Online savings ZOPA

Donegal_Paul

@marvo5 and @Frogletina OMG thank you for pointing out my stupidity! I took the 7 days from the wrong end! So glad I posted my example and had my work checked lol! 

Donegal_Paul

Band7 said:

twadds123 said:

well currently the zopa easy access is the best at 2.86% anyway

It isn't actually. You can get 3% at CHIP though I do appreciate you might not like the slight complication with the bonus payment. Also 5% for up to £5k at Barclays more than plenty for the £4k total mentioned in the post I responded to.

If there's a barclays one at 5% whats the catch? If true why has Martin not mentioned it at all?

Donegal_Paul

Ah, just googled it and its one if you are already a barclays member, which im not. 

Band7

Donegal_Paul said:

Ah, just googled it and its one if you are already a barclays member, which im not. 

It's easy enough to become a Barclays current account holder, and to establish Blue Rewards. Less effort than maintaining a Zopa ladder.

Mentioned on MSE months ago, and extensively discussed on the forum.

flaneurs_lobster

Band7 said:

Donegal_Paul said:

Ah, just googled it and its one if you are already a barclays member, which im not. 

It's easy enough to become a Barclays current account holder, and to establish Blue Rewards. Less effort than maintaining a Zopa ladder.

Mentioned on MSE months ago, and extensively discussed on the forum.

Yep, get the Barclay's Rainy Day filled with £5K before bothering with the Chip/Zopa complications.

Band7

flaneurs_lobster said:

Band7 said:

Donegal_Paul said:

Ah, just googled it and its one if you are already a barclays member, which im not. 

It's easy enough to become a Barclays current account holder, and to establish Blue Rewards. Less effort than maintaining a Zopa ladder.

Mentioned on MSE months ago, and extensively discussed on the forum.

Yep, get the Barclay's Rainy Day filled with £5K before bothering with the Chip/Zopa complications.

CHIP isn't actually very complicated. Just annoying that they don't pay proper interest, just a bonus. But you can withdraw the lot once the monthly bonus has been credited, and then redeposit next day, after the bonus has been paid. So you can argue you don't actually get 3% but slightly less, depending also where you keep the money for the one day it's not in CHIP (I keep mine in 2.75% Santander). Apart from that, CHIP is fantastically easy to use, and deposits and withdrawals are near instant.

Apparently they will change the bonus to proper interest at some stage but so far it's just a vague promise.

So even if you are into Zopa laddering, you could keep most of your funds in CHIP for most of the first 95 days, whilst you are waiting for the first notice period to expire. Whether it's worth your while, only you can decide.

Donegal_Paul

Well Ive managed to put 4500 into the barclays, a little fiddly as everything again is app based but done. 
CHIP - no thanks, ill not use anything thats not protected according to the guide. 

Band7

Donegal_Paul said:

Well Ive managed to put 4500 into the barclays, a little fiddly as everything again is app based but done. 
CHIP - no thanks, ill not use anything thats not protected according to the guide. 

Your deposit at CHIP is FSCS protected. It's just the bonus (= interest) that isn't. You can withdraw everything once a month to get the bonus out (it gets credited on the first Tuesday of a month), and then redeposit the lot the next day, once the bonus has been paid.

However, if you only have £4k, you'll be well set for a while at Barclays, anyway.

Donegal_Paul

ahhh that wasn't clear about the whole thing vs the bonus. 

Qyburn

I think I may be a convert, not that I like it being solely available via the app, but I think that latter of "pots" will work for taking lump sums and paying monthly into our current account.

I've just done a quick model basing on the dates I need each pot to be available, and the date at which I'd need to give notice. I can name the pots based on their intended month of availability plus their notice date.  For example the pot needed for July would be named "Jul 28 Mar".

As far as I can see the pots are sorted in the order you create them, not alphabetically, so will need to create them in a sensible order.  Here's my draft, using two 31 day pots to fill in until the first 95 day becomes available.