Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

MDMD

Frogletina said:

SFindlay said:

t1redmonkey said:

phillw said:

t1redmonkey said:

Worth noting if you do close them and reopen them, you need to find a new home for the money from the closed accounts since you can only put back in a portion of it (whatever the monthly limit is).

Does that mean it's not actually worth doing, as the increase is less than the gap to the easy access accounts? I'm six months in.

Not sure, I haven't done any calculations.  I'm guessing it's probably not worth it that far in (I was also 6 months in and don't think I should've closed it now).

Everybody has to decide if its right in their particular circumstances but one thing to consider is tax implications with new financial year coming up. With rates so low for a large percentage of the year many people won't be near the £1000 tax free limit however next year is a different matter with so many RS paying around 5% and many easy access over 3% that £1000 limit can quite easily be reached. My intention was always to close any I can without penalty this month to have the interest included this year so this increase just makes it a bonus for opening the new accounts. 

I've just gone over my PSA allowance so I won't be closing mine until after the new tax year. This also has the advantage that any that I re-open after April will not count towards next year's PSA, but the year after that.

I’m doing the same  - this does assume that the new rates are still available then. 

ForumUser7

Middle_of_the_Road said:

ChaskhaChaia said:

Gers said:

Speculator said:

dcs34 said:

Snapdragon said:

SFindlay said:

Steve_xx said:

trickydicky14 said:

Can you defo close all these accounts, (Halifax, Lloyds and Bos) without loss and re-apply immediately at the new rates?

If you close the Club Lloyds regular saver, you can't open another until the anniversary date of the first opening. Not sure about the others. 

All, including Club Lloyds, can be closed and reopened immediately.  Account needs to be renewed when closing it. 

How do you RENEW? I went into app and chose my saver account and the 3 dots and there was a close account option in the list but nothing that sounded anything like renewing. Whilst I'd like to get the improved rates, I don't want to risk reasonable rates which are effectively easy access, if I get it wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

In online banking, on the account overview page, left hand menu > Savings and Investements > Renew your savings account > Select regular saver > Select preferred easy access account > Complete

Log out and log back in again. The regular saver will now be an easy access account with any interest at the full regular saver rate paid in. You can then open a new regular saver (might need to wait a day for system to refresh).

I just logged out and logged in again after renewing and BOS let me open their 5.5% Monthly Saver.

Me too - thanks for the guidance. I'll now try with Lloyds and Halifax.

No point doing so with Halifax as they haven't raised their rates (yet). Their RS is still 4.5%

We understand, that the Halifax reg. saver is a fixed rate account, but on the interest rate pdf they quote rates as variable?

savings rates (halifax.co.uk)

Yes, yet the product page on the website says fixed. You would've thought with the increasing margins they could hire a proof reader

Middle_of_the_Road

ForumUser7 said:

Middle_of_the_Road said:

ChaskhaChaia said:

Gers said:

Speculator said:

dcs34 said:

Snapdragon said:

SFindlay said:

Steve_xx said:

trickydicky14 said:

Can you defo close all these accounts, (Halifax, Lloyds and Bos) without loss and re-apply immediately at the new rates?

If you close the Club Lloyds regular saver, you can't open another until the anniversary date of the first opening. Not sure about the others. 

All, including Club Lloyds, can be closed and reopened immediately.  Account needs to be renewed when closing it. 

How do you RENEW? I went into app and chose my saver account and the 3 dots and there was a close account option in the list but nothing that sounded anything like renewing. Whilst I'd like to get the improved rates, I don't want to risk reasonable rates which are effectively easy access, if I get it wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

In online banking, on the account overview page, left hand menu > Savings and Investements > Renew your savings account > Select regular saver > Select preferred easy access account > Complete

Log out and log back in again. The regular saver will now be an easy access account with any interest at the full regular saver rate paid in. You can then open a new regular saver (might need to wait a day for system to refresh).

I just logged out and logged in again after renewing and BOS let me open their 5.5% Monthly Saver.

Me too - thanks for the guidance. I'll now try with Lloyds and Halifax.

No point doing so with Halifax as they haven't raised their rates (yet). Their RS is still 4.5%

We understand, that the Halifax reg. saver is a fixed rate account, but on the interest rate pdf they quote rates as variable?

savings rates (halifax.co.uk)

Yes, yet the product page on the website says fixed. You would've thought with the increasing margins they could hire a proof reader

Exactly, how difficult is it to get basic information correct. If this was a retail outlet they would have to honour the more favourable price/terms.

Bridlington1

ForumUser7 said:

Growingold said:

I closed my Lloyds Regular Saver by renewing it into an easy access account but they didn't add any accrued interest just kept the account number the same.  Do I now need to withdraw the bulk of the money and then close it to get the interest owing?  Thanks for your help.

If you log out and back in, it may now show correctly - it did for me after I did that

You don't even need to log out. Just transfer some of the money (even 1p will do) into your current account and the interest will appear. The same applies for BOS and Halifax.

As an aside this also works for getting the balances to update correctly if you receive a faster payment whilst logged into online banking. Just make a 1p transfer from your current account into a savings account or vice versa and bingo.

Bridlington1

It looks like Monmouthshire's Christmas saver incident still haunts them to this day. I received a letter from them today dated 1st March returning my bank statement as proof of my nominated account. I sent it to them originally in November.

Band7

For those still wondering whether to do anything about the new Lloyds / BOS (and may be Halifax) rates, there's a very good spreadsheet here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79890852/#Comment_79890852

It made me change my mind, I won't jump onto the new rates now but take a chance that I get at least the new rates once my current LBG RSs have matured.

Bridlington1

I would be thinking the same way but things are complicated slightly in my case. I am also approaching the point now where I will probably have all my EA savings in regular savers by about April/May so the interest rate on the funds held outside the monthly saver will likely increase from then.

Moreover I currently have a 90 day notice account paying 4%, which tracks the BOE base rate thrown into the mix, which I could empty the regular savers into.

These two factors then shift the balance more towards closing the accounts. Oh decisions, decisions. It's fair to say I'll be doing a bit of number crunching over the next day or so.

kaMelo

I'm in virtually the same situation as you @Bridlington1, I can cover April and May, my FD regular saver matures end of May so would cover some of June but not all of them. But I've already bust this years PSA and have no ISA allowance left either so I'm loathed to do anything before April which would bring more interest into this tax year.
The flip side of that being next tax year, with the rate increases over the last few months it becomes an even bigger (although nice one to have) problem. For example, my Cumberland regular saver will bust my PSA on it's own, never mind all the other accounts.  I'm also reluctant to use much ISA allowance in savings accounts rather than S&S.
I know I shouldn't let the tax tail wag the dog but my whole strategy may need a rethink to work out what is the most efficient.

ForumUser7

For those of us that are hoping for a Coventry BS app, to manage our RS (and easy access) accounts with them:

Coventry BS has confirmed on page 56 of their annual report they are working on implementing Confirmation of Payee services, and a mobile app. 'Further developments are underway, including Confirmation of Payee services and a mobile App'. They haven't given a timeframe, but on page 10 it states they 'are in the final stages of developing [their] mobile savings app'



https://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/content/dam/cbs/member/pdfs/financial-results/2022/annual-report-and-accounts-2022.pdf

Middle_of_the_Road

ForumUser7 said:

For those of us that are hoping for a Coventry BS app, to manage our RS (and easy access) accounts with them:

Coventry BS has confirmed on page 56 of their annual report they are working on implementing Confirmation of Payee services, and a mobile app. 'Further developments are underway, including Confirmation of Payee services and a mobile App'. They haven't given a timeframe, but on page 10 it states they 'are in the final stages of developing [their] mobile savings app'



https://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/content/dam/cbs/member/pdfs/financial-results/2022/annual-report-and-accounts-2022.pdf

Reading their member forum, it appears they've been talking about this for three years.