Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

surreysaver

Bridlington1 said:

badger09 said:

Bridlington1 said:

ForumUser7 said:

Not TOTP but for those with it for DD purposes, Ecology Regular Saver -> 3.30% from 3.05% effective 19/05/2023

If this is all Ecology can come up with I'm glad I axed it a few weeks ago to be honest.

Still a useful DD source though😉

I'd agree that it's useful as a DD, this is a point I've raised many times before and I had maintained it for over a year for that purpose, though there are DDs with lower "running costs" so to speak such as plum, moneybox, the Ecology EA account etc. Out of my DDs the Ecology regular saver was the most expensive to maintain, even after this increase, and as I had a surplus of DDs it made sense to give it the chop.

And the other reason I keep the Ecology account open, is because its a faff to open, so saves the hassle in the future if it becomes competitive once again 

OceanSound

surreysaver said:

Bridlington1 said:

badger09 said:

Bridlington1 said:

ForumUser7 said:

Not TOTP but for those with it for DD purposes, Ecology Regular Saver -> 3.30% from 3.05% effective 19/05/2023

If this is all Ecology can come up with I'm glad I axed it a few weeks ago to be honest.

Still a useful DD source though😉

I'd agree that it's useful as a DD, this is a point I've raised many times before and I had maintained it for over a year for that purpose, though there are DDs with lower "running costs" so to speak such as plum, moneybox, the Ecology EA account etc. Out of my DDs the Ecology regular saver was the most expensive to maintain, even after this increase, and as I had a surplus of DDs it made sense to give it the chop.

And the other reason I keep the Ecology account open, is because its a faff to open, so saves the hassle in the future if it becomes competitive once again 

soon after online application saw message on screen  saying await letter for my account details and how to make initial deposit. Waited patiently.

Got letter a few days later with account details and how to make initial payment of £500 within 14 days. 

That was that. No prizes for guessing if I made the £500 initial deposit or not btw.

Bridlington1

surreysaver said:

Bridlington1 said:

badger09 said:

Bridlington1 said:

ForumUser7 said:

Not TOTP but for those with it for DD purposes, Ecology Regular Saver -> 3.30% from 3.05% effective 19/05/2023

If this is all Ecology can come up with I'm glad I axed it a few weeks ago to be honest.

Still a useful DD source though😉

I'd agree that it's useful as a DD, this is a point I've raised many times before and I had maintained it for over a year for that purpose, though there are DDs with lower "running costs" so to speak such as plum, moneybox, the Ecology EA account etc. Out of my DDs the Ecology regular saver was the most expensive to maintain, even after this increase, and as I had a surplus of DDs it made sense to give it the chop.

And the other reason I keep the Ecology account open, is because its a faff to open, so saves the hassle in the future if it becomes competitive once again 

I would agree that the possibility of Ecology becoming competitive again is a good reason to keep it open and it's for that reason that I very nearly decided to keep it.

When I closed the account last month it paid 3.05%, and has since risen to 3.3%, which is still quite some way below the 4% regular savers I shall be emptying on 1st June. As thing stand by July any regular saver paying less than 4.25% will likely be in the firing line.

If Ecology had been paying something like 3.5-3.6% and/or had a lower minimum monthly funding requirement I would likely have kept it open, as I have done with Buckinghamshire BS but when I closed the account the interest rate was so low that I couldn't see it beating 4.25% in that time and I still suspect it won't become that competitive for a while.

Admittedly I have taken a significant gamble that Ecology will remain uncompetitive for the bulk of the next year. It could easily backfire spectacularly on me and I hope it does in a sense for the sake of those who have kept it open, but it is what it is.

OceanSound

surreysaver said:

Bridlington1 said:

badger09 said:

Bridlington1 said:

ForumUser7 said:

Not TOTP but for those with it for DD purposes, Ecology Regular Saver -> 3.30% from 3.05% effective 19/05/2023

If this is all Ecology can come up with I'm glad I axed it a few weeks ago to be honest.

Still a useful DD source though😉

I'd agree that it's useful as a DD, this is a point I've raised many times before and I had maintained it for over a year for that purpose, though there are DDs with lower "running costs" so to speak such as plum, moneybox, the Ecology EA account etc. Out of my DDs the Ecology regular saver was the most expensive to maintain, even after this increase, and as I had a surplus of DDs it made sense to give it the chop.

And the other reason I keep the Ecology account open, is because its a faff to open, so saves the hassle in the future if it becomes competitive once again 

Just out of interest (no pun intended), how competitive was the Ecology RS in it's heyday?

Edit: I tried to open a 90 day notice savings account. Not a RS. 

OceanSound

JamesRobinson48 said:

OceanSound said:

Just out of interest (no pun intended), how competitive was the Ecology RS in it's heyday?

Edit: I tried to open a 90 day notice savings account. Not a RS. 

IMHO, the Ecology RS has almost never offered anywhere close to a market leading interest rate. It's a niche business that would never wish to be swamped with deposits or account applications. One big part of its appeal was the monthly DD payment., and I soon closed the account once I no longer needed that.

I figured. Just wanted to confirm because forumite had said '... if it becomes competitive once again' - implying that it was competitive at one point.

Bridlington1

OceanSound said:

JamesRobinson48 said:

OceanSound said:

Just out of interest (no pun intended), how competitive was the Ecology RS in it's heyday?

Edit: I tried to open a 90 day notice savings account. Not a RS. 

IMHO, the Ecology RS has almost never offered anywhere close to a market leading interest rate. It's a niche business that would never wish to be swamped with deposits or account applications. One big part of its appeal was the monthly DD payment., and I soon closed the account once I no longer needed that.

I figured. Just wanted to confirm because forumite had said '... if it becomes competitive once again' - implying that it was competitive at one point.

I seem to recall it hit 2.85% in autumn last year (November IIRC), which at the time was just above the top EA accounts (only by less than 0.1% though) so that was just about competitive. It was then overtaken by a string of 3% EA accounts a few weeks later. 

kaMelo

I don't think Ecology will ever be a top payer, being top dog regarding rates are not what they're about.

For me the benefit is a reasonable rate with DD pay in. Set up on accounts that I have no intention of closing, such as Barclays, to get the benefits offered.

I keep the faster to set up DD's on accounts specifically to respond to switcher offers as and when available.

OceanSound

Bridlington1 said:

OceanSound said:

JamesRobinson48 said:

OceanSound said:

Just out of interest (no pun intended), how competitive was the Ecology RS in it's heyday?

Edit: I tried to open a 90 day notice savings account. Not a RS. 

IMHO, the Ecology RS has almost never offered anywhere close to a market leading interest rate. It's a niche business that would never wish to be swamped with deposits or account applications. One big part of its appeal was the monthly DD payment., and I soon closed the account once I no longer needed that.

I figured. Just wanted to confirm because forumite had said '... if it becomes competitive once again' - implying that it was competitive at one point.

I seem to recall it hit 2.85% in autumn last year (November IIRC), which at the time was just above the top EA accounts (only by less than 0.1% though) so that was just about competitive. It was then overtaken by a string of 3% EA accounts a few weeks later. 

How come you're comparing the Ecology RS interest rate in Autumn (around November) with EA account interest rates for gauging if it was competitive or not?

I opened a Lloyds Monthly Saver (which is a regular saver account) on 22 October 2022 and the interest rate was 4.5 AER/Gross fixed. That didn't go down in November 2022. Compared to the Ecology RS rate, the Lloyds Bank Monthly Saver interest rate was miles ahead (it's a remarkable difference, not 0.1% difference that you mention when compared to EA accounts).

TBH, comparing RS (monthly saver) with EA accounts, is comparing apples and oranges. 

Edit: Nobody has mentioned the Ecology RS for this high interest rate around November 2022 on this thread (or another thread for that matter), which goes to show that it was never competitive around that time. It was mentioned on 13 October 2022 in a different thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79553688/#Comment_79553688

but the mention wasn't for the Interest rate - it was for the Direct Debit.

edit-2: I had actually opened a Club Lloyds Monthly Saver (as I'm a club lloyds current account holder). That Monthly saver has a fixed interest rate of 5.25% gross/AER fixed for 12 months from account opening.

happybagger

Bucks BS from 1 June 2023:

Regular Saver +0.15% to 3.65%

Regular Saver Locals (closed issue) +0.15% to 4.05%

source

ForumUser7

Bucks BS effective 01/06/2023

RS from 3.5% -> 3.65%
RS Locals (NLA) 3.90% -> 4.05%

Nothing exciting unfortunately

EDIT: happybagger beat me to it, I'll leave my post up with the pdf screenshotted for future reference