The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

gadgetmind

innovate wrote: »

As and if you two are ready to take the plunge, don't forget to check Quidco/TCB for any extra signup bonus. It's £45 at the time of writing.

Well, she also has issues with quidco, so let's not rush things!

innovate

gadgetmind wrote: »

Well, she also has issues with quidco, so let's not rush things!

Oh dear, is her glass half empty?

Suppose when it comes to cashback sites, I am biased because my Quidco payments have just gone past £1.7K (that's over many years)

Would your lady wife consider TCB as a viable alternative? £55.55 for Santander right now (Quidco and TCB seem to be playing some silly ping-pong game with the Santander cashback these days - it's 50-odd with one and 40-odd with the other, or the other way round, depending on when you check).

ejv

I agree with "innovate". Have 123 current account and credit card and no problems so for.Glitchless online account and well explained statements. However, I use current account only for the utilities direct debits(I dont know where my debit card is!!!)
I took the £55 for current account from Quidco and £23.23 for credit card from TCB.

badger09

gadgetmind wrote: »

Our utility bills are big enough to stun an ox (gas is now £360 pcm!)

Good grief :eek: what on earth do you have to heat that costs £360 pcm? How many ox would that stun? Or are you supplying the National Grid (or whatever the gas equivalent is called)

gadgetmind wrote: »

I'm trying to persuade my lady wife to set up a Santander 123 account. .... we could do with a few bob back, but ... well ... it's Santander!

gadgetmind wrote: »

Well, she also has issues with quidco, so let's not rush things!

Not very MSE Mrs gadgetmind is she :rotfl:

koru

koru wrote: »

I just spotted that Coventry Building Society is still offering its Family Saver account, which pays 3% on an instant access basis, as long as you are receiving child benefit and arrange for this to be paid into this account. (If you lose child benefit after that, you can keep the account as long as you pay in at least as much as the child benefit amount.)

I'm surprised it is not listed in the article on the main site, because, for anyone receiving child benefit (which is quite a lot of us) it is easily the best instant access savings account currently available.

http://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/savings-and-investments/easy-access/family-saver/Family-Saver.aspx?tab=1

This account no longer available.

hieroglyph

Suddenly I find myself in a situation unthinkable only 7 years ago:

I have No mortgage, I retired from my career at 42 (now 54), have savings and investments but no personal pension - the equivalent is in liquid assets. But with interest rates now on the floor (2% - less 20%!) and the changes in the state OAP looming it seems that my 19 years of NI contributions over my career will not now get me any state pension either... So a fat lot of good saving and sacrificing did me! I grew up on a strong work and savings ethic and remember the days of 15% rates when the A R $ E last fell out the system in early 90's... who'd have thought that having savings would become a liability... I should have amassed debts and gone on welfare instead... So now I live like a beleaguered pauper as I have no idea for how long I will have to live on less than zero income (adjusting for rampant inflation that we are told is actually low low low and reducing!)...

gadgetmind

badger09 wrote: »

Good grief :eek: what on earth do you have to heat that costs £360 pcm? How many ox would that stun? Or are you supplying the National Grid (or whatever the gas equivalent is called)

I do wonder at times!

We have an efficient condensing boiler, new radiators, fancy multi-zone control system, cavity wall insulation, double glazing, loads of loft insulation, but then we also have that Aga ...

gadgetmind

hieroglyph wrote: »

and the changes in the state OAP looming it seems that my 19 years of NI contributions over my career will not now get me any state pension either.

What makes you think that?

Under the old rules you'd get 19/30 * £107.50 = £68.08 pw.
Under the new rules this will be 19/35 * £144 = £78.17 pw.

Where do you see the problem?

So a fat lot of good saving and sacrificing did me!

Over the timescales you're discussing, cash savings would always have suffered and investing in productive assets (equities, bonds, property, etc.) has historically given much better results.

pyrolizzie

joncombe wrote: »

And withing two weeks of me opening a savings account at 2.3% with West Brom I've just had a letter that the rates are dropping to 1.8%. Very irritating.

The same thing happened to me, but with a Post Office savings account which I opened on 18 December 2012 (int rate quoted was 2.34%) but didn't receive log in details/pin etc until early in new year, eventually transferred substantial sum (inheritance) into post office account on 8th Jan, only to receive an e-mail on 24th Jan to say interest rate had dropped to 1.8% with effect from 17th Jan.

I thought they had to give you notice they were going to do this, not do it and then let you know.

Best instant access savings I can now find is again with the post office at 2.1%, so just applied online - this one does say the rate is guaranteed for 12 months, whereas the previous one only guaranteed an underlying rate of 0.7% (I think) for a year - I obviously didn't read the small print when opening that account.

Now sit back and wait for the cogs to churn to see if I get accepted for the new account and start the transfer process again.

basiaking

gadgetmind wrote: »

I'm trying to persuade my lady wife to set up a Santander 123 account. Our utility bills are big enough to stun an ox (gas is now £360 pcm!) so we could do with a few bob back, but ... well ... it's Santander!

£360 pcm? How can this be? I live in a 5 bedroomed house and have the central heating on morning and all evening and all day long at weekends and my gas and electricity bill (dual fuel) is approximately £130 per month. Do you like in a stately home?