The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

Bridlington1

Band7 said:

Don't think I have seen this one here before. Could be a useful account for anyone wanting to park a large sum for a while

• Minimum opening deposit £25,000
• 3% AER var for £25,000+
• 0.05% AER var if balance falls below £25,000
• easy access
• apply and manage online (or in Branch or by Post)

https://www.monbs.com/products/premium-instant-account/

EDIT: Their online application is a fairly basic implementation of their paper application form, and you don't get an instant acceptance. As of now, I don't know how long it takes to get access to the account.

Wow, I never expected this. With this easy access account and the Christmas Regular saver it appears Monmouthshire BS has decided to be a bit if a dark horse today, having offered little of interest (no pun intended) for quite a while it has suddenly jumped to the top of the pile in both easy access and regular savings accounts.

BooJewels

I must admit, when I first read about the Monmouthshire Premium Instant account, I wasn't sure it entirely made sense, so I've checked the details and I can see it has some merit - a rate of interest to rival a longer fix, but with unlimited access.  But the drop of interest is brutal if you need to use some of your funds in an emergency.

However, looking at their other offerings (I'd not heard of them until I started reading this forum), their Escalator Instant might be more suitable - for me at least.  You get a different rate of interest depending on your balance.  A bit less at 2.65% for a £25k balance, but if you needed to take out £5k for example, you'd still get 2.45% on the balance. Not quite such a brutal drop if you have a household emergency.

What are they like to deal with?

Bridlington1

BooJewels said:

I must admit, when I first read about the Monmouthshire Premium Instant account, I wasn't sure it entirely made sense, so I've checked the details and I can see it has some merit - a rate of interest to rival a longer fix, but with unlimited access.  But the drop of interest is brutal if you need to use some of your funds in an emergency.

However, looking at their other offerings (I'd not heard of them until I started reading this forum), their Escalator Instant might be more suitable - for me at least.  You get a different rate of interest depending on your balance.  A bit less at 2.65% for a £25k balance, but if you needed to take out £5k for example, you'd still get 2.45% on the balance. Not quite such a brutal drop if you have a household emergency.

What are they like to deal with?

From what I can see it says the minimum amount required to open the account is £25k, but there is no minimum balance to the account, so if you wanted to you could deposit £25k, then if you need to use some of the savings, withdraw the whole balance and leave the nil balance at 0.05%. Then if you found yourself with £25k in savings again, just top the account back up to £25k again.

BooJewels

Bridlington1 said:

BooJewels said:

I must admit, when I first read about the Monmouthshire Premium Instant account, I wasn't sure it entirely made sense, so I've checked the details and I can see it has some merit - a rate of interest to rival a longer fix, but with unlimited access.  But the drop of interest is brutal if you need to use some of your funds in an emergency.

However, looking at their other offerings (I'd not heard of them until I started reading this forum), their Escalator Instant might be more suitable - for me at least.  You get a different rate of interest depending on your balance.  A bit less at 2.65% for a £25k balance, but if you needed to take out £5k for example, you'd still get 2.45% on the balance. Not quite such a brutal drop if you have a household emergency.

What are they like to deal with?

From what I can see it says the minimum amount required to open the account is £25k, but there is no minimum balance to the account, so if you wanted to you could deposit £25k, then if you need to use some of the savings, withdraw the whole balance and leave the nil balance at 0.05%. Then if you found yourself with £25k in savings again, just top the account back up to £25k again.

Yes, that's true of the Premium Instant Account, it's a bit all or nothing and probably better if you have a lot of cash to save and unlikely to go under £25k.  You don't have to keep £25k in it, but interest is slashed to 0.05% on lower balances. 

Where the Escalator Instant doesn't pay as much for the £25k+ balance (i.e. 2.65%) - and their minimum opening balance is only £100 - but if you only need to dip into some of your pot, you get a moderately reduced interest on what you leave, rather than it being slashed.

Band7

BooJewels said:

However, looking at their other offerings (I'd not heard of them until I started reading this forum), their Escalator Instant might be more suitable - for me at least.  You get a different rate of interest depending on your balance.  A bit less at 2.65% for a £25k balance, but if you needed to take out £5k for example, you'd still get 2.45% on the balance. Not quite such a brutal drop if you have a household emergency.

The Escalator account might work for you but even if you missed the much simpler 2.75% easy access accounts that were available in October, there is still the 2.81% Al Rayan Easy Saver.

Many of the 4%+ Regular Savers also let you withdraw/close in emergencies, so they would be a good place to keep some money that might be needed in emergencies. I appreciate you might not have / want have the pre-req current accounts, though.

BooJewels

Band7 said:

BooJewels said:

However, looking at their other offerings (I'd not heard of them until I started reading this forum), their Escalator Instant might be more suitable - for me at least.  You get a different rate of interest depending on your balance.  A bit less at 2.65% for a £25k balance, but if you needed to take out £5k for example, you'd still get 2.45% on the balance. Not quite such a brutal drop if you have a household emergency.

The Escalator account might work for you but even if you missed the much simpler 2.75% easy access accounts that were available in October, there is still the 2.81% Al Rayan Easy Saver.

Many of the 4%+ Regular Savers also let you withdraw/close in emergencies, so they would be a good place to keep some money that might be needed in emergencies. I appreciate you might not have / want have the pre-req current accounts, though.

Thanks.  I've eliminated quite a lot of options because I don't meet some criteria, or they don't meet mine.  As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I'm new to this level of saving, so extremely timid and risk averse and no one to check my thinking.  So I've stuck so far to establishments that I either already have a relationship with, or know well.  I'm getting a bit bogged down now. 

I've opened a three year fix at over 4%, but don't know how much I'm willing to lock away, before the deposit window closes, hence I was considering one more option.  I quite like the idea of an account that pays a bit more to reward you for leaving the money alone, but doesn't stop you getting at it, should you really need to.

I'll check your links, thanks.

Bridlington1

BooJewels said:

Band7 said:

BooJewels said:

However, looking at their other offerings (I'd not heard of them until I started reading this forum), their Escalator Instant might be more suitable - for me at least.  You get a different rate of interest depending on your balance.  A bit less at 2.65% for a £25k balance, but if you needed to take out £5k for example, you'd still get 2.45% on the balance. Not quite such a brutal drop if you have a household emergency.

The Escalator account might work for you but even if you missed the much simpler 2.75% easy access accounts that were available in October, there is still the 2.81% Al Rayan Easy Saver.

Many of the 4%+ Regular Savers also let you withdraw/close in emergencies, so they would be a good place to keep some money that might be needed in emergencies. I appreciate you might not have / want have the pre-req current accounts, though.

Thanks.  I've eliminated quite a lot of options because I don't meet some criteria, or they don't meet mine.  As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I'm new to this level of saving, so extremely timid and risk averse and no one to check my thinking.  So I've stuck so far to establishments that I either already have a relationship with, or know well.  I'm getting a bit bogged down now. 

I've opened a three year fix at over 4%, but don't know how much I'm willing to lock away, before the deposit window closes, hence I was considering one more option.  I quite like the idea of an account that pays a bit more to reward you for leaving the money alone, but doesn't stop you getting at it, should you really need to.

I'll check your links, thanks.

Just a few more links to have a look at whilst you're at it:

• There's the Barclays rainy day saver at 5% (up to £5k). You need to have Barclays blue rewards to get it, which has a few hoops to jump through, but interest wise it's hard to beat. 
• There's also HSBC's Bonus saver at 3% (£10k max) for any month you don't make a withdrawal, though the interest rate drops significantly if you do make a withdrawal during that month. 
• Virgin Money do an easy access cash ISA at 3% as well

BooJewels

Many thanks @Bridlington1 - those are all accounts that I've already looked at and eliminated, as they don't meet my requirements - and I've already sorted an ISA.  Thank you though.

Band7

BooJewels said:

.....no one to check my thinking

Just ask here. There are plenty of old hands about who are happy to share their knowledge.

Generally speaking, you shouldn't be afraid of putting up to £85k into any savings provider who offers FSCS protection, even if you have never heard of them before. 

How you split your money across easy access, fixed term, notice accounts, regular savers, monthly vs annual interest, ISAs vs non-ISAs, depends on when you need your money, how much interest you expect to earn, and what your total taxable income is.

May be set up a separate thread, as this one is about easy access accounts only.

cookster

Band7 said:

BooJewels said:

However, looking at their other offerings (I'd not heard of them until I started reading this forum), their Escalator Instant might be more suitable - for me at least.  You get a different rate of interest depending on your balance.  A bit less at 2.65% for a £25k balance, but if you needed to take out £5k for example, you'd still get 2.45% on the balance. Not quite such a brutal drop if you have a household emergency.

The Escalator account might work for you but even if you missed the much simpler 2.75% easy access accounts that were available in October, there is still the 2.81% Al Rayan Easy Saver.

Many of the 4%+ Regular Savers also let you withdraw/close in emergencies, so they would be a good place to keep some money that might be needed in emergencies. I appreciate you might not have / want have the pre-req current accounts, though.

Any pitfalls to the Al Rayan Easy Saver?

Fully protected? I got around 30k to invest.