The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

friolento

10_66 said:

TheBanker said:

10_66 said:

Bridlington1 said:

10_66 said:

Regrettably, I missed the Skipton Base Rate Tracker.  I've had a look on Moneyfacts, and can only find a tracker with GB Bank/Wombat.  I've never heard of them before, has anyone here got any feedback about them, please?  I appreciate funds are protected whilst with GB Bank, but would they be protected during the transfer from Wombat to GB Bank?  I can't remember the name of the other organisation where there was debate about this with another app based account.

I've never used their savings but it may be worth noting that Wombat currently offer a £10 welcome bonus for those who have never used Wombat and open a stocks and shares ISA, JISA or GIA with them (no initial deposit required). They also do a refer-a-friend offer in which both you and your referred friend get £10 which can be claimed instead of the welcome bonus. 

This offer doesn't apply if you open a savings account so if you are going to open the tracker make sure you open a GIA first and then open the savings account as it only takes a minute or two and is a very easy free £10 investment to grab. I've had £20 plus a few pence investment growth out of them (1 welcome bonus, 1 referral) and have never deposited a single penny of my own money.

Thank you.  I'd not heard the term GIA before, and so have just Googled it, I'm not sure I understand the description I've just read 😳

GIA = General Investment Account. It's an account that holds investments like funds and shares, without any special tax treatment. If you understand Stocks and Shares ISAs, it's an account that holds the same kind of investments, but without the tax benefits of an ISA. 

Thank you.  I think I'm missing the point here.  How is a GIA different from just having stocks and shares then?  I don't have any investments at all, not even Stocks and Shares ISAs.

If you have stocks and shares outside an ISA, you are holding them in a GIA.

The capital gain and dividends in a GIA are taxable. If you hold the stocks and shares in an ISA, all gains are tax free. Which is why using up your [S&S] ISA allowance before you use a GIA is what people do.

However, when there are offers from the likes of Wealthify for a sign-up bonus, it has generally been easier to just go with a GIA, because you were limited to contributing to 1 S&S ISA only per tax year. From APril 6 this year, this limitation will be abolished, so you can do an S&S ISA for the Wealthify etc. offers.

If you want to discuss further, I would suggest start a new thread as this has nothing to do with easy access savings

Bridlington1

pecunianonolet said:

Bridlington1 said:

10_66 said:

Regrettably, I missed the Skipton Base Rate Tracker.  I've had a look on Moneyfacts, and can only find a tracker with GB Bank/Wombat.  I've never heard of them before, has anyone here got any feedback about them, please?  I appreciate funds are protected whilst with GB Bank, but would they be protected during the transfer from Wombat to GB Bank?  I can't remember the name of the other organisation where there was debate about this with another app based account.

I've never used their savings but it may be worth noting that Wombat currently offer a £10 welcome bonus for those who have never used Wombat and open a stocks and shares ISA, JISA or GIA with them (no initial deposit required). They also do a refer-a-friend offer in which both you and your referred friend get £10 which can be claimed instead of the welcome bonus. 

This offer doesn't apply if you open a savings account so if you are going to open the tracker make sure you open a GIA first and then open the savings account as it only takes a minute or two and is a very easy free £10 investment to grab. I've had £20 plus a few pence investment growth out of them (1 welcome bonus, 1 referral) and have never deposited a single penny of my own money.

Will the £10 bonus in a S&S ISA count as subscription? I have done my 20k for this year so if it counts as subscription I would need to wait until 6th April or use the GIA?

I can't see anything in the Ts&Cs to say whether the bonus would count towards the ISA allowance or not. If I were to hazard a guess I'd say that given the Wealthify cashback counts towards your ISA allowances, Wombat would probably follow suit but I'm not sure to be honest. 

I've sent them a message so will get back to you when I get a reply. I have this offer mentioned as a remark in the Savings/investment DDs and debit card deposits- An updated list thread so in the interests of keeping this thread on topic I will post Wombat's response in the DDs thread once it arrives. It didn't make any difference in my case as I don't pay tax on savings/investments so I went for the GIA in order to keep the option of using my old Wealthify ISA as a source of DDs if needed.

pepsi_max2k

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.

soulsaver

Bridlington1 said:

pecunianonolet said:

Bridlington1 said:

10_66 said:

Regrettably, I missed the Skipton Base Rate Tracker.  I've had a look on Moneyfacts, and can only find a tracker with GB Bank/Wombat.  I've never heard of them before, has anyone here got any feedback about them, please?  I appreciate funds are protected whilst with GB Bank, but would they be protected during the transfer from Wombat to GB Bank?  I can't remember the name of the other organisation where there was debate about this with another app based account.

I've never used their savings but it may be worth noting that Wombat currently offer a £10 welcome bonus for those who have never used Wombat and open a stocks and shares ISA, JISA or GIA with them (no initial deposit required). They also do a refer-a-friend offer in which both you and your referred friend get £10 which can be claimed instead of the welcome bonus. 

This offer doesn't apply if you open a savings account so if you are going to open the tracker make sure you open a GIA first and then open the savings account as it only takes a minute or two and is a very easy free £10 investment to grab. I've had £20 plus a few pence investment growth out of them (1 welcome bonus, 1 referral) and have never deposited a single penny of my own money.

Will the £10 bonus in a S&S ISA count as subscription? I have done my 20k for this year so if it counts as subscription I would need to wait until 6th April or use the GIA?

I can't see anything in the Ts&Cs to say whether the bonus would count towards the ISA allowance or not. If I were to hazard a guess I'd say that given the Wealthify cashback counts towards your ISA allowances, Wombat would probably follow suit but I'm not sure to be honest. 

I've sent them a message so will get back to you when I get a reply. I have this offer mentioned as a remark in the Savings/investment DDs and debit card deposits- An updated list thread so in the interests of keeping this thread on topic I will post Wombat's response in the DDs thread once it arrives. It didn't make any difference in my case as I don't pay tax on savings/investments so I went for the GIA in order to keep the option of using my old Wealthify ISA as a source of DDs if needed.

Unlikely, I'd say, as they wouldn't know if you'd already used all your allowance.

friolento

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.

I applied just now from within online banking, using the "Fast Track Apply" option. Application being processed now. It alwasy takes a little while for them to add the new account to the account list.

EDIT: account opened overnight and now operational 

Ifts

friolento said:

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.

I applied just now from within online banking, using the "Fast Track Apply" option. Application being processed now. It alwasy takes a little while for them to add the new account to the account list.

Same here, I just applied as existing customer using the "Fast Track Apply" and my application is being processed now.

edit: I received the confirmation email from Cynergy saying "Congratulations, your new online savings account is open." @ 11.01pm.

Ifts

castle96 said:

Cynergy - just opened re Santander backup. Santander do not recognise the account No.   ??
Do I have to open /use the app, as I prefer to use PC

Thanks for the reminder! I just opened a Cynergy account for back up too.
I use my Natwest as linked account and for me it has never recognised the Cynergy account numbers (long time customer, this will be my 14th Cynergy account!), just to be sure send a £1 test payment to confirm you input the correct details - that's what I always do.
I've never used their app, only log in using the PC so I don't think you will have to open/use the app if you don't want to.

patpalloon

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?

Mr_Kim

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!

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.