Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

schiff

MONMOUTH BS
Their recently issued 2019/20 tax statements aren't correct. I had interest in that year, which they show on the statement, but the summary figure is shown as £0.00. I've told them about it but they had realised; fresh statements are being issued. What a simple but costly error!

colsten

xxxxxxxx said: 

I realise it may be better to just put everything into a single account such as NS&I 1.16% 

It depends on your definition of "better".

It is certainly easier to dump everything into a 1.16% AER  account than drip-feeding into a number of higher rate accounts.

From an interest rate point of view, quite obviously 1.5%, 1.85%, 2%, 2.75% accounts will provide a higher return than a 1.16% one. In addition, some of these have a fixed rate for a year whilst the 1.16% is variable. Some of the RSs also tie up your money for 12 months, whilst the 1.16% one is (sort of) instant access.

Only you can decide what's better for yourself.

colsten

xxxxxxxx said:

Can you have more than 1 of the regular regular ones?

You can have as many regular savers as you can fund. Though you are usually limited to 1 of a particular issue.

xxxxxxxx said:

Can I have 3 normal Lloyds regular savers and 1 Lloyds Club regular saver?  

Each account holder can certainly have 1 Club Lloyds RS and 1 normal RS. I don't believe you can have additional joint ones. In any case, Lloyds want you to appear in Branch to make an RS joint, and - apart from this being ridiculous - you cannot get any appointments presently to make joint accounts. 

colsten

schiff said:

MONMOUTH BS
Their recently issued 2019/20 tax statements aren't correct. I had interest in that year, which they show on the statement, but the summary figure is shown as £0.00. I've told them about it but they had realised; fresh statements are being issued. What a simple but costly error!

I always ignore all interest statements as I track the interest payments in all my accounts throughout the year, alongside the up-to-date balance of the accounts. At any one point in time, I can just look at my accrued interest totals, nicely split into taxable and non-taxable, and it's easy to do a quick reconciliation at the end of each tax year to ensure I haven't overlooked any. HMRC have never asked me for any interest statements from the banks and have always accepted my totals without asking for details.

Thanks for the heads up, anyway.

adindas

xxxxxxxx said:

adindas said: Unless you are using your Club Loyds for saving account  only, e.g. the balance stays @£5000, 1.2% interest rate is not a good assumption yes you will only get that rate if the money is £5000 each day. 

My Club Lloyds are always at £5000+   

You will only get equivalent of 1.2% if you have £5000, nothing more nothing less  So £5,000 is fine £5000+ is a waste of interest, as you will only get interest up to £5,000. That is the point of my previous post to use it as a saving account and not to be used as a feeder account to achieve this objective. 

xxxxxxxx

colsten said:

It depends on your definition of "better".

It is certainly easier to dump everything into a 1.16% AER  account than drip-feeding into a number of higher rate accounts.

From an interest rate point of view, quite obviously 1.5%, 1.85%, 2%, 2.75% accounts will provide a higher return than a 1.16% one. In addition, some of these have fixed rate for a year. Some of these also tie up your money for 12 months, whilst the 1.16% one is (sort of) instant access.

Only you can decide what's better for yourself.

I calculated on a £25,000 lump sum   
it would get £289 in the NS&I account @ 1.16% 
Assuming the NS&I account can be used as the feeder (which I suppose it cannot).
Drip feeding into First Direct reg @£300 would increase the interest by £31
Drip feeding it into Lloyds Club reg @£400 = + £23 
Drip feeding into a Standard Lloyds reg @£250 = + £6   

There's no point in the last one extra £6 and I don't want yet another bank like First Direct just to get £30 extra 
So I think I will look for a single new bank account like NS&I (I am already with them for PB) for the lump sum  and I will use my salary to drip feed into a Lloyds Club regular Saver from my Club accounts.   But even this for £23 seems like too much work but it is in the same bank and it is automatic...so maybe.

Thanks for your help.  

xxxxxxxx

adindas said:

xxxxxxxx said:

adindas said: Unless you are using your Club Loyds for saving account  only, e.g. the balance stays @£5000, 1.2% interest rate is not a good assumption yes you will only get that rate if the money is £5000 each day. 

My Club Lloyds are always at £5000+   

You will only get 1.2% if you have £5000, nothing less nothing more. So £5,000 is fine £5000+ is a waste of interest, as you will only get interest up to £5,000. That is the point of my previous post to use it as a saving account and not to be used as a feeder account to achieve this objective. 

But the money is always there and always £5000+  I know I don't get anything on the over £5000 part but it is always there anyway so I might as well use it as the feed account.  And it means I do get £180 a year from those 3 current accounts.  
I since found out that First Direct and HSBC current accounts probably don't pay interest so switching to them makes no sense for me, I'm better off staying with lloyds  

colsten

I agree, 1.5% isn't exactly an exciting rate, and the hassle of manual transfers from the NS&I account might not be worth your while. It might get more exciting once NS&I drop their rate, so I for one wouldn't yet totally discard a 1.5% RS. In fact, I opened one the other day at Virgin.....desperate times.

BTW, you couldn't currently get a First Direct account as they don't presently take applications. You probably could get an HSBC and an M&S one, but they both take ages to open, and you also needed to switch an account to be eligible for the M&S RS. It wouldn't hold me back but it might not be something you want to get involved with. I would also definitely get a 1.85% Coventry RS, and pack some money into current accounts at Virgin and TSB.

vernall

Isn't Club Lloyds 2% on balances between £4000 and £5000? or has something happened that I have missed?

eskbanker

vernall said:

Isn't Club Lloyds 2% on balances between £4000 and £5000? or has something happened that I have missed?

Sounds like you've perhaps missed the fact that you only get 2% on that part of the balance that's between £4K and £5K, while the rest up to £4K still only earns 1%.  Hence a balance of £5K earns (£4K @ 1% = £40) plus (£1K @ 2% = £20) equals £60, i.e. 1.2%, which is the highest effective rate you can earn on these accounts.

(Technically the rates are slightly lower than that as interest on fully-funded accounts can't compound, so is only earned at gross rates (0.99% and 1.99%) rather than the rounder AER figures)