Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

Ed-1

zolablue25 wrote: »

My wife and I have a joint FlexAccount that we have held for many years (used to use for overseas cash withdrawals). We also have the Flexclusive saver account attached. Is there any advantage to this account over the FlexDirect one? If not, what is the point of offering both? Just curious as to what I should consider before upgrading to FlexDirect.

5% interest on FlexDirect. 0% on FlexAccount?

zolablue25

Ed-1 wrote: »

5% interest on FlexDirect. 0% on FlexAccount?

Indeed. That bit I get. But my query was more along the lines of "why would anyone keep a FlexAccount rather than a FlexDirect one?". Is there any benefit to the FlexAccount at all?

Also, have I read the Ts&Cs correctly (I only had a quick look as I'm supposed to be working!) and you can have one each and a joint one? So for a couple you can stick £7500 in at 5%?

johnmoney05

adindas wrote: »

- When my FlexD interest drop, I converted it to FlexA. On the same day I converted one of my old FlexA to become a FlexD. In this case, all of my FlexAs have been running for at least a year before conversion back to FlexD.

Could I ask whether you could change the type of your accounts online? And how?

I could change my FlexA to FlaxD, but not vice versa.

adindas

zolablue25 wrote: »

Indeed. That bit I get. But my query was more along the lines of "why would anyone keep a FlexAccount rather than a FlexDirect one?". Is there any benefit to the FlexAccount at all?

- introductory interest of 5% is just fro 1 year so after one year it will drop (1% ?). Many people are not interested this sort of interest especially if there is a monhtly funding requirement of £1000.
- Free European travel insurance go with fFex AC if you do monthly payment of £750.
- The possibility to upgrade it to become Flex AC ac to become Flexdirect later after one year. Upgrading an account does not have a credit check.

zolablue25

adindas wrote: »

- introductory interest of 5% is just fro 1 year so after one year it will drop (1% ?). Many people are not interested this sort of interest especially if there is a monhtly funding requirement of £1000.
- Free European travel insurance go with fFex AC if you do monthly payment of £750.
- The possibility to upgrade it to become Flex AC ac to become Flexdirect later after one year. Upgrading an account does not have a credit check.

We don't even use the travel insurance as it doesn't cover my wife's Pre Existing conditions, so that bits useless to us anyway. Maybe need to upgrade to FD and up the monthly feed to £1k. Presumably, if we upgrade the Flexclusive RS will move with it?

Thanks for your input.

Kim_13

johnmoney05 wrote: »

Could I ask whether you could change the type of your accounts online? And how?

I could change my FlexA to FlaxD, but not vice versa.

You can, but only if the change is deemed an upgrade.

A Flex Direct can be changed to FlexPlus online, but you have to ring up to get the FlexAccount.

I sent them a suggestion a while back to allow all changes online, but they don't seem to have published it or a response to it on their suggestions site.

darkidoe

Speculator wrote: »

My wife converted a Flexaccount (she currently has 6 flexdirect opened!)

I simply opened a second Flexdirect. The advisor did say I could convert a Flexdirect to a flexaccount then convert it back again to get 4.89%. His exact words were "believe it or not , if you convert your flexdirect to a flexaccount and convert it back again to a Flexdirect, you will get 5%".

However, Nationwide account conversions are only processed over the weekend so it would have taken me about 2 weeks.

Much easier to simply open a second Flexdirect. I opened my 2nd Flexdirect and did not asked them to apply the 5%. It was automatic.

I secure messaged them shortly after opening and they confirmed it was earning 5%.

Very tempting to keep the FlexDirect even after the promo rates drop off, if that's the case. At least I will still get a 1% reserve account for a year and can keep the regular saver running. WIll probably do that! Thanks for sharing the info!

Special_Saver2

Hi Folks,

I have completed this weekend's update for the first page of this thread.

- Nationwide FlexDirect account entry in post 9 updated to include a note that posters on pages 225 and 226 of this thread report that despite the terms and conditions, they have been able to continue getting 5% on this account after 12 months by downgrading and upgrading the account
- TSB Classic Plus account (post 9) entry updated to show this will pay 3% interest on £1,500 from 4th January 2017
- Lloyds Bank Club Lloyds current account (post 9) entry updated to show this account will pay 2% interest on £1 - £5,000 from 8th January 2017
- Ipswich BS Smart Save (Issue 2) account moved from post 2 back to post 4 as I understand from AlwaysLearnin in post 4462 that the 2.5% bonus interest is only paid on the last 12 months of deposits at the anniversary date with amounts from prior years only getting the basic 0.25% interest

Many thanks to all the forum users who have provided useful information throughout the week.

I will do another update the weekend after next.

SS2

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For those new to this thread, the first few posts are constantly updated and are here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...=608697&page=1

badger09

Special_Saver2

Re Nationwide Flexdirect 5%, see my post 81 here. No downgrade/upgrade necessary.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5424775

alternate

Does anyone have the details for making BACS deposits to Leeds Building Soc Regular Saver?

I am sure it has been asked and answered before but it is a long thread to check and the LBS site has nothing.

Thanks