The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

luv_my_brass

Mr._H wrote: »

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!

Thank you for that Mr H, yes I do get the 1.50 bonus. As the Internet Account pays a total of 5.1% I will disregard the offer from ING who are offering 4.60 for new deposits!

Lumphammer_2

mmmBiscuit. Thanks. I have a Money card but have only ever used it as a credit card. Lets hope the rate lasts!

JYK

The Lloyds Vantage account paying 5% so long as one holds between 5 and 7K suits my circumstances as it enables me to keep reasonably large sums with instant access and thus able to take up good rates of interest cropping up elsewhere. I'm not sure how long this rate will last though given the abysmal rates available elesewhere.

rb10

JYK wrote: »

The Lloyds Vantage account paying 5% so long as one holds between 5 and 7K suits my circumstances as it enables me to keep reasonably large sums with instant access and thus able to take up good rates of interest cropping up elsewhere. I'm not sure how long this rate will last though given the abysmal rates available elesewhere.

It's now 4%, as of today.

http://www.lloydstsb.com/rates_and_charges/current_account_rates_curr_page.asp#currentaccountsvantage

Remember you have to pay in £1k+ per month.

hamandeggs

We have seen banks handed millions of our cash to get them out of the trouble they caused. Result? Probably used a large part of the cash to award themselves a Christmas bonus which it was looking like they would not get. Nothing for the savers (remember 7 savers for every mortgage), but jackpot for the mortgage payers.

Personally, in response to the post above about keeping savings under the bed, then should bank and savings rates edge downwards towards 0%, then I think all savers with variable rate savings should indeed pull their cash out and stick it under the bed.

Result? The banks that should have been allowed to crash before Government bail out would crash a la Northern Rock. Hopefully it would bring this government down with it (sorry I voted TB in in 1997) and send a clear message to their successors that savers are not there to be ignored at the expense of other groups.

Power to the savers!!

adam2484

is the egg money credit card a good bet? it pays 4% on all positive balances which is pretty amazing. It's also protected under fsa rules apparently.

Wigi

Hi all, I have been looking into savings accounts and seem to have stumbled across one that isn't included on this site, it is the halifax regular saver http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/regularsaver.asp . I was wondering if i am missing something and there is a catch meaning it isn't as competitive as it seems, or whether it is simply one that Martin missed. Obviously it requires a min deposit of £25 a month but other than that it seems like pretty decent account and is offering 5% aer! This a variable rate i think so maybe that is the catch, but would be interested to hear other's opinions.

rb10

Wigi wrote: »

Hi all, I have been looking into savings accounts and seem to have stumbled across one that isn't included on this site, it is the halifax regular saver http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/regularsaver.asp . I was wondering if i am missing something and there is a catch meaning it isn't as competitive as it seems, or whether it is simply one that Martin missed. Obviously it requires a min deposit of £25 a month but other than that it seems like pretty decent account and is offering 5% aer! This a variable rate i think so maybe that is the catch, but would be interested to hear other's opinions.

You are right that it is a really good account. And the 5% AER is actually fixed for a year, not variable.

Just remember that you are limited to paying in a maximum of £500 per month, so the amount of money that you can put in is limited.

Also, don't fall into the trap of thinking [strike]that you can put in £500 per month for 12 months, so that gives £6000 at the end of the year, giving £6000 * 5% interest = £300[/strike]. That is not correct! Interest is calculated daily, as with all accounts. A rough estimate of the amount of interest you can expect at the end of the year is (monthly deposit) * 6.5 * (interest rate = 0.05), so putting £500 per month in would give around £165 interest at the end of the year.

So at the end of the day, Regular Savings accounts like this one, or Barclays' one (slightly higher rate, but you can't put as much in it per month) do give an AMAZING rate of interest, far higher than you could get in a standard savings account.

murphydavid

adam2484 wrote: »

is the egg money credit card a good bet? it pays 4% on all positive balances which is pretty amazing. It's also protected under fsa rules apparently.

I have an egg money card (to get the 1% cash back) and till I saw your post I never thought to use it as a savings account. I just wanted to check things out and see how they handled payments if one has a positive balance (ie If you take credit and pay the full balance you end up with up to 6 weeks free credit, how is that affected). I searched their web site top to bottom and could not find a mention of the egg money credit card, (some stuff on the egg card but that is not the egg money credit card). Anyone know where the info is hidden?

murphydavid

Wigi wrote: »

Hi all, I have been looking into savings accounts and seem to have stumbled across one that isn't included on this site, it is the halifax regular saver http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/regularsaver.asp . I was wondering if i am missing something and there is a catch meaning it isn't as competitive as it seems, or whether it is simply one that Martin missed. Obviously it requires a min deposit of £25 a month but other than that it seems like pretty decent account and is offering 5% aer! This a variable rate i think so maybe that is the catch, but would be interested to hear other's opinions.

Martin has an article on regular savings and there is a special Forum thread also. a quick look at the article best buys shows a regular at 6%. Take a look.