Any serial switchers?

WillPS

Daliah said:

WillPS said:

Sometimes one implies things are concerns which another believes needn't be. 

How is any of us in a position to judge whether FSCS cover is important to others, who are usually total strangers?

I totally agree with @Farfetch, the responsible thing for a MoneySavingExpert is to mention the absence of FSCS cover, and generally not to promote accounts that lack FSCS. If people then choose to go ahead regardless, it's a decision they have made themselves, in the full knowledge of the risks.

I don't agree that this is a valid concern for the purpose of DD creation on a super temporary basis.

It would be one of many reasons why it'd be a poor choice for holding a balance of more than a few quid, but that's not what we're talking about here. Perhaps more pertinent in that discussion would be that the return is very poor, but again it's not really a concern with generating a DD mandate for £2 which should run no more than 3 or 4 times before its purpose has been served.

Daliah

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

WillPS said:

Sometimes one implies things are concerns which another believes needn't be. 

How is any of us in a position to judge whether FSCS cover is important to others, who are usually total strangers?

I totally agree with @Farfetch, the responsible thing for a MoneySavingExpert is to mention the absence of FSCS cover, and generally not to promote accounts that lack FSCS. If people then choose to go ahead regardless, it's a decision they have made themselves, in the full knowledge of the risks.

I don't agree that this is a valid concern for the purpose of DD creation on a super temporary basis.

It would be one of many reasons why it'd be a poor choice for holding a balance of more than a few quid, but that's not what we're talking about here. Perhaps more pertinent in that discussion would be that the return is very poor, but again it's not really a concern with generating a DD mandate for £2 which should run no more than 3 or 4 times before its purpose has been served.

Exactly what is your objection to people pointing out that a given account does not have FSCS cover?

Why do you believe that your level of risk acceptance is the level that others should adopt?

WillPS

Daliah said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

WillPS said:

Sometimes one implies things are concerns which another believes needn't be. 

How is any of us in a position to judge whether FSCS cover is important to others, who are usually total strangers?

I totally agree with @Farfetch, the responsible thing for a MoneySavingExpert is to mention the absence of FSCS cover, and generally not to promote accounts that lack FSCS. If people then choose to go ahead regardless, it's a decision they have made themselves, in the full knowledge of the risks.

I don't agree that this is a valid concern for the purpose of DD creation on a super temporary basis.

It would be one of many reasons why it'd be a poor choice for holding a balance of more than a few quid, but that's not what we're talking about here. Perhaps more pertinent in that discussion would be that the return is very poor, but again it's not really a concern with generating a DD mandate for £2 which should run no more than 3 or 4 times before its purpose has been served.

Exactly what is your objection to people pointing out that a given account does not have FSCS cover?

Why do you believe that your level of risk acceptance is the level that others should adopt?

Point it out by all means. Shouldn't be a deal breaker as a quick and easy way of generating a low-cost (free, in fact) DD though.

kaMelo

Deleted_User said:

kaMelo said:

grizzlegrizzle said:

As Farfetch said, some don't need DDs at all and some will accept standing orders instead of DDs so much easier.

If you do need DDs, there are some easy ones detailed elsewhere on the forum like PayPal and Plum. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5734632/savings-accounts-accepting-dds/p1

Although no longer updated there are still some on the list that work.

Ecology do (minimum £25 a month), Charity Bank too but that needs at least £250 deposit and interest rate is awful (under 1%)

Plum is very quick to add a DD and can be as little as £2 a week, though it's got dubious FSCS status so I am not intending leaving it open much longer

Ecology Regular Saver is £25 per month minimum but, as was pointed out to me on the regular saver thread, they also have the easy access saver account. Minimum initial deposit has to be £25 by electronic transfer (or cheque for postal applications) but once up and running it can be funded via DD with a minimum of £10. You can have both regular and easy saver which is two direct debits. The downside is Ecology DD mandates are paper forms that you post back so it's not the fastest to set up, probably allow a month to get up and running.

Shame about the Charity Bank's minimum initial deposit, it didn't use to be there. 

As for Plum and Moneybox, the positive for Plum and Moneybox is one weekly DD satisfies both RBS and NatWest Reward account conditions. Whilst prudent to mention the lack of FSCS cover you can mitigate the risks if you empty the accounts regularly. I do so every month so the only thing you stand to lose is one months deposits which, depending upon how many weeks a month has, in my case is £8/£10 in each account. Each to their own but I'm happy to take the risk.

WillPS

Scottish Widows is another option: https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/bank/savings/instantsaver.html

A lot of paper forms to get the account open but can then be managed online. Allows fortnightly collections too which is handy for RBS/Natwest Reward accounts.

PRAISETHESUN

WillPS said:

Scottish Widows is another option: https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/bank/savings/instantsaver.html

A lot of paper forms to get the account open but can then be managed online. Allows fortnightly collections too which is handy for RBS/Natwest Reward accounts.

Minimum balance/withdrawal amount is £100. Not necessarily a deal-breaker but it's a decent sum of cash to tie up just to manufacture a single DD. The mass of paper to setup/change anything is annoying but they usually send reply-paid envelopes if you ask. Their online setup is also a little clunky but it gets the job done. Used an older version of their savings account only requiring £10 balance/withdrawals for years without issue.

kaMelo

PRAISETHESUN said:

WillPS said:

Scottish Widows is another option: https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/bank/savings/instantsaver.html

A lot of paper forms to get the account open but can then be managed online. Allows fortnightly collections too which is handy for RBS/Natwest Reward accounts.

Minimum balance/withdrawal amount is £100. Not necessarily a deal-breaker but it's a decent sum of cash to tie up just to manufacture a single DD. The mass of paper to setup/change anything is annoying but they usually send reply-paid envelopes if you ask. Their online setup is also a little clunky but it gets the job done. Used an older version of their savings account only requiring £10 balance/withdrawals for years without issue.

Minimum balance is £100 but withdrawals have no minimum, the only condition is you leave at least £100 in your account afterwards. I literally recycle the same £10 every month.
Although I have this account I would absolutely not recommend it, setting it up takes an age and it took three attempts before the DD was finally in place. The only reason I followed through with it was to use with a Club Lloyds account when their interest rate was market leading, by the time it finally got set up their rates had been blown away and still haven't been increased.
Still it's handy to have as in means any money in the Club Lloyds account generates interest whilst it's there, albeit not very much.

WillPS

Interesting. My account balance with them has never been as high as £100...

Bridlington1

Wealthify is quite a useful one. I'd wait until they next do an invest £50 and get £50 cashback after a year offer before opening this one, then you can set up a £1 DD to the account. One advantage with Wealthify is that you can open multiple GIAs and set up a DD to each one, which is useful for the reward accounts. You can only set up DDs to your nominated account though and they are all paid via the same DD but it works well for the Natwest, RBS and Co-op reward accounts.

Another option is cash ISAs. The Post Office and M&S bank have cash ISAs that allow you to pay in by DD, so worth noting if you do not pay tax on savings interest. 

Credit unions are another option for a monthly DD.

WillPS

Bridlington1 said:

Wealthify is quite a useful one. I'd wait until they next do an invest £50 and get £50 cashback after a year offer before opening this one, then you can set up a £1 DD to the account. One advantage with Wealthify is that you can open multiple GIAs and set up a DD to each one, which is useful for the reward accounts. You can only set up DDs to your nominated account though and they are all paid via the same DD but it works well for the Natwest, RBS and Co-op reward accounts.

Another option is cash ISAs. The Post Office and M&S bank have cash ISAs that allow you to pay in by DD, so worth noting if you do not pay tax on savings interest. 

Credit unions are another option for a monthly DD.

Wealthify sounds very interesting, will look out for that offer. It'd be great to have one 'hub' with all these £1/2 DDs in for simplicity.

I didn't realise Post Office or M&S still did direct debits for ISAs, although of course you can only contribute to one each financial year.

Are there any credit unions with a decent online application/banking setup yet?