Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

ForumUser7

Stargunner said:

Bridlington1 said:

JamesRobinson48 said:

Santander has an RS paying 5.00% fixed (12 months, max £200 pm).  I haven't seen it on here so I imagine it might be new today.  Seems like a big improvement on their previous RS rate.

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

Many thanks for this. My account is now open and funded.

Were you able to immediately fund the RS by transferring from your Santander current account or have you had to set up a standing order. I have just applied for the RS and it would be nice if I could transfer £200 straight in and set up a standing order for the 1st of next month.

In response to your actual post, I forgot to answer, I opened and funded right away with £200 from my Santander CA when it showed in the app after I refreshed. I have never set up SOs for the Santander RS

OceanSound

t1redmonkey said:

JamesRobinson48 said:

Santander has an RS paying 5.00% fixed (12 months, max £200 pm).  I haven't seen it on here so I imagine it might be new today.  Seems like a big improvement on their previous RS rate.

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

Darn I used my Santander current account to get the TSB switch bonus a couple months ago so I no longer hold one.  Oh well, hopefully my credit rating is still decent enough to open another one with them

I did too (switched away from Santander to fulfill TSB switch bonus criteria).

The interest offered by the Santander RS is not competitive enough as I've not yet opened a First Direct (FD) RS. I've had a FD current account for years. 

I will await for Santander to introduce a current account switching offer (hopefully the +5.0% RS will still be around), then switch one of the TSB spend and save accounts (which came with a 6 month offer but has now expired) to Santander. i.e. use one of the offer expired TSB spend and save accounts as 'switch fodder'.

Sadly, HSBC and First Direct usually have quite strict switch conditions. E.g. ' if you've held an HSBC or FD current account since ..... Then you are not eligible for this offer'. I've held an HSBC current account since about 18 years ago, and a FD current account since about 6 years ago. Dosen't look like I'd be eligible for their switching incentives unless I close both (or switch away) those two accounts. With the hsbc long standing relationship I really don't want to do that (probably affect credit rating quite a bit).

Halifax bank on the other hand offer less stringent switching offer terms. I've held a current account with them for years but was able to obtain switching incentives recently because I hadn't received such an incentive from Halifax bank for a while.

Btw, I noticed Santander did run a switching offer at the beginning of this year. I've not seen anyone run switching offers without at least a few months in between offers. Seems it'll be a while before Santander reintroduce. I'm guessing at least 6 months.

TheBanker

OceanSound said:

t1redmonkey said:

JamesRobinson48 said:

Santander has an RS paying 5.00% fixed (12 months, max £200 pm).  I haven't seen it on here so I imagine it might be new today.  Seems like a big improvement on their previous RS rate.

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

Darn I used my Santander current account to get the TSB switch bonus a couple months ago so I no longer hold one.  Oh well, hopefully my credit rating is still decent enough to open another one with them

I did too (switched away from Santander to fulfill TSB switch bonus criteria).

The interest offered by the Santander RS is not competitive enough as I've not yet opened a First Direct (FD) RS. I've had a FD current account for years. 

I will await for Santander to introduce a current account switching offer (hopefully the +5.0% RS will still be around), then switch one of the TSB spend and save accounts (which came with a 6 month offer but has now expired) to Santander. i.e. use one of the offer expired TSB spend and save accounts as 'switch fodder'.

Sadly, HSBC and First Direct usually have quite strict switch conditions. E.g. ' if you've held an HSBC or FD current account since ..... Then you are not eligible for this offer'. I've held an HSBC current account since about 18 years ago, and a FD current account since about 6 years ago. Dosen't look like I'd be eligible for their switching incentives unless I close both (or switch away) those two accounts. With the hsbc long standing relationship I really don't want to do that (probably affect credit rating quite a bit).

Halifax bank on the other hand offer less stringent switching offer terms. I've held a current account with them for years but was able to obtain switching incentives recently because I hadn't received such an incentive from Halifax bank for a while.

Btw, I noticed Santander did run a switching offer at the beginning of this year. I've not seen anyone run switching offers without at least a few months in between offers. Seems it'll be a while before Santander reintroduce. I'm guessing at least 6 months.

For what it's worth, the previous Santander offers have allowed existing customers to qualify by switching into their existing account, provided they haven't had a switcher bonus before. The only drawback of this approach is you have to do the switch in a branch because you can't switch into an existing account online. So there is nothing to stop you opening a Santander account now, and doing the switch at a later date (if you can get to a branch, and assuming they don't change the terms of the offer).

But if you have space in other regular savers which pay higher rates then the only benefit of opening the Santander account now is to secure the 5% rate. Santander do have form for taking products off sale quite quickly when they achieve whatever internal target they've set themselves. So if you wait, you may find the 5% regular saver is no longer available. But of course there may be other products at that time, either with Santander or a different bank. 

Bridlington1

RG2015 said:

Bridlington1 said:

JamesRobinson48 said:

Santander has an RS paying 5.00% fixed (12 months, max £200 pm).  I haven't seen it on here so I imagine it might be new today.  Seems like a big improvement on their previous RS rate.

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

Many thanks for this. My account is now open and funded.

Did you fund this by a standing order starting today? This is what I did but no transfer has been made as yet.

Initially it said the next payment on this standing order mandate was 16/05/2023 but now it says the next payment is on 16/06/2023.

Update: The initial payment has been taken in the last hour, so all is good.

Santander also have a message as I log in to the app that they are doing planned maintenance to mobile banking at 21:45 today until 7am tomorrow. Services will be available as normal but if you experience any difficulties please try after these times.

Like @ForumUser7 I just did a transfer of £200 from my Santander account. From what I can see there is no term saying you have to fund the account by standing order, all it says is that you can make payments by standing order.

TheBanker

Bridlington1 said:

Like @ForumUser7 I just did a transfer of £200 from my Santander account. From what I can see there is no term saying you have to fund the account by standing order, all it says is that you can make payments by standing order.

I think it's a bit ambiguous because the KFD says:

Deposits
There is no minimum monthly deposit. You can save up to a maximum of £200 each month for 12 months by standing order from your Santander current account. Maximum balance you can have in the account at the end of the 12 months is £2,400.
You can make any number of payments via standing order and you don’t have to make a deposit every month. The amount can vary each month, provided the monthly limit isn’t exceeded.
Your month is calculated by the date that you open your Regular eSaver, e.g. you open the Regular eSaver on the 16th of a month, your month will run from 16th of one month to the 15th of the next month.
To make the most of your regular eSaver, you’ll need to set up your standing order to start within the first calendar month after opening. Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.
If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account, if you deposit more than £200 in any month or if you hold more than one Regular eSaver account, Santander reserves the right to revert your account into an Everyday Saver. 

The bold text is their emphasis, not mine.

So it seems to be saying you have to use a Standing Order, but the final paragraph implies you don't (only that the funds have to come from a Santander current account). The second paragraph confuses things further by saying you don't have to make a deposit each month and you can vary the amount - whilst it is possible to amend a Standing Order each month, this isn't how Standing Orders are normally used.

A further complication comes from the point about weekend processing. If you have a Standing Order which happens to fall on a non-working day, you could accidentally fall foul of the £200 monthly limit by depositing £400 in one month (a rolled over standing order from the end of the previous month, plus the current month's standing order) - are they expecting customers to monitor their standing order date closely enough to avoid this happening? 

In practice I think you'll be fine but it's not 100% clear cut. 

OceanSound

TheBanker said:

Bridlington1 said:

Like @ForumUser7 I just did a transfer of £200 from my Santander account. From what I can see there is no term saying you have to fund the account by standing order, all it says is that you can make payments by standing order.

I think it's a bit ambiguous because the KFD says:

Deposits
There is no minimum monthly deposit. You can save up to a maximum of £200 each month for 12 months by standing order from your Santander current account. Maximum balance you can have in the account at the end of the 12 months is £2,400.
You can make any number of payments via standing order and you don’t have to make a deposit every month. The amount can vary each month, provided the monthly limit isn’t exceeded.
Your month is calculated by the date that you open your Regular eSaver, e.g. you open the Regular eSaver on the 16th of a month, your month will run from 16th of one month to the 15th of the next month.
To make the most of your regular eSaver, you’ll need to set up your standing order to start within the first calendar month after opening. Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.
If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account, if you deposit more than £200 in any month or if you hold more than one Regular eSaver account, Santander reserves the right to revert your account into an Everyday Saver. 

The bold text is their emphasis, not mine.

So it seems to be saying you have to use a Standing Order, but the final paragraph implies you don't (only that the funds have to come from a Santander current account). The second paragraph confuses things further by saying you don't have to make a deposit each month and you can vary the amount - whilst it is possible to amend a Standing Order each month, this isn't how Standing Orders are normally used.

A further complication comes from the point about weekend processing. If you have a Standing Order which happens to fall on a non-working day, you could accidentally fall foul of the £200 monthly limit by depositing £400 in one month (a rolled over standing order from the end of the previous month, plus the current month's standing order) - are they expecting customers to monitor their standing order date closely enough to avoid this happening? 

In practice I think you'll be fine but it's not 100% clear cut. 

Santander ought to warn customers about this roll over standing orders.

Of course for those of us who are aware of the caveat,  it's easily avoidable by starting the standing order (SO) at the beginning of the month right up to the middle of the month (or even around 20th of each month should be fine - as there is no risk of any SO rolling over to the next month).

BTW, Santander website says this: 

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

How it works

 * You’re a UK resident aged 16 or over

* You don't already have a Regular eSaver

* You have a Santander current account, excluding 1|2|3 Mini In Trust

* Fund the account with a standing order from a Santander current account

* If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account or if you deposit more than £200 in any month, Santander reserve the right to change your account into an Everyday Saver

Notice the last part does not say 'If you don't fund the account from your Santander Current Account, by standing order, or if you deposit more than ......Santander reserve the right to change your account into an Everyday Saver'. 

So, funding the RS by SO isn't a requirement. 

Edit: Re. warning customers, I re-read your post. It seems Santander do warn the customers in terms.

This part: 

"To make the most of your regular eSaver, you’ll need to set up your standing order to start within the first calendar month after opening. Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month." (MSE quote feature not working for this part)

I presume, we need to deduce from this that there is a risk that if the SO is started towards the end of the month it may fall foul of the maximum of £200 in any month term/condition (is this a term or a condition? I can never tell the difference).

Seems a bit of harsh term/condition (if they enforce it). Other places like Natwest would just return the excess amount to the current account.

TheBanker

OceanSound said:

TheBanker said:

Bridlington1 said:

Like @ForumUser7 I just did a transfer of £200 from my Santander account. From what I can see there is no term saying you have to fund the account by standing order, all it says is that you can make payments by standing order.

I think it's a bit ambiguous because the KFD says:

Deposits
There is no minimum monthly deposit. You can save up to a maximum of £200 each month for 12 months by standing order from your Santander current account. Maximum balance you can have in the account at the end of the 12 months is £2,400.
You can make any number of payments via standing order and you don’t have to make a deposit every month. The amount can vary each month, provided the monthly limit isn’t exceeded.
Your month is calculated by the date that you open your Regular eSaver, e.g. you open the Regular eSaver on the 16th of a month, your month will run from 16th of one month to the 15th of the next month.
To make the most of your regular eSaver, you’ll need to set up your standing order to start within the first calendar month after opening. Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.
If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account, if you deposit more than £200 in any month or if you hold more than one Regular eSaver account, Santander reserves the right to revert your account into an Everyday Saver. 

The bold text is their emphasis, not mine.

So it seems to be saying you have to use a Standing Order, but the final paragraph implies you don't (only that the funds have to come from a Santander current account). The second paragraph confuses things further by saying you don't have to make a deposit each month and you can vary the amount - whilst it is possible to amend a Standing Order each month, this isn't how Standing Orders are normally used.

A further complication comes from the point about weekend processing. If you have a Standing Order which happens to fall on a non-working day, you could accidentally fall foul of the £200 monthly limit by depositing £400 in one month (a rolled over standing order from the end of the previous month, plus the current month's standing order) - are they expecting customers to monitor their standing order date closely enough to avoid this happening? 

In practice I think you'll be fine but it's not 100% clear cut. 

Santander ought to warn customers about this roll over standing orders.

Of course for those of us who are aware of the caveat,  it's easily avoidable by starting the standing order (SO) at the beginning of the month right up to the middle of the month (or even around 20th of each month should be fine - as there is no risk of any SO rolling over to the next month).

BTW, Santander website says this: 

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

How it works

 * You’re a UK resident aged 16 or over

* You don't already have a Regular eSaver

* You have a Santander current account, excluding 1|2|3 Mini In Trust

* Fund the account with a standing order from a Santander current account

* If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account or if you deposit more than £200 in any month, Santander reserve the right to change your account into an Everyday Saver

Notice the last part does not say 'If you don't fund the account from your Santander Current Account, by standing order, or if you deposit more than ......Santander reserve the right to change your account into an Everyday Saver'. 

So, funding the RS by SO isn't a requirement. 

It's similar wording to the KFD I quoted above. As I said, I think it's ambiguous. The last but one point says you have to fund the account with a standing order, but the 'punishment' for breaking the rules doesn't refer to standing orders, only that the money has to come from a Santander current account and not be more than £200 per month.

As I said I think people would be fine in practice, but if Santander did decide to convert an account to an Everyday Saver because the deposits weren't made by Standing Order, I'm not convinced FOS would uphold a complaint. Look at the Co-op refer a friend thread in the Banking section. The Co-op's terms are ambiguous, but the FOS are siding with the bank.

Bridlington1

TheBanker said:

Bridlington1 said:

Like @ForumUser7 I just did a transfer of £200 from my Santander account. From what I can see there is no term saying you have to fund the account by standing order, all it says is that you can make payments by standing order.

I think it's a bit ambiguous because the KFD says:

Deposits
There is no minimum monthly deposit. You can save up to a maximum of £200 each month for 12 months by standing order from your Santander current account. Maximum balance you can have in the account at the end of the 12 months is £2,400.
You can make any number of payments via standing order and you don’t have to make a deposit every month. The amount can vary each month, provided the monthly limit isn’t exceeded.
Your month is calculated by the date that you open your Regular eSaver, e.g. you open the Regular eSaver on the 16th of a month, your month will run from 16th of one month to the 15th of the next month.
To make the most of your regular eSaver, you’ll need to set up your standing order to start within the first calendar month after opening. Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.
If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account, if you deposit more than £200 in any month or if you hold more than one Regular eSaver account, Santander reserves the right to revert your account into an Everyday Saver. 

The bold text is their emphasis, not mine.

So it seems to be saying you have to use a Standing Order, but the final paragraph implies you don't (only that the funds have to come from a Santander current account). The second paragraph confuses things further by saying you don't have to make a deposit each month and you can vary the amount - whilst it is possible to amend a Standing Order each month, this isn't how Standing Orders are normally used.

A further complication comes from the point about weekend processing. If you have a Standing Order which happens to fall on a non-working day, you could accidentally fall foul of the £200 monthly limit by depositing £400 in one month (a rolled over standing order from the end of the previous month, plus the current month's standing order) - are they expecting customers to monitor their standing order date closely enough to avoid this happening? 

In practice I think you'll be fine but it's not 100% clear cut. 

Point taken, perhaps I am being guilty of wishful thinking here. I shall be passing a branch later today anyway so I'll see what they have to say regarding standing orders.

OceanSound

TheBanker said:

OceanSound said:

TheBanker said:

Bridlington1 said:

Like @ForumUser7 I just did a transfer of £200 from my Santander account. From what I can see there is no term saying you have to fund the account by standing order, all it says is that you can make payments by standing order.

I think it's a bit ambiguous because the KFD says:

Deposits
There is no minimum monthly deposit. You can save up to a maximum of £200 each month for 12 months by standing order from your Santander current account. Maximum balance you can have in the account at the end of the 12 months is £2,400.
You can make any number of payments via standing order and you don’t have to make a deposit every month. The amount can vary each month, provided the monthly limit isn’t exceeded.
Your month is calculated by the date that you open your Regular eSaver, e.g. you open the Regular eSaver on the 16th of a month, your month will run from 16th of one month to the 15th of the next month.
To make the most of your regular eSaver, you’ll need to set up your standing order to start within the first calendar month after opening. Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.
If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account, if you deposit more than £200 in any month or if you hold more than one Regular eSaver account, Santander reserves the right to revert your account into an Everyday Saver. 

The bold text is their emphasis, not mine.

So it seems to be saying you have to use a Standing Order, but the final paragraph implies you don't (only that the funds have to come from a Santander current account). The second paragraph confuses things further by saying you don't have to make a deposit each month and you can vary the amount - whilst it is possible to amend a Standing Order each month, this isn't how Standing Orders are normally used.

A further complication comes from the point about weekend processing. If you have a Standing Order which happens to fall on a non-working day, you could accidentally fall foul of the £200 monthly limit by depositing £400 in one month (a rolled over standing order from the end of the previous month, plus the current month's standing order) - are they expecting customers to monitor their standing order date closely enough to avoid this happening? 

In practice I think you'll be fine but it's not 100% clear cut. 

Santander ought to warn customers about this roll over standing orders.

Of course for those of us who are aware of the caveat,  it's easily avoidable by starting the standing order (SO) at the beginning of the month right up to the middle of the month (or even around 20th of each month should be fine - as there is no risk of any SO rolling over to the next month).

BTW, Santander website says this: 

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

How it works

 * You’re a UK resident aged 16 or over

* You don't already have a Regular eSaver

* You have a Santander current account, excluding 1|2|3 Mini In Trust

* Fund the account with a standing order from a Santander current account

* If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account or if you deposit more than £200 in any month, Santander reserve the right to change your account into an Everyday Saver

Notice the last part does not say 'If you don't fund the account from your Santander Current Account, by standing order, or if you deposit more than ......Santander reserve the right to change your account into an Everyday Saver'. 

So, funding the RS by SO isn't a requirement. 

It's similar wording to the KFD I quoted above. As I said, I think it's ambiguous. The last but one point says you have to fund the account with a standing order, but the 'punishment' for breaking the rules doesn't refer to standing orders, only that the money has to come from a Santander current account and not be more than £200 per month.

As I said I think people would be fine in practice, but if Santander did decide to convert an account to an Everyday Saver because the deposits weren't made by Standing Order, I'm not convinced FOS would uphold a complaint. Look at the Co-op refer a friend thread in the Banking section. The Co-op's terms are ambiguous, but the FOS are siding with the bank.

Seems you posted while i was editing my previous post.

FOS always shout from the roof top that they deal with cases on a case-by-case basis. FOS 'siding with the bank' as you put it may be indicative of underlying issues at FOS. 

However, if they were to handle cases on a case-by-case basis (using fairness to decide - as this is how they decide on cases - it's not legal proof) the Co-op terms being ambiguous but the FOS siding with the bank is no indication that they would do so in Santander's case.

FOS would need to look at what it says on the website, on the terms and conditions, the KFD etc and then decide. We wouldn't be able to prejudge that because FOS behaved in such a manner with Co-op they would repeat that behaviour. This is of course assuming that FOS operate in shipshape manner.

10_66

OceanSound said:

Santander ought to warn customers about this roll over standing orders.

Of course for those of us who are aware of the caveat,  it's easily avoidable by starting the standing order (SO) at the beginning of the month right up to the middle of the month (or even around 20th of each month should be fine - as there is no risk of any SO rolling over to the next month)...

Don't forget that it's an account opening anniversary month, not a calendar month.