Online savings ZOPA

[Deleted User]

Another Monday arrives and ZOPA sill top of the MSE charts for an Easy Access account. Is this for the fourth week running?

Qyburn

By the way, what have been people's experience getting bank accounts verified?  Our current account verified right away, but for the savings account I needed to upload a statement, which is a right fiddle on an Iphone. How long have people found that this takes to get processed?

A._Badger

Qyburn said:

By the way, what have been people's experience getting bank accounts verified?  Our current account verified right away, but for the savings account I needed to upload a statement, which is a right fiddle on an Iphone. How long have people found that this takes to get processed?

I opened an account wit Zopa last week and it was instant. In fact I am very impressed indeed with Zopa, which seems to be a very slick and professional operation. Close Bros (with whom I also opened an account last) were slower and a lot more clunky.

Qyburn

Mine's just come back as verified.

Black_Cat2

I do sing Zopa's praises! 

I'm hoping they produce a yearly statement in April showing the total interest received for the tax year.  That would be perfect (or purrfect) 😹

ashby6567

Deleted_User said:

Donegal_Paul said:

So something like this would be what Im thinking?

That doesn't work unless you are intending to use 7 day notice pots?

On the 95 day account you open pot 1 today and immediately give notice, meaning your pot matures on 13/4/23.
Same for pot 2 and so on.
However there is nothing to stop you opening all 14 pots with your £1 today, just remember to give notice on one of them every 7 days, so Sunday if you are starting today.

Here you go. Just remember your pots with £1 in will not show any interest. £4 pots would climb 1p a month.

I'm now understanding how the ladder system works (I think) However, I'm now struggling with the issues surrounding interest & compounding. Using the example above, the starting amount of £4500 would mature after 95 days wth a balance of £4646.70  @ 3.26% that can then be switched to pot 2 and after only seven days that would mature with a balance of £4798.18 and so on, am I correct with my thinking? Is it really possible to get so much since the balances will only be in each pot (2-14) for seven days. 

TiVo_Lad

ashby6567 said:

I'm now understanding how the ladder system works (I think) However, I'm now struggling with the issues surrounding interest & compounding. Using the example above, the starting amount of £4500 would mature after 95 days wth a balance of £4646.70  @ 3.26% that can then be switched to pot 2 and after only seven days that would mature with a balance of £4798.18 and so on, am I correct with my thinking? Is it really possible to get so much since the balances will only be in each pot (2-14) for seven days. 

£146.70 is a year's interest on your £4500, not 95 days. You would get about £38.18.

AmityNeon

ashby6567 said:

I'm now struggling with the issues surrounding interest & compounding. Using the example above, the starting amount of £4500 would mature after 95 days with a balance of £4646.70  @ 3.26% that can then be switched to pot 2 and after only seven days that would mature with a balance of £4798.18 and so on, am I correct with my thinking? Is it really possible to get so much since the balances will only be in each pot (2-14) for seven days?

All pots within the same Smart Saver account are paid interest monthly on the same day; the pots only determine the rate at which certain monies earn interest and limit access accordingly. Pots with minimal amounts specifically earn "+ £0.00" as listed transactions on interest paydays.

When a notice period ends, you simply regain access to the money; no interest is paid into the pot until the monthly interest payday of your Smart Saver account (which is the same across all pots). If you delete a pot, accrued interest for that pot is paid immediately to the last linked bank account used for a transfer.

Lastly, interest is calculated daily, so the interest rate (e.g. 3.21% gross p.a.) is divided by 365, then multiplied by the balance of each pot at the end of each day.

ashby6567

TiVo_Lad said:

ashby6567 said:

I'm now understanding how the ladder system works (I think) However, I'm now struggling with the issues surrounding interest & compounding. Using the example above, the starting amount of £4500 would mature after 95 days wth a balance of £4646.70  @ 3.26% that can then be switched to pot 2 and after only seven days that would mature with a balance of £4798.18 and so on, am I correct with my thinking? Is it really possible to get so much since the balances will only be in each pot (2-14) for seven days. 

£146.70 is a year's interest on your £4500, not 95 days. You would get about £38.18.

Ah right the penny has dropped, thanks for your input, I did think it was too good to be true. pot 2 would generate approx £2.82 initially then?

[Deleted User]

I stuck £100 in all my pots (apart from the major amount in the 1st), so as today was my interest date got something in all of them. I don't envisage needing any of the money until at the very earliest April when I'll be funding another ISA so not concerned with putting tiny amounts in. I have the Barclays Rainy Day, a Virgin ISA and two fixed term accounts, plus a bit in CHASE for day to day expenses which I'll probably get rid of in March when I lose the 1% cashback and move to Santander for the 4% if no switch bonuses become available before then. The ZOPA ladder is ideal for me and to be honest, it's a bit of fun and at 3.26%, what's not to like. I also think they deserve credit for increasing the rate immediately and staying "Top of the Shop". All these companies telling you they are going to increase rates further down the line isn't for me, like it would cost them much to raise them straight away. Smacks of testing the water so they can pull the deals if needed.

My tip for the ZOPA ladder? Do them weekly on the same date, Monday means payment on a Friday. Easy to remember to do then.