Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

Special_Saver2

Hi Folks,

Here is this weekend's update:

- Tesco Internet Saver (feeder account section) interest rate reduced to 2.8%

- Northern Rock Monthly Saver account added to post 5 (accounts that require another account). This is the account that SnowMan mentioned that requires a cash ISA with a minimum of £1,000 with Northern Rock and there is a 30 days' loss of interest penalty on all withdrawals. I have read through the Key Features and general Terms and Conditions leaflet and I cannot see any way to avoid the 30 days' loss of interest. I have seen other accounts where you can avoid the penalty by giving 30 days' notice or waiting until the bonus period is over but that does not seem to be the case here. I think this is an awful set of terms and conditions and in my entry I have pointed out that the effective interest rate is less than the stated 4% and that there are plenty of better accounts in post 3.

I will do another update next weekend.

SS2

SnowMan

My 5% regular saver (the account was available in November and December last year) is maturing later this month, as I guess will be the case with others here.

Skipton have sent me a letter to say maturity proceeds go into their Loyalty Saver (easy access account) paying 2.25% AER (rate can be monitored here). I think the loyalty saver is an account they use for maturing bonds and regular savers.

The leaflet for the Loyalty Saver says 'you can withdraw between £1 and £100,000 at any one time from any Skipton branch by cheque'. So that looks the obvious way to extricate the funds and I will on maturity of the regular saver pop into my Skipton branch to withdraw the funds.

The 5% rate was variable but fair play to Skipton they have never reduced it see here

They do mention in their letter their currently available regular saver 3.25%, the rate is not good enough to interest me though.

Skipton in their letter mention their 1 year fixed rate bond as a possibility with the maturity proceeds from the regular saver, but there are better rates elsewhere for anyone wanting a 1 year bond.

On the letter they give gross interest up to maturity date. Have checked mine and it is correct to within £1. For anyone who has paid in the maximum £500 per month (6K total) expect gross interest to be be between about £140 and £180 (depending on when in the month the money was paid in).

johnmoney05

My First Direct 8% RS matured today. Just made a phone call to them, transferred the money out and opened another new one. 8% RS is hard to get these day. Should get it quick.

mrchagle

johnmoney05 wrote: »

My First Direct 8% RS matured today. Just made a phone call to them, transferred the money out and opened another new one. 8% RS is hard to get these day. Should get it quick.

Excellent. I've taken one out only a couple of months ago. So looking forward to next year when it matures. I'm putting in the max £300 per month, which I must confess I'm not sure how much interest (net) this will give me...

noh

mrchagle wrote: »

Excellent. I've taken one out only a couple of months ago. So looking forward to next year when it matures. I'm putting in the max £300 per month, which I must confess I'm not sure how much interest (net) this will give me...

From the First Direct website:-

"8.00% AER/gross That's fixed for 12 months. So if you saved £300 per month for 12 months, you'd receive returns of approximately £156 gross (£124 net) in interest after 12 months. Interest is calculated daily and paid on the 12 month anniversary after account opening."

Cash-Strapped.T32

johnmoney05 wrote: »

My First Direct 8% RS matured today. Just made a phone call to them, transferred the money out and opened another new one. 8% RS is hard to get these day. Should get it quick.

Thanked - Mine matures at the end of this month (well, I made the final payment on the 30th just passed, so I assume the interest payment & maturity will occur on the 30th of this month).

I was wondering if it's possible to re-open another right off the bat (in fact that's why I dragged this thread back out from page 5), so cheers for confirming it for me. :beer:

noh wrote: »

From the First Direct website:-

"8.00% AER/gross That's fixed for 12 months. So if you saved £300 per month for 12 months, you'd receive returns of approximately £156 gross (£124 net) in interest after 12 months. Interest is calculated daily and paid on the 12 month anniversary after account opening."

Indeed; I'm sure that to more astute people than me it will seem obvious & quite a simplistic observation - a feature of how interest works; But it's very interesting to me how the maths works out, that if you deposit £300 for only the first 3 months, and then £25 each month after for the duration, you earn £75, almost exactly half of the max interest at £300 deposited p/m.

AirlieBird

Cash-Strapped.T32 wrote: »

Thanked - Mine matures at the end of this month (well, I made the final payment on the 30th just passed, so I assume the interest payment & maturity will occur on the 30th of this month).

I was wondering if it's possible to re-open another right off the bat (in fact that's why I dragged this thread back out from page 5

Yes. The matured account will still appear on the online banking on maturity day, but you will be able to apply for a new Regular Saver on the same day within internet banking.

Special_Saver2

Hi Everybody,

I have updated the First Direct entry on page 1 to include the helpful information in the posts above.

I can only find one new regular savings account (Newcastle BS) and that pays less than 3% interest so it does not qualify for inclusion on the first page of this thread.

I may not be able to do another update next weekend. If that is the case then the next update will be the weekend after.

SS2

ffacoffipawb

johnmoney05 wrote: »

My First Direct 8% RS matured today. Just made a phone call to them, transferred the money out and opened another new one. 8% RS is hard to get these day. Should get it quick.

Are you sure?

Mine matured yesterday (04/11/2011), and I was unable to do an online transfer out so I rang up and they said the account was frozen for 3 - 5 days and I had to wait for access.

Following advice from the Lloyds Reg Saver thread, I rang them up again this morning and the call centre couldn't do the transfer to current account and regular saver closure so they transferred me to another department who could. The money is now in my 1st current account.

However the nice lady who did the transfer and closure of the regular saver said that it will still take 3 - 5 working days for the account to disappear from my account list and I won't be able to open another new account til it does. Hopefully it will still be available at 8%.

If the rate drops to 5% I probably won't bother.

Are you sure I can open one now?

ffacoffipawb

mrchagle wrote: »

Excellent. I've taken one out only a couple of months ago. So looking forward to next year when it matures. I'm putting in the max £300 per month, which I must confess I'm not sure how much interest (net) this will give me...

I received £124.93 net of tax.