High St current acct. for unemployed person?

rapido

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rapido

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frepol

Why don't you open an ISA account with Barclays and keep your money in it until you need it and then transfer it into your current account.

frepol

Why don't you open an ISA account with Barclays and keep your money in it until you need it and then transfer it into your current account.

Any help or advice about finding a new job? There's plenty out there if you're flexible and know where to look.

rapido

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Mark7799

Barclays e-savings a/c offers 4.4% for balances from £1. It's only available on-line and can only be fed by on-line transfers. I'm not a Barclays employee but my wife is.

Mark

rapido

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Alfie_E

rapido wrote:

Any more ideas?

I'm afraid it's inevitable that, the less money you pay in and the greater convenience you want, in terms of branch access etc., the less interest will be paid. You're not going to get any better than Nationwide's FlexAccount, which pays 0.5% interest, if you pay in less than £500 per month.

If you want something better, it will require some effort. Mark7799's suggestion of an internet-based account is a good one. If you were to get a FlexAccount, you could then go on to open a Nationwide e-Savings account, which pays 5% on any balance over £1.

If you don't have your own convenient Internet access, your local Nationwide branch should have a computer terminal to allow you to access their online banking, from within the branch. Very few people use the one in my local branch, so I've never seen a queue for it. Money transferred from an e-Savings account is instantly available, and can be taken out at the branch, there and then. If you keep a small balance in the FlexAccount, small everyday payments will be covered. It's only when you need to make a large one-off payment that you'll need to transfer the money before you want it, which, I agree, is less convenient.

However, if you wait for a few months, you should be able to get an overdraft facility of few hundred pounds. Then, you can make the odd big spend using the FlexAccount overdraft facility, and shortly afterwards transfer money from the e-Savings account to cover it. If you clear the overdraft by the end of the day, Nationwide won't even charge you for using it. Even if it takes a couple of days for you to transfer the money, the tiny charge won't make much of a dent on the extra interest you'd have earned, by having the money in the e-Savings account for the preceding few weeks.

The only other alternative is if the only way money leaves your Barclays account is by you taking out cash. Here a building society card-based savings account would be an alternative. Nationwide's CashBuilder would offer you 1.55%. Also, unlike a number of building society savings account, CashBuilder accounts have unique sort-code/account number pairs, so they appear like current accounts, and you can have things like benefits paid into them.

The above describes Nationwide products, as they're the ones I have most experience of. You could well get similar from other banks or building societies.

The last point is: As you're unemployed, your taxable income is probably below your personal tax allowance. If you believe that this will remain the case for the rest of the tax year, you can get your interest paid without it being taxed. If you're entitled, and you've not already done so, make sure you submit R85 forms for any accounts you have. That will ensure whatever interest you do receive, you don't lose 20% of it to the taxman.

Fatboy_NSS

If all you want is cashpoint access then an Abbey Flexible Saver could be the account. It pays 3.55% on balances from £1 and has instant access with a cash card.