Regular Savers - are they worth it?

subjecttocontract

I had 24 regular monthly savers earlier this year. Right now I'm down to 16 but should be down to 12 by the start of the new year. I'm trying to dispose of anything paying less than 5.5%.....some are due to mature shortly so I will just let them do that.. The annual interest payments on the16 that I have got is £1906.

My best Easy Access is maxed out & pays 5.2%
The next one I use pays 5.1%......so the regular savers ARE worth having.

armith

Fingerbobs said:

SJMALBA said:

Fewer customers opting for regular savings deals despite interest up to 8%

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-12570103/Fewer-customers-opting-regular-savings-deals-despite-8.html

'... But the maximum a saver could earn from the Nationwide deal is £104 - meaning an underlying rate closer to 4.25 per cent, rather than 8 per cent.

The reason is the unique way interest is worked out on regular savers, where savers only get the headline rate for one month of the year, and get a fraction of it for the remaining 11.'

No wonder some people don't understand how regular savers work! 🤦🏻

Oh my goodness, that's absolutely deplorable. OK, this is a common misconception about regular savers, but I really wouldn't expect a (supposedly) professional journalist to completely misunderstand them and perpetuate the misunderstanding. Terrible.

It really is terrible isn't it? The comments section below the article is fairly terrifying as well 

Foxhouse

SJMALBA said:

SJMALBA said:

Fewer customers opting for regular savings deals despite interest up to 8%

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-12570103/Fewer-customers-opting-regular-savings-deals-despite-8.html

'... But the maximum a saver could earn from the Nationwide deal is £104 - meaning an underlying rate closer to 4.25 per cent, rather than 8 per cent.

The reason is the unique way interest is worked out on regular savers, where savers only get the headline rate for one month of the year, and get a fraction of it for the remaining 11.'

No wonder some people don't understand how regular savers work! 🤦🏻

Same 'journalist'...

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-12562451/Regular-saver-rates-8-arent-good-look-says-SAM-BARKER.html

🙄 

Just seen this, and so I clicked the link and read the article.

'Financial journalist' indeed. And then the comments. Someone who 'used to work for a bank' peddling the same myth; maybe that's the reason why they no longer work for a bank?

Some bombastic, arrogant, idiotic comments on there. Incredible.

But then it is the Daily Mail.

Foxhouse

redpete said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

Moved money from my Santander 5.2% easy access to my Chase 4.1% This morning.

Thus maximising potential interest.

To fund my,

First Direct 7% £300 Third of the month.

Skipton 7.5% £250 First of the month.

YBS 7% £500 First of the month.

Nationwide 8% £200 First of the month.

After my new DD have paid I think I will switch an account to Lloyds and get their Regular saver as well.

Being semi-retired I can't rely on monthly disposable income to feed RSs so the drip feed from an Easy Access account is my preferred strategy. I've been prompted by a matured YBS RS ready to move into their current 7% version to check the numbers. I too use Chase as a feeder because I can schedule monthly transfers from Chase Savings to Chase Current account and from there to the various RSs. Checked the net interest from the savings and RS accounts over 12 month and it is 6.1% - which happens to be the rate from the top 1 yr fix on Raisin.

Strategy will work out for Nationwide 8% RS and top 5.1% EA (but that will need monthly manual faff to do the transfers).  Maybe time to pause new subscriptions to RSs.

Most people can only do so many - I've got quite a few now that I only pay the bare minimum into. I focus on the top % payers of course. 

But just be aware of whether they're fixed or variable rates. Some lower rates (for example the 5.5% I have with Principality) are fixed, so might yet become more attractive should interest rates start to come down.

Albermarle

Foxhouse said:

SJMALBA said:

SJMALBA said:

Fewer customers opting for regular savings deals despite interest up to 8%

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-12570103/Fewer-customers-opting-regular-savings-deals-despite-8.html

'... But the maximum a saver could earn from the Nationwide deal is £104 - meaning an underlying rate closer to 4.25 per cent, rather than 8 per cent.

The reason is the unique way interest is worked out on regular savers, where savers only get the headline rate for one month of the year, and get a fraction of it for the remaining 11.'

No wonder some people don't understand how regular savers work! 🤦🏻

Same 'journalist'...

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-12562451/Regular-saver-rates-8-arent-good-look-says-SAM-BARKER.html

🙄 

Just seen this, and so I clicked the link and read the article.

'Financial journalist' indeed. And then the comments. Someone who 'used to work for a bank' peddling the same myth; maybe that's the reason why they no longer work for a bank?

Some bombastic, arrogant, idiotic comments on there. Incredible.

But then it is the Daily Mail.

I think probably you are not reading the comments section on online newspaper articles very often.
I say this as the comments for this article are really quite moderate compared to what you often see.