The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

tradetime

nicko33 wrote: »

My experience opening an ICICI Hi-Save account was much better.
applied online on 15-Dec (Saturday)
they asked me to post a cheque on the 17th
confirmed receipt of cheque on 21st
account set up on 22nd
don't remember when the password was received through the post, but it was quick

At least that is encouraging info, thnx for sharing.

Rowhill_2

Like others I have tried to open a Hisave account with ICICI. They are adamant that it has to be opened with a cheque from the nominated account and no other. My nominated account is non-cheque book and I got nowhere, gave up and pulled out. Quite amazing that they don't want my money in any form. I also had a problem with their comprehension and spoken English.

rarrarrar

I've found it quite common for banks etc to insist on opening deposit being by personal cheque from nominated account.

wriggly

I needed to transfer money from each of my Icesave and ICICI accounts on Monday to be available on Friday. Of all days, this was the day that both sites had problems. Icesave's website was painfully slow and kept returning to the login page before completion of the transfer. ICICI's banking website was completely unavailable.

I phoned each of the banks. Icesave knew about the problem, and when I asked if I could perform the transfer over the phone, had no problems doing it, confirming that as it was before 11am, the transfer would take 3 days.

ICICI, on the other hand, gave me the complete run-around. No chance of doing the transaction over the phone. The advice was basically, their technicians are working on the problem, wait until it's back up. They gave conflicting advice about whether 11:45 or 14:00 was the deadline for BACS transfers. I'm still not sure when I can expect the money in my account.

jbean2567

This is my first time on a thread, hope im in the right place.....I have tried to find an answer without luck before posting.

I have a current account with the Halifax where I have a budget of approx £1100 a month to use for food bills etc, I want to use a credit card to pay for everything (to gain aimiles/points etc)but to also transfer the credit card (used) amounts regularly into a saving account (so I dont think I have loads of cash in my current account when I dont!)

Is this a sensible way of doing this and if so which is the best instant access saving account to use? ie am I trying too hard and should it just be a Halifax saving account for ease of use....?

tradetime

The whole banking system is seriously in need of stricter regulation imho. I think in this day and age of electronic transfers it sucks that it takes 3 days to transfer money from one account to another. This is just legalised theft imo, where the banks steal interest from us. This imo is far more important an issue that overdraft charges.

koru

If you want cash machine access to your savings, a Coventry First account pays 6.1%, which is higher than the Yorkshire BS account recommended in the article. It also does everything else that a current account does, except a cheque book. (This rate includes a bonus for the first year, after which the rate drops slightly, though not by the whole bonus. But Yorkshire don't seem to be offering any guarantees about their interest rate, so in a year's time who knows if they will still be as good.)

Nick_C

JBean - I recommend opening a Sainsbury's Internet Instant Access account. It pays 6%. You can transfer money instantly from your Halifax current account to Sainsbury's, and overnight back from Sainsbury's to Halifax. (Sainsbury's Bank is a joint venture with HBOS).

Fastflys

Financial protection

FirstSave accounts are provided by FBN Bank (UK) Ltd, a UK bank that began trading in 2002 and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (www.fsa.gov.uk). The bank is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (www.fscs.org.uk), which gives 100% protection for the first £35,000 of a depositor's total deposits.

OK so £35,000 is protected by the FSCS but if this Nigerian bank goes belly up leaving depositors with nothing but egg on their face, how simple and quick is it to obtain a “refund” from the FSCS?

FirstSave’s Customer Service telephone number is 0845-601-2211. Does anyone have a free or geo number? SayNoTo0870 [an excellent website] on this occasion had no verified or unverified alternative.

sashacat

I've had an ICICI account for about a year now and had no problem opening it. I think the cheque thing at the beginning is just to check you have a UK current account. I've never had any problem transferring money in and out of the account either although I always want it transferred to/from my current account. It pays monthly interest and takes the tax monthly as do other banks. As far as I'm concerned it's great.