Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

MarkFromCornwall

Scottish Building Society, Regular Bonus Saver (closed to new customers) interest rate dropping from 2%+2%=4% to 1%+1%=2% from 1st April.

(my letter also says the maximum monthly amount is reducing to £500, which puzzles me because I thought it always was £500)

johnmoney05

MarkFromMullion wrote: »

Scottish Building Society, Regular Bonus Saver (closed to new customers) interest rate dropping from 2%+2%=4% to 1%+1%=2% from 1st April.

(my letter also says the maximum monthly amount is reducing to £500, which puzzles me because I thought it always was £500)

I think I am going to close it. On the letter it said you can close it on 30 April 13 and still receive the whole amount by 4% untill 30 April 13 so long as you noticed them before 31 Mar 13. Am I correct?

apt

Scottish BS has had a regular saver with a £1,000 monthly limit.

MarkFromCornwall

johnmoney05 wrote: »

On the letter it said you can close it on 30 April 13 and still receive the whole amount by 4% untill 30 April 13 so long as you noticed them before 31 Mar 13. Am I correct?

Yes, that's how I read it. It seems very reasonable of them.

Frogletina

johnmoney05 wrote: »

I think I am going to close it. On the letter it said you can close it on 30 April 13 and still receive the whole amount by 4% untill 30 April 13 so long as you noticed them before 31 Mar 13.

I think I will close mine as well but not sure where to transfer the savings to. I think that it will go into the Lloyds vantage accounts that I have to begin with (3%) but will check any upcoming Isas for the new tax year.

premierfella

Disappointing short-sighted move. 2% and likely drop again in 2014. They may as well have told us "Please keep your money - we no longer need it or want it." At least that would have been honest!
I take the view that building societies in particular are building their own graves. Funding for Lending will be here for a long while, but not forever. When they need savers again, they may find that we are not so quick to return to them after using the alternatives.

Milarky

Now we are 'under 3%' I'm surprised not to see

Mansfield BS Regular Savings (Issue 2)

or

Furness Lifestyle Saver(although that seems to be a 'in branch' product, I did apply for mine by post when I opened one)

Any thoughts?

alanq

With lower rates now being discussed Leeds BS's offering may be worth considering. Its underlying rate is just 0.05% BUT there is a 3% [STRIKE]fixed rate[/STRIKE] bonus (payable if one makes the monthly contributions and not more than one withdrawal), £500 maximum monthly deposit and, unusually, it doesn't have to be wound up at the end of a year. Open in branch or by post.

http://www.leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/savings/regularsaver.html

apt

The 3% bonus is variable, not fixed, although it is perhaps unlikely to change.

alanq

apt wrote: »

The 3% bonus is variable, not fixed, although it is perhaps unlikely to change.

It seems that you are correct despite what I was told in branch.

At the start the Ts&Cs state "3.05% Gross* p.a./AER# (variable) including 3% conditional Bonus.". This to me means that the total rate is variable but the bonus element, while conditional, is fixed.

However at the very end they do say
"The levels of any Bonus payment is a condition of the account and can be varied in accordance with the Society’s General Investment Conditions."
http://www.leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/savings/pdf/regularsaver.pdf

So despite allowing the account to roll for more than a year the BS could make this edition of the account so unattractive that it is not worth keeping. I still think that it is an OK account but not as good as I thought it was.