Prepay account and savings

Seagray28

Hi
I previously got into debt and now have an account with Think Money. Which is a prepay account. 
It works well for me, I'm out of debt, I have a good credit record and I like the set up of this bank, so don't want to change. 

I'm now in a position to save money and want a savings app.
Plum and Monzar etc don't work well with prepay accounts and all other accounts online require you to open a bank account with them.
Think money doesn't offer a savings account... So I'm a bit stuck. 
 
I like the savings app where little amounts are squirrelled away regularly and I can move it to my bank account when I need, but can't seem to find anything.  Not that bothered about interests rates. 
Can anyone help? 

Daliah

You could save a lot of money if you ditched ThinkMoney and went for a current account which has no monthly charges. Even CashPlus is better than ThinkMoney, but there are others which don't credit check you, such as Starling or Monzo.

Regarding savings, there is an abundance of savings accounts which don't mind where you hold your current account. https://moneyfacts.co.uk/savings-accounts/

You could also consider Premium Bonds for your savings, although they don't pay you a guaranteed percentage of interest.

Edi81

Thank money aren’t a bank. They even say so on their website. 

If you are now more in control of your finances you would be better placed opening a proper basic bank account with a bank. 

ZeroSum

Tesco clubcard pay + ?

You get a clubcard point for every £8 spent (but nowt in tesco Weirdly beyond the initial 3 month offer where you get 1 per £1 spent)
And they have a roundup account 

Then there's chase, which is meant to be a current account but it's effectively a pre pay account. You get 1% cashback for a year, and also has a round up account (which pays 5%, but for most the extra interest will be buttons anyway)

Seagray28

Hi.  I think everyone is missing the point.
Think money take all the money needed for bills into one account and the remainder is put into a cash account on a prepay card. This means I don't have to worry about direct debits still to come off, everything in that account is mine to use.   I like this and it's worth the monthly charge and stops me from getting onto debt again. 

However, I want to put my savings else where, so I don't spend it, but not a standard savings account.   A Monzo or plum account would help me build up the savings without me noticing, but they don't work with a prepaid card, so I'm looking for an alternative. 

Daliah

You are on a moneysaving expert site, so you get expert tips for money saving on here.

If you want to pay £120 a year for something that you can easily do yourself by SO or manually is obviously your choice.

Equally, if you want to pay someone for preventing you from using your preferred savings account, that's also your choice. However, it's hard to believe that the only way you can get at your cash is by spending it with your debit card. Surely you can set up SOs, or make one-off Faster Payments, into either a savings account, or into a current account which is less restrictive than your ThinkMoney account.

If you are truly stuck with the debit card, there are a couple of online savings accounts which allow deposit by debit card (possibly more than a couple in branch-based accounts). Though they do pay mediocre interest rates. Mind you, it appears that your preferred savings accounts would offer mediocre rates, so this might not be an issue for you.

Zanderman

OP is merely asking about savings, not advice on their everyday account.

And has made that clear in response to replies challenging their choice of ThinkMoney.  

OP - you can save anywhere but if you're looking for some auto-saving system you may not find one that works with Think Money.

As Daliah says above there are ways of paying out to a savings account from ThinkMoney - by SO, or by Debit Card.  Most savings accounts will accept payment by SO, not so many by debit card. 

An SO will be automatic - you won't need to do anything - but it will be the same amount each time.  A debit card payment can vary every time but you'll need to do it. 

I assume that's what's putting you off - you want a system that works in the background without your intervention - but perhaps not the same amount each time?  

That may not be possible - but you could easily set up a fixed SO via thinkmoney to a savings account - they even encourage you to:  https://www.thinkmoney.co.uk/blog/set-up-a-standing-order-to-get-ahead-of-the-savings-game/