Complex ways to earn more interest

polymaff

OP, a lot of people regard their activities you comment upon to be therapeutic.


Just as all your (plural) contributions to this thread are, for - for sure - those contributions have not made you a single penny...:)

Ciprico

colsten wrote: »

Strange thing to say when they are the only current accounts left that would pay you a decent amount of interest, especially since these can be set up to bounce the monthly min payment between them, with next to no effort required to manage them. Never mind. TSB will pull them in a few months time, anyway, and you have made a conscious decision that you want to lose out.

Literally all people who switch for the bonus don't switch their 'main' account but have one or more donor accounts which they use for that purpose. Note there is no definition of what a 'main' account is - it's whatever you declare it to be. It appears you have missed out on major amounts of money as the remaining switch offers aren't too exciting now. Again, though, it's fine, as you have made a conscious decision you didn't want to be part of the switching frenzies that some of us MSEers can't but get excited about. Each to their own.

Don't you normally need to use the "Current Account Switch Service" to get the bonus....

Just checked with First Direct and there you do..

So you need to set up a dummy account with one bank then transfer it to FD for the bonus - seems a lot of work, is there a better way

polymaff

123mat123 wrote: »

So you need to set up a dummy account with one bank then transfer it to FD for the bonus - seems a lot of work, is there a better way

Most of us old sweats have plenty of dormant bank accounts.

steampowered

If you are financially stable and saving for the long term, it is generally a good idea to put money into investments (e.g. into a stock fund tracker) rather than into savings.

Much less faffing about; and much better returns. There is also much less risk of inflation eroding your pot.

A few years ago I used to muck about quite a bit e.g. with 0% credit cards, saving the money in savings account, managing it all in a spreadsheet and pocketing the interest; but frankly it wasn't worth the time it took for the profit I got; and I get a much better return from my stock market investments anyway.

verybigchris

I'd argue that anyone who's got enough free time to be reading and posting on this message board also has enough free time to jump through some hoops to earn some free cash.

yahaa

Thank you everyone - as I suspected there is no simple answer to this, but helpful to hear various thoughts.

Zanderman

123mat123 wrote: »

Don't you normally need to use the "Current Account Switch Service" to get the bonus....

Just checked with First Direct and there you do..

So you need to set up a dummy account with one bank then transfer it to FD for the bonus - seems a lot of work, is there a better way

Er, that is the better way!
And it's not necessarily a lot of work.
But your mileage may well vary.
I'm guessing though, from your comments, that you haven't frequented the bank accounts board much in recent years - switching via CASS for bonuses, using secondary, tertiary (and so on) current accounts has been all the rage.
You've missed the peak period though - the heady days of multiple switches to just one bank for £100s each time or, only this year, multiple switches into Santander for £50 Amazon vouchers - with many, me included, ending up with over £1k's worth.

Ciprico

Zanderman wrote: »

Er, that is the better way!
And it's not necessarily a lot of work.
But your mileage may well vary.
I'm guessing though, from your comments, that you haven't frequented the bank accounts board much in recent years - switching via CASS for bonuses, using secondary, tertiary (and so on) current accounts has been all the rage.
You've missed the peak period though - the heady days of multiple switches to just one bank for £100s each time or, only this year, multiple switches into Santander for £50 Amazon vouchers - with many, me included, ending up with over £1k's worth.

..you are right, been with Nationwide for decades and never considered moving - had no complaints - but last week I shut down all my P2P accounts, (Always thought P2P was too good to be true, and with several companies ceasing trading recently, RS and LW cutting rates to prop up provision fund, GrowthStreet MD leaving, just getting out of FC in time, it seems to my untrained eye the whole thing is wobbling)... so I am rolling in cash and want somewhere to put it. I have already reached my comfort level in "proper investments".

colsten

Zanderman wrote: »

You don't need your salary going to TSB to trigger the 3%, you just need 500 going in each month. You can automate that, taking it out again too (obviously) but if you're worried something might go wrong with automation then just do it manually. Login to another account, with TSB set up as a payee, move 500 to TSB. Than, 10 minutes later, login to TSB and move it back. Easy, and you know it hasn't gone wrong as you did it manually.

Way too complicated :cool:
If you have held several TSB accounts for years, like the OP says he has, all you need to do is set up SOs between those accounts. Say he and his wife have a sole account each (A and and one joint one (C), each loaded with between £500 and £1,500. So you set up 3 SOs, A -> B, B-> C, and C-> A, for £500 each. You might want to log in once a month to cream off the interest but otherwise this takes care of itself.

steampowered wrote: »

If you are financially stable and saving for the long term, it is generally a good idea to put money into investments (e.g. into a stock fund tracker) rather than into savings.

A good portfolio will have a cash element which is sensibly kept in the best interest-paying accounts.

YorkshireBoy

colsten wrote: »

Way too complicated :cool:
If you have held several TSB accounts for years, like the OP says he has, all you need to do is set up SOs between those accounts. Say he and his wife have a sole account each (A and and one joint one (C), each loaded with between £500 and £1,500. So you set up 3 SOs, A -> B, B-> C, and C-> A, for £500 each. You might want to log in once a month to cream off the interest but otherwise this takes care of itself.

Way too complicated.

£500.00 A-->B
£503.70 B-->C
£507.40 C-->A
£11.10 A-->somewhere else paying interest.

All done by SOs. Don't worry about the pennies under or over £1,500 in each account.