The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

murphydavid

luckymannn wrote: »

I've got £55,000 in a Santander eSaver which is about to mature. It's currently on 3.2% interest. I see the top easy access acounts now are much lower with NS&I and Investec, both of which I've never heard of and nervous about transferring £55k to!

What are the next accounts down from them as MSE only lists the top 3?

I'd happily lost a couple of 0.1s to have my money in a better known high street bank or even online (I've had Post Office savings before), just want to have heard of them really!!

The direct answer to your question is use martins link to moneysupermarket.com and use their excellent comparison engine.

In my opinion. If you were happy to use the Spanish Santander and theire dreadful customer service (it may have improved recently) and you were happy to use the Irish Bank's (post office accounts). Then you should not be bothered by NS&I (who are the UK government and used to run the post office accounts) or by any other institution that has the £85000 G'tee and are under the wing of the FSA.

I have to admire the tenacity of those using current accounts to boost their interest. I remember a TV add where a slimy character makes a comparison with a fisherman: juicy bait; big hook. Too much pain and effort involved in getting off the hook.

Steve_xx

Silky_Racing wrote: »

Hi guys,

Just noticed that some of you are talking about having multiple Santander 123 accounts? Is that possible? I have one at the moment with the full 20k in but would be good to have another to fill up.

Cheers

I believe you can have three. If you open another then you might do it via Topcashback as you can earn £57.75 if you do so!

murphydavid

Silky_Racing wrote: »

Hi guys,

Just noticed that some of you are talking about having multiple Santander 123 accounts? Is that possible? I have one at the moment with the full 20k in but would be good to have another to fill up.

Cheers

Mind the conditions you need to comply in each account. I don't know but it seems to me that with more than one the fees could be greater than the interest?

Steve_xx

murphydavid wrote: »

I don't know but it seems to me that with more than one the fees could be greater than the interest?

How do make that out? A 20k balance would produce £600 in interest before tax and the annual cost of it would be £24. If you open it via Topcashback and you get the £57.75 cashback then that would pay the monthly fees for two years and three months anyway! In addition, your direct debits, if you have any would recover further amounts on water, telecoms, etc.

murphydavid

Steve_xx wrote: »

How do make that out? A 20k balance would produce £600 in interest before tax and the annual cost of it would be £24. If you open it via Topcashback and you get the £57.75 cashback then that would pay the monthly fees for two years and three months anyway! In addition, your direct debits, if you have any would recover further amounts on water, telecoms, etc.

OK I didn't do the sums and your's are correct.
I was thinking that with a second or third account all the DD's were in the first account or at any rate you don't pay the same DD twice so each one can only be in one of the accounts so you only get that money once and the last account would not have a full 20k in it.

Steve_xx

murphydavid wrote: »

OK I didn't do the sums and your's are correct.
I was thinking that with a second or third account all the DD's were in the first account or at any rate you don't pay the same DD twice so each one can only be in one of the accounts so you only get that money once and the last account would not have a full 20k in it.

You could shift some of the DD's to the second or third account. Also, if you have a Tesco savings account you could set up a DD from that to pull £1 a month from each of the 123 accounts.

Mr._H_2

luckymannn wrote: »

What concerns me about this NS&I account is that it's called a "Premium Bond", I've never heard of this before!

Premium Bonds are unlike other savings accounts. Deposits are made in increments of £1, each £1 buying 1 bond. Every month, every bond is entered into a draw, with "prizes" ranging from £25 to £1,000,000 tax free.

See Martin's guide for further info

NS&I do have other, more "normal", savings products.

Stompa

Mr._H wrote: »

NS&I do have other, more "normal", savings products.

Just a shame that they're slashing rates:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/savings/10112350/NSandI-makes-dramatic-cut-to-Direct-Isa-rate.html

Silky_Racing

Cheers guys. On other part of the forum they are saying you can only have one single account and one joint account? But you guys are saying 3?

Is it just a case of trying to open a new one and seeing what happens? I won't have to have two Internet banks accounts would I?

Thanks for your help!

Steve_xx

Silky_Racing wrote: »

Cheers guys. On other part of the forum they are saying you can only have one single account and one joint account? But you guys are saying 3?

Is it just a case of trying to open a new one and seeing what happens? I won't have to have two Internet banks accounts would I?

Thanks for your help!

The one single and one joint account that you mentioned applies to the Halifax Reward Current account I believe, not the Santander 123 account.