Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

friolento

SFindlay said:

Rudyson said:

Bobblehat said:

But what if you already have their existing RS? Which says you can only hold one RS at any time? Penalty of the equivalent of 30 days interest if you ditch it for the new one! Could make a few Coventry members a bit miffed with a new Loyalty product?

Coventry's usual policy is that you can only have one a/c of each issue. As this would be a new issue, it shouldn't disqualify anyone who already has one or more Reg savers with them.

Coventry position has NEVER been to allow one of each issue, for some time their IT systems did not identify those of us who held multiple issues however a year or two ago the issue was highlighted to them resulting in everyone's accounts being looked at. Those of us who held multiple issues of their Regular Savers had letters sent detailing which ONE account would remain open and the rest were given an early maturity date and full interest paid up at that date. It was made clear at that time in future only one account of ANY issue would be allowed. I suspect as the new account is going to be a Loyalty RS it will be allowed in addition to the standard RS. 

They do permit a normal regular saver and a First Home regular saver, so I am quite confident that they will also permit the Loyalty RS. 

In December 2022, I opened a second First Home Saver by mistake. Both are the same issue, the original one that pays 5.6%. They are both still open, though I am only using one of them, in order not to fall foul of their rules.

So their systems are not enforcing the T&Cs.

subjecttocontract

Nick_C said:

subjecttocontract said:

Nick_C said:

One reason why I would think three times about opening another Regular Saver is that I want to keep my interest below £1000 a year, to avoid the hassle of dealing with HMRC.  

What sort of hassle with HMRC are you expecting ? I've had way over the PSA limit for years and never had any hassle, ever with HMRC.

The hassle of checking to see if they have correctly calculated the tax due on interest from 30 or so savings accounts, and checking to see if my adjusted tax code is correct.  The hassle of spending half an hour on the phone, and knowing which options to select to avoid being cut off, in order to speak to a human being instead of their Artificial Stupidity chatbots.

You presumably already check your interest now to ensure you remain under the PSA limit. If you were to be marginally over its easy to check if your figures tally with HMRC......I've never had a problem. There are a few people on this forum who have had issues but you never hear of the many thousands of taxpayers who don't have issues.

Oh, and I've never had to telephone HMRC.

Don't let the tax tail wag the dog and miss out on what might be an attractive interest rate.

SFindlay

friolento said:

SFindlay said:

Rudyson said:

Bobblehat said:

But what if you already have their existing RS? Which says you can only hold one RS at any time? Penalty of the equivalent of 30 days interest if you ditch it for the new one! Could make a few Coventry members a bit miffed with a new Loyalty product?

Coventry's usual policy is that you can only have one a/c of each issue. As this would be a new issue, it shouldn't disqualify anyone who already has one or more Reg savers with them.

Coventry position has NEVER been to allow one of each issue, for some time their IT systems did not identify those of us who held multiple issues however a year or two ago the issue was highlighted to them resulting in everyone's accounts being looked at. Those of us who held multiple issues of their Regular Savers had letters sent detailing which ONE account would remain open and the rest were given an early maturity date and full interest paid up at that date. It was made clear at that time in future only one account of ANY issue would be allowed. I suspect as the new account is going to be a Loyalty RS it will be allowed in addition to the standard RS. 

They do permit a normal regular saver and a First Home regular saver, so I am quite confident that they will also permit the Loyalty RS. 

In December 2022, I opened a second First Home Saver by mistake. Both are the same issue, the original one that pays 5.6%. They are both still open, though I am only using one of them, in order not to fall foul of their rules.

So their systems are not enforcing the T&Cs.

I think that it's not so much they aren't enforcing their T&C as it was well discussed on here that people were gradually getting the letters informing them their extra RS would be closed rather than everyone at same time so it wasn't a major IT overhaul to identify those who held more than one account. Their problem is their IT system doesn't automatically identify those holding multiple accounts so it will only be through manual checks, (whether random or they have a process in place to manually check certain groups of account holders) that those with multiple accounts will be identified. 

They did make it perfectly clear that although they were honouring the full interest when closing the additional accounts on that occasion they would not be doing that in the future. 

Nick_C

subjecttocontract said:

Nick_C said:

subjecttocontract said:

Nick_C said:

One reason why I would think three times about opening another Regular Saver is that I want to keep my interest below £1000 a year, to avoid the hassle of dealing with HMRC.  

What sort of hassle with HMRC are you expecting ? I've had way over the PSA limit for years and never had any hassle, ever with HMRC.

The hassle of checking to see if they have correctly calculated the tax due on interest from 30 or so savings accounts, and checking to see if my adjusted tax code is correct.  The hassle of spending half an hour on the phone, and knowing which options to select to avoid being cut off, in order to speak to a human being instead of their Artificial Stupidity chatbots.

You presumably already check your interest now to ensure you remain under the PSA limit. If you were to be marginally over its easy to check if your figures tally with HMRC......I've never had a problem. There are a few people on this forum who have had issues but you never hear of the many thousands of taxpayers who don't have issues.

Oh, and I've never had to telephone HMRC.

Don't let the tax tail wag the dog and miss out on what might be an attractive interest rate.

"If you were to be marginally over its easy to check if your figures tally with HMRC." - and what happens if they don't?  I could spend hours trying to reconcile my data with theirs and getting them to change their figure if it is wrong.

"Oh, and I've never had to telephone HMRC."  Lucky you,  I was on the phone to them for 37 minutes the other day.  About 35 of those minutes were waiting to speak to an adviser.

Thank you for your opinion, but you are not telling me anything that I am not already aware of.

Bridlington1

I've just spoken to Coventry BS.
Their new loyalty rate regular saver will pay 7% variable
£250 max monthly deposit
Withdrawals/early closure subject to 30 day interest penalty

EDIT:
Also the account will be launched on Tuesday 28/11/23.
The account runs on an account month basis so if you opened it on 28/11/23 and deposited the maximum amount, you couldn't deposit further funds until 28/12/23.

subjecttocontract

Sounds good, I'll have one.
My HSBC reg saver (5%) ends next month, won't renew.
I'm trying to cut down on my regular savers paying lower interest rates. I'm down to 17 currently costing £4000 a month.
Another 2 are due to end before Christmas.

flaneurs_lobster

subjecttocontract said:

I'm trying to cut down on my regular savers paying lower interest rates. I'm down to 17 currently costing £4000 a month.

19 costing £5.2K a month, all paying 5.5% or above.

Probably about the limit for what's a sensible* number, both in terms of effort to fund/maintain manually and funds to have available.

* Not a pop at @Bridlington1 's somewhat exceptional savings regime. 

allegro120

Bobblehat said:

Rudyson said:

Bobblehat said:

But what if you already have their existing RS? Which says you can only hold one RS at any time? Penalty of the equivalent of 30 days interest if you ditch it for the new one! Could make a few Coventry members a bit miffed with a new Loyalty product?

Coventry's usual policy is that you can only have one a/c of each issue. As this would be a new issue, it shouldn't disqualify anyone who already has one or more Reg savers with them.

That would be great if true. I wonder if they should clarify that in their T&C's ... which for the latest 5.5% RS states .....

"1.5 You can only open and be named on one Regular Saver (including any previous or subsequent issues) at any one time. "

Fingers crossed!

I had two Coventry regular savers running simultaneously.  It's fine as long as they are different issues.

allegro120

Bridlington1 said:

I've just spoken to Coventry BS.
Their new loyalty rate regular saver will pay 7% variable
£250 max monthly deposit
Withdrawals/early closure subject to 30 day interest penalty

Sounds great! I'm in

SonOfPearl

Bridlington1 said:

I've just spoken to Coventry BS.
Their new loyalty rate regular saver will pay 7% variable
£250 max monthly deposit
Withdrawals/early closure subject to 30 day interest penalty

Personally, the condition in bold puts me off completely so I won't be opening this Coventry regular saver, just as I haven't opened previous Coventry regular savers with this condition. But each to their own of course.