Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

spikyone

friolento said:

spikyone said:

Quick Q on the Halifax regular saver as I'm struggling to see an answer in any of the information I can find on their website. AIUI, you can pay in once per calendar month. I opened mine midway through a month, funded it with the maximum £250, and then funded it again on the 1st of each subsequent month. Effectively I had 13 payments go in, and it didn't cause a problem or get flagged as over-subscribing.

However the 12 months has just finished and my money plus interest has been moved out, so my balance is zero. I've obviously paid into the account in April. Do Halifax effectively consider it a new account now, meaning I can pay in another £250 this month? Or is it considered to be the same account and I'll have to wait until May? I assume it's the latter.
The only way to ask them appears to be phoning them and I really don't want to waste half an hour of my life on the phone. Their "online chat" just seems to be a bot that can only answer simple questions.

You can 'renew' your existing, zero balance, account into a normal savings account. This closes the RS. You may have to log out and in again to see the finished result. You can then open a new one and deposit staright away.

Note that Halifax RS will not tell you that this can be done. I wouldn't even bother contacting them over this.

friolento said:

spikyone said:

Quick Q on the Halifax regular saver as I'm struggling to see an answer in any of the information I can find on their website. AIUI, you can pay in once per calendar month. I opened mine midway through a month, funded it with the maximum £250, and then funded it again on the 1st of each subsequent month. Effectively I had 13 payments go in, and it didn't cause a problem or get flagged as over-subscribing.

However the 12 months has just finished and my money plus interest has been moved out, so my balance is zero. I've obviously paid into the account in April. Do Halifax effectively consider it a new account now, meaning I can pay in another £250 this month? Or is it considered to be the same account and I'll have to wait until May? I assume it's the latter.
The only way to ask them appears to be phoning them and I really don't want to waste half an hour of my life on the phone. Their "online chat" just seems to be a bot that can only answer simple questions.

You can 'renew' your existing, zero balance, account into a normal savings account. This closes the RS. You may have to log out and in again to see the finished result. You can then open a new one and deposit staright away.

Note that Halifax RS will not tell you that this can be done. I wouldn't even bother contacting them over this.

Genius, thanks! I hadn't even considered doing that.

allegro120

spikyone said:

Quick Q on the Halifax regular saver as I'm struggling to see an answer in any of the information I can find on their website. AIUI, you can pay in once per calendar month. I opened mine midway through a month, funded it with the maximum £250, and then funded it again on the 1st of each subsequent month. Effectively I had 13 payments go in, and it didn't cause a problem or get flagged as over-subscribing.

However the 12 months has just finished and my money plus interest has been moved out, so my balance is zero. I've obviously paid into the account in April. Do Halifax effectively consider it a new account now, meaning I can pay in another £250 this month? Or is it considered to be the same account and I'll have to wait until May? I assume it's the latter.
The only way to ask them appears to be phoning them and I really don't want to waste half an hour of my life on the phone. Their "online chat" just seems to be a bot that can only answer simple questions.

It is considered to be the same account so you can't pay more than £250 in one calendar month.  However, I can't see anything in t&c that prevents you from closing the existing account and immediately opening a new one - this way you can double the amount in the overlap  month.  I didn't do this, didn't feel that the benefit is worth the action.  

granta

fun4everyone said:

fun4everyone said:

granta said:

I had a similar situation in that my online application was never recognised. I tried 3 times and each time got a holding email but no application number. I sent several secure messages but they could not trace any of the applications!

In the end, they offered me a telephone appointment and it was opened within 30 minutes. I had to persist with the secure messages to arrange this though as the telephone wait time was over 1 hour each time. They are still investigating the online failures. Perhaps you could if you could arrange a pre-arranged call?

This is good info thanks a lot. Does sound similar, I will try a couple more messages before doing anything. They really make it difficult to open this savings account.

Still no co-op reg saver for fun4everyone a week after this post and three weeks after applying Since applying they have 1) Just ignored the application until I called in weeks later 2) Told me on the phone my application had been accepted and would appear in online banking soon 3)Nothing happened after that 4)Sent me a letter in the post saying I had to send them my ID as they need it "before they could welcome me to the co-op". I am already in the co-op !!!!!!, I opened a current account which is operating fine a month ago. 5)Exchanged some online messages with me saying ive been forwarded to the "savings team" 6)Nothing, and no response when I questioned the ID request. Tried to call as well, 1 hour left on the hold music and nobody answered. I did write again yesterday specifically asking for a telephone appointment to open it like granta got. Who knows if I will be successfull. I realise they must be busy and they recently laid off a load of staff. They probably bit off more than they could chew. I wouldnt care if it was just delayed ages but the letter in the post asking for more ID when they already opened a current account is annoying me. Will just see what they say. I wouldn't trust them to make a cup of tea correctly.

When they called to offer me a telephone appointment, it was from a specific branch. So you could try to call a branch yourself to see if they can open on the phone? Or just follow up on the messages asking for a telephone appointment.

Kim_13

friolento said:

spikyone said:

Quick Q on the Halifax regular saver as I'm struggling to see an answer in any of the information I can find on their website. AIUI, you can pay in once per calendar month. I opened mine midway through a month, funded it with the maximum £250, and then funded it again on the 1st of each subsequent month. Effectively I had 13 payments go in, and it didn't cause a problem or get flagged as over-subscribing.

However the 12 months has just finished and my money plus interest has been moved out, so my balance is zero. I've obviously paid into the account in April. Do Halifax effectively consider it a new account now, meaning I can pay in another £250 this month? Or is it considered to be the same account and I'll have to wait until May? I assume it's the latter.
The only way to ask them appears to be phoning them and I really don't want to waste half an hour of my life on the phone. Their "online chat" just seems to be a bot that can only answer simple questions.

You can 'renew' your existing, zero balance, account into a normal savings account. This closes the RS. You may have to log out and in again to see the finished result. You can then open a new one and deposit staright away.

Note that Halifax RS will not tell you that this can be done. I wouldn't even bother contacting them over this.

To my knowledge it will be necessary to do this. Any RS that Halifax renew for you is treated as the same account with the £250 per calendar month limit remaining in place, so the account as is would require you to wait until May.

If you close the Everyday Saver that Halifax open for you with the account, the RS will instead become an Everyday Saver at the end of 12 months, leaving you free to open a new Regular Saver or not depending on whether it is worth having or not at the rate prevailing at the time. If you open one, it is a new account with a new account number and £250 can be paid in immediately regardless of any 13th payment that was made into the old account.

refluxer

RE: Re-starting a new Halifax RS.

There must be something particular about 'renewing' a Halifax RS that allows you to pay in again during the same month because I wasn't able to do this, despite the new RS definitely being a different account.

My process was slightly different though because my RS automatically matured into an Everyday Saver (as I had closed the ES they opened alongside it a year ago).

I then opened a new RS (different account number) and was unable to pay into it during the same month as the last payment into the previous one - the payment was rejected and returned.

Not a big deal, but I thought it was odd based on comments above about the new RS just needing a new account number in order to be able to do this.

savethepandas

friolento said:

E_zroda said:

Co-op RS

Is anyone here in the same position? For two months in the row funded with the max £250. But the £50 savings bonus from them for a CA switch was paid into the RS and stayed there. U think MSEs have mentioned the £50 transferrred out by Co-op, but mine seems to be sitting there , defying logic and hopefully attracting extra interest. Anyone else?

My £50 was also paid into the RS, making the total contribution £300. After a few days, they moved the entire £300 into my current account. I noticed this by pure cincidence, they never notified me. I then moved £250 back, and they stayed in there. I would recommend you keep an eye on it. You could also just move the £50 out to another interest bearing account - saves you from checking whether your COOP RS is still ok.

Both me and OH received £50 on 2nd April, both still in the RS. When did your £50 land and get removed ?

friolento

savethepandas said:

friolento said:

E_zroda said:

Co-op RS

Is anyone here in the same position? For two months in the row funded with the max £250. But the £50 savings bonus from them for a CA switch was paid into the RS and stayed there. U think MSEs have mentioned the £50 transferrred out by Co-op, but mine seems to be sitting there , defying logic and hopefully attracting extra interest. Anyone else?

My £50 was also paid into the RS, making the total contribution £300. After a few days, they moved the entire £300 into my current account. I noticed this by pure cincidence, they never notified me. I then moved £250 back, and they stayed in there. I would recommend you keep an eye on it. You could also just move the £50 out to another interest bearing account - saves you from checking whether your COOP RS is still ok.

Both me and OH received £50 on 2nd April, both still in the RS. When did your £50 land and get removed ?

• March 13: £50 credited by COOP to RS (it had the March £250 in since March 1)
• March 18: £300 moved by COOP from RS to current account
• March 20: I noticed it and moved £250 back into the RS. I couldn't be bothered with calling them about it. Account has been fine since.

As an aside, today I received two identical account statements for the RS in the post.It appears I had not requested paperless (my usual preference) so I have done this now.

ircE

ircE said:

Co-op RS @ 7%

Appreciate I'm late to the party here. I'm an existing Co-op Bank customer. Applied online for the RS on Sunday. It's now been 4 working days and still don't see the account in the app, nor have I received any communication except the initial confirmation of application email. Is this typical of others' experience? How long should I wait before calling them?

An update for those interested. I was unable to call them so I sent a message through the bank's website on the night of Tuesday 9th... no response, but I did see the account visible on the app and website Thursday 11th morning (8 working days since application made) and made my first deposit... and today, Friday 12th I've received a letter in the post saying "thanks for the application, we're completing final checks before opening your account"...

Ah well - at least it's up and running now...

soulsaver

@Special_Saver2
Thanks for a really useful thread and the work put in to keep it upto date.

Section 4. Gatehouse RS - Maybe worth highlighting in 'special conditions' that Gatehouse say they only allow one of their RSs to be held at a time.

Regular Saver Account (Issue 2) | Gatehouse Bank plc

"Only individuals can open an account and only ONE Regular Saver account is allowed per person. Joint accounts are not permitted." 

Kazza242

According to Moneyfacts, Principality Building Society are launching a new account called, 1 Year Triple Access Regular Saver, paying 6.00%.

Pay in £1 - £50 per month.  The maximum investment is £600.

It permits 3 penalty-free withdrawals during the term of the account.  The account matures after one year.

It will be available to open online and in branch.

EDIT: The new regular savings account is now live, please follow the link here.