The Top Fixed Interest Savings Discussion Area

k12479

alternate said:

Anyone have personal experience with JN Bank/Jamaica National Bank?  Customer service etc.

Thx

I have a few accounts. The earliest I'm not entirely sure of the exact maturity date, but later ones were clearly communicated. Easy enough to open, website is a bit simple-ish but fine. Received one annual interest payment so far, as expected. Not had any issues but then not had any maturities, withdrawals or need to contact them, either.

mebu60

refluxer said:

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

Anyone got any better than Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB)?

6 Month Online Fixed Saver (Issue 14)

• AER
  4.81%
• Gross
  4.75%

If it's specifically a 6 month fix that you're after, then that's the best rate currently available according to Moneyfacts and it's also higher than the current best 180 day notice account, too.

What's not helpful is going on to HTB website at 19:00 on Tuesday 04:02:25 to see a message saying site is currently down for scheduled maintenance and will be back at 09:00 on Tuesday 04:02:25, 10 hours ago!!!! On another page there's a pop-up saying unavailable Tuesday 04:02:25 06:30 - 21:00. So presumably they meant 9pm not 9am. Attention to detail and all that. Plus seems bizarre to have your online presence offline for a whole working day. 

4.81% could look v good after Thursday but I'm not expecting to see it still available later today. 

mebu60

As predicted, now the HTB website is back from its day off there is no 6 month Issue 14 option at 4.81%. 

The available fixed interest options are:
1 yr Issue 74 - 4.45%
18 month Issue 33 - 4.41%
2 yr Issue 93 - 4.43% AER / 4.41%gross (actually stated the wrong way round when logged in to open new account)
3 yr Issue 70 - 4.36%
4 yr Issue 16 - 4.27%
5 yr Issue 39 - 4.27%

EA Issue 28 is 4.5% (for how long?) while the 95 day notice Issue 16 is just 3.95%!

Patr100

MikeJXE said:

Does Atom offer preferential rates to account holders ?

I have a 12 month fix maturing this month and one in July 

No. Not in my experience over several years and accounts. 

TooOrangeyForCrows

mebu60 said:

As predicted, now the HTB website is back from its day off there is no 6 month Issue 14 option at 4.81%. 

The available fixed interest options are:
1 yr Issue 74 - 4.45%
18 month Issue 33 - 4.41%
2 yr Issue 93 - 4.43% AER / 4.41%gross (actually stated the wrong way round when logged in to open new account)
3 yr Issue 70 - 4.36%
4 yr Issue 16 - 4.27%
5 yr Issue 39 - 4.27%

EA Issue 28 is 4.5% (for how long?) while the 95 day notice Issue 16 is just 3.95%!

The best 6 month fix I can find is Zenith Bank at 4.7% (I already have one of these accounts)

https://savings.zenith-bank.co.uk/apply/6-month-470

StayinAlive

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

The best 6 month fix I can find is Zenith Bank at 4.7% (I already have one of these accounts)

https://savings.zenith-bank.co.uk/apply/6-month-470

4.6% as of this morning

ToastLady

Vida 1 year FS has gone down overnight to 4.65% AER.
https://www.vidabank.co.uk/savings/products/products/fixed-rate-bonds/

refluxer

Just a heads up that Oxbury have some existing customer-only bonds available that are higher than the best rates around at the moment. You only see these when logged in to online banking and they don't tend to appear on comparison sites, which is why I thought they were worth highlighting as they could be easily missed if you were currently looking for a 3-12 month fix. At the rate their competitors' rates are dropping, these may not be available for too much longer, I suspect.

Existing customer-only bonds...
3 months - 4.71% 
6 months - 4.73% 
1 year - 4.78%

If you're not an existing customer, you can usually access these rates immediately by opening another account. Unfortunately, all their accounts have a minimum balance of £1000 and their easy access rates aren't the best, although there's probably no reason why you couldn't open one and then close it again once the bond is set up. The alternative would be to open one of their other fixed rate bonds of course, which are all at the top of the respective rate tables (with the exception of the 5 year bond which is pretty close).

Bonds that are available to all...
18 months - 4.65%
3 years - 4.62%
4 years - 4.54%
5 years - 4.53%

Oxbury have existing customer-only accounts available quite often and they're a good bank to be with if you favour fixed rate accounts in my experience. You can bank online via their site or an app, although you will need the app for authentication to log in to the site on a browser. Payments into their accounts are usually instant, which I really like.

SeriousHoax

refluxer said:

Just a heads up that Oxbury have some existing customer-only bonds available that are higher than the best rates around at the moment. You only see these when logged in to online banking and they don't tend to appear on comparison sites, which is why I thought they were worth highlighting as they could be easily missed if you were currently looking for a 3-12 month fix. At the rate their competitors' rates are dropping, these may not be available for too much longer, I suspect.

Existing customer-only bonds...
3 months - 4.71% 
6 months - 4.73% 
1 year - 4.78%

If you're not an existing customer, you can usually access these rates immediately by opening another account. Unfortunately, all their accounts have a minimum balance of £1000 and their easy access rates aren't the best, although there's probably no reason why you couldn't open one and then close it again once the bond is set up. The alternative would be to open one of their other fixed rate bonds of course, which are all at the top of the respective rate tables (with the exception of the 5 year bond which is pretty close).

Bonds that are available to all...
18 months - 4.65%
3 years - 4.62%
4 years - 4.54%
5 years - 4.53%

Oxbury have existing customer-only accounts available quite often and they're a good bank to be with if you favour fixed rate accounts in my experience. You can bank online via their site or an app, although you will need the app for authentication to log in to the site on a browser. Payments into their accounts are usually instant, which I really like.

Thanks just logged in and I've found them Hmmmmm think I'll put something in the 6 month Hmmmmm🤔

StayinAlive

Could someone explain how to calculate the AER for a 6 month bond with gross rate of 4.50%?

I thought the formula was ((1+0.045/6)^6*1). But that gives me 4.59% (in excel) but the concensus seems to be 4.55%. Am I missing a step?