Drip feeding into multiple regular savers, why not?

yourlocalcheesemonger

With top R/S being 7 to 8% does it make sense to open multiple of them and drip from an easy access savings (5%) the maximum each month. 

It seems like a good idea to open as many R/S accounts as possible that are above the easy access rate and drip feed in to maximise savings. What am I missing?

This is under the premise that I'm maxing out the ISA each year and pensions are ok.

flaneurs_lobster

Short answer - yes.

Look here

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

Longer answer - not all RS accounts are equal, be aware of possible conditions on early redemption or closure, minimum monthly funding etc.

ColdIron

yourlocalcheesemonger said:

What am I missing?

Nothing, it's very popular here

Ideally you would stagger opening throughout the year so that one matures every few months to help with cashflow but with rates peaking that might not be an ideal strategy right now

Middle_of_the_Road

I have 15 Regular saving accounts opened, and paying max into 13 of them. The 2 I'm not funding are now below or not enough above easy access rates to make them worthwhile.

Bridlington1

yourlocalcheesemonger said:

With top R/S being 7 to 8% does it make sense to open multiple of them and drip from an easy access savings (5%) the maximum each month. 

It seems like a good idea to open as many R/S accounts as possible that are above the easy access rate and drip feed in to maximise savings. What am I missing?

This is under the premise that I'm maxing out the ISA each year and pensions are ok.

That's what I'm currently doing, I'll prewarn you they do tend to breed a bit if you adopt this strategy though (I started off with 3 in January 2022 and I've now ended up with over 40 of them (though I don't actively fund all of them as  I've exhausted most of my EA savings)). If you're going to do this though I'd recommend using a good spreadsheet to list which ones you have with min/max pay ins, maturity dates etc otherwise you can easily start to lose track of them all.

A couple of other options that could be worth consideration though:

• Some choose to open a fixed rate bond at regular intervals so that they have a steady stream of funds from maturing fixes. One of the advantages of this method is that it insulates you a bit better from a drop in interest rates, though at the cost of losing some flexibility with when you can access your money. Notice accounts can also be used in a similar manner and can be useful in managing cashflow.
• There are a couple of loss-leading EA accounts available that pay higher amounts on a smaller balance, which you may be able to get, i.e. Santander Edge Saver (7% on up to £4k) and Skipton Member Bonus Saver (5.5% on up to £3k). These could be slotted in alongside your regular savers.

Also as you may have noticed some building societies offer regular savers are available to existing members with however long continuous membership so it may be worth opening some EA accounts with these providers with £1 in them to become eligible for other regular savers later on.

One other thing I will mention is that I've archived the Ts&Cs of many regular savers in this thread (saves having to download and store them yourself):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6470420/an-archived-list-of-regular-saver-terms-and-conditions/p1

And finally welcome to the forum.

yourlocalcheesemonger

Thanks for the replies and the welcomes. Some of you have a lot of accounts to keep on top of!

I suppose that's the downside really, with max deposits around £300 a month if you've got a significant bit of money you'll have to open quite a few regular savers and keep track of them all. But as you've all said however it shouldn't be an issue with a spreadsheet.

I'll start opening a few now

allegro120

yourlocalcheesemonger said:

Thanks for the replies and the welcomes. Some of you have a lot of accounts to keep on top of!

I suppose that's the downside really, with max deposits around £300 a month if you've got a significant bit of money you'll have to open quite a few regular savers and keep track of them all. But as you've all said however it shouldn't be an issue with a spreadsheet.

I'll start opening a few now

I'm currently paying £7,375 a month into RSs.  Some of them allow to pay £500 and one £1000, bur these are no longer available for new applicants, which brings me to add to the above posts in this thread - don't delay opening them as they might disappear soon.

35har1old

allegro120 said:

yourlocalcheesemonger said:

Thanks for the replies and the welcomes. Some of you have a lot of accounts to keep on top of!

I suppose that's the downside really, with max deposits around £300 a month if you've got a significant bit of money you'll have to open quite a few regular savers and keep track of them all. But as you've all said however it shouldn't be an issue with a spreadsheet.

I'll start opening a few now

I'm currently paying £7,375 a month into RSs.  Some of them allow to pay £500 and one £1000, bur these are no longer available for new applicants, which brings me to add to the above posts in this thread - don't delay opening them as they might disappear soon.

Problem with regular savers the majority are variable and not fixed through I do have a brave few myself but it just means you have keep eye on them.

dealyboy

One note of caution ... don't overstretch yourself ... make sure you will have enough to fund them in 6 months or indeed 12 months time  ... I almost did.

boingy

yourlocalcheesemonger said:

Thanks for the replies and the welcomes. Some of you have a lot of accounts to keep on top of!

I suppose that's the downside really, 

That's exactly the downside - the admin. Each account can have a few quirks. First Direct can only be funded by standing order from an FD current account. Natwest needs at least £1 of the amount to come out of a current account. Some don't allow withdrawals (although you can close the account outright). Some are fixed term so you can't close or withdraw but you can stop adding money to it etc.

So you end up collecting a bunch of current accounts that you didn't need just so you can access the regular savers and you end up with a bunch of standing orders to shuffle the money around once per month. I have a calendar reminder on the 5th of each month that says "Check all the accounts" so I can make sure it has all happened as expected. If you can cope with a bit of extra admin then go for it! I use KMyMoney to track all my accounts (my spreadsheet started to get a bit messy!)

Olinda99

one thing that might be worth doing before you start let's try and do an estimate of how much extra interest you will get by doing it this way as opposed to putting it all in say a top easy access account. 

then decide if this extra interest is worth the hassle