Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

Nick_C

orange-juice said:

Current Halifax reg saver is sitting at 1500. Tempted to keep it open. The alternative is close, reopen and put the 1250 int Zopa.. What are others doing?

I don't have anything significant in ISAs, but if I can get the YBS ISA at 4pc, I will be closing down a few 5pc regular savers before the end of the month to bring the interest forward.

As things stand, I will earn more than £1k interest next year, so 4pc in an ISA is as good as a 5pc RS for some of my money.

I would prefer to avoid having to do a tax return and pay tax on any excess interest. 

Bridlington1

orange-juice said:

Current Halifax reg saver is sitting at 1500. Tempted to keep it open. The alternative is close, reopen and put the 1250 int Zopa.. What are others doing?

Mine's getting renewed as I did with BOS. In about 6 weeks I'll be emptying lower paying regular savers so this just about tips the balance towards renewing now. I've left both of my Lloyds regular savers alone though.

AmityNeon

orange-juice said:

Current Halifax reg saver is sitting at 1500. Tempted to keep it open. The alternative is close, reopen and put the 1250 int Zopa.. What are others doing?

I'm renewing all Lloyds Banking Group Regular Savers, for three reasons:

1. I have unused PSA this tax year but will be taxed next year;
2. by 1st May, the majority of my easy access savings will be at 4.5% or higher;
3. I secure these higher rates for 12 months, but can renew again if rates increase with net gains.

Velvet_Monkey

orange-juice said:

Current Halifax reg saver is sitting at 1500. Tempted to keep it open. The alternative is close, reopen and put the 1250 int Zopa.. What are others doing?

I don't really appreciate why Halifax don't allow you to 'renew' (i.e. migrate) directly from the old regular saver into the new regular saver, keeping the current balance.  After all, they will allow me to renew into an everyday saver or a bonus saver (at a much lower rate), so its clearly nothing to do with technical mechanics, and this would be exactly what the renew functionality purports to be for. So on that basis I think everyone should close and re-open at the new rate on a matter of principle, thus losing Halifax all the current capital they have at a lower rate! If you can put your surplus capital in a feeder account, or short term fixed account for a similar rate, then you'd be unlikely to lose significant interest. That's what I'm doing anyway. I haven't calculated whether I'll be better or worse off (and to some extent it depends on what happens in the future, which nobody can tell). I don't expect its much either way, but this feels right in the circumstances. 

PowerSavingMode

Velvet_Monkey said:

...I think everyone should close and re-open at the new rate on a matter of principle, thus losing Halifax all the current capital they have at a lower rate! If you can put your surplus capital in a feeder account, or short term fixed account for a similar rate, then you'd be unlikely to lose significant interest. That's what I'm doing anyway. I haven't calculated whether I'll be better or worse off (and to some extent it depends on what happens in the future, which nobody can tell). I don't expect its much either way, but this feels right in the circumstances. 

Won't you lose all the interest on the amount held in the a/c you're going to close? I'm assuming it hasn't reached its full maturity, and I believe Halifax says if you close it, the funds remain there for 12 months.

Vortigern

DJDools said:

Won't you lose all the interest on the amount held in the a/c you're going to close? I'm assuming it hasn't reached its full maturity, and I believe Halifax says if you close it, the funds remain there for 12 months.

1. No interest is lost. Interest will be paid up to the date of closure.
2. Halifax doesn't keep your funds in quarantine for 12 months, nor do they put any restrictions on opening another regular saver.

dcs34

DJDools said:

Velvet_Monkey said:

...I think everyone should close and re-open at the new rate on a matter of principle, thus losing Halifax all the current capital they have at a lower rate! If you can put your surplus capital in a feeder account, or short term fixed account for a similar rate, then you'd be unlikely to lose significant interest. That's what I'm doing anyway. I haven't calculated whether I'll be better or worse off (and to some extent it depends on what happens in the future, which nobody can tell). I don't expect its much either way, but this feels right in the circumstances. 

Won't you lose all the interest on the amount held in the a/c you're going to close? I'm assuming it hasn't reached its full maturity, and I believe Halifax says if you close it, the funds remain there for 12 months.

What they say, and what they let you do, are different in practise.

The key thing is to "renew" the account into a different type of savings account before withdrawing and closing. 

Their system (Halifax, BOS, Lloyds) only tracks the account type at closure when determining eligibility for opening a new regular saver. So if you close it as a regular saver, it will stop you opening another one until the 12 month anniversary.

granta

dcs34 said:

DJDools said:

Velvet_Monkey said:

...I think everyone should close and re-open at the new rate on a matter of principle, thus losing Halifax all the current capital they have at a lower rate! If you can put your surplus capital in a feeder account, or short term fixed account for a similar rate, then you'd be unlikely to lose significant interest. That's what I'm doing anyway. I haven't calculated whether I'll be better or worse off (and to some extent it depends on what happens in the future, which nobody can tell). I don't expect its much either way, but this feels right in the circumstances. 

Won't you lose all the interest on the amount held in the a/c you're going to close? I'm assuming it hasn't reached its full maturity, and I believe Halifax says if you close it, the funds remain there for 12 months.

What they say, and what they let you do, are different in practise.

The key thing is to "renew" the account into a different type of savings account before withdrawing and closing. 

Their system (Halifax, BOS, Lloyds) only tracks the account type at closure when determining eligibility for opening a new regular saver. So if you close it as a regular saver, it will stop you opening another one until the 12 month anniversary.

Is it possible to do the renewal on the app for Lloyds, BoS, Halifax? I cannot see any option to renew. Or is it on website only?

ForumUser7

granta said:

dcs34 said:

DJDools said:

Velvet_Monkey said:

...I think everyone should close and re-open at the new rate on a matter of principle, thus losing Halifax all the current capital they have at a lower rate! If you can put your surplus capital in a feeder account, or short term fixed account for a similar rate, then you'd be unlikely to lose significant interest. That's what I'm doing anyway. I haven't calculated whether I'll be better or worse off (and to some extent it depends on what happens in the future, which nobody can tell). I don't expect its much either way, but this feels right in the circumstances. 

Won't you lose all the interest on the amount held in the a/c you're going to close? I'm assuming it hasn't reached its full maturity, and I believe Halifax says if you close it, the funds remain there for 12 months.

What they say, and what they let you do, are different in practise.

The key thing is to "renew" the account into a different type of savings account before withdrawing and closing. 

Their system (Halifax, BOS, Lloyds) only tracks the account type at closure when determining eligibility for opening a new regular saver. So if you close it as a regular saver, it will stop you opening another one until the 12 month anniversary.

Is it possible to do the renewal on the app for Lloyds, BoS, Halifax? I cannot see any option to renew. Or is it on website only?

Online banking only, the app doesn’t give the option

Band7

I wonder how much longer this loophole will still exist, after it's been discussed to death and back on the Internet, and some people even rang Halifax to ask whether it was ok to do this! The 'renew' option is already not available for the RS in the app, only online. I reckon it's just a matter of time until it vanishes entirely.