£5000 in vantage account?

nownewretiredin2011

How religiously do others keep exactly £5000 in their vantage or other accounts that don't pay interest over £5000?

Do you move the excess to a savings account immediately it exceeds £5000 or do you let it rise a little.

Same when it falls below £5000 do you immediately transfer money in?

I have various deposits and withdrawals during the month so I would need to transfer money in and out manually about 12 times or more a month to keep an exact balance of £5000.

A deposit every Mon, one every 4 weeks and 3 every month and 4 varying DDs out .

The only constants are the deposits.

For instance today (Mon) I get a deposit of £190 which will make my balance to £5190 but on Thurs I have a DD of £220 so would you transfer £190 to a savings account today then on Thurs transfer in £220 or not bother moving any money as on Fri there will be a deposit of £600 then move the excess over £5000 to the savings account and repeat the next week but the DD is a different DD and the deposit is different amount?

So standing orders don't really work.

Similarily if the balance is £5000 and there is a DD of £1250 the next day but 2 days later there will be a deposit of £800 then a day later a deposit of £500 would you transfer £1250 in on the day the DD is withdrawn or even just £1200?

Or would you just transfer out the excess over £5000 once a month and only transfer in if the balance would be less than £5000 for a week?

KingL2

Which vantage account? Lloyds stopped paying interest long ago, TSB has just stopped, too.  HBOS still is (I think) paying 0.6% on the first £4k and £1.5% for the last.
Interest rates are so pathetic, it's not worth the effort of shovelling money from one place to another with any frequency, IMO.   Interest on £1000 for 2 days at 1.5% is 8p.

Ballard

When rates were higher I went to the effort of moving money between accounts but it’s really not worth it now. Until very recently I had an offset mortgage and tried not to have more in my current account than the mortgage simply because First Direct would send me a letter to warn me every time I did. 

I’ve just moved and used some savings which required me to move just over £40k to my current account paying 0% for a couple of days. The loss of interest didn’t keep me awake at night (unlike the weather this morning!). 

scoot65

I used to keep £5k in my Vantage accounts and move the interest into another account on the day is was added to the Vantage account.  .... Now, I don't have any Vantage accounts.  

nownewretiredin2011

KingL2 said:

Which vantage account? Lloyds stopped paying interest long ago, TSB has just stopped, too.  HBOS still is (I think) paying 0.6% on the first £4k and £1.5% for the last.
Interest rates are so pathetic, it's not worth the effort of shovelling money from one place to another with any frequency, IMO.   Interest on £1000 for 2 days at 1.5% is 8p.

BoS Vantage account.

I also still get £2 a month in my BoS Halifax Reward account for 2 DDs and transferring £1000 in and out through my Nationwide FlexAccount to keep my travel insurance going.

surreysaver

The only day I ensure my Vantage and Club Lloyds are at £5k is the last working day of the month ready for the standing orders on the next working day 

General_Grant

In the past, when interest rates were higher, I did keep a close eye on the balances and move funds out if only for a few days.  Now I'm not so bothered - for Club Lloyds just ensure balance is between £4K and £5K and for Halifax Reward ensure always at least £5K (because that's the option I chose for the Reward).
As the Halifax accounts don't have DDs on them now, I only have to take care for the SOs.

Eco_Miser

I try to minimise manual balancing payments while not missing out too much on interest, so I wouldn't be taking money out one day and putting it back the next, nor would I be paying in one day to meet a payment and taking out a similar amount the next after money has come in.  

However I do ensure that my Club Lloyds is at exactly £5000 for most of the month by taking out the interest and any surplus on the second working day of each month (all the other activity happens automatically on the first working day).

fenwick458

KingL2 said:

Which vantage account? Lloyds stopped paying interest long ago, TSB has just stopped, too.  HBOS still is (I think) paying 0.6% on the first £4k and £1.5% for the last.

Club Lloyds still pays me around £3/month, and same from BOS. both of them have just over £5000 
OP I'm not sure why you are obsessed with keeping it as close to £5000. it doesn't matter if it goes over. just make sure it's at least £5000 if you want the maximum interest. and even if it goes £200 below for a few days, you'll only be loosing pennies so don't sweat it

Katiehound

Club Lloyds eventually replaced the Lloyds with Vantage.
 You used to be able to have x 3 L with Vantage and you didn't need DDs. Then the DDs rule came in, then the Club L came in - and you can only have one of those ..... but of course it does pay interest. (I am not talking about joint a/cs- don't know those rules)

The only place now where £5K is critical is the Halifax Reward a/c- drop below that amount for even one day and wave byebye to your £5!- if that's the deal you have chosen.

Herbalus

I have a few things going in and out of my club Lloyds account and don’t keep it at £5k religiously at all. I will transfer some funds in if it gets to say a few £100 below £5k but other than that I don’t worry about it. I have quite a bit of money at 0% anyway (my main current account doesn’t pay credit interest) so if I have say £2k in my main bank account I don’t worry if Lloyds holds slightly more than £5k because that extra money may well be earning nothing anyway.

in the current environment there’s not much to be gained from moving hundreds of pounds around all the time. The main bulk of my funds is sorted though.