The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

Bridlington1

Mr_Kim said:

Yes I just received that notification. What really infuriates me is that the major banks were so slow in passing on the rate increases and now they are announcing rate drops before the BOE has even opened its mouth!

To be fair Santander have given us over 2 months notice of the interest rate drop (more notice than they needed to). At 5.2% the account has been one of the highest paying EA accounts I've ever had and will have retained this rate for over 8 months by the time the cut comes into effect so I've done pretty well out of it.

Whilst I of course like to be getting the best savings rate as much as the next person (I've over 100 savings accounts to prove it) and it is disappointing when a bank announces it's lowering its savings rates, I can't say I'm infuriated by Santander's actions. Many others are lowering/have already lowered their savings rates and this isn't specific to the big banks, Chorley BS, Gatehouse, Shawbrook among others have all lowered some of their EA savings rates this year.

When 20th May comes along I'll just do what I've been doing for some time, move my savings to wherever it will be earning a better rate of interest and carry on chasing the best rates.

HHUK

Only talking comparatively small sums in my case, but I think I'll continue to drip feed as much as possible from Santander into my RBS Digital Regular Saver between now and May, and also do likewise into the RBS Digital Regular Saver once that is up and running. Those accounts are pretty flexible and currently offer 6% plus.

I'm already getting 8% on the Nationwide and Monmouthshire regular savers. If I can boost my balance in the Ulster Loyalty Saver to £5000 or more I might as well do that as well and take advantage of their 5.2% rate while it lasts.

janusd

patpalloon said:

My Santander EA Saver is dropping from 5.2% AER to 4.2% AER from 20 May. Two of my notice accounts (RCI and Shawbrook have also announced big rate drops so have given notice. Where to transfer my money to? Monument looks a good bet but any others?

there will be 2 BoE meetings before Santander drop their rate - so choosing any EA account available now would be near pointless.. for me, i've got 5 EA accounts currently paying 5.20% - 3 of which are NLA (including Santander) - so like Bridlington1, i'll cross the bridge of where to move to, closer to the time of the drop.

I suspect i'll close the Santander account after the drop as it expires in September for me anyway.

friolento

janusdesign said:

patpalloon said:

My Santander EA Saver is dropping from 5.2% AER to 4.2% AER from 20 May. Two of my notice accounts (RCI and Shawbrook have also announced big rate drops so have given notice. Where to transfer my money to? Monument looks a good bet but any others?

there will be 2 BoE meetings before Santander drop their rate - so choosing any EA account available now would be near pointless.. for me, i've got 5 EA accounts currently paying 5.20% - 3 of which are NLA (including Santander) - so like Bridlington1, i'll cross the bridge of where to move to, closer to the time of the drop.

I suspect i'll close the Santander account after the drop as it expires in September for me anyway.

I think it is a good precautionary move to open as many good accounts as you can now. I know many people who lost out on the Santander 5.2% account because they ummed and ahed and then found it was NLA.If in the end you don't use any of the accounts, it's not the end of the world.

castle96

Have tried opening Cynergy and Monument. Both a disaster! App this, scan that, SMS coming, activate here .... (20 x with Cyn. ) Gave up. No thanks

happybagger

Just done the virgin money defined access 21 account as an additional back-up. Surprised when opening it said I was an existing customer (I was 4 years ago), and I continued that way. Very simple, 5.11% atm

allegro120

happybagger said:

Just done the virgin money defined access 21 account as an additional back-up. Surprised when opening it said I was an existing customer (I was 4 years ago), and I continued that way. Very simple, 5.11% atm

I was surprised to see that my very old empty account is still there, but for some reason I couldn't open Defined Access using this profile, so I applied as a new customer and it worked.  This makes the total number of my Virgin profiles 4.  They still haven't managed to bring Claydesdale and Yorkshire profiles together,  I wonder if this will change when Nationwide will complete the purchase.

allegro120

pepsi_max2k said:

allegro120 said:

P.S. Tried to open Cynergy Easy Access,  Applied as an existing customer.  No luck - "You are not currently eligible for this account." Eligibility requirements are - UK resident, age 18+, UK account, NI number, e-mail address and UK phone number.  They've already got all this info.  Has anyone had a similar problem applying for Cynergy accounts? I can't recall any difficulties with my previous application but it was a while ago. 

Also getting the "You are not currently eligible for this account...."  error when trying to open any new account as an existing customer (albeit closed account). Did you figure out what the issue was? Do we have to sign up as new customers again?

EDIT: Yep that's their friendly way of saying the account's expired. Went through the signup on the main page and selected "not" a current customer, registered as normal, account opened instantly with new user ID. Had to faff about reregistering the authenticator, setting up passwords etc, but on the plus side it's all done via SMS and email now so no letters to wait for. And when it was set up, as if by magic my old closed account shows up in the account list as if I'd just applied as an existing customer. Why they couldn't just let me do it like that originally I don't know.

Thank you, that explains why I'm not eligible, my account was closed long time ago. I'll apply as a new customer.

Bridlington1

janusdesign said:

patpalloon said:

My Santander EA Saver is dropping from 5.2% AER to 4.2% AER from 20 May. Two of my notice accounts (RCI and Shawbrook have also announced big rate drops so have given notice. Where to transfer my money to? Monument looks a good bet but any others?

there will be 2 BoE meetings before Santander drop their rate - so choosing any EA account available now would be near pointless.. for me, i've got 5 EA accounts currently paying 5.20% - 3 of which are NLA (including Santander) - so like Bridlington1, i'll cross the bridge of where to move to, closer to the time of the drop.

I suspect i'll close the Santander account after the drop as it expires in September for me anyway.

My Santander account pays interest monthly so I'll most likely just empty the balance down to nil and ignore the account as I did with the NLA 2.75% version of the account when it became uncompetitive. Santander's cheque deposit limits in the app are per account so having the spare EA account sat there empty could come in useful in the future as it enables me to deposit an extra £1k worth of cheques per day.

In my case the account was likely going to be getting emptied soon enough anyway. I've recently had an offer accepted on a property I'm buying, which will use up most of my savings if all goes without a hitch. As things stand once the Santander interest rate reduction comes into effect my (admittedly slightly reduced by then) collection of regular savers coupled with the likes of the 7% Santander Edge Saver and 5.5% Skipton Members Bonus Saver (assuming their rates remain competitive) should satisfy my EA savings needs without needing to use traditional EA accounts for a while. 

I've still got a few EA accounts on standby though to be on the safe side, Cahoot sunny day and Ulster are on 5.2%, along with a string of others around the 5%+ mark with minimal balances.

fotow

happybagger said:

Just done the virgin money defined access 21 account as an additional back-up. Surprised when opening it said I was an existing customer (I was 4 years ago), and I continued that way. Very simple, 5.11% atm

I quite like the virgin account was easy to open.