First Direct 3.5% regular saver

Daliah

jwelly said:

Thanks, but if you earn 3.5% interest after one month, that is £300 + £10.60 interest, no?

Then with another deposit of £300 would the interest calculated be based on this second £300, or the accumulated balance? I.e. £610.60?

Yes(ish), but your second £300 is not in the account for 12 months, so you only get interest for 11 months(ish) for it.

The "ish" is because the calculations don't work by month, but by days. All banks use 365 days for all their interest calculations, 364 in leap years. 

You can go to great length and work it all out in a spreadsheet with 365 rows, or you can just use the MSE Regular Saver calculator to get a fairly good total without much effort. Or just work with the bank's published number. Note that your end result might differ slightly if you, for instance, don't always deposit the full monthly amount on day 1 of a calendar month.

jwelly

Many thanks to both of you for clarifying, much appreciated!

george4064

Daliah said:

jwelly said:

Thanks, but if you earn 3.5% interest after one month, that is £300 + £10.60 interest, no?

Then with another deposit of £300 would the interest calculated be based on this second £300, or the accumulated balance? I.e. £610.60?

Yes(ish), but your second £300 is not in the account for 12 months, so you only get interest for 11 months(ish) for it.

The "ish" is because the calculations don't work by month, but by days. All banks use 365 days for all their interest calculations, 364 in leap years. 

You can go to great length and work it all out in a spreadsheet with 365 rows, or you can just use the MSE Regular Saver calculator to get a fairly good total without much effort. Or just work with the bank's published number. Note that your end result might differ slightly if you, for instance, don't always deposit the full monthly amount on day 1 of a calendar month.

365 days per year, 366 in leap years