The Top Fixed Interest Savings Discussion Area

refluxer

TheWoodler said:

I have opened this account with Family Building Society. 

I prefer to send small payments as a test first, but their system wasn’t having that with this bond. I got a message saying that capital was lower than the minimum amount for this product, or words to that effect. It would only proceed to the next stage when I entered the magic sum of £10k. That’s over the threshold of my bank’s FP limit for a first-time payee. So plonk in £10k by debit card it is. 

Quite surprised by that because often you can pay in a set minimum in instalments below the threshold to make up the required minimum balance (eg the recent Melton bond) but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Every institution operates slightly differently. 

That sound sounds fairly unusual. When a bank asks you about your intended deposit, they're usually wanting the total figure just for their info and you can then stick £10,000 in that field on the form (or whatever you intend to save) and subsequently make as many deposits via faster payments as you like in order to build up to that figure, just as you say. That's the way every fixed rate account I've opened has operated at least - I've never opened one with the Family BS though.

There are also a few banks who only allow one single deposit (so small test payments aren't an option) but it doesn't sound like the Family BS are one of those if they have a funding window and their product summary doesn't specify that the initial deposit has to be £10k, either.

If you haven't already, you could try sending £1 by faster payments and see what happens but a debit card payment gets round the issue of entering account details correctly I guess and, having recently paid for the NS&I GGBs this way, I think I actually prefer it.

bristolleedsfan

refluxer said:

TheWoodler said:

I have opened this account with Family Building Society. 

I prefer to send small payments as a test first, but their system wasn’t having that with this bond. I got a message saying that capital was lower than the minimum amount for this product, or words to that effect. It would only proceed to the next stage when I entered the magic sum of £10k. That’s over the threshold of my bank’s FP limit for a first-time payee. So plonk in £10k by debit card it is. 

Quite surprised by that because often you can pay in a set minimum in instalments below the threshold to make up the required minimum balance (eg the recent Melton bond) but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Every institution operates slightly differently. 

That sound sounds fairly unusual. When a bank asks you about your intended deposit, they're usually wanting the total figure just for their info and you can then stick £10,000 in that field on the form (or whatever you intend to save) and subsequently make as many deposits via faster payments as you like in order to build up to that figure, just as you say. That's the way every fixed rate account I've opened has operated at least - I've never opened one with the Family BS though.

There are also a few banks who only allow one single deposit (so small test payments aren't an option) but it doesn't sound like the Family BS are one of those if they have a funding window and their product summary doesn't specify that the initial deposit has to be £10k, either.

If you haven't already, you could try sending £1 by faster payments and see what happens but a debit card payment gets round the issue of entering account details correctly I guess and, having recently paid for the NS&I GGBs this way, I think I actually prefer it.

Minimum opening amount ( Family BS own words) for that particular  Family BS account is £10000.00

https://www.familybuildingsociety.co.uk/savings/bonds

refluxer

bristolleedsfan said:

refluxer said:

TheWoodler said:

I have opened this account with Family Building Society. 

I prefer to send small payments as a test first, but their system wasn’t having that with this bond. I got a message saying that capital was lower than the minimum amount for this product, or words to that effect. It would only proceed to the next stage when I entered the magic sum of £10k. That’s over the threshold of my bank’s FP limit for a first-time payee. So plonk in £10k by debit card it is. 

Quite surprised by that because often you can pay in a set minimum in instalments below the threshold to make up the required minimum balance (eg the recent Melton bond) but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Every institution operates slightly differently. 

That sound sounds fairly unusual. When a bank asks you about your intended deposit, they're usually wanting the total figure just for their info and you can then stick £10,000 in that field on the form (or whatever you intend to save) and subsequently make as many deposits via faster payments as you like in order to build up to that figure, just as you say. That's the way every fixed rate account I've opened has operated at least - I've never opened one with the Family BS though.

There are also a few banks who only allow one single deposit (so small test payments aren't an option) but it doesn't sound like the Family BS are one of those if they have a funding window and their product summary doesn't specify that the initial deposit has to be £10k, either.

If you haven't already, you could try sending £1 by faster payments and see what happens but a debit card payment gets round the issue of entering account details correctly I guess and, having recently paid for the NS&I GGBs this way, I think I actually prefer it.

Minimum opening amount ( Family BS own words) for that particular  Family BS account is £10000.00

https://www.familybuildingsociety.co.uk/savings/bonds

Ah - OK, thanks for that. I'd missed that on the product page - I was just going off the account summary which states that 'a minimum of £10,000 must be deposited' but doesn't specify that that must necessarily be in one go. It's definitely an off-putting requirement for some, if that's the case. 

ToastLady

refluxer said:

bristolleedsfan said:

refluxer said:

TheWoodler said:

I have opened this account with Family Building Society. 

I prefer to send small payments as a test first, but their system wasn’t having that with this bond. I got a message saying that capital was lower than the minimum amount for this product, or words to that effect. It would only proceed to the next stage when I entered the magic sum of £10k. That’s over the threshold of my bank’s FP limit for a first-time payee. So plonk in £10k by debit card it is. 

Quite surprised by that because often you can pay in a set minimum in instalments below the threshold to make up the required minimum balance (eg the recent Melton bond) but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Every institution operates slightly differently. 

That sound sounds fairly unusual. When a bank asks you about your intended deposit, they're usually wanting the total figure just for their info and you can then stick £10,000 in that field on the form (or whatever you intend to save) and subsequently make as many deposits via faster payments as you like in order to build up to that figure, just as you say. That's the way every fixed rate account I've opened has operated at least - I've never opened one with the Family BS though.

There are also a few banks who only allow one single deposit (so small test payments aren't an option) but it doesn't sound like the Family BS are one of those if they have a funding window and their product summary doesn't specify that the initial deposit has to be £10k, either.

If you haven't already, you could try sending £1 by faster payments and see what happens but a debit card payment gets round the issue of entering account details correctly I guess and, having recently paid for the NS&I GGBs this way, I think I actually prefer it.

Minimum opening amount ( Family BS own words) for that particular  Family BS account is £10000.00

https://www.familybuildingsociety.co.uk/savings/bonds

Ah - OK, thanks for that. I'd missed that on the product page - I was just going off the account summary which states that 'a minimum of £10,000 must be deposited' but doesn't specify that that must necessarily be in one go. It's definitely an off-putting requirement for some, if that's the case. 

I learned from this forum, that you can still send a low amount (£1) to institutions requiring a larger amount to open than you are comfortable with for a first attempt. It will bounce back as being insufficient, but at least then you have got the correct banking details. Am sure I did this with Charter a good while back, which always seems to say £5000 min to open an account. I haven't bothered with subsequent new accounts with Charter, as comfortable with using them now.

refluxer

Atom have lowered some of their fixed rates slightly today and OakNorth have done the same with all of their 18 month to 4 year fixes - some by as much as around 0.5%. Oddly, their 5 year rate has actually increased but only because it was particularly low to start with and the new rate is still way off the best currently available.

cricidmuslibale

Hampshire Trust Bank (one of the most useful fixed term, fixed rate savings providers as the minimum deposit is only £1) has today reduced the interest rates on all its 18 month and longer fixed rate savings accounts! The 18 month fix interest rate has reduced from 6.03% to 5.93%, the 3 year fix interest rate from 5.95% to 5.80%, the 4 year fix interest rate from 5.85% to 5.70% and the 5 year fix interest rate from 5.75% to 5.60%. Their 2 year fixed rate savings account appears to have been pulled completely as it no longer appears on their website.

I am rather annoyed about this to say the least but I don't really blame either Hampshire Trust or any other savings provider that has reduced its fixed rates today. [For example, United Trust Bank have also reduced some of their fixed savings interest rates, notably for its 5 year fix which has also decreased from 5.75% to 5.60%, and Secure Trust Bank appears to have pulled completely both its 2 year and 3 year fixed ISAs which were paying interest rates of 5.75% and 5.60% respectively.]  It appears that too many savers have felt rushed into taking out medium and long term fixes too quickly for even normally reliable savings providers to be comfortable with since the Bank of England's monetary policy committee very narrowly yesterday (by 5 votes to 4) voted somewhat unexpectedly to keep the base rate at 5.25%. Martin Lewis's very recent public statement urging savers who are able to do so to open fixed rate savings accounts as soon as possible seems to have clearly had a considerable effect already (only just over a day later)!

However it was Andrew Bailey who had the decisive casting vote yesterday which kept the B of E base rate at 5.25% instead of raising it by 0.25% to 5.50%, the latter option being what the majority of savings providers as well as the majority of economists probably expected would occur as even CPI inflation is still far too high at 6.7%! As for inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index, well that actually increased slightly to 9.1% in August! So, if the fixed rate savings account that you were going to open today either no longer exists or has had its interest rate significantly reduced, you know exactly who to say "thank you very much to" NOT!!!

subjecttocontract

How did Andrew Bailey get selected for that job ? Are they really, really saying that he was the 'best' candidate available ? I watched him on TV yesterday at midday and it can't be his media presentation abilities that won his selection.....his performance was dismal.

Beddie

subjecttocontract said:

How did Andrew Bailey get selected for that job ? Are they really, really saying that he was the 'best' candidate available ? I watched him on TV yesterday at midday and it can't be his media presentation abilities that won his selection.....his performance was dismal.

He was at the FCA and did a very poor job there too. I think he is seen by the govt. as someone they can easily blame for any crisis, as he's not got any charisma or impact. Useful idiot is the common phrase.

Primrose

Not wishing to derail the topic of this thread & I don't envisage Barclays ever being the top quartile but des anybody think it reasonable that they,re closing the accounts of expatriates?

How can one  take a short term beneficial career period abroad to broaden one,s exprience if you have no UK bank account for your temporary house  rental or essential savings  needs?

bristolleedsfan

cricidmuslibale said:

Hampshire Trust Bank (one of the most useful fixed term, fixed rate savings providers as the minimum deposit is only £1) has today reduced the interest rates on all its 18 month and longer fixed rate savings accounts! The 18 month fix interest rate has reduced from 6.03% to 5.93%, the 3 year fix interest rate from 5.95% to 5.80%, the 4 year fix interest rate from 5.85% to 5.70% and the 5 year fix interest rate from 5.75% to 5.60%. Their 2 year fixed rate savings account appears to have been pulled completely as it no longer appears on their website.

I am rather annoyed about this to say the least but I don't really blame either Hampshire Trust or any other savings provider that has reduced its fixed rates today. [For example, United Trust Bank have also reduced some of their fixed savings interest rates, notably for its 5 year fix which has also decreased from 5.75% to 5.60%, and Secure Trust Bank appears to have pulled completely both its 2 year and 3 year fixed ISAs which were paying interest rates of 5.75% and 5.60% respectively.]  It appears that too many savers have felt rushed into taking out medium and long term fixes too quickly for even normally reliable savings providers to be comfortable with since the Bank of England's monetary policy committee very narrowly yesterday (by 5 votes to 4) voted somewhat unexpectedly to keep the base rate at 5.25%. Martin Lewis's very recent public statement urging savers who are able to do so to open fixed rate savings accounts as soon as possible seems to have clearly had a considerable effect already (only just over a day later)!

However it was Andrew Bailey who had the decisive casting vote yesterday which kept the B of E base rate at 5.25% instead of raising it by 0.25% to 5.50%, the latter option being what the majority of savings providers as well as the majority of economists probably expected would occur as even CPI inflation is still far too high at 6.7%! As for inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index, well that actually increased slightly to 9.1% in August! So, if the fixed rate savings account that you were going to open today either no longer exists or has had its interest rate significantly reduced, you know exactly who to say "thank you very much to" NOT!!!

I agree totally with your sentiments, + risks what is becoming increasingly rare funding periods exceeding 14 days being reduced to 14 days, very surprised Ford Money staying at top of 2 year fix for so long and remaining so now,