The Top Fixed Interest Savings Discussion Area

SaveTheEuro

bompey said:

It now looks as though NS&I have dropped their 6.2% Guaranteed Growth Bond 1 yr fixed. Let’s see what they replace it with.

That happened without warning. Not like when Santander gave 24 hours notice it was pulling its 5.2% instant access account.

becky_rtw

Arghh we just got our lump sum yesterday and were about to call the bank this morning to out it into the direct saver to drop into the bond 😂 typical.

Any suggestions for income bonds? Not sure if we should wait for NS&I and just easy access it in the direct savers until then? 

DavidAC

becky_rtw said:

Arghh we just got our lump sum yesterday and were about to call the bank this morning to out it into the direct saver to drop into the bond 😂 typical.

Any suggestions for income bonds? Not sure if we should wait for NS&I and just easy access it in the direct savers until then? 

NS&I have probably raised the funds they need now so you might have a long wait. The 6.2% was a bit of an exception, they don't usually launch best buy rates.

BooJewels

@becky_rtw Are you wanting a monthly income from your savings?  A fixed rate account that pays monthly works the same as the NS&I GIB - but I don't think anyone was as good as their recent rate in the last month or so.

Ford Money are 6.05% annually, 5.89% monthly - 12, 18 and 24 months available
Charter Savings are 5.9% AER and 5.75% monthly - 12 months only
Aldermore are 5.65% annual, 5.51% monthly - various terms to 5 years
Hodge Bank - various terms, 5.96% annually, 5.8% monthly on 1 year

They're just the ones I know about that are still offering fixes - there will be more.

refluxer

becky_rtw said:

Any suggestions for income bonds? Not sure if we should wait for NS&I and just easy access it in the direct savers until then? 

Presuming that you would want your income monthly, Savings Champion have a handy list of the current top 5 options for bonds paying out monthly interest here.

Streambank (at 5.93% gross) are only 0.1% below the rate NS&I were offering for their GIBs (6.03%). I've not used them myself so don't know what they're like to deal with but they rarely get mentioned on here... which, in some ways, could actually be a good thing !

becky_rtw

Thanks all. I'll check out the lists. 

soulsaver

becky_rtw said:

Arghh we just got our lump sum yesterday and were about to call the bank this morning to out it into the direct saver to drop into the bond 😂 typical.

Any suggestions for income bonds? Not sure if we should wait for NS&I and just easy access it in the direct savers until then? 

It may work in your favour depending on your tax position: If you will have to pay tax on savings interest you can do a lot better than the NSI (taxed 6.2% is a smidge under 5%).
In an ISA - 5.7% is equal to over 7.3% taxed at BR & 9.5% (!) at HR...

refluxer

It looks like Oxbury's 1 year fix at 6.11% has been withdrawn but Al Rayan are offering 6.12% (both via Raisin and direct) for 1 year if you're happy with 'expected profit' and Smartsave have also increased their's to 6.11%, plus there are a few other options at 6.10%.

It'll be interesting to see how long these rates hang around now that the NS&I bonds are no longer an option.

janusdesign

refluxer said:

It looks like Oxbury's 1 year fix at 6.11% has been withdrawn.

possibly only for new customers - existing Oxbury customers can still open their 1 or 2-Yr fixes.

janusdesign

are Newcastle BS unusual in not showing monthly interest, when paid to an external account, on their statements or transactions?

for the first two months of a 1-Year fix (maturing this November), the interest was paid back into the account - and those monthly interest payments appear on the statements.... but then as base rates increased, I had the monthly interest paid back to my nominated account... it's those payments that do not show up on the statements (but are getting included in the certificate of interest total amount).

when I queried this with Newcastle BS, they said "I can confirm the reason that you cannot see the interest payments on your transactions is because these payments don’t actually hit your account balance."... i'm fairly sure that every other fix i've ever had has first paid the interest into the account first and then transferred that amount externally... weird!