Online savings ZOPA

Poniesatemymoney

I have a Zopa account and it’s super easy to use.  

I thought the rates were pretty decent? Are there any other accounts offering better rates but are also easy to use? 

wiseonesomeofthetime

Those posts were made before the latest increases.

Bit more competitive now.

CheekyMikey

To get the best out of Zopa, you need to play the boosted pots system. Start opening 95 day notice pots every week now with just £1 and give notice right away, and in a few months you will be able to put a bigger sum in the pot which matures first and have a virtually instant access account getting top rate every week. Just move your money to the next maturing pot each time and keep opening new pots…rinse and repeat.

md458

CheekyMikey said:

To get the best out of Zopa, you need to play the boosted pots system. 

CheekyMikey that should all make sense but not entirley sure how it would work. Have a Zopa account with the 3 extra pots 7, 31 & 95 all with something in. Is it to give notice on those and then can create a new 95?

where_are_we

For maximum gain open 95 day pots. You can do it for 31 day pots but your interest will be lower. Personally I don`t open a 95 day pot every week but I will open a new one today. My next 95 day "maturity" date is the middle of January so I will top it up today and get 3.26% for a lump sum that I can access in 4 weeks time. Zopa upgrade your interest automatically to old boosted pots when they change their interest rate.

AmityNeon

md458 said:

CheekyMikey said:

To get the best out of Zopa, you need to play the boosted pots system.

CheekyMikey that should all make sense but not entirley sure how it would work. Have a Zopa account with the 3 extra pots 7, 31 & 95 all with something in. Is it to give notice on those and then can create a new 95?

You can create multiple 95 pots. There are many ways to do it, but here's a weekly example with 14 Boosted pots:

• Day 0:
  • Create a Boosted 95 pot (e.g. "Boost 1")
  • Move £1 into it
  • Give notice
• Repeat every 7 days (Boost 2, Boost 3, Boost 4 etc.)
  • Day 91: "Boost 14" will be your last new pot
• Day 88: Move easy-access money into Boost 1 to benefit from the 95-day rate, but only requiring 7 days until availability
• Day 95:
  • Boost 1 notice period ends and becomes an Access pot
  • Move the balance from Boost 1 to Boost 2 (notice period ending in 7 days), leaving £1 in Boost 1
• Day 98:
  • Reboost #1 to 95 days
  • Give notice
• Every week thereafter:
  • Day 4: Boosted pot notice period ends -> move the balance to the next Boosted pot
  • Day 7: Reboost the pot to 95 days and give notice

You can move money at any point into any Boosted pot during the first 95 days if you're comfortable with the corresponding notice period. The final result is continuously benefitting from the 95-day rate but only needing 7 days' notice to access your money.

flaneurs_lobster

@AmityNeon Thanks for that - instructions have been printed out and magneted to fridge. 

                                              

Rudyson

flaneurs_lobster said:

@AmityNeon Thanks for that - instructions have been printed out and magneted to fridge. 

                                              

And thanks from me as well. I'm in the middle of setting up the weekly pots, but was going to split money between them, I hadn't thought of moving the whole amount to the next pot each week.

CheekyMikey

AmityNeon said:

md458 said:

CheekyMikey said:

To get the best out of Zopa, you need to play the boosted pots system.

CheekyMikey that should all make sense but not entirley sure how it would work. Have a Zopa account with the 3 extra pots 7, 31 & 95 all with something in. Is it to give notice on those and then can create a new 95?

You can create multiple 95 pots. There are many ways to do it, but here's a weekly example with 14 Boosted pots:

• Day 0:
  • Create a Boosted 95 pot (e.g. "Boost 1")
  • Move £1 into it
  • Give notice
• Repeat every 7 days (Boost 2, Boost 3, Boost 4 etc.)
  • Day 91: "Boost 14" will be your last new pot
• Day 88: Move easy-access money into Boost 1 to benefit from the 95-day rate, but only requiring 7 days until availability
• Day 95:
  • Boost 1 notice period ends and becomes an Access pot
  • Move the balance from Boost 1 to Boost 2 (notice period ending in 7 days), leaving £1 in Boost 1
• Day 98:
  • Reboost #1 to 95 days
  • Give notice
• Every week thereafter:
  • Day 4: Boosted pot notice period ends -> move the balance to the next Boosted pot
  • Day 7: Reboost the pot to 95 days and give notice

You can move money at any point into any Boosted pot during the first 95 days if you're comfortable with the corresponding notice period. The final result is continuously benefitting from the 95-day rate but only needing 7 days' notice to access your money.

Good explanation and of course you don’t need to open new pots, just reboost the original pots when they mature

[Deleted User]

I've done the same but with a slightly different approach. I've opened 19 pots all with 95 days notice. Stuck £100 in each for now. I've only given notice on Pot 1, I will give notice on Pot 2 in 5 days, then pot 3 5 days later and so on. Eventually (March 22nd) I'll have a pot maturing every 5 days, all earning top whack. As the previous poster above said, all you do then is boost Pot 1 again.

Its a brilliant scheme actually because if you happen to have a lump sum mature and are not sure where to put it, you can stick it in your next maturing pot and get 3.26%, even if its just for a few days, until you can find a better home for it.

Note: The only reason I chose every 5 days was it divides nicely into the 95 day notice account.