Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

castle96

Me too. Round and round... Little time and enough profit for my time

TheWoodler

MakeVotesMatter said:

90 mins reading current account & regular saver terms and conditions(~22 page, ~4m per page), and 20 mins setting up account and standing orders is almost 2 hours spent.

It’s never taken me 2h to open an account, even with a financial institution new to me, or opening a current account then the linked RS (if applicable). 

The thing is that you would have to read the key facts and set up SOs anyway for any RS, so you might as well do it profitably from a high-paying easy access account, rather than your current account. 

All of the processes take minutes tops. I’d say for me the process for any account typically takes 15m: reading the key facts; thinking time and any research I need to undertake in making the decision to apply, eg if there are any inaccessible conditions such as withdrawals or closure by phone, which is a no-go for me personally; applying; and setting up the SOs. 

It’s not as if you have to go into branch these days and do actual legwork, pay for petrol or a bus fare, etc. Online and mobile banking have made accounts of any type more profitable for the customer in that sense.

 

As @Bridlington1 says, with experience you become more adept at reading the key facts documents - and deciding if the account is for you or not - and acting accordingly. 

You only need to service the SOs from a single easy access account anyway, and you need not open regular savers where you require an associated product, eg a current account, such as the First Direct or Club Lloyds versions. That could be your exclusionary criterion - to open standalone RSs if you feel it’s too much faff or too overwhelming to apply for associated products.

It’s worth looking at easy access accounts with quite a few building societies for two reasons: one is that membership with them, typically a year, is a gateway to preferential RS and other products for existing members, and the second reason is that it then becomes easy to set up internal standing orders from those EA accounts - and Robert is then your mother’s brother! Skipton and Yorkshire are two I can think of that work this way. 

The idea is that every single £ works as hard as it possibly can! And I’d open and fund a RS in less time than it took me to type this out even with predictive text on a mobile. . .

MakeVotesMatter

Ok, you've made me a regular saver convert Thanks all.

Thomas_Crown

TheWoodler said:

MakeVotesMatter said:

90 mins reading current account & regular saver terms and conditions(~22 page, ~4m per page), and 20 mins setting up account and standing orders is almost 2 hours spent.

It’s never taken me 2h to open an account, even with a financial institution new to me, or opening a current account then the linked RS (if applicable). 

The thing is that you would have to read the key facts and set up SOs anyway for any RS, so you might as well do it profitably from a high-paying easy access account, rather than your current account. 

All of the processes take minutes tops. I’d say for me the process for any account typically takes 15m: reading the key facts; thinking time and any research I need to undertake in making the decision to apply, eg if there are any inaccessible conditions such as withdrawals or closure by phone, which is a no-go for me personally; applying; and setting up the SOs. 

The idea is that every single £ works as hard as it possibly can! And I’d open and fund a RS in less time than it took me to type this out even with predictive text on a mobile. . .

It may take 15 - 20 minutes to apply for a Regular Saver but if you are not an existing customer, there are normally loads of questions to answer. Just because you have completed an application, it doesn't mean that the account is actually open.

I have just applied for the Vernon BS Online Regular Saver but  it will take the society up to 2 days to open the account.

Angelica123

MakeVotesMatter said:

Forgive me for being new here, but doesn't seem that worthwhile to drip feed 1 year regular savers. 2 hours wasted for £30 profit?
If I compare co-op 7% regular saver to a 5% easy access account:
Drip feed interest: (£250 * 6 * 0.07) + (£250 * 6 * 0.05) = £180
Non drip feed interest: £250 * 12 * 0.05 = £150
Difference: 180 - 150 = £30 profit
90 mins reading current account & regular saver terms and conditions(~22 page, ~4m per page), and 20 mins setting up account and standing orders is almost 2 hours spent.

I think for many people on here, they would spend less time setting up than that. I would say for me, the process using takes about 15 mins - usually while I am sat in front of TV. If you open multiple regular savers then it starts adding up for little effort (especially if it's all automated with standing orders). 

The other benefit is that the interest is often (but not always) fixed. So 7% fixed over next year when rates of EA will fall, will look even more attractive (I know  Co-op is variable, but FD, for example, are fixed 7%). Plus both co-op and First Direct offer switch bonuses so actually opening a current account plus regular savings account could make you £200 in a year. 

where_are_we

MakeVotesMatter said:

Forgive me for being new here, but doesn't seem that worthwhile to drip feed 1 year regular savers. 2 hours wasted for £30 profit?
If I compare co-op 7% regular saver to a 5% easy access account:
Drip feed interest: (£250 * 6 * 0.07) + (£250 * 6 * 0.05) = £180
Non drip feed interest: £250 * 12 * 0.05 = £150
Difference: 180 - 150 = £30 profit
90 mins reading current account & regular saver terms and conditions(~22 page, ~4m per page), and 20 mins setting up account and standing orders is almost 2 hours spent.

Forgive me for being "old" here! Welcome to the Regular Saver "gang"! Once you have done one you become more adept at the process timewise. I`m hoping RS interest rates hold up longer (because of the low maximum capital limits) than easy access rates once the much forecast BOE drop begins. This is another reason to hold multiple RS`s .

crumpet_man

subjecttocontract said:

MakeVotesMatter said:

Forgive me for being new here, but doesn't seem that worthwhile to drip feed 1 year regular savers. 2 hours wasted for £30 profit?
If I compare co-op 7% regular saver to a 5% easy access account:
Drip feed interest: (£250 * 6 * 0.07) + (£250 * 6 * 0.05) = £180
Non drip feed interest: £250 * 12 * 0.05 = £150
Difference: 180 - 150 = £30 profit
90 mins reading current account & regular saver terms and conditions(~22 page, ~4m per page), and 20 mins setting up account and standing orders is almost 2 hours spent.

My regular savers (approx 20) generate around £3000 pa profit and are a small but useful part of my savings portfolio.

£3000?  Is that the total interest or the difference between putting/leaving the money in an easy access account?

allegro120

MakeVotesMatter said:

Forgive me for being new here, but doesn't seem that worthwhile to drip feed 1 year regular savers. 2 hours wasted for £30 profit?
If I compare co-op 7% regular saver to a 5% easy access account:
Drip feed interest: (£250 * 6 * 0.07) + (£250 * 6 * 0.05) = £180
Non drip feed interest: £250 * 12 * 0.05 = £150
Difference: 180 - 150 = £30 profit
90 mins reading current account & regular saver terms and conditions(~22 page, ~4m per page), and 20 mins setting up account and standing orders is almost 2 hours spent.

I deposit approximately £8k a month into 35 regular savers AER between 5.5% and 8%.  Feeding from 5.2% easy access.  It's too much hassle to calculate the profit because of wide variety of rates and allowances, but I'm confident that I'm getting significantly more than £30 extra profit from running regular savers  

Opening RSs takes between 1 and 5 minutes each.  Reading key features and copying the relevant sentences into my spreadsheet for a quick view takes no more than 5 minutes each (some of them are renewals with the same t&c so don't require any reading time).  Because I choose to distribute manually (except FD where is no such option available) it takes me about 30 minutes a month to deal with transactions. I'm maximising my saving by probably about £700-800 a year for approximately 10 hours of work. It's way above the minimum wage and a fun job to do

HHUK

Thomas_Crown said:

The wording on the Vernon BS website actually states:-

ELIGIBILTY: This account is only available to UK residents aged 18 or over, living in the following postcodes: BL, CH, CW, M, OL, SK, WA, or WN, unless you were a society member prior to 1st May 2024.

The key word is 'unless'. It means that anyone living in the above postcode areas can apply for this account, even if they weren't a member prior to 1st April 2024.

'Unless' denotes an exception to the general rule that the account is only available to UK residents aged 18 or over, living in the postcodes mentioned. The exception clearly being that people living elsewhere may also apply if they were members prior to 1 May 2024.

ThePirates

Nationwide Start 2 Save Iss 3 matured today, interest in my account at midnight! 
Thanks very much NW!