Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

martin_8642

Hi all,
Don't know if anyone has come across First Direct's Regular Saver. It pays 5% and you can pay in £25-£300 per month. You have to have a current account with them and pay the Savings account from it though. I have a current account so it was OK for me.

Banking with first direct usually costs £10 a month, but it's free when you pay in at least £1,500 to your 1st Account each month, or maintain an average monthly 1st Account balance of £1,500, or hold a selected first direct additional product.

I have a First Direct Visa Card which I never use so it is free. I presume banking would be free if you opened a current and Regular Savings Account at the same time as the RSA would count as an additional product.

anamenottaken

The first Direct saver is mentioned in post #5

Here's a link to the first direct information about the saver

http://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/savings/regular-saver-account/in-detail;jsessionid=0000yl4j5w4nnGTZTmdps3rXe4O:11qkrclbj for details.

I'm not a betting person but if I were I would wager that opening a regular saver account would not count as a "selected first direct additional product" in order not to be charged the £10/month fee. They are going to want to make more money out of you than to allow that.

Have found the exclusion of the Regular Saver. To quote First Direct the £10 fee would be waived if you "hold a first direct mortgage, credit card, personal loan, savings account (*excludes Regular Saver Account and a Regular Saver ISA held for less than 12 months), first directory, or first direct car or home insurance policy"

mary

Try an Everyday Esaver - that let me off the hook just under a year ago. I have the REgular Saver with them and the First Account, but never pay any money in over the odds, only the money for the Regular Saver and keep just a balance of £10 in just to make it look good.

Special_Saver2

Hi Everybody,

Here is this weekend's update. Well... actually, I cannot find anything that has changed.

I will do another update next weekend.

Have a nice weekend!

SS2

tiptoe_mouse

I have a number of regular savers which are coming up to maturity. I'm trying to find out if I can make a 13th payment to any of them.

The accounts are:
West Bromwich BS Birthday Bonus 160
Barclays Monthly Savings
Lloyds Monthly Saver
Halifax Regular Saver

As far as I can make out, West Brom and Barclays both have an annual cap (£7200 and £3000 respectively) on how much you can deposit. This would mean that 13th payments are out in my case as I have maxed them out each month.

Halifax seems to have no such exclusion?

No idea about LLoyds.

Can anyone clarify the situation for me on the last two?

Thanks,

tiptoe

rb10

You can definitely make a 13th payment on a Halifax Regular Saver.

10_66

You can also make 13th into Lloyds TSB.

fairtrade

This was discussed in a previous thread. The consenus was - if you set up the account with a payment and then started your regular payments within 30 days then 13 payments would be possible.

anamenottaken

From post #4

Special_Saver2 wrote: »

Norwich and Peterborough BS Regular Saver Account

Interest rate: 4% gross p.a. fixed
Monthly payment: £1-£250
Miss any payments: No
Penalty-free withdrawals: Yes, one per account year.
How to open account: Branch, telephone or post; can be operated online but cannot be opened online
Special conditions: The interest rate is fixed only for the first 12 months. It is not clear if the bonus interest on this account is fixed or variable.

I don't know if the wording has changed recently but the N&P site says, "In following years your savings will earn a variable rate of interest - but you can still earn your 1.5% annual bonus". It seems to me the bonus rate is fixed. If it were to change, it would be after the first full year and it would probably not be worth retaining the account as, with current rates, it would halve from 4% to 2% including the bonus.

tiptoe_mouse

rb10 wrote: »

You can definitely make a 13th payment on a Halifax Regular Saver.

10_66 wrote: »

You can also make 13th into Lloyds TSB.

Thanks to you both. Do either of you speak from personal experiences of making these payments and not being penalised in terms of interest?

fairtrade wrote: »

This was discussed in a previous thread. The consenus was - if you set up the account with a payment and then started your regular payments within 30 days then 13 payments would be possible.

Sorry, could you clarify which account this applies to?

Thanks,

tiptoe