newbury building society

cisko65

Hi
I'm looking for an easy access bank account with interests of at least 1.5%, and no minimum amount (or at least over £10,000). The Newbury building society offers 1.5% (and 1.75% after the first year). I haven't found many reviews (only some regarding mortgages). Do you know anything about it?
I've seen Marco and Virgin offer £1.5% but it's for one year. I already have Santander and I cannot spread the money in several high interest, easy access accounts, as I've done that already.
I need to make my life easier at the moment.
Thanks

YorkshireBoy

The 1.5% account seems to have a £3K max balance. The follow on account seems to be restricted to £2K per tax year. All rates are variable.

And both rates could be cut, or products removed, well before the 12 month anniversary.

At your level of deposit you may as well go with Marcus or Tesco? Doesn't Virgin have withdrawal penalties?

p00hsticks

Are you local ?
I seem to recall that the Newbury only allows you to open a savings account with them if you live in the (pretty wide) local area...

redux

I have a very vague feeling that the Existing Member account may have been £4000 a year, now £2000 as YorkshireBoy already said, so perhaps there are occasional changes.

The Home Saver account might also be interesting to some, 1.4%, save £10 to £500 a month, 2 withdrawals a year, max £20,000 balance, but better choices elsewhere first.

As poohsticks suggests, local area only, but this is most of Southern England, rough postcode boundary Exeter Hereford Northampton east London Brighton.

For the OP probably Marcus and Virgin as you've already spotted, plus Tesco and Sainsburys. Though the Tesco also includes first year bonus you can open another later, haven't checked the others as closely.

JezR

The EMA changed to £2000 per year for the 2018-19 tax year until further notice.

The Welcome to Newbury Account is limited to a £3000 total deposit, although you can allow interest to be added to the account over this.

The interest rate has declined over recent years on both these accounts but it was maintained longer than some societies did with equivalent accounts. Of course this doesn't say what might happen in the future.

I have never bothered with their online side since the Newbury is local to me and these aren't accounts I transact on that often.

cisko65

Thanks everybody.
I can't believe I didn't notice the max balance is £3000!
Newbury (I would be eligible for the area they cover) attracted me as the interest could, in theory, have increased rather than go very low after one year.
I'll check the other banks again, and might choose Marcus. Nowadays it seems we have to switch at least once a year to have acceptable interests.