Closing a 95-day Notice Account?

jjlothin

Anyone out there got a crystal ball ? I have around £70k in an Investec 95-Day Notice Account at a current rate of interest of 0.55%, and I think my circumstances would allow me to lock it up for a year.At the moment, I see that OakNorth Bank could offer me 1.23% for a fixed period of 12 months.

According to Investec's T&Cs: 'To close a Notice Account, you must give us the same notice period as you have to give for making a withdrawal. We will close the account on expiry of the notice period.'

So my quandary is, how dangerous would it be to close my Investec account today, in the hope that there would still be something like OakNorth's rate available around at the end of November?

wiseonesomeofthetime

You will not actually receive the funds until the first week of December by my calculations (30s+31o+30n+4d) and who knows what rates will be available by then.

I have noticed an upward trend in rates on 1-year fixed accounts recently, however, it's anyone's guess whether this will continue.

If I were a gambling man, which I am not, I would expect rates higher than the 1.23% you mention in your post to be available then.

Wonder what others think?

george4064

I would chance it and close the account in favour of the higher paying 1y fix.

janusd

jjlothin said:

So my quandary is, how dangerous would it be to close my Investec account today, in the hope that there would still be something like OakNorth's rate available around at the end of November?

I would have thought you'd be unlucky if general 1-yr fixed rates were less than that in 12 weeks time.

as an alternative suggestion, have you considered asking Investec if you could move the money to their 1-yr fixed rate account at 1.33% ?

possibly if you can speak to someone there, they might be able to waive the 95 days - depends how flexible they want to be... at the end of the day, the money is still deposited with them, so it's just an administrative change.

even if you didn't want to fix for a year, they'd be better options than 0.55% on a notice account - Investec (via Raisin) have a 32-day notice now paying 0.8%... even Investec's easy access account would pay 0.58% with no notice required for withdrawals.

jjlothin

Thank you all very much indeed for your thoughts on this (which I've only just seen as I'd forgotten to bookmark the post) - and particularly to janusdesign for a piece of lateral thinking!

I reckon it's definitely worth giving Investec a call to see if they've got any flexibility, although I see that they don't allow existing account holders to open the 0.58% easy access account ...

I will report back hopefully tomorrow, in case it's of use to anyone else!

Reaper

I suggest checking the terms of your account. It is quite possible they will allow you to cancel a notice period. If so give 95 days notice now and decide nearer the time whether to go through with it.

jjlothin

Reaper said:

I suggest checking the terms of your account. It is quite possible they will allow you to cancel a notice period. If so give 95 days notice now and decide nearer the time whether to go through with it.

Many thanks, Reaper! Thinking things through, I realised that I couldn't really tie up the whole amount for a year after all. But I've put in notice to withdraw £20k which I CAN tie up ... And you're quite right: I can cancel nearer the time if necessary.

Thanks to everyone - and thank goodness for this forum

sooty900

jjlothin said:

Reaper said:

I suggest checking the terms of your account. It is quite possible they will allow you to cancel a notice period. If so give 95 days notice now and decide nearer the time whether to go through with it.

Many thanks, Reaper! Thinking things through, I realised that I couldn't really tie up the whole amount for a year after all. But I've put in notice to withdraw £20k which I CAN tie up ... And you're quite right: I can cancel nearer the time if necessary.

Thanks to everyone - and thank goodness for this forum

I have the same dilema and was wondering if I just close the account and suffer the 95 day loss of interest, then I may be better off transferring it into a fixed 1 year account straight away rather than waiting. Did you ask if they would waiver the notice at all please?

sooty900

george4064 said:

I would chance it and close the account in favour of the higher paying 1y fix.

What close it straight away and suffer the loss of interest? I wonder at what rate it would be more beneficial to do this if anyone has worked it out. I think anything over 1% would work out more beneficial?