Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

mary

New rate for this account as of 1 Dec it seems. See link
http://www.darlington.co.uk/Savings-Interest-Rates.html

mary

Milarky wrote: »

https://www.emoneyfacts.co.uk/news/news-search.aspx?newsarticleid=177955

I'm slightly puzzled. I have the Family Regular Saver for 8%.

I understood it to be Fixed, so are you talking about a different account or the same one. If so, did I misunderstand it? Mine which I opened back in Feb said

An attractive rate Get 5% gross 8%4/AER1 fixed for 12 months. Even better, you could get 8% gross4/ AER1fixed for 12 months including a 3% conditional bonus (which is paid on the anniversary of account opening

fullstop

mary wrote: »

I'm slightly puzzled. I have the Family Regular Saver for 8%.

I understood it to be Fixed, so are you talking about a different account or the same one. If so, did I misunderstand it? Mine which I opened back in Feb said

An attractive rate Get 5% gross 8%4/AER1 fixed for 12 months. Even better, you could get 8% gross4/ AER1fixed for 12 months including a 3% conditional bonus (which is paid on the anniversary of account opening

It is just for new accounts opened on or after 1st December which will be getting the 6% rates, your 8% rate is safe for 12 months.

Special_Saver2

Hi everybody,

I have spotted the following changes:

- Alliance and Leicester Save & Protect will drop from 12% to 8% fixed rate for new applicants from 1st December 2008
- Yorkshire BS Internet Saver (feeder section) will drop from 5.5% to 4.5% from 1st December 2008
- Chelsea Monthly Extra has dropped from 7.5% down to 6% from 24th November 2008

I am sure that other rates will change on 1st December too. I will be quite interested to see what the new rate on the Skipton regular savings accounts will be.

The Tesco account in the feeder section paying 6% (updated rate) seems very attractive at the moment.

Next weekend, I will re-examine the criteria that I use for putting accounts on this list.

For example, for 12 month term accounts I was only putting on accounts which paid 7% or more as the consensus on another thread was that people did not feel it was worth the hassle of opening up 12 month accounts for less than this. As interest rates have dropped so much, this threshold is no longer appropriate.

The other thing that has changed is that people are much more into spreading their money around than when I first started this thread. There are some people on this forum who have more than £50,000 who might already have filled up the best general savings account and are willing to accept a slightly lower interest rate from a different institution in order to safeguard their money from a bank or building society going bust.

With these ideas in mind, I will probably list any account which beats the best general savings account and I will list a few which can be beaten but which have particularly good terms and conditions (e.g. Skipton regular savings accounts which can be closed at any time without loss of interest) or which come very close to the best general savings accounts.

By the way, the reason that the Darlington regular saver is not listed here is that I removed it when the account closed to new customers. I am very happy for people to post updated rates here for old best buys and accounts closed to new investors. I still have a Yorkshire BS regular saver, even though the rate cannot compete with the best general savings accounts, because the rate is very similar to those accounts and I did not want to lose interest transferring the money to another institution. The rate on that account is dropping to 4.75% from tomorrow according to emoneyfacts.

All the best,
SS2

jimbow25

I just read this in another thread- but applications for the Barclays Regular Saver will only get 6% from 26th November onwards (i.e. the deadline has already passed) http://www.personal.barclays.co.uk/BRC1/jsp/brccontrol?site=pfs&task=homefreegroup&value=14937

Many thanks for this thread- it's helpful to keep an eye on what's available. I can't afford multiple savers at once but when my Lloyds one finishes next March this thread will be my first port of call for a replacement product if it's still going

LongTermLurker

Next weekend, I will re-examine the criteria that I use for putting accounts on this list.

For example, for 12 month term accounts I was only putting on accounts which paid 7% or more as the consensus on another thread was that people did not feel it was worth the hassle of opening up 12 month accounts for less than this. As interest rates have dropped so much, this threshold is no longer appropriate.

Granted, and I agree the threshold needs to come down if only on the basis of 7% becoming quickly unattainable, but I think all will agree that the base rate cuts we're seeing are unprecedented and the question will be how long they stay so low.

Personally, as the average rate drops, I would find regular savings as a whole unattactive (although I have 3 high payers taking new cash at the moment) and my preference would be to use No Notice accounts in the hope that rates increase at some point in the not tooo distant future. Of the three you've quoted above, only the A&L and Chelsea would attract me as I see the YBS @ 4.5% as as not being worth a lock-in.

Of course we've seen unprecedented highs as well but looking long term, 5%+ is all that would attract me to specific accounts; below that, I would just use whatever I was with.

Mithos

LongTermLurker wrote: »

Granted, and I agree the threshold needs to come down if only on the basis of 7% becoming quickly unattainable, but I think all will agree that the base rate cuts we're seeing are unprecedented and the question will be how long they stay so low.

Personally, as the average rate drops, I would find regular savings as a whole unattactive (although I have 3 high payers taking new cash at the moment) and my preference would be to use No Notice accounts in the hope that rates increase at some point in the not tooo distant future. Of the three you've quoted above, only the A&L and Chelsea would attract me as I see the YBS @ 4.5% as as not being worth a lock-in.

Of course we've seen unprecedented highs as well but looking long term, 5%+ is all that would attract me to specific accounts; below that, I would just use whatever I was with.

The Chelsea one is a 3/5 year "investment" partly with Norwich Union :-( Would have gone with them as always like Chelsea's service, but don't like NU's flippant attitude towards money.

The A&L one looks very attractive even with the drop... but have no need for life cover.

LongTermLurker

Mithos wrote: »

The Chelsea one is a 3/5 year "investment" partly with Norwich Union :-( Would have gone with them as always like Chelsea's service, but don't like NU's flippant attitude towards money.

The A&L one looks very attractive even with the drop... but have no need for life cover.

I hadn't even looked at the need to have an associated product - in that case, I don't see the attraction of any of the currently available RS accounts unless you happen to want one of the tied products anyway. I'm covered with existing good rates, but I don't see the point in locking into the current low rates and would think it better for people to stay flexible until rates start rising again - they can't stay this low forever.

Kazza242

Special_Saver2 wrote: »

Hi everybody,

I have updated the beginning of this thread with the following information:

- Principality BS 1 Year Regular Saver withdrawn
SS2

The Principality BS 1 year 7% Fixed Rate Regular Saver is now being offered again. See here.

Zebra

Kazza242 wrote: »

The Principality BS 1 year 7% Fixed Rate Regular Saver is now being offered again. See here.

Good spot Kazza.
How long are Principality's Regular Savers usually available for?