Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

aaj123

Bridlington1 said:

Just a reminder the new Coventry BS rates come into force today. Notably:
FHS Issue 1 (NLA) now pays 5.6%
FHS Issue 2 now pays 5.05%
Regular Saver Issue 5 now pays 5.05%

Useless for most who pay any kind of tax. And even if not, these are so close to simple easy access account rates. Why even bother?

Bigwheels1111

I think I have 8 regular savers still going, but as there is only 1,2 or 3 payments left I will let them end on their own.

The only 2 I will keep are Skipton and First direct.

The spare cash is building up in Tandem now.

kaMelo

aaj123 said:

Bridlington1 said:

Just a reminder the new Coventry BS rates come into force today. Notably:
FHS Issue 1 (NLA) now pays 5.6%
FHS Issue 2 now pays 5.05%
Regular Saver Issue 5 now pays 5.05%

Useless for most who pay any kind of tax. And even if not, these are so close to simple easy access account rates. Why even bother?

Because the FHS issue 1 is in essence an easy access account, the only restriction being limited to £1000 deposit per month. At 5.6% it's more than any easy access account available.

Tax is what it is, if you've no other tax free or zero rated options left then it still makes sense to maximise interest.

jaypers

I effectively binned off TSB and Santander RS accounts over the weekend. Just sticking with Beehive and First Direct now. Going forwards, unless anything is over 7%, I won’t bother with Reg Savers. Wonder if anyone will launch something significant again in the same way First Direct did when they went to 7%. 

aaj123

jaypers said:

I effectively binned off TSB and Santander RS accounts over the weekend. Just sticking with Beehive and First Direct now. Going forwards, unless anything is over 7%, I won’t bother with Reg Savers. Wonder if anyone will launch something significant again in the same way First Direct did when they went to 7%. 

There is Skipton Regular Saver paying 7.5% for £250 per month limit.

Bridlington1

aaj123 said:

Bridlington1 said:

Just a reminder the new Coventry BS rates come into force today. Notably:
FHS Issue 1 (NLA) now pays 5.6%
FHS Issue 2 now pays 5.05%
Regular Saver Issue 5 now pays 5.05%

Useless for most who pay any kind of tax. And even if not, these are so close to simple easy access account rates. Why even bother?

For starters the FHS issue 1 pays 5.6%, which is a decent enough rate of interest IMHO and allows penalty free withdrawals. Both FHS issues also have a high (£1k/mth) maximum pay in.

Admittedly there's not much difference between FHS Issue 2 and the regular saver Issue 5 and EA rates now but they could well become more competitive again in the future. I remember emptying the FHS Issue 1 late last year when it paid 2.95% and EA rates were at 3%, only for the account to jump to 5% in one go so do not want to end up in a similar position again.

Personally I'm currently funding any variable rate regular saver paying at or above 5%. I'm in the fortunate position of not having to worry about paying tax on savings interest so wish to maximise every penny. Even at 0.05% above EA rates, it is still worth it for me. At the moment it looks like I'll be fully funding the following next month:

Bank/building society	Name				Interest rate		Max deposit
Saffron BS	Members Month Loyalty Saver				9.00%		£50.00
Skipton BS	Members Branch Regular Saver				7.50%		£250.00
Bath BS	16-25 regular saver				7.49%		£50.00
First Direct	Regular Saver				7.00%		£300.00
Natwest	Digital Regular Saver				6.17%		£150.00
RBS	Digital Regular Saver				6.17%		£150.00
Penrith BS	Regular Saver 300 (Heartland only)				6.00%		£300.00
YBS	Christmas 2023 Regular Savings Bond				5.75%		£300.00
Monmouthshire BS	Coronation Regular Saver				5.60%		£300.00
Coventry BS	First Home Saver Issue 1				5.60%		£1,000.00
Tipton & Cosley BS	Regular Saver to 31 July 2024 app				5.50%		£500.00
Monmouthshire BS	Christmas saver Bond Issue 5				5.50%		£200.00
Principality BS	Regular Savings Bond Issue 33				5.50%		£250.00
Nationwide BS	Start to Save Issue 2				5.50%		£50.00
Saffron BS	Small Saver				5.50%		£50.00
Leeds BS	Regular Saver Issue 36				5.25%		£250.00
YBS	Regular Saver				5.25%		£250.00
Leeds BS	Home Deposit Saver				5.15%		£500.00
Coventry BS	Regular Saver				5.05%		£500.00
Hinckley & Rugby BS	Regular Saver 30 Day Notice				5.00%		£500.00

So 20 in total, though this could change depending on where savings rates in general end up. For me there's an element of not wanting to keep all my financial eggs in one basket. Regular savers can mostly be emptied/closed pretty quickly but filling them up takes a while and savings rates can be changed fairly quickly so when EA and regular saver rates are close together, I tend to favour adding further funding the regular savers rather than the EA accounts, particularly if I can make penalty free withdrawals/early closure, plus it means I don't have to worry too much about faster payment limits when moving my EA savings to a better rate since the bulk of my savings remains in regular savers.

orange-juice

re closures: is there something better than the 5.5% Reg saver accounts? Just wondering why the cutoff at 6 or 7 %. Unless it’s due to being higher rate tax payers?

Nick_C

aaj123 said:

Bridlington1 said:

Just a reminder the new Coventry BS rates come into force today. Notably:
FHS Issue 1 (NLA) now pays 5.6%
FHS Issue 2 now pays 5.05%
Regular Saver Issue 5 now pays 5.05%

Useless for most who pay any kind of tax. And even if not, these are so close to simple easy access account rates. Why even bother?

Coventry FHS Iss 1 is a key component of my small and dwindling portfolio of savings accounts.

£350 in Saffron RS @ 9% = £31.50 interest
£1750 in Skipton RS @ 7.5% = £131.25
£5000 in NatWest Digital RS @ 6% = £300
£2800 in Club Lloyds RS @ 6.25% = £175  
£6000 in Coventry FHS @ 5.6% = £336

Average balances over the year.

So the Coventry account is, for me, worth £36 a year compared to Tandem, and has a track record of increasing interest rates which has kept it competitive. 

£974 taxable interest and a bit of breathing space.  The rest of my cash is in a YBS ISA @ 5%.

aaj123

orange-juice said:

re closures: is there something better than the 5.5% Reg saver accounts? Just wondering why the cutoff at 6 or 7 %. Unless it’s due to being higher rate tax payers?

Tax is the main consideration. Paying 20, 40 or 45% tax on interest tends to more often than not make these reg savers inferior to ISAs. Ofcourse, they can still be worthwhile if you have already maxed your ISA allowance.

Nick_C

aaj123 said:

orange-juice said:

re closures: is there something better than the 5.5% Reg saver accounts? Just wondering why the cutoff at 6 or 7 %. Unless it’s due to being higher rate tax payers?

Tax is the main consideration. Paying 20, 40 or 45% tax on interest tends to more often than not make these reg savers inferior to ISAs. Ofcourse, they can still be worthwhile if you have already maxed your ISA allowance.

... or if you haven't used up any Personal Savings Allowance