Chasing best interest rates?

scodlet3000

Bridlington1 said:

I personally chase the best rates as and when they emerge, if I can get an extra 0.05% on my savings by moving them to a different bank I will do (and have done a few times). Barring a load of easy access accounts with minimal balances I have all of my savings at 3% or above. Admittedly though I do tend to be a bit of a perfectionist.

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The way I see it, accounts will often start to lag behind their competitors before too long and opening new accounts usually only takes a few minutes, especially if you are an existing customer, as does a faster payment to transfer the funds across. As long as chasing the best rates is not becoming an obsession for you why not?

Thanks @Bridlington1

Apart from the time and hassle of keeping an eye on changing rates, and having to move your money around, doesn't your credit rating suffer from opening new accounts?

eskbanker

scodlet3000 said:

Apart from the time and hassle of keeping an eye on changing rates, and having to move your money around, doesn't your credit rating suffer from opening new accounts?

Savings accounts don't affect credit history, as they don't involve any credit provision.

AmityNeon

To keep things simple (for me), whilst many providers may be rapidly releasing improving rates, they're all irrelevant unless they release the top rate. If I see new products every day/week all in the range of 2.8%-2.95% (current examples), it's just noise I can ignore, even more so if they're limited access.

I maintain the Zopa stepmill which allows access to a usually competitive 95-day notice rate with only five days' notice, so I hold the majority of my easy access savings there until Regular Savers need funding, plus a small float amount in an unlimited instant access account (currently Chip). This has been the case for the past 6 weeks. Prior to this, it was Al Rayan at 2.85% AER, which was the case for two months (mixed with a bit of Virgin's 3% ISA). Chasing rates isn't a daily or weekly endeavour as it may initially seem to appear.

I don't close savings accounts as I prefer to maintain a customer profile for online access and future 'loyalty' products. Over time, it's reached the point where I have accounts with the majority of providers so new applications are a simple process. I do take advantage of certain competitive accounts, especially if news arises of an impending rate increase (e.g. Coventry's Limited Access @ 3.25% AER), just to have options.