The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

pecunianonolet

Bridlington1 said:

pecunianonolet said:

Malchester said:

pecunianonolet said:

aaj123 said:

Bridlington1 said:

aaj123 said:

Bridlington1 said:

@soulsaver
Santander Edge Saver now 7% (£4k max)

No way to get this without an Edge current account, is there? I really like my 123 current account. Sure, one could think of getting an effective 6.1% by paying the £36 for the year and maxing out the 4k.

You don't really have to pay the £36/yr if I'm not mistaken. The terms say:

The fee for this account is £3 per month. We’ll start charging this fee after you meet the conditions for earning cashback for the first time. Then, we’ll take it from your account each month on the anniversary of the date you opened it. We’ll do this every month until your account is closed. This includes any months where you don’t earn cashback. If you don’t have enough money available to cover the monthly fee, we’ll still take it and your account may go into an unarranged overd

If you never meet the criteria for earning cashback, you won't pay any fees. So if you never have any DDs on the Edge account you won't have to pay the £3/mth account fee.

Whoa, good spot! Never occurred to me to be honest. I wonder what prompted them to put in such a strange conditional start of the £3 fee seeing as the fee continues once started even if you later fail the conditions.

So, basically open the current account, open the Edge saver and leave the current account dormant, maybe bounce a few quid through so it qualifies for yougov. 

"If the rate goes down, we’ll let you know around 2 months before the rate changes." is a rather long period as well in todays agile market.

If they would now introduce a switch bonus as well it would make the current account opening even more worthwhile. 

All I can quote in that instance....

"Dreams are my reality
The only kind of real fantasy
Illusions are a common thing
I try to live in dreams
It seems as if it's meant to be"

I opened an ordinary Santander Current Account and later changed it to an Edge account to get the Edge Saver Account when the rate was a good one. Overall the monthly fee alongside the interest and cashback gave me a plus. Then when other easy access accounts improved rates I switched my Edge Account to a non-fee account but the Edge Saver was allowed to run and gain interest. I have since switched back to Edge and filled the Edge Saver to its maximum for the 7% interest

Sounds like that you can apply for Edge, open the Saver and downgrade after and fill the saver to the brim and skim off the monthly interest. However, if you do not meet the cashback criteria it seems like they won't charge you.

However, they also say "You’ll need to continue to hold a Santander Edge current account to stay eligible for exclusive products. If you stop being eligible, we may close or downgrade your exclusive product(s)"

Looks like it is at their discretion to keep the saver running or not after a downgrade.

By reading the T&C's I find the below very odd. If you have an arranged overdraft they charge you for it but going for an unarranged overdraft they don't. It would be taking the p*** and the famous Santander algorithm will most likely put your file on somebodys desk for review but otherwise an opportunity for some stoozing. 

I would certainly advise against stoozing an unarranged OD. Aside from the fact that you risk irritating Santander a fair bit, I can't imagine having a potentially quite substantial unarranged OD for any length of time would do your credit reports much good.

Totally agree, it would only be short term stoozing with low amounts e.g. 100 quid for 3 days to "cover" a payment for example. Surely not to take out 4k unarranged overdraft to put in the saver at the same time .

Risk vs. gain are obvious. It was more the fact and the anomaly that they charge you for something you have an agreement with them but borrowing without agreement is free. Much more sensible would be be to charge e.g. 10% interest for an arranged overdraft and 40% for unarranged.

Bridlington1

Zopa_Trooper said:

I'm surprised at the criticism of Kroo. They are a current account, not a savings account. No other current account pays more.

I think it largely depends on how you typically use a current account. If you prefer to keep money in a current account for whatever reason, be it as an emergency fund or some other reason, then I agree Kroo is a very good account to have.

Others however, myself included, don't keep money in a current account for longer than is absolutely necessary, unless it pays more than the EA account they're using at the time. I normally keep all of my money in savings accounts until I need to use it. If I have a DD going out I will not put money into a current account until the night before, If I write a cheque, I usually do them from accounts I have arranged ODs with so I can top the accounts back to nil as soon as the cheque is taken and minimise interest loss. I do all spending on credit cards at the moment so have little reason to keep money in a current account for longer than a day.

I have tandem at 5% so a current account paying 4.35% isn't much use to me.

gt94sss2

patpalloon said:

Anyone with experience of Oxbury? They do an EA at 4.8 but was thinking of the 95 day notice account. But has pretty bad reviews especially of the app

The Android app is currently just used for 2FA to access internet banking.

I believe the iPhone one can be used to actually make transactions/view balances.

Oxbury online systems seem to be quite straightforward - just set up your account on a desktop, not a mobile.. as you need that to scan a QR code during the set up process 

martinm1

boingy said:

I think Chip might be stuffed. 

Agreed.  I don't understand why isa ratesare so much less than EA rates. It's just profiteering by the financial institutions 

BestSeagull

patpalloon said:

Anyone with experience of Oxbury? They do an EA at 4.8 but was thinking of the 95 day notice account. But has pretty bad reviews especially of the app

I'm relatively new to Oxbury but I like them. The most useful thing so far has been that transfers in are instant even in the evenings and at weekends.
Transfers out are same day and fairly quick but that's if made before 1pm on weekdays.
Interest only on £1k or over but you can keep the account open with £1. 
I have an iPhone and although I've just been using the app to enable sign in to the website, I've just had a look and I can check balances and it seems to have full functionality for transfers etc too.

masonic

Zopa_Trooper said:

I'm surprised at the criticism of Kroo. They are a current account, not a savings account. No other current account pays more.

I miss the days of the high interest current account, like A&L's Premier Direct account paying 8.5% when base rate was at a similar level to today. Obviously each account had a limited balance on which that rate could be earned, but allowed immediate term funds to earn a risk free rate above most investment expectations.

The only concern I would have with Kroo is that they have frozen some folk's incoming payments and asked quite unreasonable things of them to have the money released. As a current account it is also not a full service offering.

masonic

martinm1 said:

boingy said:

I think Chip might be stuffed. 

Agreed.  I don't understand why isa ratesare so much less than EA rates. It's just profiteering by the financial institutions 

ISAs come with a lot of baggage imposed by HMRC, so there are additional costs in compliance, staff training, and offering required additional infrastructure such as a transfer system, reporting system, etc. A few of our favourite easy access top payers don't offer ISAs because it isn't viable to do so and run a slim operation that is required for them to top the rate tables anywhere near sustainably. Those that do face the choice of cross-subsidising them at the expense of other rates, or setting the rate lower. There are times when easy access ISAs equal or better standard easy access (such as when they know rates will be rising), but it is usually the case that the ISA-wrapper is not free.

Zopa_Trooper

If you're paying tax on your savings, ISA's are a no-brainer.

Rheumatoid

Zopa_Trooper said:

If you're paying tax on your savings, ISA's are a no-brainer.

only if you are saving more tax than you would pay on a higher interest non-ISA savings account.

boingy

When deciding between ISA and non-ISA you should also take into account what may happen in the future. Maybe you become a higher rate tax payer. Maybe the tax rules change and that may include the savings allowance so it's always worth considering tucking stuff into the safety of an ISA even if it's at a slightly lower rate, because ISAs will most likely remain tax free forever. This year I will not pay any tax at all but I'm still using up my ISA allowance in preparation for future years.