The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

flaneurs_lobster

Minty33 said:

andyhicks88 said:

Think Coventry is still the best option. I wish they had an app, but I think the .25% difference between that and the closet rival with an app is too much to turn down. Any less and I might not go for it.

Do we think the Coventry BS will be busy on Friday / over the weekend? (or does the 6 access put people off)
Website potentially busy with people late to the party opening accounts, and those already in moving money and trying to check their balance?

Might move some money over tomorrow instead incase the website can't cope with heavy traffic on Friday

FWIW the two deposits I made into the Coventry BS FHS account today took about 90 minutes to appear online. First time using Fast Transfer so no idea if this is the usual timescale.

Rudyson

flaneurs_lobster said:

Minty33 said:

andyhicks88 said:

Think Coventry is still the best option. I wish they had an app, but I think the .25% difference between that and the closet rival with an app is too much to turn down. Any less and I might not go for it.

Do we think the Coventry BS will be busy on Friday / over the weekend? (or does the 6 access put people off)
Website potentially busy with people late to the party opening accounts, and those already in moving money and trying to check their balance?

Might move some money over tomorrow instead incase the website can't cope with heavy traffic on Friday

FWIW the two deposits I made into the Coventry BS FHS account today took about 90 minutes to appear online. First time using Fast Transfer so no idea if this is the usual timescale.

That's been my experience with deposits into Coventry accounts, money shows within a couple of hours

Grouchy

Nationwide BS

Does anyone know how NBS generally contact you to inform you of changes in their savings rates?  I think it used to be by post but haven't received anything for some time.   On online banking I have marketing set to all options for contact, post, email etc.  Are they having problems or is it just me?

Thanks.

Bridlington1

Band7 said:

Bridlington1 said:

Band7 said:

The MonBS Premium Instant Access account is anything but instant or premium. Leaving all the account opening difficulties to one side, neither the deposits nor the withdrawals are instant, and of course you only get the 3% if your balance is £25k+. They generally only process deposits and withdrawals on working days, but it seems withdrawals get only paid on the next working day. Even Al Rayan are faster than that.

In contrast, the CHIP 3% instant access account is genuinely instant (ignoring any hold ups inflicted by your current account provider) and has no silly minimum balance requirement. The only downside of CHIP is the bonus, which they pay instead of interest, which is not FSCS protected, which doesn't compound and which isn't straight forward to withdraw. I think you can get round these issues by withdrawing your complete balance once the monthly bonus has been credited. Your principal gets paid out instantly, the bonus on the next working day. Once you have the bonus money, you can re-deposit the lot. A bit of a faff, and hopefully a true, normal, 3% instant access account will appear soon.

That's if you can even make withdrawals. I still haven't had my nominated bank account verified yet despite sending an original bank statement a month ago and thus can't withdraw funds from the account unless I want to travel over 200 miles to my local branch or have a cheque sent to me, losing about a fortnight's worth of interest in the process. I sent them a secure message on 28th December regarding this with no response yet.

I hope you have actually deposited at least £25,000 with them, as they refuse to let you make withdrawals if you never deposited £25k in the first place. Here is a message I got from them this morning (message just sits in your secure msg inbox, no alert by email or text):

"Unfortunately, as this account has not been funded up to the minimum balance allowed for the product, we cannot process this transaction request. You may fund this account up to the minimum balance allowed for our Premium Instant product of £25,000 before making a withdrawal request, or you may also choose to authorise a full closure of your account to access the funds that are present in the account"

So you cannot test out withdrawals before you commit £25k to them. After all the dramas and delays with MonBS in recent weeks, there is no chance on God's earth that I will deposit £25k with them without knowing what is involved in getting it out again.

Their blurb does say The minimum amount required to open this account is £25,000 so technically, my account is not open even though it shows online and they are happy to take deposits of less than £25k from me.

Lesson learnt. This MonBS account is now closed as I had enough. Luckily, I have CHIP as an acceptable 3% truly instant alternative, anyway

I deposited £25k with them on 20th December. I wish I hadn't now though.

I've just logged into online banking and the account verification appears to have lapsed so I have just had to input my bank details again and will need to wait for another mandate form to arrive, which I will need send off with another statement. It looks like all it will take is one more postal strike within the next month and that money will be stuck in there till March.

ColdIron

Grouchy said:

Nationwide BS

Does anyone know how NBS generally contact you to inform you of changes in their savings rates?  I think it used to be by post but haven't received anything for some time.   On online banking I have marketing set to all options for contact, post, email etc.  Are they having problems or is it just me?

Thanks.

Register with Savings Watch?

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/savingswatch/

Band7

Update on CHIP:

• bonus credited as promised on the first Tuesday in the month (i.e. yesterday)
• I requested withdrawal of my complete balance (high 5 figures), incl. bonus, yesterday
• my principal balance, w/o the bonus, was in my linked current account in seconds 
• the bonus arrived in my linked account around lunchtime today - again, as promised (next working day)
• I now have re-deposited the lot from my linked current account into CHIP

All in all a little bit of faff, but worth for the market-leading instant access rate, with totally unlimited and near real-time withdrawals and deposits.

If you are less fussed than me about the bonus, you don't have to go through the monthly rigmarole of withdrawing and redepositing.

Band7

ColdIron said:

Grouchy said:

Nationwide BS

Does anyone know how NBS generally contact you to inform you of changes in their savings rates?  I think it used to be by post but haven't received anything for some time.   On online banking I have marketing set to all options for contact, post, email etc.  Are they having problems or is it just me?

Thanks.

Register with Savings Watch?

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/savingswatch/

I have been registered with their savingswatch for years. I can't say I noticed them telling me of any increases. 

Grouchy

ColdIron said:

Grouchy said:

Nationwide BS

Does anyone know how NBS generally contact you to inform you of changes in their savings rates?  I think it used to be by post but haven't received anything for some time.   On online banking I have marketing set to all options for contact, post, email etc.  Are they having problems or is it just me?

Thanks.

Register with Savings Watch?

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/savingswatch/

I'd overlooked this.  Thanks.

AmityNeon

Band7 said:

Update on CHIP:

• bonus credited as promised on the first Tuesday in the month (i.e. yesterday)
• I requested withdrawal of my complete balance (high 5 figures), incl. bonus, yesterday
• my principal balance, w/o the bonus, was in my linked current account in seconds 
• the bonus arrived in my linked account around lunchtime today - again, as promised (next working day)
• I now have re-deposited the lot from my linked current account into CHIP

Are you able to redeposit the principal on the same day as the withdrawal to maintain continuous daily interest, or must the account be empty overnight for the reward to be paid the next working day?

Band7

AmityNeon said:

Band7 said:

Update on CHIP:

• bonus credited as promised on the first Tuesday in the month (i.e. yesterday)
• I requested withdrawal of my complete balance (high 5 figures), incl. bonus, yesterday
• my principal balance, w/o the bonus, was in my linked current account in seconds 
• the bonus arrived in my linked account around lunchtime today - again, as promised (next working day)
• I now have re-deposited the lot from my linked current account into CHIP

Are you able to redeposit the principal on the same day as the withdrawal to maintain continuous daily interest, or must the account be empty overnight for the reward to be paid the next working day?

You can redeposit on the day of withdrawal but I am not sure whether this would have an impact on the bonus withdrawal, which sits in "Pending" until it get paid. I have a feeling that the bonus withdrawal requires manual confirmation by CHIP, and that they wouldn't pay it if your balance was above £0.

I didn't want to risk cancellation of the bonus withdrawal, so I parked my money in my 2.72% Santander esaver overnight.