Bank account, No interest. I

jeff_chandler

Our high Street Lloyds TSB Bank closed. 
My Wife and I are in our 60s and officially retired. Wife always used the local bank to pay bills and to withdraw money. These tasks have now been passed onto myself via internet banking. I seem to have sorted out how to pay and to use the web banking. 

When I took over I hadn't a clue as to what was in the account, it has always been used to pay our way, energy costs etc. I was shocked to find there was just over £25000 in this account and isn't making any interest. I confronted my Wife who was a tad scared when I mentioned splitting the money and opening a new account where there is interest paid. She's a bit of a fossil saying "we have to pay bills you know." 

Without travelling to the next Town to visit the bank and probably be pushed into something the bank wants me to take out, is there anything I could do to find an account with interest for say, £15000 of the savings. What ever I do the wife will be moaning that her account is being divided. As it currently is, the current interest rates seem quite decent. 
Does anyone have any advice I could follow. 
Thanks in advance. 
Jeff

Dazed_and_C0nfused

As you have progressed to internet banking you could easily open an account with say Atom Bank (not a recommendation, plenty of other banks are available!).

May not be a major problem on £15,000 but if you are getting increased income from interest you should be aware of the possible tax consequences.

One of you may have much more headroom before actually paying tax on any interest received.  

But if you never expect to break £1,000 (for any one person) in a particular tax year you are unlikely to have any tax to pay on it (it may well be taxed but at 0%).

grumbler

Virgin bank has a current account paying 2% on £1000 and a flexible (easy access) ISA paying 3% (£20K annual topup limit).

25_Years_On

It might be best to keep suggestions fairly easy - for instance are there any accounts with the existing bank. So the first question is it Lloyds or is it TSB as Lloyds TSB split into those two nine years ago?

xylophone

Is this a joint account or a sole account in the name of your wife?

jimjames

You can get 3% on that amount from a number of banks. That's £750 a year you're missing out on. Put some in a fixed rate account and you could get even more. Definitely not amounts to be ignored if you're retired.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/

If you want you can move your current account to one that pays interest but there is no need to do that if you're happy with existing bank. Just transfer money back to your current account when you need to pay bills. I keep minimal balance in current account and shift from savings when I need to.

Bigwheels1111

Do you have a tablet or iPad or smartphone.
iPads are great for banking and savings apps.
Mine has Face ID.
You login once using passwords etc and then Face ID does it from then on.
So you don’t need to remember all the info each time.

I have savings with, Tandem, Gatehouse, Atom, Ford Money, Marcus, Coventry bs, YBS, Raisin, Skipton, Shawbrook, Al Rayan to name a few.

They are all great to deal with.

Some allow almost instant access back into your bank, some are next working day.
Now look for monthly or annual interest, which suits you best.
Re bills and panicking about it.
Have you needed more than £1000 the next day ?.
I keep £1000 in my bank just in case.
10k in easy access with instant access the same day.
Never needed it though. Not yet anyway.

penners324

There are a huge variety of places offering interest bearing savings accounts.

Do a bit of research into some of those mentioned above. They all have their own Internet banking.

Nearly all have FSCS protection (ie they're a proper bank where your money is safe if that bank were to collapse).

My preference would be Marcus as they offer a joint savings account (the wife will have access to the account as well).

PS Marcus is part of Goldman Sachs (an extremely large US bank)

Band7

Marcus is just one of dozens of savings accounts that can be held jointly. Many of them pay a lot better interest than Marcus do, and many of them are also much better known, which might well be an important factor for the OP’ wife. https://moneyfacts.co.uk/savings-accounts/easy-access-savings-accounts/

Albermarle

OP - You will have probably seen some names mentioned of banks/savings providers, that you have never heard of.
However every one mentioned and everyone mentioned in the Moneyfacts link in the previous post, are fully licensed to offer banking services and are therefore all covered by up to £85K compensation in the unlikely even anything went wrong.

There smaller banks normally offer better interest rates than the better known High St banks, where interest rates are often abysmal.

On a secondary note, you should try and take your wife on your journey of discovery with internet banking etc. If something was to happen to you, she would be a bit stuck.

mebu60

What Albermarle says, final paragraph, is extremely sound advice.