The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

alanji

tristan727 wrote: »

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

Mr._H wrote: »

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.

Yes, the collapsed banks were covered by the FSCS scheme. But the Government paid unlimited amounts to Icelandic Bank personal savers - not limited to the first £50000 covered under the scheme. I took my money out long before the collapse - less than £50k but I was unsure how long it would take to get my money following a collapse.

jimmysimpson

oops, I was just shifting some montly savings into what I thought was my ISA and accidentally shifted £150 into my Barclays Monthly Savers account. This account has a fixed rate of 5.84%. Gross, quite good. However, one of the points in the T&Cs is as follows "6. No additional deposits are allowed to the account during the term." The arrangement is basically that you are allowed to put a set amount into the a/c per month by standing order. Now worried that I have accidentally 'lost' the offer of 5.84% somehow by mistakenly putting an additional deposit into the account. Any advice what I should do?

Cheers J

Mr._H_2

jimmysimpson wrote: »

oops, I was just shifting some montly savings into what I thought was my ISA and accidentally shifted £150 into my Barclays Monthly Savers account. This account has a fixed rate of 5.84%. Gross, quite good. However, one of the points in the T&Cs is as follows "6. No additional deposits are allowed to the account during the term." The arrangement is basically that you are allowed to put a set amount into the a/c per month by standing order. Now worried that I have accidentally 'lost' the offer of 5.84% somehow by mistakenly putting an additional deposit into the account. Any advice what I should do?

Cheers J

Hopefully they'll just bounce the payment back to the sending account. If not, give them a ring as soon as the money appears in the monthly saver and tell them it was a mistake; hopefully they'll sort it out. But given the current financial situation I guess you couldn't blame them for strictly enforcing the T&Cs of the account

jimmysimpson

Mr._H wrote: »

Hopefully they'll just bounce the payment back to the sending account. If not, give them a ring as soon as the money appears in the monthly saver and tell them it was a mistake; hopefully they'll sort it out. But given the current financial situation I guess you couldn't blame them for strictly enforcing the T&Cs of the account

cheers - going into bank tomorrow so will discuss, no real worries anyway - was thinking about switching accounts so will just cancel all and go to Alliance & Leicester & cash in the £100 cashback on offer instead. Will earn me the same amount as interest. No sweat really!

thanks for the advice J

919er

919er wrote: »

This site is quoting the Alliance and Leicester eSaver Iss 3 account as 3.6% and indicates a RED "Rate Dropped" from the BOE 0.5% rate cut on 8th January, and is listed first under "The top paying accounts ....."

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest

Well are you sure??

My information is that they will drop 0.5% to 3.1% on 2nd February 2009, and therefore HAVE NOT yet reacted the the 8th Jan drop.

Anybody confirm this.

Well there you are. Rate dropped to 3.1% just as I predicted.

This site is therefore giving misleading information as it said the rate had already been dropped at 3.6%.

Can't trust anything in these stupid days of persistant interest rate reductions, probably another 0.5% this week. Why didn't the BOE just slash it by 4% in the first place, this monthly change just causes confusion and yet more instability - BEWARE!

city_boy_2

Hi all,

I have just noticed that the A&L eSaver Issue 3 a/c is about to drop to 3.1% (from 3.6%) from tomorrow.

This is one of the few 'decent' UK accounts left above 3% and so this is a bad day for savers!

It's interesting to note that the worst savings rates are offered by the largest Banks (e.g. HSBC 1.75%, RBS 0.95%, Lloyds TSB 1.6%). Maybe the take over of A&L and B&B by Santander is further exacerbating the BoE base rate drops.

Will the trend of low savings rates remain with us even when the BoE base rates recover?

thor

city_boy wrote: »

Hi all,

I have just noticed that the A&L eSaver Issue 3 a/c is about to drop to 3.1% (from 3.6%) from tomorrow.

This is one of the few 'decent' UK accounts left above 3% and so this is a bad day for savers!

It's interesting to note that the worst savings rates are offered by the largest Banks (e.g. HSBC 1.75%, RBS 0.95%, Lloyds TSB 1.6%). Maybe the take over of A&L and B&B by Santander is further exacerbating the BoE base rate drops.

Will the trend of low savings rates remain with us even when the BoE base rates recover?

Those crap rates can easily be matched by the likes of the Nationwide and Britannia as well as many others. They are all at it unfortunately. It is the only way they can still afford to give their directors huge payrises and bonuses after screwing up so badly.

luv_my_brass

I have savings accounts with Tesco's Instant Access account and their Internet Savings account. I went on line with the intention of transferring all the money from ther Instant Access into the Internet Savings account (which has the 1.50% bonus), but then noticed that they are both paying 3.60% interest, so do you think there is any point in going ahead?

Mr._H_2

luv_my_brass wrote: »

I have savings accounts with Tesco's Instant Access account and their Internet Savings account. I went on line with the intention of transferring all the money from ther Instant Access into the Internet Savings account (which has the 1.50% bonus), but then noticed that they are both paying 3.60% interest, so do you think there is any point in going ahead?

The 3.6% rate advertised for the Internet Savings account doesn't include the 1.5% bonus, because the bonus isn't being offered to new customers any more. If you opened your account before Jan 7, the 1.5% bonus applies and your actual rate is 3.6 + 1.5 = 5.1%. So yes, if you've had the Internet account long enough, move the money over!

RabbitMad

I was checking my current account interest rates today and it appears Naionwide have cut my rate to 0% however LLoyds seem to be offering 5% if you current account balance is between 5 and 7K and you pay in 1K a month.

What do people think of this as a savings account option?