.

However, he said: “Our work with firms over the past two years has identified material issues with financial crime systems and controls.”

The watchdog said it was concerned that some companies were not doing enough to manage their liquidity risk – the danger of being overwhelmed by a large number of withdrawals in a short space of time – and were failing to stress test their finances against a downturn.

It added: “Macroeconomic conditions remain challenging and many firms are unprofitable and reliant on external funding for survival. Our work has identified need for improvement in firms’ prudential risk management.”

The FCA said that payments companies were a “target for bad actors” because of their “ability to provide bank-like services, willingness to service high-risk customers and weaknesses in some firms’ systems and controls”.

Mr Long added that the regulator would take “swift and assertive action to protect customers and ensure market integrity” if companies failed to comply.

I can't speak for anyone else, but if the FCA is concerned, I'd be concerned too. In my opinion, for the sake of an extra 0.15% interest in my savings, it's just not worth the risk, especially during the current volatile environment.

allegro120

S_uk said:

Al Rayan Everyday Saver increased to 3.22% AER

3.22% EPR, so AER should be slightly higher.  Good to see Al Rayan catching up.