Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

t1redmonkey

schiff said:

MonBS

I first gave them my signature in 2020. Again in 2021, again in 2022 and again this month in 2023. Why? What do they compare them with, how do they verify that they are what they purport to be? What do they do with them? And why for every single account? Shouldn’t once be enough? 

It is definitely overkill.  The idea of it is that the staff member processing the (eventual) withdrawal of funds once the request to close the RS comes in is meant to compare the signature on the withdrawal form with the one they have on file from the original account opening documentation.  So basically it's just for signature comparison purposes.

trickydicky14

Bridlington1 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

jim1999 said:

I'm seriously thinking about stopping funding / cashing out the Coventry FHS Issue 1 - it feels crazy given that it's paying 5.6% but given that I'll be taxed 40% on the interest, I'd probably do better with the money in Premium Bonds, and it's now my worst paying account.

I suppose it's possible that it could increase dramatically, but so far they've all been very small increases.  I can't blame Coventry, as it's still quite a generous account compared to the rest of the market.

Anyone else stopped / debating stopping accounts >5.5%?

I've stopped funding (well, I added a quid) this month to the Coventry FHS (1), Halifax & BOS 5.5% RSs. Not so much tax as running out of saveable income with the addition of the new RSs. 

Do you happen to know if withdrawals from the FHS are penalty-free?

Withdrawals are penalty free for Issue 1. Issue 2 requires 60 days notice or a 60-day interest hit.

I'm keeping my Issue 1, I still think 5.6% easy access is worth it for now.

gele

Regarding Coventry I am debating the same myself as I have just opened my ISA for this year the Shawbrook 1 yr fix and 5.6% compared to 5.78% is a notable difference. Contemplating whether to put all but £500 into Shawbrook. Its only the reduction of easy access funds that's holding me back (and the fact that I just like Coventry and the FHS1 account

flykiller

Bridlington1 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

A sideline enquiry involving MonBS but probably relevant elsewhere.

I now have 3 MonBS regular savers. To fund them by Faster Payment each month I would ideally like to set up 3 payees with my normal feeder current account that differ only in the Reference (the BS account number).

RBS don't allow Payee/Account No/Sort Code dups. 
Chase don't hold the reference between payments but do allow dups.

I don't want to be entering/amending the reference each month 3 times, too much potential for typos and subsequent grief.

Anyone suggest a solution or another bank that allows this duplication (I have a few others).

I fund each of my Monmouthshire BS regular savers from a different account to save having to check the account number reference each time. This morning I funded the Exclusive Regular Saver from a Santander student account, Regular Saver from Santander Edge, Coronation from First Direct and Xmas from Ulster.

I have a list of each of the payees on all of my accounts saved on a spreadsheet so I know which is which without having to find any passbooks. I do the same with Principality, Darlington and Mansfield too.

And they increase interest rates with Bank of England change, although not by the same amount x

Bridlington1

t1redmonkey said:

schiff said:

MonBS

I first gave them my signature in 2020. Again in 2021, again in 2022 and again this month in 2023. Why? What do they compare them with, how do they verify that they are what they purport to be? What do they do with them? And why for every single account? Shouldn’t once be enough? 

It is definitely overkill.  The idea of it is that the staff member processing the (eventual) withdrawal of funds once the request to close the RS comes in is meant to compare the signature on the withdrawal form with the one they have on file from the original account opening documentation.  So basically it's just for signature comparison purposes.

I'm not complaining though. I've just received a signatory form for both the Exclusive Regular Saver and the Regular Saver. Each came with a prepaid envelope and both forms will go back in the same envelope. I thus now have a spare prepaid envelope, ready to use in case they launch a regular saver that is branch opening only in theory but allows postal applications in practice (not that that's ever happened before).

trickydicky14

I've just received a signatory form for both the Exclusive Regular Saver and the Regular Saver. Each came with a prepaid envelope and both forms will go back in the same envelope.

I just rang MBS to be told you don’t need a signature for the members RS only for the 7% RS as you are already a member.This is just so ‘right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing’.

dcs34

My current threshold was to only pay into anything paying over 5.5% (as this weeded out Lloyds, Halifax and BOS). With the NS&I bonds I'm now questioning the value of anything below 6% as instead of paying into various regular savers each month I could instead open another bond account with the same money. Though the questions are if we are at the peak of the interest rate rise and if so how long we (and these accounts) will stay at this peak to continue to be openable / fundable.

kaMelo

flaneurs_lobster said:

Hattie627 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

A sideline enquiry involving MonBS but probably relevant elsewhere.

I now have 3 MonBS regular savers. To fund them by Faster Payment each month I would ideally like to set up 3 payees with my normal feeder current account that differ only in the Reference (the BS account number).

RBS don't allow Payee/Account No/Sort Code dups. 
Chase don't hold the reference between payments but do allow dups.

I don't want to be entering/amending the reference each month 3 times, too much potential for typos and subsequent grief.

Anyone suggest a solution or another bank that allows this duplication (I have a few others).

I now fund four Monmouthshire Building Society Regular Savers by 4 X monthly SO's from my Santander Edge current account. All 4 SO's have same sort code and account number but different references. I didn't realise that some current accounts don't allow duplicate SO's with the same account number and sort code-very inconvenient.

To be clear, I'm funding manually each month, not by SO. RBS (and others) may well allow SO account dups.

They do, you can have multiple SO to the same account with a different reference, however as you point out, there is no way to achieve multiple payee's to the same account with a different reference.
It's something I've come across myself when holding multiple accounts with the same provider. I just keep a text file within each providers respective folders with the reference numbers listed against each account, then copy and paste to avoid any typos. It's not the greatest solution but it works for me.

Nick_C

Chase don't check payee name, so you can use a nickname for a payee.  Therefore you can have duplicate payees for the same account. 

The problem with Chase is they store the reference but don't automatically populate the reference field when you make an ad hoc payment.  You have to remember to select it.

A couple of times I've sent ad hoc payments to Skipton and forgotten to add the reference.  I've had to subsequently phone Skipton and get them to pull the payment from their suspense account and allocate it. 

flaneurs_lobster

kaMelo said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Hattie627 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

A sideline enquiry involving MonBS but probably relevant elsewhere.

I now have 3 MonBS regular savers. To fund them by Faster Payment each month I would ideally like to set up 3 payees with my normal feeder current account that differ only in the Reference (the BS account number).

RBS don't allow Payee/Account No/Sort Code dups. 
Chase don't hold the reference between payments but do allow dups.

I don't want to be entering/amending the reference each month 3 times, too much potential for typos and subsequent grief.

Anyone suggest a solution or another bank that allows this duplication (I have a few others).

I now fund four Monmouthshire Building Society Regular Savers by 4 X monthly SO's from my Santander Edge current account. All 4 SO's have same sort code and account number but different references. I didn't realise that some current accounts don't allow duplicate SO's with the same account number and sort code-very inconvenient.

To be clear, I'm funding manually each month, not by SO. RBS (and others) may well allow SO account dups.

They do, you can have multiple SO to the same account with a different reference, however as you point out, there is no way to achieve multiple payee's to the same account with a different reference.
It's something I've come across myself when holding multiple accounts with the same provider. I just keep a text file within each providers respective folders with the reference numbers listed against each account, then copy and paste to avoid any typos. It's not the greatest solution but it works for me.

Yes, pretty much what I do now although I prefer to do my 1st of the month RS feeding on my phone/apps and cutting/pasting there is not the easiest.

I've set up 3 payees for Monmouth on First Direct, small problem is that they can't have different "nicknames" but the references are visible when selecting which to pay.