Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

Bridlington1

RG2015 said:

Regular savers have become much less attractive to me. The Santander offering of 5.00% makes no sense when their easy access saver gives 5.20%.

I have First Direct at 7.00%, Skipton at 7.50% and Club Lloyds at 5.25%. I like that Club Lloyds is now 6.25% but I would have expected many more to have increased to above 6.00%.

The competition from easy access savers and 1 year fixed savers appears to be making many regular savers redundant. I cannot be the only one to have withdrawn from mine where possible and minimise the monthly payment where I cannot withdraw.

I think it largely depends on what you're comparing them to. If comparing to fixes then yes at the moment most regular savers have become pretty poor of late. However I'm currently hoping to buy my first home within the next year or two so 1 year fixes are not much use to me since I may well need the money before the end of their term, thus in my case the main comparison is between regular savers and EA accounts with some slight interference from notice accounts.

At the moment I'm fully funding any regular saver that allows some penalty free withdrawals/early closure paying at or above 5.2%, whilst also fully funding a couple that pay slightly less than that if I think their rates could jump above that in the near future (Leeds Home Deposit Saver and Coventry Regular Saver at the moment), so as things stand I expect to fully fund 23 next month and fund another 6 with the minimum deposits, though this could change depending on if any other regular savers are launched and what happens to EA rates over the coming weeks.

Having said that I have recently closed a few of my lower paying regular savers so I'm no longer funding quite as many as I once was, but if you are not in a position to lock your money away as I am then regular savers are generally still an attractive offer IMHO.

allegro120

drphila said:

t1redmonkey said:

BlackthornU said:

Am I missing something? 
Why would you want a Beehive 6% fixed rate regular saver with no access for a year when you can get 6.2% fixed no access from NS&I?

The Beehive one is a 'hedge' of sorts, a way to lock in 6% until end of September 2024 on an account without having to commit anything more than £10 as there are no minimum monthly payments.

You can just pay in £10 to open it (anytime within first 90 days, don't even have to fund it straight away), then if it becomes worthwhile at any point between now and when it matures, you can start paying into it since you've basically reserved the 6% rate by depositing that £10.

Scenario: You do not see it as a useful account currently but want to open it in case it becomes useful at some point in the future.

- Deposit £10 by mid December 2023.  This keeps account open until end of September 2024.
- Several months in the future, let's say March 2024 for example, 6% is now a very good rate compared to other available accounts and you think it's worth putting in more.
- You can now start depositing up to £250 each month and get the 6% rate.

Good logic but is it really worth it for the amounts involved? Say in 6 months the best 6-month notice account is 5%, ie 1% less.So the difference over the last 6 months =.01x(£1500/2)/2 = £3.75

It is as a small part of portfolio.

allegro120

RG2015 said:

Regular savers have become much less attractive to me. The Santander offering of 5.00% makes no sense when their easy access saver gives 5.20%.

I have First Direct at 7.00%, Skipton at 7.50% and Club Lloyds at 5.25%. I like that Club Lloyds is now 6.25% but I would have expected many more to have increased to above 6.00%.

The competition from easy access savers and 1 year fixed savers appears to be making many regular savers redundant. I cannot be the only one to have withdrawn from mine where possible and minimise the monthly payment where I cannot withdraw.

I've significantly reduced my RS activities.  Closed, minimised or stopped contributing to most of them.

surreysaver

allegro120 said:

RG2015 said:

Regular savers have become much less attractive to me. The Santander offering of 5.00% makes no sense when their easy access saver gives 5.20%.

I have First Direct at 7.00%, Skipton at 7.50% and Club Lloyds at 5.25%. I like that Club Lloyds is now 6.25% but I would have expected many more to have increased to above 6.00%.

The competition from easy access savers and 1 year fixed savers appears to be making many regular savers redundant. I cannot be the only one to have withdrawn from mine where possible and minimise the monthly payment where I cannot withdraw.

I've significantly reduced my RS activities.  Closed, minimised or stopped contributing to most of them.

I'll only open ones paying 6% or more. 

Those I've still got paying less than 6% I'm doing the minimum to meet the T&Cs until they mature 

friolento

I had my regular monthly SO from Santander to Coventry BS paid unexpectedly today, Sunday 17th. It was also credited at CBS today.

Whilst the date of the SO is correct, something v. strange is going on, as normally Santander do not process SOs at weekends. I don't know whether this was a freak one-off or whether they are now processing SOs on non-banking days.

PowerSavingMode

friolento said:

I had my regular monthly SO from Santander to Coventry BS paid unexpectedly today, Sunday 17th. It was also credited at CBS today.

Whilst the date of the SO is correct, something v. strange is going on, as normally Santander do not process SOs at weekends. I don't know whether this was a freak one-off or whether they are now processing SOs on non-banking days.

I've noticed this recently, too. Also, NatWest — who have always honoured Direct Debits regardless of whether or not I have funds to cover them (I usually credit the account to cover them when I get the alert (same day) that I set up) — have started to not cover the DDs and then charge me for a 'return unpaid' payment. 

Wheres_My_Cashback

Coventry RS5 rate increase confirmation

https://www.gbnews.com/money/coventry-building-society-savings-interest-rate

And now confirmed in Coventry online banking too

lightbulb2760

Santander S/Os paid today (a non-working day)

I have a number of weekly standing orders, and I see that tomorrow's SOs have all been paid today, presumably before the nominal cut-off time of 2015 (any transactions after this time are dated tomorrow: a small payment into my account today is so dated with tomorrow's date). I am now into my arranged overdraft because of this, with no opportunity to avoid the consequential overdraft interest which will be charged. I'm not happy...

t1redmonkey

Wheres_My_Cashback said:

Coventry RS5 rate increase confirmation

https://www.gbnews.com/money/coventry-building-society-savings-interest-rate

I saw that story on my phone, I was confused why the article was calling it a 'market leading' rate!

friolento

lightbulb2760 said:

Santander S/Os paid today (a non-working day)

I have a number of weekly standing orders, and I see that tomorrow's SOs have all been paid today, presumably before the nominal cut-off time of 2015 (any transactions after this time are dated tomorrow: a small payment into my account today is so dated with tomorrow's date). I am now into my arranged overdraft because of this, with no opportunity to avoid the consequential overdraft interest which will be charged. I'm not happy...

Apparently it happened in error and they are aware. You probably still have to contact them / complain about it.


Discussion  here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6473263/santander-sos-at-weekends