Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

Nick_C

The Lloyds and Club Lloyds Regular Savers remain useful accounts as they provide a hugh amount of flexibility.  Fund each one with the minimum of £25 each month by standing order, and you can top up as and when (up to the monthly limits) and make unlimited withdrawals.  They really are instant access accounts for smaller sums.  They will be useful for people who are genuinely saving up for something, or who have spare income that they don't know what to do with, as opposed to people trying to maximise the income on existing capital.

If you have both accounts, you can save up to £650 every month at 0.9% with access to your money whenever you need it.

what7

Considering I am getting 0.778% with BOS Lloyds current account. I'm not gonna bother with 0.75% RS

I was gonna open 1% in new tax year, as my next tax year already over £1000.

Hoping HSBC, tsb, nationwide, principality, Dudley don't drop their. 

MDMD

what7 said:

Considering I am getting 0.778% with BOS Lloyds current account. I'm not gonna bother with 0.75% RS

I was gonna open 1% in new tax year, as my next tax year already over £1000.

Hoping HSBC, tsb, nationwide, principality, Dudley don't drop their. 

The RS rate is fixed, the current accounts are variable and they potentially could drop soon.

what7

I don't pay much attention to this fixed/variable. I only look at the interest rate at present time, if it does drop, I will review accordingly.

Fingerbobs

colsten said:

If you are scared of variable rates, just don't go for accounts with variable rates. Also, as and if a provider drops the variable rate, you are free to reduce your monthly deposit amounts. I know of no RS which requires more than £25/mth

Whenever an interest rate goes down during the fixed term, in my experience the provider will let you close the account with no penalty at that point. I've never been locked into a reduced interest rate on any account, and I think it would be very unfair to do this.

cricidmuslibale

eskbanker said:

cricidmuslibale said:
I don't anticipate the market complying but I still think my fervent belief that 1% fixed should be the minimum interest rate offered by regular savers is entirely reasonable to say the very least, especially when not long ago 2.75% fixed was available on regular savers from very conservative big banks like HSBC! I don't think many people with good financial sense will waste their time and money opening and saving funds in regular savers paying less than 1% tbh.

I don't claim the right to speak for others, but for me it depends entirely on what options are available at the time - there's no point in reminiscing about what rates were available in the past as that's completely irrelevant to decisions to be made now. 

Recent past interest rates are not necessarily completely irrelevant. One could fairly argue that savers should think twice about saving in a big bank's regular saver offering only 0.75% now if only around 6 months ago that same big bank was willing to offer an interest rate of 2.5% for the same or a very similar regular saver. Clearly the big bank now doesn't seem to want to acquire savers' money to anywhere near the extent it used to in the recent past so there is a strong argument for savers to say 'Stuff that big bank and its now very miserly regular saver. I'll deposit my money elsewhere with a savings provider that values my savings considerably more.' 

Of course it's your prerogative to set an arbitrary figure below which you're not interested (no pun intended), just as it is for this thread's 'owner' to set their own criteria, but there's no reason to believe that others will adopt the same view....

I see a perfectly valid reason to believe that others will adopt a similar view, not everybody clearly, but a significant number of people nonetheless; namely that regular savings interest rates have dropped very significantly across the board in the last 6 months or so, even more so in relative terms than general savings rates, when there has been no change in Bank of England base rate during this time! To make the most effective use of a regular savings account requires a commitment on behalf of the saver to fund it on a regular basis in order to build up relatively small monthly amounts (usually no more than £250 to £500) to a much larger final amount saved. To get less than 1% interest now for doing all this when c. 6 months ago the very same bank was offering c. 2.5% interest for doing the same thing clearly appears in relative terms to be an unreasonably low rate of return and this is a very good reason for drawing the line and refusing to save in below 1% interest rate regular savers! If enough savers do something similar to this, banks and building societies will have to start lifting regular savings interest rates again to 1% or above when they need to attract significant amounts of new money from savers. 

Please see above.

eskbanker

cricidmuslibale said:
Recent past interest rates are not necessarily completely irrelevant. One could fairly argue that savers should think twice about saving in a big bank's regular saver offering only 0.75% now if only around 6 months ago that same big bank was willing to offer an interest rate of 2.5% for the same or a very similar regular saver. Clearly the big bank now doesn't seem to want to acquire savers' money to anywhere near the extent it used to in the recent past so there is a strong argument for savers to say 'Stuff that big bank and its now very miserly regular saver. I'll deposit my money elsewhere with a savings provider that values my savings considerably more.' 

In which case you seem to be agreeing with me that someone needing to find a home for savings now should pick the best option currently available, regardless of what rates were previously offered.  If, on the other hand, you're suggesting that a saver should prioritise an account with an institution offering, say, 0.6%, down from 0.8%, over, say, a 0.75% one that's been reduced more heavily from 2.5%, then that's your prerogative if you feel you're claiming some sort of moral victory over 'the big bank' but again I'd question your right and ability to speak for others on that.

cricidmuslibale said:
To get less than 1% interest now for doing all this when c. 6 months ago the very same bank was offering c. 2.5% interest for doing the same thing clearly appears in relative terms to be an unreasonably low rate of return and this is a very good reason for drawing the line and refusing to save in below 1% interest rate regular savers! If enough savers do something similar to this, banks and building societies will have to start lifting regular savings interest rates again to 1% or above when they need to attract significant amounts of new money from savers. 

I don't disagree with the principle that those who are minded to do so can vote with their feet and avoid regular savers that they feel aren't generous enough, although it's a bit of a pyrrhic victory if such savers lose money by doing so, but still don't see any evidence that others share your view that a completely arbitrary figure of 1% is some sort of accepted threshold for such action.


Anyway, this is all getting some way off topic for a thread intended to highlight offerings currently available in the market, so I'd suggest leaving it there....

what7

Does anyone know if these bank/bs are accepting postal application due to COVID ?????

Kent Reliance Regular Savings (Issue 6)

Interest rate: 1% gross p.a. variable from 11th December 2020

Monthly payment: £25-£500

Miss any payments: No, the terms and conditions say they may close the account if you stop making regular payments

Penalty-free withdrawals: Yes, as many as you want.

Age of applicant: No minimum age (adults can open the account on behalf of a child)

How to open account: Branch only

Special conditions: Maximum balance £6,000.


West Bromwich BS Adult's Fixed Rate Regular Saver (Issue 4)

Interest rate: 2% gross p.a. fixed

Monthly payment: £10-£100

Miss any payments: Yes, miss as many as you like, no penalties

Penalty-free withdrawals: No, and no withdrawals prior to maturity

Age of applicant: 16 years or older

How to open account: Branch only

colsten

Why not call them and ask? You’d need to do that anyway, to obtain an application form.

wiseonesomeofthetime

@what7 - My local West Bromwich Building Society made it clear last month, when I opened mine, that they are only available to open in Branch, as all branches are open, albeit with reduced hours (mine closes at 14:00 weekdays).

First payment by cash or cheque, no electronic transfer allowed initially, though subsequent monthly payments can be made by those means in addition to cash/cheque.