The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

Bridlington1

Not market leading but I believe it makes it into the top 10 EA accounts list. Post office online saver is now at 3.47%. See:

jak22

There's no mystery about the PO account having a large bonus element and a small base, it's clearly stated when you click through, also Tesco Bank Internet Savers are the same, and the 3.25% Santander Esaver Limited Edition Iss 1 will convert to an Everyday Saver (currently 0.7%) in 5 months time.

An advantage is that should rates drop sharply the bonus element acts a floor for the remainder of the year. Although there's no notification of new issues with better rates like this one, it's quick and easy to open a new issue with 12 months at the new rate and move and close the current one.

allegro120

jak22 said:

There's no mystery about the PO account having a large bonus element and a small base, it's clearly stated when you click through, also Tesco Bank Internet Savers are the same, and the 3.25% Santander Esaver Limited Edition Iss 1 will convert to an Everyday Saver (currently 0.7%) in 5 months time.

An advantage is that should rates drop sharply the bonus element acts a floor for the remainder of the year. Although there's no notification of new issues with better rates like this one, it's quick and easy to open a new issue with 12 months at the new rate and move and close the current one.

This works well for banks.  Many (I suspect most) people fire and forget, so the banks end up with a substantial amount of very cheap cash.

I used PO for some years as part of my DD "portfolio", but closed the account when they stopped offering this facility.  They never offered top rates, at least in my memory. 3.47% is not an attractive offer today.

Dustybee

janusdesign said:

janusdesign said:

Mr_blibby said:

Paragon Triple Access going to 3.51% from 5th... just been notified via email...Zopa lagging now, so will be switching in a weeks time if no changes

which issue do you have? i'm not sure if this increase is only being applied to previous issues - their archive rates page says that Issues 7-11 should be increasing to 3.51% today, but Issue 12 is still showing as 3.25% on their site and also when I log into my account.

confirmed by Paragon that the current issue 12 is not increasing it's rate inline with the older issues... whiffs of a copy & paste reply, but here it is.

Paragon manage our savings offering using individual Issues of each product category we offer, with rates managed independently. This flexibility is an important part of our business model and is in line with our commitment to strong regulatory and customer outcomes. Though some individual Issues of closed products sometimes pay the same rate as other, similarly named, products, this is not always the case.

The interest applicable to your account is displayed prominently when you log in, on annual statements, and we also maintain a full list of historical rates online. Unfortunately, I am unable to advise of any future interest rate changes as we do not have access to this information prior to our customers. However, we will advise customers of any change in interest rates as soon as possible.

Anyone else a little disappointed with Paragon's decision here? 

I have issue 12, I had issue 11 which I closed when I opened issue 12 to maximise the interest accrued to transfer. I feel like withdrawing and going elsewhere.

Millyonare

mebu60 said:

Millyonare said:

mebu60 said:

snowqueen555 said:

Still on 3.2% and 3.1%, really wondering if I should wait around or move to Shawbrook, is it user friendly? I am sorta tired of moving around but I don't know if I'm being lazy, it is my FTB deposit money, hoping to buy in the next year.

I've never had any issues with Shawbrook, dealings all straightforward. 

Shawbrook are incredibly slow to move cash in or out of their Easy Access saver. Have seen a deposit take up to 8 hours to arrive. Great rates. But nothing "easy" about the account.

They were fine earlier this week taking deposits as I filled up on 3.65%, couple of hours tops. And notified.

Withdrawals are next working day. 

Yes, Shawbrook are extremely slow for withdrawals. Like something from the 1990s. They badly need to upgrade their systems to real-time banking. Waiting days to get your own cash is from another century.

Mr_blibby

Dustybee said:

janusdesign said:

janusdesign said:

Mr_blibby said:

Paragon Triple Access going to 3.51% from 5th... just been notified via email...Zopa lagging now, so will be switching in a weeks time if no changes

which issue do you have? i'm not sure if this increase is only being applied to previous issues - their archive rates page says that Issues 7-11 should be increasing to 3.51% today, but Issue 12 is still showing as 3.25% on their site and also when I log into my account.

confirmed by Paragon that the current issue 12 is not increasing it's rate inline with the older issues... whiffs of a copy & paste reply, but here it is.

Paragon manage our savings offering using individual Issues of each product category we offer, with rates managed independently. This flexibility is an important part of our business model and is in line with our commitment to strong regulatory and customer outcomes. Though some individual Issues of closed products sometimes pay the same rate as other, similarly named, products, this is not always the case.

The interest applicable to your account is displayed prominently when you log in, on annual statements, and we also maintain a full list of historical rates online. Unfortunately, I am unable to advise of any future interest rate changes as we do not have access to this information prior to our customers. However, we will advise customers of any change in interest rates as soon as possible.

Anyone else a little disappointed with Paragon's decision here? 

I have issue 12, I had issue 11 which I closed when I opened issue 12 to maximise the interest accrued to transfer. I feel like withdrawing and going elsewhere.

It's a savers market, so I'd dump and switch elsewhere - although I may just wait to see the interest rate increase confirmed tomorrow. I was in sim situation on paragon, fortunately I had a couple of older issues I left open, so just swapped the balance into one of them to get the 3.5% , so if you do go elsewhere dont close it just in case.... I didn't even have to leave £1 in 

refluxer

Dustybee said:

Anyone else a little disappointed with Paragon's decision here? 

I have issue 12, I had issue 11 which I closed when I opened issue 12 to maximise the interest accrued to transfer. I feel like withdrawing and going elsewhere.

Paragon have rewarded existing customers (with certain previous issues of this particular account) on a number of occasions with a rate increase in the past and then passed this on to the currently available issue a few weeks later. Obviously there are no guarantees they will do this again, though. 

As previously mentioned, you could always move your money elsewhere but leave the account open with the minimum balance just in case this does happen and you wanted an easy way of transferring back. Obviously just bear in mind that this would use up one of your three withdrawals and also that there are a number of easy access accounts currently paying higher rates.

TheBanker

Millyonare said:

mebu60 said:

Millyonare said:

mebu60 said:

snowqueen555 said:

Still on 3.2% and 3.1%, really wondering if I should wait around or move to Shawbrook, is it user friendly? I am sorta tired of moving around but I don't know if I'm being lazy, it is my FTB deposit money, hoping to buy in the next year.

I've never had any issues with Shawbrook, dealings all straightforward. 

Shawbrook are incredibly slow to move cash in or out of their Easy Access saver. Have seen a deposit take up to 8 hours to arrive. Great rates. But nothing "easy" about the account.

They were fine earlier this week taking deposits as I filled up on 3.65%, couple of hours tops. And notified.

Withdrawals are next working day. 

Yes, Shawbrook are extremely slow for withdrawals. Like something from the 1990s. They badly need to upgrade their systems to real-time banking. Waiting days to get your own cash is from another century.

That's why these accounts are called Easy Access, rather than Instant Access.

I remember 1990s savings accounts - one of them I had to send a withdrawal form by post, and they'd send a cheque in return. I then had to deposit the cheque in my bank account (at least there was a bank branch still open!) and wait for it to clear. So in practice withdrawing could take a couple of weeks. Waiting overnight for a withdrawal doesn't really inconvenience me. 

mebu60

Millyonare said:

mebu60 said:

Millyonare said:

mebu60 said:

snowqueen555 said:

Still on 3.2% and 3.1%, really wondering if I should wait around or move to Shawbrook, is it user friendly? I am sorta tired of moving around but I don't know if I'm being lazy, it is my FTB deposit money, hoping to buy in the next year.

I've never had any issues with Shawbrook, dealings all straightforward. 

Shawbrook are incredibly slow to move cash in or out of their Easy Access saver. Have seen a deposit take up to 8 hours to arrive. Great rates. But nothing "easy" about the account.

They were fine earlier this week taking deposits as I filled up on 3.65%, couple of hours tops. And notified.

Withdrawals are next working day. 

Yes, Shawbrook are extremely slow for withdrawals. Like something from the 1990s. They badly need to upgrade their systems to real-time banking. Waiting days to get your own cash is from another century.

Family BS is worse. Restricted to £25k per day, no, you can't call to exceed that, and have to do before 3:30pm to receive next working day. Balance is reduced immediately. So if you (were silly enough to) make withdrawal at 3:31pm on the Friday before a bank holiday Monday you would not get your cash until the following Wednesday. 

Locarno1

I'm tempted potentially to move my savings into a better savings account. I'm currently using Tandem bank which is no longer on the highest interest list of easy-access savings accounts.. Thoughts people?