Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

anamenottaken

Special_Saver2 wrote: »

Hi Everybody,

- Buckinghamshire BS Chiltern Gold Builder account launched yesterday, paying 4.1% on £25-250 per month for 12 months (see post 4 for more details). You can only ever hold one Chiltern Gold Builder account (of any issue). Buckinghamshire BS have lots of accounts with similar names - Chiltern Gold Builder, Chiltern Gold Mine, Chiltern Gold Income Generator, Chiltern Gold Tracker, Chiltern Gold Easy Access, and Chiltern Gold Notice 56. I am therefore not clear if you can open a Chiltern Gold Builder account in addition to a Chiltern Gold Mine account. (They recently had a regular saver account called Chiltern Gold Mine, issues 1-3.) If you try to open a Builder account in addition to an existing Mine account then let me know if you were successful and I will add that information to the entry in post 4.

As a Chiltern Gold Mine account holder, I posted an application for the Gold Builder account this morning. I expect it will be opened. (I'll report back around 18 Dec when cheque should have cleared.) Chief differences are that (i) the Builder account has variable interest rate whereas Gold Mine was fixed and (ii) you can make a withdrawal from the Builder account during the year (eg if the rate drops you can get out your deposits to date) whereas withdrawals not allowed from the Mine.

Update on 18 Dec - received passbook today - so it is possible to hold both accounts.

jimbow25

RayWolfe wrote: »

Always distrust any account with GOLD in the name!
Can you still get a Halifax Liquid Gold? As marked by Arthur Daily <sp>

You're in luck, you can! With a massive 50p interest per annum on £1,000. Luckily there's unlimited deposits allowed too:
http://www.halifax.co.uk/Savings/liquidgold.asp

RayWolfe

jimbow25 wrote: »

You're in luck, you can! With a massive 50p interest per annum on £1,000. Luckily there's unlimited deposits allowed too:

Thank you so much. I will be down there at 9:00AM tomorrow with the cash in my excited sticky little hand ....
I presume it would be unwise to put in more than £50k. What a shame.;)

Speculator

I am surprised the Liquid Gold account is still avaliable. I opened mine 18 years ago at the Leeds Permanent Building Society before it was taken over by the Halifax. In fact, it was my first Bank/Building Society account.

Milarky

anamenottaken wrote: »

As a Chiltern Gold Mine account holder, I posted an application for the Gold Builder account this morning. I expect it will be opened. (I'll report back around 18 Dec when cheque should have cleared.) Chief differences are that (i) the Builder account has variable interest rate whereas Gold Mine was fixed and (ii) you can make a withdrawal from the Builder account during the year (eg if the rate drops you can get out your deposits to date) whereas withdrawals not allowed from the Mine.

The essential distinction is, I think, that the Gold Builder (GB) is not a fixed term account either - so it allows one withdrawal per calendar year. BUT it also states

Regular monthly payments of the same amount each month must be made into this account. These can be made by cash, cheque or standing order

..so if you go in at £250 pcm you have to stick with that regardless of where that rate subsequently goes. The interest is always capitalised on 31 Dec - but a second withdrawal in the same calendar year results in a much lower rate 0f 0.1% for the current period (i.e. final calendar year)

The only 'safe' thing to do in my opinion therefore is make a single withdrawal to close - treating it like a fixed term RS with no interim withdrawals - should the rate turn uncompetitive.

Milarky

Re. the blurb for this account:

Interest rate: 4.1% gross p.a. / AER variable from 11th December 2009
Monthly payment: £25-250 (maximum balance £3,000)
Miss any payments: No
Penalty-free withdrawals: Yes, one per calendar year
How to open account: Post (freepost address)
Special conditions: You can only have one Gold Builder account (any issue) at any one time. Transfers from existing Buckinghamshire BS accounts are not allowed.

So this should really be in #2, not #4 and perhaps be amended to:

Monthly payment: £25-250 (maximum annual addition £3,000 pa) Monthly amount cannot be amended subsequently

and

Penalty-free withdrawals: Yes, one per calendar year but rate drops to just 0.1% for the year if a second withdrawal (including closure) is made

and

Special conditions: You can only EVER have one Gold Builder account (any issue) (c/f Bath BS former Regular savers Issue 1 and 2 accounts). Transfers from existing Buckinghamshire BS accounts are not allowed.

<3FallenxAngel<3

Hey all,

I have been looking for a savings account where i dont need a current account with that bank/BS and that i can just send random payments via bank transfer online/phone with debit card (have Lloyds TSB debit card account) etc as often/much as i want. Also where it is not so easy to withdraw out of it. I have never been that good at saving if we have the money easily accessable so have normally sent money to my Mom to hold onto. But we need this account as we are trying to clear off our smaller debts in 2010 (have bigger ones coming directly out of benefits so will take years even if we added extra and as theres no interest as they are benefit overpayments we are ignoring those ones) And also after the debts are cleared we will be saving for our wedding and after that for decorating our house

Hope this all makes sense and does anyone know if there are any accounts which would let us do this.

Thanks Tobii-Rhea xxx

jimbow25

Regular savers are not normally good if you might want to make more than deposit per month.

Look at Martin's guide on where to start with savings and look for a good instant access account paying around or above 3%. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest

If you are with Lloyds TSB already and want the account to encourage you to leave the money in the bank, their Incentive saver might be what you're after. 3% interest paid monthly when no withdrawals are made, no interest in any month when a withdrawal is made:
http://www.lloydstsb.com/savings/incentive_saver.asp
There's no restriction on withdrawals, just the annoying feeling of having wasted the interest.

Special_Saver2

RayWolfe, Speculator and jimbow25, I remember the Leeds Building Society Liquid Gold account and the Arthur Daley advertisements - that seems such a long time ago now!

I was surprised to see the interest rate is only 0.05%! I did not think any bank or building society would pay less than 0.1% interest. A quick look reveals that the Nationwide BS, Lloyds TSB International, Progressive BS and Newcastle BS all have savings accounts paying 0.01% gross interest!


Tobii-Rhea, I do not have a simple suggestion for your enquiry. I think you would be better off posting a message in a new thread to get the advice that you want. [Edit: I see that jimbow25 has given you the answer - thanks jimbow25.]


Milarky, thanks for the useful posts above. I have added most of your points to my entry now. I am aware that the entries are quite long so I don't usually put details of the exact penalty if people continue to withdraw funds after using up their penalty-free withdrawals.

Now that I read the details again, I am not clear what happens to this account when the balance reaches £3,000. I had assumed that the account would mature after 12 months as this is the case for most accounts which have a limit of £3,000. The details on the Buckinghamshire BS website do not say that you can add £3,000 per year. It says the maximum balance is £3,000. It does not say what will happen when the balance reaches £3,000.

I am going to leave this in post 4 for the moment as this account is like the accounts in post 4 (with a limit equivalent to 12 months' contributions). It is unlike the accounts in post 2 (which have a more useful maximum balance of £15,000-£20,000 or no limit).

I am happy to change this once more information is available. I honestly cannot tell from the Buckinghamshire BS website or the application form what happens when the balance reaches £3,000. Perhaps when some of you receive your passbooks with terms and conditions then you can post something here to clarify the situation?

Anyway, thanks again Milarky for your constructive comments. I have amended the entry accordingly.

All the best,
SS2

anamenottaken

Special_Saver2 wrote: »

- Buckinghamshire BS Chiltern Gold Builder account . . . I am therefore not clear if you can open a Chiltern Gold Builder account in addition to a Chiltern Gold Mine account. .

Just to confirm that my application for a Gold Builder account as well as a Gold Mine account was accepted. Received the passbook today but cheque not yet reached my currrent account (expect it to do so on Monday).