The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

robotrobo

deepdale56 wrote: »

The MSE website has consistently understated the net benefits of this Santander account. My wife and I have three of these accounts, one joint and two individual. We also have one joint account with another bank. Six standing orders (3 x £500 both ways) created and two direct debits transferred to each Santander account (eg TV Licence, Council Tax, Energy, Mobile, etc) took less than an hour to set up on line. What we now have, in effect, is three instant access savings accounts paying 3% interest on a total of £60,000 savings. The online banking facility is excellent, being particularly easy to transfer money between the accounts to maintain the £20,000 per account.
I appreciate that many people won't have the funds to benefit from this arrangement but MSE keep reminding us not to have more then £85000 per institution, so there must be some.

I was same as you !, but with a bit of advice from this forum , i removed my name from the joint 123 account and opened another account in my name only, so that now we have 2 accounts each, the wife is a non taxpayer , so we recieve approx £180 interest from all 4 accounts per month, it works very well for us as we have a joint account in another bank for the purpose of cashing any cheques & keeping the money going around in a circle.

russellelly

Some advice appreciated...

I've had an ISA with the Cheshire, and the introductory rate has ended. I'm in a dilemma as to whether to withdraw the ISA and put it in a 3% easy access account (2.4% gross, it's the Santander First Home Saver, not avail to new applicants) or transfer it to an ISA (will get less interest now, but the allowance won't be lost).

What would you do? Thanks...

Archi_Bald

russellelly wrote: »

Some advice appreciated...

I've had an ISA with the Cheshire, and the introductory rate has ended. I'm in a dilemma as to whether to withdraw the ISA and put it in a 3% easy access account (2.4% gross, it's the Santander First Home Saver, not avail to new applicants) or transfer it to an ISA (will get less interest now, but the allowance won't be lost).

What would you do? Thanks...

If you are certain that you will spend all the money in the ISA in the next year or two, you might as well throw all your money at the best interest rate you can get.

If, however, you might be into your ISA for the long run, it would be a shame to give up the tax-free wrapper.

Only you can tell.

Steve_xx

russellelly wrote: »

Some advice appreciated...

I've had an ISA with the Cheshire, and the introductory rate has ended. I'm in a dilemma as to whether to withdraw the ISA and put it in a 3% easy access account (2.4% gross, it's the Santander First Home Saver, not avail to new applicants) or transfer it to an ISA (will get less interest now, but the allowance won't be lost).

What would you do? Thanks...

I definitely would not move it from an ISA to a non-ISA account as the tax free status would be lost forever.
If you can lock it away for 5 years then Leeds Building Society has an ISA at 3.05%. Details here:
http://www.leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/savings/rates-isa-tax-free.html

Archi_Bald

AngelaLee wrote: »

"Children's saving accounts are actually looking as good as, if not better than, some adult accounts, and of course they don't share any interest with the tax man so there is no excuse for not getting into the savings habit from a young age.

Children may well have to pay tax on their savings, just in the same way as adults do. They are not exempt from tax on the grounds that they are children. It is just that their income is usually below the taxation threshold.

Also, there is the "£100 rule". This rule says that, if interest received by a child from money or an investment given to them by a parent comes to £100 or more a year, it will be taxed as the parent's own income.

Steve_xx

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Children may well have to pay tax on their savings, just in the same way as adults do. They are not exempt from tax on the grounds that they are children. It is just that their income is usually below the taxation threshold.

Also, there is the "£100 rule". This rule says that, if interest received by a child from money or an investment given to them by a parent comes to £100 or more a year, it will be taxed as the parent's own income.

The second paragraph is interesting. How would HMRC relate the child to the parent in order to recover any tax? Or is it down to the parent to make a declaration?

Archi_Bald

I don't know the precise details but I expect it will be handled as part of claiming the tax exemption or a tax refund on a child's account . All children's accounts bar ISAs and CTFs will get interest paid net of 20% tax unless and R85 gets filled in. May be somebody else is more knowledgable about the details, or you can of course ask the HMRC.

There's plenty on the HMRC website about taxation of children's savings, too.

Another interesting link about children's savings: http://www.mumsnet.com/family-money/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-childrens-savings

And of course: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/child-savings-tax-free#taxing

Middle_Sister

My husband has 2 Lloyds Classic Vantage accounts, the ones paying 3% up to £5K. He has another £5K to invest and wants to open an ISA. I told him opening another Lloyds Classic Vantage account would be better. Am I right?

Archi_Bald

It's not investing, it's saving, when you put it into a Vantage. But if you want to save, then yes, Vantage and some other accounts are paying better interest for basic rate tax payers (not necessarily the case for higher rate ones).

Nationwide FlexDirect pays 5% up to £2.5K, Clydesdale and Yorks Bank 4% up to £3K. Both are time-limited.

Middle_Sister

Archi_Bald wrote: »

It's not investing, it's saving, when you put it into a Vantage. But if you want to save, then yes, Vantage and some other accounts are paying better interest for basic rate tax payers (not necessarily the case for higher rate ones).

Nationwide FlexDirect pays 5% up to £2.5K, Clydesdale and Yorks Bank 4% up to £3K. Both are time-limited.

Lloyds wont let him open another account as he has 2 in his name and a joint one with me. Will look into opening a Yorkshire Bank 4% account as he just doesnt have the patience to bother with the Nationwide one.