The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

chels

AmityNeon said:

chels said:

Band7 said:

chels said:

Bridlington1 said:

ToastLady said:

SirHugo said:

I'm not too bothered about losing 3 days interest on my £500 - I've been losing far more on the £5k I've been tied in to keeping in my original Rewards account this last year. Luckily I'll be able to change that next month.

Yes it was fine when interest rates were truly paltry, I changed mine to an ordinary account a few months back now.

It still is fine now. According to my calculations 3 days interest on £500 in an EA account at 3.4% is 14p so by using Chip for your debit card deposits you are still seeing a net gain of £4.86 per Halifax account per month.

It's no longer fine as keeping £5,000 in the Halifax Reward account for the £5.00 reward is a return of approx 1.20% (approx 1.50% once the tax is claimed back) so at interest rates now that £5,000 is not returning enough to make it worthwhile.  I'm in the same boat, I will be switching to the debit card method at renewal (assuming the reward remains the same/similar).

Keeping £5k in Halifax was never necessary though. There have always been accounts that paid better interest than the Halifax Reward.

Were there?  When interest rates were rock bottom, I'm not sure what straightforward easy access accounts were paying better.

Anyway my point still stands, what was competitive is no longer the case.

It has never been competitive because you can qualify for the £5 Reward with a £0 current account balance, whilst also keeping £5,000 in a separate interest-bearing account.

I'm aware you could do that but I'm talking about comparing interest rates when rates were much lower, at that time the reward of £6.25 per month was worthwhile and competitive by leaving £5,000 in the account and forgetting about it compared to straightforward easy access savings accounts.

At the time, my preference was not to get involved in faffing about with a monthly debit card payment when I'm receiving a competitive rate for zero manual involvement from myself.  Now the effective rate is no longer competitive, I'm likely prepared to do a manual debit card payment to get the reward.

chels

Bridlington1 said:

chels said:

Bridlington1 said:

ToastLady said:

SirHugo said:

I'm not too bothered about losing 3 days interest on my £500 - I've been losing far more on the £5k I've been tied in to keeping in my original Rewards account this last year. Luckily I'll be able to change that next month.

Yes it was fine when interest rates were truly paltry, I changed mine to an ordinary account a few months back now.

It still is fine now. According to my calculations 3 days interest on £500 in an EA account at 3.4% is 14p so by using Chip for your debit card deposits you are still seeing a net gain of £4.86 per Halifax account per month.

It's no longer fine as keeping £5,000 in the Halifax Reward account for the £5.00 reward is a return of approx 1.20% (approx 1.50% once the tax is claimed back) so at interest rates now that £5,000 is not returning enough to make it worthwhile.  I'm in the same boat, I will be switching to the debit card method at renewal (assuming the reward remains the same/similar).

I wasn't referring to the "keep £5k in the account" option but was referring to the "spend £500" option. My point essentially was that you are better off using chip to make the £500 debit card deposits rather than forgoing the Halifax reward account altogether. But as @Band7 points out for an extra 8p net profit you are better off using NS&I rather than Chip. Having said that it may be worth mentioning that deposits into Cambridge BS by debit card can be withdrawn straight away thus trumping both Chip and NS&I.

Whilst I'm at it you could downgrade your Halifax reward account into a standard current account, then open a new reward account selecting the spend £500 option rather than waiting for the renewal. 

I was responding based on the previous comments you were replying to which seemed to be talking about the keep £5,000 in the Reward account method and it being competitive previously but not now.  Anyway, never mind!
 

AmityNeon

chels said:

I'm aware you could do that but I'm talking about comparing interest rates when rates were much lower, at that time the reward of £6.25 per month was worthwhile and competitive by leaving £5,000 in the account and forgetting about it compared to straightforward easy access savings accounts.

At the time, my preference was not to get involved in faffing about with a monthly debit card payment when I'm receiving a competitive rate for zero manual involvement from myself.  Now the effective rate is no longer competitive, I'm likely prepared to do a manual debit card payment to get the reward.

1.5% hasn't been remotely competitive for over six months. Chase's Saver was 1.5% nearly 12 months ago. Had you kept £5,000 in a standard easy access account, that would already earn you £6.25 a month (without needing to claim a tax refund); the 'faff' of a single debit card payment (potentially followed by another transfer) would earn you another £5.

chels

AmityNeon said:

chels said:

I'm aware you could do that but I'm talking about comparing interest rates when rates were much lower, at that time the reward of £6.25 per month was worthwhile and competitive by leaving £5,000 in the account and forgetting about it compared to straightforward easy access savings accounts.

At the time, my preference was not to get involved in faffing about with a monthly debit card payment when I'm receiving a competitive rate for zero manual involvement from myself.  Now the effective rate is no longer competitive, I'm likely prepared to do a manual debit card payment to get the reward.

1.5% hasn't been remotely competitive for over six months. Chase's Saver was 1.5% nearly 12 months ago. Had you kept £5,000 in a standard easy access account, that would already earn you £6.25 a month (without needing to claim a tax refund); the 'faff' of a single debit card payment (potentially followed by another transfer) would earn you another £5.

I'm aware that rates have been increasing over a period of months and that 1.50% has not been competitive for a while but that really wasn't the point I was trying to make.  At the time of my last reward method renewal the effective interest rate was competitive with no manual involvement from myself which was my personal preference but things have changed.

I only piped up because someone else mentioned the tied in £5,000 for the reward and it seemed similar to me.  I was just trying to point out that the effective rate of the reward was competitive based on pure interest rate comparison to easy access savings accounts and not getting involved in any manual debit card transactions but it's no longer the case.

Band7

The Halifax Reward never paid 1.5%. £60 is 1.2% of  £5,000. Even in the most dire times, you could easily get more than 1.2% in a variety of Regular Savers and current accounts (such as the VM 2% one available during the doldrums, and in seemingly unlimited numbers)

Nick_C

Can we stay on topic please everyone.

This thread is to discuss the top easy acess savings accounts that are currently available, and many of of subscribe to this thread for useful current information.

Band7

Nick_C said:

Can we stay on topic please everyone.

This thread is to discuss the top easy acess savings accounts that are currently available, and many of of subscribe to this thread for useful current information.

well, the Halifax Reward can be considered an easy access savings account - and has been, or even is still, used by people as such.

I agree, though, that it has been discussed to death already.

chels

Christ, I wish I'd never piped up at all!  It makes no odds to me (and possibly/probably others) that there were methods of obtaining a higher rate than 1.20% (1.50%) through a combination of debit card payment plus the £5,000 in some savings account whether easy access, regular saver or anything else 12, 6 months ago or whatever. The only point I was making is that compared to other easy access accounts at the time the rate was competitive, especially if you had no desire at the time to get manually involved on a monthly basis.

What others wish to do to obtain the £5.00 reward is up to them but the fact remains the effective rate was competitive compared to other easy access savings accounts at the time of the reward renewal, I and others chose the keep £5,000 in the account method because it suited.

Yes it has been done to death but when various people are talking about different methods to obtain the reward which I personally wasn't interested in doing or when another rate might have come into the picture then I'm going to try to explain my point again because it doesn't appear it's being understood. 

Dear me, I've got a headache lol.

chels

Band7 said:

The Halifax Reward never paid 1.5%. £60 is 1.2% of  £5,000. Even in the most dire times, you could easily get more than 1.2% in a variety of Regular Savers and current accounts (such as the VM 2% one available during the doldrums, and in seemingly unlimited numbers)

Hopefully my last post on the matter, it is effectively approx 1.50% once tax on the reward has been claimed back.

Band7

chels said:

Band7 said:

The Halifax Reward never paid 1.5%. £60 is 1.2% of  £5,000. Even in the most dire times, you could easily get more than 1.2% in a variety of Regular Savers and current accounts (such as the VM 2% one available during the doldrums, and in seemingly unlimited numbers)

Hopefully my last post on the matter, it is effectively approx 1.50% once tax on the reward has been claimed back.

Talk about not faffing about