The Forum is currently experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Savings and moving money around

298j
298j Posts: 5 Forumite
First Post
edited 17 November 2022 at 4:40PM in Savings & investments
Hello dear Expert! 

With so many easy access online savings accounts that they constantly change their ratings, it sounds a good idea to move our money around in order to achieve the maximum interest rate.

Eg current account might be giving 2.1% while another one gives you 2.55% 

The question is:

Can you move around your money every now and then?
Is there any case that a bank or an institution might consider this as "criminal" activity and block you from your money?

I mean you have savings in Account A. 
Account b increases the rate. You move your savings to B.
Next month though Account C increases more. You move to C.
Then A, missing on competition, increases again. 

What is the deal with that?

I am asking because I have read many cases where banks decided to "freeze" accounts with no apparent reason.


Thanks 

Comments

  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 18,552 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I've never had any problems doing that. If you have other activity going on that arises suspicion you may have issues
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • Hi,
    for the sake of say, £20 a year it's not worth the hassle, but if you have 3 or 4 accounts maxed to the 85K, then you would need to use a ladder system, bottom rate moves to new highest rate.
  • refluxer
    refluxer Posts: 3,169 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    @298j This is a repeat of the thread here - why did you post twice ?
  • In the course of the last year I've fairly regularly moved chunks of money between at least 5 different financial institutions that I can think of. IIRC the largest sum at any one time being a little under 40k - so small fry to some on here, but still enough to make me feel slightly nervy until I see that it's all arrived where it should have!  Mostly it's involved moving it to and from a "nominated account" - and many people suggest that seems to raise less risk of fraud checks etc than not using that method - indeed, some providers now demand that a nominated account is used both for funding and for withdrawals. 

    Banks pretty much never "decide to freeze accounts with no apparent reason" although if you're not familiar with money laundering regs, it can sometimes seem that way. Ultimately though - ask yourself what is better - a transaction being stopped because there MIGHT be something dodgy going on, or a transaction NOT being stopped even thoughthere might be something didgy going on, and you losing perhaps many thousands of pounds as a result. I know where my vote would go! 
    🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
    Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
    Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
    £100k barrier broken 1/4/25
    SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculator
    she/her
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 350.4K Banking & Borrowing
  • 252.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.3K Spending & Discounts
  • 243.4K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.6K Life & Family
  • 256.5K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.