Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

chris_the_bee

adindas said:

Section62 said:

Coventry Building Society

If you opened the Regular Saver issue 5 when it was first launched and it has since matured, there appears to be nothing stopping you opening a new (replacement) one to take advantage of the soon to be 4% interest rate paid on this account.

The 'one only' rule here seems to be for accounts held concurrently, not sequentially.

Whether there might be an issue 6 launched (perhaps with a better rate) in the near future I didn't think was worth gambling on, when the issue 5 was still available and will pay a better rate soon.

The main issue with this Coventry RS i5 is flexibility if you have not maxed out the RSA paying 4%+ interest easy access.

Can I withdraw money?

After the 14 day ‘cooling-off period’, you can take out money or close your account, but you’ll be charged the equivalent of 30 days’ interest on the amount you withdraw. This will be taken off your balance. You can’t give notice to withdraw. Money you take out must be paid into your Named Bank Account or another CBS account.

You can miss payments if you wish.

adindas

chris_the_bee said:

adindas said:

Section62 said:

Coventry Building Society

If you opened the Regular Saver issue 5 when it was first launched and it has since matured, there appears to be nothing stopping you opening a new (replacement) one to take advantage of the soon to be 4% interest rate paid on this account.

The 'one only' rule here seems to be for accounts held concurrently, not sequentially.

Whether there might be an issue 6 launched (perhaps with a better rate) in the near future I didn't think was worth gambling on, when the issue 5 was still available and will pay a better rate soon.

The main issue with this Coventry RS i5 is flexibility if you have not maxed out the RSA paying 4%+ interest easy access.

Can I withdraw money?

After the 14 day ‘cooling-off period’, you can take out money or close your account, but you’ll be charged the equivalent of 30 days’ interest on the amount you withdraw. This will be taken off your balance. You can’t give notice to withdraw. Money you take out must be paid into your Named Bank Account or another CBS account.

You can miss payments if you wish.

Yes but the interest rate is variable, so it can go up or down at any time while there is penalty for withdrawal. If it was fixed people could use it to secure the guaranteed rate of 4% until maturity to be used at any time before maturity, if there is no better RSA instant access paying 4%+ at one particular time.

ForumUser7

adindas said:

chris_the_bee said:

adindas said:

Section62 said:

Coventry Building Society

If you opened the Regular Saver issue 5 when it was first launched and it has since matured, there appears to be nothing stopping you opening a new (replacement) one to take advantage of the soon to be 4% interest rate paid on this account.

The 'one only' rule here seems to be for accounts held concurrently, not sequentially.

Whether there might be an issue 6 launched (perhaps with a better rate) in the near future I didn't think was worth gambling on, when the issue 5 was still available and will pay a better rate soon.

The main issue with this Coventry RS i5 is flexibility if you have not maxed out the RSA paying 4%+ interest easy access.

Can I withdraw money?

After the 14 day ‘cooling-off period’, you can take out money or close your account, but you’ll be charged the equivalent of 30 days’ interest on the amount you withdraw. This will be taken off your balance. You can’t give notice to withdraw. Money you take out must be paid into your Named Bank Account or another CBS account.

You can miss payments if you wish.

Yes but the interest rate is variable, so it can go up or down at any time while there is penalty for withdrawal. If it was fixed people could use it to secure the guaranteed rate of 4% until maturity to be used at any time before maturity, if there is no better RSA instant access paying 4%+ at one particular time.

I think if they reduce the rate, we can close it penalty free though according to their ts and cs.

https://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/content/dam/cbs/member/pdfs/savings/saving-accounts-terms-and-conditions.pdf

surreysaver

adindas said:

chris_the_bee said:

where_are_we said:

Coventry RS is an anniversary month account whereas the FHS is a calendar month account. Thus if you don`t have a FHS it is best to open it now in December and fund £1000 before the end of the month. Then fund  £1000 monthly SO from beginning of January for 35 months (its a 36 month term account). That way you will have £2000 earning 5% from 6/1/23. I have had a FHS for more than a year, but unfortunately I withdrew a lot when the rate wasn`t so competitive otherwise I could have had £15K earning 5% from 6/1/23. "Thats Life"!

• But you could make 37 payments depending when you open it..
• If you open your account part-way through a month, you may still deposit up to £1,000 until the end of that calendar month. Likewise, if your account term ends part-way through a month, you may still deposit up to £1,000 in the final calendar month up until the date your account term ends. This means that if you open your account on the 1st of a month, your maximum balance is £36,000. If you open your account on any other day of the month, your maximum balance is £37,000.

Rudyson said:

where_are_we said:

Coventry RS is an anniversary month account whereas the FHS is a calendar month account. Thus if you don`t have a FHS it is best to open it now in December and fund £1000 before the end of the month. Then fund  £1000 monthly SO from beginning of January for 35 months (its a 36 month term account). That way you will have £2000 earning 5% from 6/1/23. I have had a FHS for more than a year, but unfortunately I withdrew a lot when the rate wasn`t so competitive otherwise I could have had £15K earning 5% from 6/1/23. "Thats Life"!

If you open the account now, you can have 36 more payments from 1st Jan, it's explicitly stated that you can have £37,000 in total if you do this.

If you open it now (not after the interest rate is lifted up) you do not want to maximise £37,000 (e.g maximising £1,000)  if you have a better alternative-before January 6, 2023. Your £1,000 in December will only earn 2.95% until January 5, 2023.

You put another £1,000 in January 1,  2023, This another £1,000 will only earn 2.95% until January 5, 2023.

You might want to do that if you open it from January 6, 2023.

But if you wait until January 6, to chase the full 5% for each pound you put into this saving, you might be missing the bigger picture e.g this product might be withdrawn before you manage to open one. In investing this is what Warren Buffet is calling missing the forest for a tree. Anyway we are talking a relatively small amount of difference in interest for a few days.

The danger of waiting is they pull the product. Open it now and put £1 in to secure the product, then you can put £999 in at the beginning of the final month.
But if you put £1k in now, it might only be earning 2.95% for a couple of weeks, but it will be earning (subject to interest rate changes) 5% for nearly the next three years. If you pay it in the last month, it will only be earning 5% for the last few days its in the account

Section62

Coventry BS RS issue 5

ForumUser7 said:

adindas said:

Yes but the interest rate is variable, so it can go up or down at any time while there is penalty for withdrawal. If it was fixed people could use it to secure the guaranteed rate of 4% until maturity to be used at any time before maturity, if there is no better RSA instant access paying 4%+ at one particular time.

I think if they reduce the rate, we can close it penalty free though according to their ts and cs.

I agree, and was about to post the same information.

The main reason for my original post wasn't to say this was necessarily a great product compared to others, rather to point out the relatively unusual circumstances where an issue of an account is still available after accounts opened early in the product's life will have matured already.  And that there appears to be no reason why a new account of that issue can't be opened after maturity of the original one. (It has worked for me)

ircE

Can someone please check my understanding of the First Home Saver is correct, because this almost seems too good to be true...

I have an emergency fund of ~£4k that I've mostly got in an EA at Coventry earning 2.32%, with the rest being drip fed into RS accounts elsewhere. But if I open the FHS and "drip feed" the entire lot into it by March, I could be earning 5% on the whole thing from then? And not have to make any more deposits into it if I did not wish to? And then use it as an EA account, so I could withdraw from/close it, whenever I wish, without loss of interest?

pecunianonolet

ircE said:

Can someone please check my understanding of the First Home Saver is correct, because this almost seems too good to be true...

I have an emergency fund of ~£4k that I've mostly got in an EA at Coventry earning 2.32%, with the rest being drip fed into RS accounts elsewhere. But if I open the FHS and "drip feed" the entire lot into it by March, I could be earning 5% on the whole thing from then? And not have to make any more deposits into it if I did not wish to? And then use it as an EA account, so I could withdraw from/close it, whenever I wish, without loss of interest?

That's correct. So once you have the full 4k in it in March nobody tells you that you need to make any further payments. You can just leave your 4k in as long as you wish. If you then in April need access to the full 4k you can withdraw it all. If you wish to start feeding again in June you are free to do so and the monthly limit is again a max of 1000 you can pay in. 

If you pay in your last 1000 on 1st of March and on the 15th of March you withdraw part or all, you won't be able to make any further additions in March, but could do so again on 1st April.

Section62

ircE said:

Can someone please check my understanding of the First Home Saver is correct, because this almost seems too good to be true...

I have an emergency fund of ~£4k that I've mostly got in an EA at Coventry earning 2.32%, with the rest being drip fed into RS accounts elsewhere. But if I open the FHS and "drip feed" the entire lot into it by March, I could be earning 5% on the whole thing from then? And not have to make any more deposits into it if I did not wish to? And then use it as an EA account, so I could withdraw from/close it, whenever I wish, without loss of interest?

The catch here is that you are restricted to paying in £1000 per month, so if you needed to use the account as an EA one you might be marginally better off with the Barclays Blue Rewards Rainy Day Saver as that doesn't have the £1000 monthly restriction - which would mean you could get 5% on the ~£4k from day one, and if you had to withdraw money (>£1000) for an emergency, you'd be able to return it all to the account immediately rather than having to drip feed it back in.  You would need a Barclays current account and meet the Blue Rewards conditions though.

As the Blue Rewards RDS isn't a regular saver it would be off-topic to discuss it here further (there are other threads about it) but I mentioned it as it may be a more suitable product than the Coventry FHS, and it also demonstrates that a 5% interest rate on what amounts to an EA account (with strings) isn't too good to be true as it isn't the only very special product currently available.

Band7

Section62 said

As the Blue Rewards RDS isn't a regular saver it would be off-topic to discuss it here further (there are other threads about it) but I mentioned it as it may be a more suitable product than the Coventry FHS, and it also demonstrates that a 5% interest rate on what amounts to an EA account (with strings) isn't too good to be true as it isn't the only very special product currently available.

It doesn’t have to be either or - if you have more than £5,000, the Coventry FHS can be a nice complement to the Barclays RDS. Also, some people might not have £5,000 at the ready, so the FHS could be much easier to manage than the Blue Rewards and RDS.  

clivep

surreysaver said:

The danger of waiting is they pull the product. Open it now and put £1 in to secure the product, then you can put £999 in at the beginning of the final month.
But if you put £1k in now, it might only be earning 2.95% for a couple of weeks, but it will be earning (subject to interest rate changes) 5% for nearly the next three years. If you pay it in the last month, it will only be earning 5% for the last few days its in the account

You can put in £1k now AND £1k in the final month. The a/c allows total deposits of £37k as long as the initial deposit is not on 1st of the month. Coventry BS website gives an example of this.