How many accounts do you have?

B0bbyEwing

Hoping someone can help me out here to say whether I've got the right/wrong end of the stick. 

So I started looking at shutting things down & I was eyeballing the regular savers & how long is left. I've always funded them by pulling money from elsewhere because in some instances I can't meet the maximum allowance with 'new money' each month - so it comes from savings.
Thought process was savings account is x-%, regular saver is y-%, y is higher than x therefore y wins.

But now I'm not so sure & think I may have been doing myself short. Or perhaps now that interest rates are getting better maybe I was ok years ago but not any more....

So I used https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/regular-savings-calculator/ and took First Direct as an example. The max of £300pm at their 7% & that link says I get £135 interest over a total of £3,600 that's been drip fed in to the account.

I then used https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/education-resources/borrowing-savings-calculator and took that same £3,600 and left it in the account that it's in for the same period - 1 year.
* Actually, it's in Marcus but I couldn't be bothered to log in so went with Chase's saver of 4.1%. I think Marcus may be 4.6%, not sure.

Anyway, £3,600 for a year, leave it where it is, 4.1% interest & that link says £147.60

In other words, it's a waste of time me taking it out of a savings account that's nearly 3% lower & drip feeding in to the regular saver. 

It seems daft to me but I assume the calculator is correct. 

So is that right then - how I fund the regular savers is actually COSTING me money (in a roundabout way), not making me it?

Saver73

@Bridlington1 the most dedicated saver ever! 

friolento

198 including 7 credit cards, 7 investment accounts (5 just to bag a signup inventive), 1 Premium Bond. Most are savings accounts but there are numerous current accounts that are either pre-req for Regular Savers or some sort of rewards. Also including 23 old, dormant, Virgin current accounts from when they still paid market leading interest, and I am not counting the 23 savings accounts Virgin insisted to open alongside those current accounts.

I use personal finance software to keep track of what I have where, and a password manager to record the login data. I use apps wherever possible as I find them much easier and quicker to use than online banking. I don't use accounts which don't have online/app functionality. For now, I am quite happy to keep roughly the same number of accounts going. Some will be replaced on a 1-to-1 basis when they mature, some will be combined with others. Occasionally, one gets closed without a replacement.

friolento

B0bbyEwing said:

 

So I used https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/regular-savings-calculator/ and took First Direct as an example. The max of £300pm at their 7% & that link says I get £135 interest over a total of £3,600 that's been drip fed in to the account.

You haven't counted the £68 interest from the 4.1% source account.

If your best source account is 4.1%, you'd be better off if you put your £3,600 into a 1-year account that pays more than 5.63%.

newatc

After rationalisation during last 2 years, 36 Savings Accounts (though many are in wife's name) and 2 joint bank accounts.

Jami74

About 43 (closed one recently), includes 9 credit cards - my last two applications have been rejected so won't be making any more for a while.
I keep planning to cut back and simplify, but I can't turn down free money. Plus, what would I do with my time if I wasn't planning my monthly money shuffle?

Thumbs_Up

Each to their own, most of my money is fixed in 1, 2, 3 year bonds. So now I have lost interest in easy access accounts and dare I say it, money saving in general. I have too many accounts with a solitary £1 residing, I will claim my £1’s and close all of the accounts soon. First to go was Marcus via the telephone, the closing remark by the rep was “ if you want you can re-open another savings account any time soon”

I’ve never had any bother opening current or savings accounts, I suspect they keep all information about you for time immemorial, so if need’s be I will simply apply for a new account in the usual way.

As Colombo used to say “ I’d like to tidy up loose strings”  This will help me and my self assessment tax forms.

B0bbyEwing

friolento said:

B0bbyEwing said:

 

So I used https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/regular-savings-calculator/ and took First Direct as an example. The max of £300pm at their 7% & that link says I get £135 interest over a total of £3,600 that's been drip fed in to the account.

You haven't counted the £68 interest from the 4.1% source account.

If your best source account is 4.1%, you'd be better off if you put your £3,600 into a 1-year account that pays more than 5.63%.

Ah I never realised it'd be that way - Month 1 being £300 in First Direct at 7% but then £3,300 in the savings at 4.1%. Month 2 being £600 in FD @ 7%, £3,000 in the savings at 4.1%.

Is that how you ran the calculator? I never noticed a way to do that with the MSE calculator as most calculators I come across just like to keep things very simple. But it's late & that's my excuse

I see no 5.63% on the MSE page https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/. I do see notice accounts which I'm not keen on, same with fixed accounts. It means I'd need to decide an amount to put in & then the rest in easy access. 

poppystar

Sleekit said:

poppystar said:

at the moment thwarted by Halifax who won’t allow me to close 2 accounts I no longer want

I've never heard of this before, although perhaps it's common and I've just been ignorant of it.

Why are they not letting you close an account, and how?

Their system for closing has a flaw in it. You need to reduce the balance to below £5 in order to be able to close the account but if interest has accumulated during the year then their own system shows them the account has over £5 in eventhough that doesn’t exist for the customer as it hasn’t been paid. They can tell me what the interest to date will be but I can’t withdraw that to reduce the balance because it hasn’t been paid yet. They can’t close an account that has more than £5 in. So basically stalemate until the interest is paid next year when I can then quickly take it out and the account can be closed. 

I was told on the phone it could be done in branch but my local branch says not. 

For the small amount left in there it’s really not worth my while fighting this but it is so frustrating not to be able to get rid of these accounts and reduce my total number by a little. 

poppystar

Saver73 said:

poppystar said:

Too many really! Keeping a good record as go along but at the moment thwarted by Halifax who won’t allow me to close 2 accounts I no longer want, so best made plans to rationalise a bit not happening.  I’ve yet to have to check HMRC figures and test my records, I’m hoping that will be easy. 

@poppystar I was able to close Halifax accounts online via the website. I think it was under account services. There is also a form on their website you can print off, complete and post to them if you can't close online. I've done both recently.

Thanks for info on the form. That might be a way round the problem outlined above.