Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

bigjoe

Personally, I like to step ladder my RS maturity dates so that I have at least 2-3 RS maturing each month, but it doesn't always work out as planned, especially when a few can get pulled within a couple of weeks during the 'UK Savings Week' in September.

Does this mean you have dozens of RS accounts? Is that common on this thread? And does it not mean paying tax on savings, effectively cutting IR?

Is the thinking lots of RS at higher interest is better than lump sum in lower interest ISA for example?

Speculator

bigjoe said:

Personally, I like to step ladder my RS maturity dates so that I have at least 2-3 RS maturing each month, but it doesn't always work out as planned, especially when a few can get pulled within a couple of weeks during the 'UK Savings Week' in September.

Does this mean you have dozens of RS accounts? Is that common on this thread? And does it not mean paying tax on savings, effectively cutting IR?

Is the thinking lots of RS at higher interest is better than lump sum in lower interest ISA for example?

I have 35 regular savers and I don't pay any tax on them. I am not working.

JamesRobinson48

bigjoe said:

Personally, I like to step ladder my RS maturity dates so that I have at least 2-3 RS maturing each month, but it doesn't always work out as planned, especially when a few can get pulled within a couple of weeks during the 'UK Savings Week' in September.

Does this mean you have dozens of RS accounts? Is that common on this thread? And does it not mean paying tax on savings, effectively cutting IR?

Is the thinking lots of RS at higher interest is better than lump sum in lower interest ISA for example?

Yes, it is not uncommon on this thread to have dozens of RS accounts. Many aim to have the final maturity proceeds from each individual RS generate cash to feed regular payments into the others, on a monthly basis. Although this isn't easy to achieve consistently in practice. Other RS enthusiasts are much less ambitious, and open only a handful of the highest paying RS accounts. Me, I have at least 15 RS accounts, most paying in the range 5.25-8%. Yet others think the whole RS game is no fun and more trouble than it's worth - but I expect they tend not to visit this thread!

The thinking is to maximise after-tax interest income, while at the same time maintaining whatever level of ready access to cash one requires.  Bearing in mind that many RS accounts can be closed any time without penalty. 

Of course, using one's ISA allowances is also valuable. Naturally, individuals' tax rates and other circumstances vary. Personally, I put my annual ISA allowances into Stocks & Shares ISAs. In my case that leaves some cash savings exposed to income tax. Which I put into a mix of Easy Access, One Year BS Bonds, Regular Savers, and some other things.

bigjoe

JamesRobinson48 said:

bigjoe said:

Personally, I like to step ladder my RS maturity dates so that I have at least 2-3 RS maturing each month, but it doesn't always work out as planned, especially when a few can get pulled within a couple of weeks during the 'UK Savings Week' in September.

Does this mean you have dozens of RS accounts? Is that common on this thread? And does it not mean paying tax on savings, effectively cutting IR?

Is the thinking lots of RS at higher interest is better than lump sum in lower interest ISA for example?

Yes, it is not uncommon on this thread to have dozens of RS accounts. Many aim to have the final maturity proceeds from each individual RS generate cash to feed regular payments into the others, on a monthly basis. Although this isn't easy to achieve consistently in practice. Other RS enthusiasts are much less ambitious, and open only a handful of the highest paying RS accounts. Me, I have at least 15 RS accounts, most paying in the range 5.25-8%. Yet others think the whole RS game is no fun and more trouble than it's worth - but I expect they tend not to visit this thread!

The thinking is to maximise after-tax interest income, while at the same time maintaining whatever level of ready access to cash one requires.  Bearing in mind that many RS accounts can be closed any time without penalty. 

Of course, using one's ISA allowances is also valuable. Naturally, individuals' tax rates and other circumstances vary. Personally, I put my annual ISA allowances into Stocks & Shares ISAs. In my case that leaves some cash savings exposed to income tax. Which I put into a mix of Easy Access, One Year BS Bonds, Regular Savers, and some other things.

Really appreciate this information. I'm quite new to this journey so this thread is invaluable.

jim1999

bigjoe said:

Personally, I like to step ladder my RS maturity dates so that I have at least 2-3 RS maturing each month, but it doesn't always work out as planned, especially when a few can get pulled within a couple of weeks during the 'UK Savings Week' in September.

Does this mean you have dozens of RS accounts? Is that common on this thread? And does it not mean paying tax on savings, effectively cutting IR?

Is the thinking lots of RS at higher interest is better than lump sum in lower interest ISA for example?

You have to bear in mind that there are lots of people in lots of different circumstances.

It is absolutely true that the majority of regular savers are not particularly valuable for higher rate taxpayers, but that only applies for a subset of people.

You've got people who max out their ISAs already (whether stocks or cash), people who aren't taxpayers but have savings, people who have also maxed out their premium bonds.

And on top of that there are plenty of people here who are quite happy to open a 5% regular saver if it gives them more interest than a 4.8% "normal" savings account, whilst others will find it mad that someone would go through the hassle of opening an account, setting up the payments for the sake of an extra 0.2%.

Unsurprisingly quite a lot of debate ends up being between people in different circumstances who don't realise why a decision makes sense for someone else's personal circumstances.

spreadsheeterapple

Bridlington1 said:

Personally I'm taking the opposite approach. I've got Skipton at 7% due to mature in May, PBS at 8% maturing in December etc and I plan to hold onto these till maturity. 

My logic is that regular savers are generally at their most profitable** towards the end of their term, thus by closing the regular saver early I'm missing out on the most profitable months of the regular saver's term.

Exactly this ^^

I did my own spreadsheets to compare scenarios between leaving til maturity vs 'refreshing' at same higher rate, including in my scenario a drop of as much as 2 per cent in the rate on offer on the next reg saver at maturity of the original one
- There was MORE interest overall in leaving til maturity, not doing the 'refreshing' strategy.

My thinking is it is just better to nab as many fixed rate savers as possible as they become available.

I also do some fixed term fixed rate bonds of various lengths with sums as small as regular savers generally allow, such as £250/300/500, as some firms do allow small deposits and allow subsequent deposits for up to 21 days some of them. That often means it spans two of my income receipts, and they don't all require thousands as minimum deposit. By doing a series of them, I can mimic a regular saver. It works for me as I'm generally saving out of income as opposed to drip-feeding from a lump sum, though there's a bit of that going on as well. It's a case of just nabbing as good fixed rates appear, but I suppose we will now begin to see lower rates.

Nick_C

I know I'm in the minority, but I ensure that my taxable interest on savings does not exceed £1k a year.  I have money in an ISA which could earn slightly more in a RS after tax, but dealing with HMRC is so horrendous - IME - that I prefer to have a slightly lower net income, and avoid the time and stress of getting HMRC to correct their mistakes.

poolboy

Thanks I let my rsa s run to maturity, I try and open one a month so I ve a steady stream of maturity dates.

subjecttocontract

Nick_C said:

I know I'm in the minority, but I ensure that my taxable interest on savings does not exceed £1k a year.  I have money in an ISA which could earn slightly more in a RS after tax, but dealing with HMRC is so horrendous - IME - that I prefer to have a slightly lower net income, and avoid the time and stress of getting HMRC to correct their mistakes.

I find dealing with HMRC is entirely straightforward. I keep my own records, I complete a self assessment every year, they tell me how much tax I owe, I check it's more of less the same as my figures, I pay the tax before January 31st. Simple, no hassle, no problems. 

s71hj

With the Nationwide regular saver are you allowed to have one of these and not have a current account with them?