The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

badmoon

Hi there,

I really hope you can help. Have spent some time looking at the advice on savings and trying to decide what the best option is for me but to be honest am a bit flummoxed by everyone on offer.

I want to open a savings account in the next week or so with £1,000 and aim to save around £750 a month for 12 months or so, all with the aim of getting a mortgage (optimistic I know!) in early to mid 2010.

I'd like one that's easy to run, where if possible I would have the option of withdrawing money if needs be (a month's notice account would probably be fine) and obviously with the best rate.

Have looked at getting one through my bank (Barclays) as wondered if that would help me in terms of getting a mortgage through them. Does that matter however? Or should I just go with which bank/bs/online company has the best rate?

I'd really appreciate any advice you can offer.

Mr._H_2

badmoon wrote: »

I'd like one that's easy to run, where if possible I would have the option of withdrawing money if needs be (a month's notice account would probably be fine) and obviously with the best rate.

Oddly, notice accounts (as opposed to term accounts where you can't get at your money at all until a fixed date) tend not to have market-leading rates. If you can't lock your money away for 6 - 12 months, it's probably best to stick to instant-access.

A regular-saver account might be a good idea too as you are going to be saving a decent amount each month. The most the accounts normally allow to be paid in is 250 - 500 a month so you should be able to do that easily.

badmoon wrote: »

Have looked at getting one through my bank (Barclays) as wondered if that would help me in terms of getting a mortgage through them. Does that matter however?

I wouldn't have thought so. Certainly it wouldn't help anywhere near as much as ensuring your credit rating is spotless (and, how do you know Barclays will have the best mortgage for you?). Do you have any credit cards, loans or overdrafts (having no credit at all is a problem because then the potential lender has no way of assessing how good a payer you are)? Do you have access to an excessive amount of credit (e.g. > 1/2 your gross annual salary)? Are you on the electoral roll? Have you ever checked your file to make sure there are no errors on it?

rizla01

Hi,

To get the highter interest on a regular savings account is there anything to prevent you from opening up a bank account somewhere and using this a s a 'Feeder' account to make regular payments?

JimmyTheWig

rizla01 wrote: »

To get the highter interest on a regular savings account is there anything to prevent you from opening up a bank account somewhere and using this a s a 'Feeder' account to make regular payments?

No, nothing wrong with this at all.
Other than the hassle of setting it all up.
And remember that you only earn interest on money that is in the account. So the last month's payment, for example, will only earn intreest for one month.

Do the sums and see how much more money you will earn above putting the whole lot away for 12 months.

tristan727

Patr100 wrote: »

Have you read this?
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/

Is there really nothing left in the UK @5% or over then? I don't care what the terms, payment schedule etc. is - just as long as is UK guaranteed (grr...blood boils at all these taxpayer bailouts of people who knew what they were doing investing in Iceland at higher rates) and is highest in the country...bonds, isa's, anything.

Mr._H_2

tristan727 wrote: »

(grr...blood boils at all these taxpayer bailouts of people who knew what they were doing investing in Iceland at higher rates)

Grrr... blood boils that people continue to spout nonsense about people "investing" in Icelandic banks being bailed out by the taxpayer.

Investors buy shares or commodities. To the best of my knowledge, no UK shareholders of Icelandic banks had their share positions compensated for when they became worthless.

On the other hand, savers were saving NOT investing with UK branches of Icelandic banks, which were regulated by the UK's FSA and members of the UK's FSCS so I fail to see how it's unreasonable for these people to be bailed out from what are usually seen as "zero" risk positions (cash savings accounts with FSA regulated and FSCS member banks).

What research are you doing into the banks that you may potentially be saving with? Presumably, given your ire with people who saved with Icelandic banks, you've investigated banks CDS prices and credit ratings, and thoroughly analysed the FSCS's ability to cover the savings of the bank in question (before it has to be bailed out by the taxpayer). Oh, and presumably you'll be avoiding any of the banks that have already been bailed out, and don't already have any money with said institutions.

Sheilasaver

mmmBiscuit wrote: »

Unfortunately the Egg Money account is no longer open to new customers (see http://new.egg.com/visitor/0,,3_108938--View_2319,00.html).

But - if you're lucky enough to already have the account - then it's a 4% savings account that also rewards spending with 1% cashback. I e-mailed Egg a while ago (when it looked like all the banks were going to fold) about whether or not the account would be covered by the FSCS, and they confirmed that it would.

I'm guessing it looks like a temporary block on new customers because there are egg money demos, links and references all over the home page. Doubt they would have so many references if it's permanently closing to new customers.

In the hope that it will soon be widely available and not meaning to rub it in, it's a really worthwhile a/c. I've had it a while and not used much but have just woken up to the fact that it's still paying 4% gross aer when most fixed rate bonds at mo are around 3.4%. And as you say, it pays 1% cashback on all you spend (extra cashbacks on things like play.com too). So my big tip is move as much as you can out of your current a/c and into egg, and use egg for all your usual supermarket / petrol etc spending. you get monthly interest (coppers but it helps) and your cashback is paid once a year in March.

Hope this helps someone - I'm new to this!!

hannahcallum

is it actually worth saving now? is my money better off hidden under my bed or something?

rb10

hannahcallum wrote: »

is it actually worth saving now? is my money better off hidden under my bed or something?

What rate do you get in a bank? Easily 2%+ instant access, much more if you can lock it away.

What rate do you get under your bed? Fixed rate of 0%.

How secure is the bank? Well, £50,000 is guaranteed.

How secure is the underneath of your bed? Probably not very.

luv_my_brass

We savers are all in the same boat - trying to find the best return on our money, but the BS/Banks are all reducing the interest rate. ING are spending £thousands on advertizing but have reduced their interest rate to 2%. I have just been informed by Coventry BS that their esave account for over 60's has now been reduced to 3%, but still better than ING, so glad I closed that account.
Happy hunting - and let us know if you find a good fixed rate!