Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

TheShape

adindas wrote: »

Indeed it is essential to ring them in advance to arrange appointment to open the saving account.

the advantage of doing it directly in branch is that you will get your account open together with your pass book on the same day of your visit. Of course it is only justifiable if the cost of doing that permitted (tiny),

I can only get to the Brentwood branch on Saturday when they have no one available to open the account. They suggested I complete the application form in advance and they will process it ASAP.

It's only about a 5 mile drive to Brentwood for me and I will be taking some ID to branch anyway as I hadn't accessed my online account in so long that I locked the account trying to log in.

My girlfriend was also quite pleased at the prospect of a trip to Brentwood as she used to shop there often.

schiff

"Representative example:

If you save £100 each month, you will earn £13.03 gross interest after 12 months.

The interest is calculated on the balance of the account each month, so using the example above, the first month's balance would be £100, the second month £200 etc. and therefore the amount of interest paid will increase over the year in line with the balance of the account."

Part of the T&Cs for this account. To count as a payment for a particular month, it has to reach your account by the 25th of the month by SO. The above example seems a bit vague about 'the first month's balance' in that it isn't completely clear that the interest is calculated - as is normal - from the date of deposit, or from the 25th.

Would anyone with experience of this account clarify - TIA.

Mee

Hi!
I note the T&C on the web site says:


To be a Saffron Building Society member you must have held a minimum of £100 with the Society for 12 months or more in a personal savings account.

This may seema silly question, but does it have to be the last 12 months? I ask because the last time I tried to open a different account online, it claimed I existed when I have only had a passbook account in the past.

badger09

schiff wrote: »

"Representative example:

If you save £100 each month, you will earn £13.03 gross interest after 12 months.

The interest is calculated on the balance of the account each month, so using the example above, the first month's balance would be £100, the second month £200 etc. and therefore the amount of interest paid will increase over the year in line with the balance of the account."

Part of the T&Cs for this account. To count as a payment for a particular month, it has to reach your account by the 25th of the month by SO. The above example seems a bit vague about 'the first month's balance' in that it isn't completely clear that the interest is calculated - as is normal - from the date of deposit, or from the 25th.

Would anyone with experience of this account clarify - TIA.

The interest is calculated , as normal, from the date of deposit date.

The reference to 25th means that your deposit must reach the account by 25th in order to qualify as that month's deposit. EG
payment reaches account 19th September - counted as September deposit
payment reaches account 28th October - counted as November deposit (probably;))

In practice, using SOs avoids any potential problem if you set them to pay in the 1st half of the month:)

Rich2808

Mee wrote: »

Hi!
I note the T&C on the web site says:


To be a Saffron Building Society member you must have held a minimum of £100 with the Society for 12 months or more in a personal savings account.

This may seema silly question, but does it have to be the last 12 months? I ask because the last time I tried to open a different account online, it claimed I existed when I have only had a passbook account in the past.

It means a current member for at least 12 months. Non members can open in branch though?

TheShape

Just opened my M&S Monthly Saver tonight.

The customer service representative told me to ignore the letter stating that the account pays 5% interest because I qualified for the 6% rate based on the date I applied for the current account.

Would be good if that is the case because I had been expecting 5%. I know my current account was opened on the 3rd Oct although I can't remember when I applied so it may well have been before the announced rate cut.

Speculator

My Leeds BS Regular Saver issue 3 interest has just been paid dated 31/10

TheShape

Visited Saffron BS in Brentwood today. Left them an application form for the Monthly Saver and two cheques, one which they'll use to open the account on Monday and another which they will pay in on Tuesday for November's payment. Very pleased with the service I got there.

tg99

TheShape wrote: »

Visited Saffron BS in Brentwood today. Left them an application form for the Monthly Saver and two cheques, one which they'll use to open the account on Monday and another which they will pay in on Tuesday for November's payment. Very pleased with the service I got there.

Did the same at Ware branch on Fri; went along with pre-filled in monthly saver application form, ID and cheque and was in and out in about 5 mins.

Special_Saver2

Hi Folks,

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

- Penrith BS Junior Affinity Regular Saver added to post 3 paying 2.75% (+0.5% to charity) p.a. on up to £100 per month for 5 years for children aged "0-16", can be opened by post, 2 penalty-free withdrawals per year
- Darlington BS High Days & Holidays Bonus Saver entry in post 2 edited to show interest rate has dropped to 1.75% (as expected, on 17th October)
- Darlington BS Junior High Days & Holidays Bonus Saver (i.e. children's version of the above account) entry in post 3 edited to show interest rate did not drop at all on 17th October, has remained 2.25%

That Penrith BS account looks like a good one if you have children and do not mind the relatively small amounts of money involved (although the deposits will add up to £6,000 by the end of the 5 years). If the interest rate drops then you can withdraw money to take the balance down to £5 and stop depositing money into the account.

I will do another update next weekend.

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