The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

10_66

Lieutenant_Thrift wrote: »

I've wondered if it would be better to have a joint account of some sort.

If you opened a joint Halifax Reward with your girlfriend, you could benefit from another £5 per month (if you recycle £1,000 through it).
.

curlygirl1971

Lieutenant_Thrift wrote: »

I am thinking of opening the Santander 3.2% ISA with about £4000 and gradually building it up to £5100

Hi,

See the article
Last chance to grab 3.2% Santander Cash ISA online

in Latest MSE News section. If you want this ISA then you only have until midnight to apply online and thereafter go into branch ...........however this might signal their intention to completely withdraw the ISA at its current rate shortly? I think that's more or less the way they did it when the 3.5% came to an end

trynsave

I am thinking about the A&L ISA. I wasn't really planning on opening one right now as I can't afford to put much into it every month, perhaps just £50. However I am hoping that our finances will improve later this year/early next so could perhaps get the full amt in by Apr, fingers crossed.

Would you all get the ISA now and stick a few pounds in each month or wait and see what rates are available Dec/Jan time? do the rates tend to go down then?

Lieutenant_Thrift

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

Hi,

See the article
Last chance to grab 3.2% Santander Cash ISA online

Many thanks for your advice. I've been busy tonight applying for a total of four bank accounts.

What I've done:

1st, I applied to First Direct to switch from my halifax account. I hope they don't close it. I've had it for many years and is of sentimental value. I intend to tactically transfer £1k into it for one day each month in order to get the £5. I will pay my salary into the First Direct account and transfer it to the other accounts.

2nd, I applied via topcashback for the A&L premier direct account, putting down an old RBS current account which has nothing in it and no DDs or SOs that I have not used since 2006 and is still registered to an address I moved out of in May of that year. I've asked A&L to close it during the switch and hope this will work out. I intend to keep £2500 in it as much as possible. I've used topcashback before for cashback on various things. I know it takes 3 or 4 months to come through but the idea of £45 just for opening a bank account I would have opened anyway is quite nice. I'm not sure which current account I'll use for my mundane business.

3rd, I applied for the A&L 3.2% cash ISA before midnight as you helpfully tipped me off. This was accepted and hopefully I'll still have the decent rate. Missing the 3.5% earlier rate will cost you all of about £15 if you have £5100 in for the whole of the tax year.

4th, I applied for the AA 2.8% instant access savings but I got a "time out" error message at the end and a request to call an 0845 number to check if they received the application. Not a good sign that I've got to go to mild inconvenience even before the account is open, not to mention the delay. I was a bit wary as this account appears to work exactly the same way my ING account does: opened by cheque for £1 and transfers to from done by BACS taking days at a time. ING doesn't accept faster payments or payments to anything other than the linked account making it rather cumbersome. This AA account appears to be pretty much the same.

5th, I've posted on the transfer cash ISA board asking about what to do with last year's Halifax ISA. Would like to become a shareholder for the first time in my life but don't know how to go about it. I've other concerns I've posted on there.

6th, I did this a few days ago but you might be interested to know I've got the Santander Zero card which I applied for a trip to NY. Despite my going into my local branch to ensure internet was set up before I went away, nothing had come through the post before I left and during a 40 minute phone call from NY to them to find out my balance, they told me nothing had been set up. They then send me the code through the post which I pick up on my return to find "there's an error on the system" meaning a second one has to be sent to me. I complained about this and that they put a block on the card while I was in NY requiring another lengthy call to get it removed. They didn't flag I was on holiday despite me telling them in the branch and when I phoned originally.

For complaining, they're sending me a cheque for £50 which I hope to receive in the next few days. You should complain too.

7th, I've informed my partner I want her to open the A&L current account so she'll get the £45 cashback and we'll both get £25 for me referring her. She'll get the 5% interest as well.


Complicated but if successful, I hope to earn about £600-£700 in interest and incentives this financial year.

Many thanks again,

LT

curlygirl1971

Lieutenant_Thrift wrote: »

For complaining, they're sending me a cheque for £50 which I hope to receive in the next few days.

Complicated but if successful, I hope to earn about £600-£700 in interest and incentives this financial year.

LT

What great plans! .....I love earning the little bits of extra money here and there and often think it's worth the effort. Thanks for the info too

curlygirl1971

trynsave wrote: »

I am thinking about the A&L ISA. I wasn't really planning on opening one right now as I can't afford to put much into it every month, perhaps just £50. However I am hoping that our finances will improve later this year/early next so could perhaps get the full amt in by Apr, fingers crossed.

Would you all get the ISA now and stick a few pounds in each month or wait and see what rates are available Dec/Jan time? do the rates tend to go down then?

Hi,

I don't have any spare instant access money to put into an ISA at the moment either and recently opened the Santander Flexible ISA with just £1. I will put more in it when I can. I presume you are talking about the same ISA (albeit with A&L), the one that is now a rate of BOE + 2.7% ?

When I opened mine a couple of weeks ago, rates were actually coming down so I nipped in and feel like I've got a good account especially as it tracks BOE (mine at 3% just before they dropped it to 2.7%)

it's only my humble opinion but I think rates will increase in a few months but not by a lot. I think they might increase after the BOE rate increases as predicted later this year. But they might not increase at the same rate. The great thing about the Santander/a&l product is that for the first 12 months it does track BOE by a guaranteed margin. I think it's a good bet.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do

vbhalla

Just wondering whether I was the only who appears to have picked up on Lloyds TSB's Classic Account with Vantage (a current account) which offers a whopping 4.0% on balances between £5-7,000 with very few restrictions/penalties and has the bonus of coming with a Visa Debit card for easy access to your cash when you need it:

I would post the link but since I'm classed as a new user I can't do this - just go to the Lloyds TSB site and look for the "Classic Account with Vantage" - its fairly easy to find under the "Current Accounts" section.

Its better than any fixed rate or regular savings accounts as the only stipulation is that you need £1,000 deposited into the account every month. You can withdraw the £1,000 immediately thereafter.

The fact that you can open up to 3 of these accounts per person means that you can save up to £21,000 at 4.00% with very few penalties.

You may think this would need £3,000 of available cash for £1,000 to enter in to each of the three Vantage accounts every month? Not so, you only need £1,000 for all three - what you need to do is this:

1. External current account (ECA) has your £1,000 that is transferred to Vantage Account #1 on the 5th of every month.
2. The same £1,000 is transfer back out of Vantage #1 on the 10th of every month back to the ECA.
3. The ECA then transfers the same £1,000 to Vantage #2 on the 15th of every month.
4. The same £1,000 is transfer back out of Vantage #2 on the 20th of every month back to the ECA.
5. The ECA then transfers the same £1,000 to Vantage #3 on the 25th of every month.
6. The same £1,000 is transfer back out of Vantage #3 on the 30th of every month back to the ECA.

Essentially, you're using the same £1,000 to flip back and forth between your external current account and each of your TSB Vantage accounts. You can set this up via standing order to automate the whole process.

The 4.0% is highly competitive compared to the majority of savings accounts. Its far and away superior to any easy-access savings account and even gives most regular savings and long-term fixed rate accounts a run for their money while not tying your money down for any period of time. On top of this, balances between £3,000-£4,999 are still paid a respectable 3.0% and £1,000-£2,999 gets you £2.0% - so even a withdrawal that takes you below the £5,000 'waterline' that nets you the big 4.0% doesn't totally nullify the rest of your savings accruing a decent level of interest.

I've also checked and there is no 'limited period' for this account, so these rates will stay in effect for as long as you decide you want to keep the account open. The interest rates provided are not under a special offer period like some other current accounts were doing so.

I'm surprised the official MSE section on Savings doesn't draw any attention to this account. Maybe because its classed as a current account it got under the radar of Martin's researchers?

SquareMeal

Without a juggling scheme such as the above, this account is not really viable. It requires £1000 to be paid in each month, and to get 4% you must keep the balance in the 5k - 7k band. Juggle assiduously or lose your interest.

What is the bank's motivation here ? Why would they make the high interest band so narrow (2k) in comparison to the required monthly sum (1k) ? Simply to make profitable management of the account downright difficult ?

It appears they are inviting you to juggle, perhaps expecting most customers juggle badly, drop the balls and lose all interest. IMO we can do without that sort of banking in the UK.

Well spotted though all the same.

Mr._H_2

SquareMeal wrote: »

Without a juggling scheme such as the above, this account is not really viable.

The juggling doesn't have to be spread out with 5 day gaps like that. Lloyds do Faster Payments in and out and the money only has to be there a matter of seconds. Also, the money doesn't have to be transferred out to the ECA and back for each separate Vantage account, so you can actually do this:

1.) £1000 ECA -> Vantage #1
2.) £1000 Vantage #1 -> Vantage #2
3.) £1000 Vantage #2 -> Vantage #3
4.) £1000 Vantage #3 -> ECA

All on the same day (even the same minute if you're quick!)

SquareMeal wrote: »

It appears they are inviting you to juggle, perhaps expecting most customers juggle badly, drop the balls and lose all interest.

Exactly

SquareMeal wrote: »

IMO we can do without that sort of banking in the UK.

Why? You're saying that just because some will mess it up, they should be saved from themselves and then no-one at all would get rates eight times the base rate?

The requirements of the account are clearly explained; if people don't fulfil them it's their fault and no-one else's.

SquareMeal wrote: »

Well spotted though all the same.

Well spotted? What is it with people not reading threads before posting in them? Vantage has been mentioned many, many times in the last few pages of this thread.

10_66

vbhalla wrote: »

Just wondering whether I was the only who appears to have picked up on Lloyds TSB's Classic Account with Vantage (a current account) which offers a whopping 4.0% on balances between £5-7,000

Been discussed on the forum now getting on for 12 months'. If you do a search you'll find loads of threads, like THIS one for instance.