The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

Band7

worriednoob said:

 But my main concern was whether there is a higher risk to linking accounts, such as passwords being hacked or somehow someone can obtain your security details.

I am no more worried about CHIP having access to my data [via Truelayer, an authorised OB service] than my data being hacked at one of the dozens of banks I have accounts with. In fact, Truelayer are probably using more modern technology to protect my data than many of the log established banks do. If you want the details, you can find them in the Truelayer Data Privacy Policy. 

worriednoob said:

 
One other question I want to ask those who use Chip - Being an app-only bank, is it safe to place large savings into Chip?  When it comes to withdrawing/transferring large savings from Chip to another bank, have you have any issues, such as Chip blocking you or limiting you?

I have made dozens of withdrawals from CHIP in the last 5 months. The largest one £45k. All of them arrived instantly, without fail. I haven't made withdrawals in the middle of the night, but it seems the app is available 24x7, and it's always worked when I wanted to use it.

I was one of the ones who were asked for the source of my money after my accrued deposits into CHIP went over £100k (mainly because I kept shifting money between CHIP and Tandem. I don't have more than £85k in CHIP, or anywhere). This can obviously happen to everybody but is not an issue unless you have something to hide. My CHIP account was never blocked.

There is obviously a single point of failure if the CHIP app became unavailable for any reason. Again, this is not much different to your bank's systems becoming unavailable - as we have seen in the case of TSB and the Natwest group. To mitigate that risk, it's a good idea not to commit 100% of your funds to any single place. For example, you could keep a few £K in a high-interest Regular Saver which allows penalty-free withdrawals, and only keep in CHIP what you need regular or very short term access to. 

Thumbs_Up

JGal said:

I did a small value test transfer from Santander to Shawbrook around 5.30pm, so after the 3.30 cut off mentioned, to see how long it took before committing to a large amount on the BH weekend. It took over two hours so didn't bother following it with another. Doing a max FSCS transfer you could lose over £30 if it's debited but not credited for four days (f, s, s, m). So my question is, where does the money sit during the intervening period of time?

I took out 25k from one account with the intention to put it all in Shawbrook. As you do, I put in £1000 as a test (minimum deposit) but it wasn’t process until  3;30pm. I was going to follow it up with the 24k to squeezed it in before 5:30pm, but someone very kindly put up a screenshot for the 3:30 cut-off point. (Thank you sir!)

So reading that I put the 24k back in it’s original account to get the £6 interest from the 3 non business days.

Normally I wouldn’t bother for 6 quid, so I guess the forum community is starting to rub off on me. Money is money !      

jak22

Tandem also uses Open Banking - it might be worrying at first but you do remain in control.

The current account linking seems to be part of their verification process on account opening - anything that streamlines this is welcome.

To make a deposit the process starts in the savings app which opens the app for your current account bank which you need to log into yourself entering your password every time. The first time you'll choose an account within your bank to transfer from.

This works OK and is arguably better than manually entering details into your bank app and doing test transfers. After the first transfer it's likely the saving account will appear in the banking app as a payment destination if preferred.

As with most savings account it's normal to keep the current account as a linked account. But there also is an optional level of Open Banking which is giving access to more info from your current account but this isn't needed to transfer funds. This is easily disabled (off by default in the Tandem app) and can be revoked in the current account bank app.

PloughmansLunch

jak22 said:

Tandem also uses Open Banking - it might be worrying at first but you do remain in control.

The current account linking seems to be part of their verification process on account opening - anything that streamlines this is welcome.

To make a deposit the process starts in the savings app which opens the app for your current account bank which you need to log into yourself entering your password every time. The first time you'll choose an account within your bank to transfer from.

This works OK and is arguably better than manually entering details into your bank app and doing test transfers. After the first transfer it's likely the saving account will appear in the banking app as a payment destination if preferred.

As with most savings account it's normal to keep the current account as a linked account. But there also is an optional level of Open Banking which is giving access to more info from your current account but this isn't needed to transfer funds. This is easily disabled (off by default in the Tandem app) and can be revoked in the current account bank app.

If you don’t like the idea of Open Banking (I’m ok with it myself) then Tandem CS can manually link certain bank accounts too if you ask them nicely - my Chase current account is my linked bank for deposit and withdrawal via standard bank transfer.

JGal

EthicsGradient said:

grumbler said:

worriednoob said:

I was about to apply for a Chip Account, but it's got a lot of negative reviews, with users complaining of being unable to access their savings, unable to contact any staff, problems with transferring money and only being allowed to transfer small amounts of money.  Has anyone else had such experience and would you recommend Chip?

It's like marmite. Try it yourself and see. Disable autosave. And don't forget £25 RAF bonus.

What's the "£25 RAF bonus"? Oh - got it. Too late now, but another bonus has worked.

I've just opened an account (with a promo bonus), and all seems OK, although the TrueLayer screens you get when transferring money via Open Banking annoyingly just go completely blank - all I've felt safe to do is wait a few seconds, tap the Back icon, and it goes to a Chip screen saying "in progress" which then changes to "completed successfully".

Is MSE25 still a valid RAF?

Thumbs_Up

BigBlueSky said:

EthicsGradient said:

What's the "£25 RAF bonus"? I can see there is an introductory offer from some financial websites (not MSE, as far as I can tell) with a promo offer where, if you sign up before 30th April, and tell them a minimum level you don't think you'll drop below before 1st Nov, they give you a bonus:

It is the Refer and Friend bonus but we aren't allowed to advertise or talk about it on here.

Thanks for that, thought it was acronym for Royal Air Force.

patpalloon

With all these rate increases - do you think these institutions are anticipating another BoE hike on 11th May?

t1redmonkey

patpalloon said:

With all these rate increases - do you think these institutions are anticipating another BoE hike on 11th May?

My understanding is that a 0.25% increase in May is almost a certainty.

worriednoob

Band7 said:

worriednoob said:

 But my main concern was whether there is a higher risk to linking accounts, such as passwords being hacked or somehow someone can obtain your security details.

I am no more worried about CHIP having access to my data [via Truelayer, an authorised OB service] than my data being hacked at one of the dozens of banks I have accounts with. In fact, Truelayer are probably using more modern technology to protect my data than many of the log established banks do. If you want the details, you can find them in the Truelayer Data Privacy Policy. 

worriednoob said:

 
One other question I want to ask those who use Chip - Being an app-only bank, is it safe to place large savings into Chip?  When it comes to withdrawing/transferring large savings from Chip to another bank, have you have any issues, such as Chip blocking you or limiting you?

I have made dozens of withdrawals from CHIP in the last 5 months. The largest one £45k. All of them arrived instantly, without fail. I haven't made withdrawals in the middle of the night, but it seems the app is available 24x7, and it's always worked when I wanted to use it.

I was one of the ones who were asked for the source of my money after my accrued deposits into CHIP went over £100k (mainly because I kept shifting money between CHIP and Tandem. I don't have more than £85k in CHIP, or anywhere). This can obviously happen to everybody but is not an issue unless you have something to hide. My CHIP account was never blocked.

There is obviously a single point of failure if the CHIP app became unavailable for any reason. Again, this is not much different to your bank's systems becoming unavailable - as we have seen in the case of TSB and the Natwest group. To mitigate that risk, it's a good idea not to commit 100% of your funds to any single place. For example, you could keep a few £K in a high-interest Regular Saver which allows penalty-free withdrawals, and only keep in CHIP what you need regular or very short term access to. 

Thanks very much Band7 for the detailed explanation.  With what you've said, I'm more than happy to leave the open banking with CHIP and my current account.  The chances of me needing the savings are pretty slim, so happy to wait a few days if need be to receive my funds.

When you mentioned about source of funds, what would they usually ask for?  Reason I'm asking is because I've moved my money through so many different current/savings accounts (to gain best interest rate), that I've lost count of it.

VNX

t1redmonkey said:

patpalloon said:

With all these rate increases - do you think these institutions are anticipating another BoE hike on 11th May?

My understanding is that a 0.25% increase in May is almost a certainty.

Yes this and the April inflation rate which I believe we will know around 25/5 could be key to any moves in the rates of bonds.