The New Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

dosh37

The idea of saving to buy a house is a con.

House price inflation in the UK has always been way above savings interest rates.

The tax man and government love it. They make it worse by taxing savings interest.

Then, when you do eventually buy your house, they screw you with stamp duty. A tax that was introduced in 1694 to pay for the war against France!

friolento

dosh37 said:

masonic said:

dosh37 said:

refluxer said:

BACKTOBACK said:

I am lucky to have an old NLA account with West Brom that still pays 4.31%. I have just over £100k with them which is protected for six months fscs due to a personal injury payout.
West Brom customer service is good but i am concerned that all you can see is around 5 transactions in the online portal. There is no way to get a statement from them. You cant print a transaction list, balance, or statement.
If there is a problem with the online portal, or West Brom go down it could be a problem.
Also i will need to provide proof of funds for a future property purchase just makes things difficult.
I am grateful for the higher rate, but think its odd to not offer any type of statement?

That doesn't sound great - I've not personally come across an easy access savings account that didn't come with some form of regular statements. Statements for few of mine are issued annually rather than monthly, but you can view plenty of previous transactions in online banking or print/save off your own bespoke statements if needed.

There are a number of easy access accounts currently paying more than 4.31% so, as you're not vastly over the £85k FSCS limit, you could open a couple and split your savings between them so that the temporary high balance thing is no longer an issue. A boosted Chase Saver (currently 4.75%) would be a good option for the bulk of it if you've not held an account with them before and (if you want to avoid the likes of Chip or Revolut) Cahoot (owned by Santander) would be fine for the remainder. I wouldn't imagine you'd have the statement or transaction visibility issues you're having with West Brom, with either of those.

It's worth noting there's actually a proposal to increase the standard FSCS limit to £110k - the outcome of the consultation is due in November and it could potentially kick in as early as December.

The increase in the FSCS limit is long overdue. My Excel savings spreadsheet now has over 20 different providers! I am constantly juggling and moving cash around to get the best rates (saving to buy a house) while trying to avoid exceeding the £85K limit (unless it's a reasonably safe large organisation such as Santander).

If you need to split between 20 providers, it raises the question how many millions are you planning to save before you pull the trigger?

Take a look at property prices in the South East. To buy a detached house with decent garden & double garage, you need around £650K minimum. From past experience with bad neighbours, I would NEVER EVER buy a semi detached again.

650 / 85 is less than 8. And you probably don’t want to pay 100% cash?

dosh37

What? Quoting meaningless numbers is not helpful!

masonic

dosh37 said:

The idea of saving to buy a house is a con.

It absolutely is if you have to save cash to the full value of a house before buying. Very few people can save at a rate that would allow them to achieve that in a lifetime.

dosh37

masonic said:

dosh37 said:

The idea of saving to buy a house is a con.

It absolutely is if you have to save cash to the full value of a house before buying. Very few people can save at a rate that would allow them to achieve that in a lifetime.

So what is the answer?

Bridlington1

@soulsaver
Oxbury EA Bonus Base Rate Trckr 1 4.36% (inc.0.83% v.bonus to 18/10) £1k min  NLA

masonic

dosh37 said:

dosh37 said:

masonic said:

dosh37 said:

The idea of saving to buy a house is a con.

It absolutely is if you have to save cash to the full value of a house before buying. Very few people can save at a rate that would allow them to achieve that in a lifetime.

So what is the answer?

Jump on a rubber boat and move to France?

You either buy a home with a mortgage during your working years, move to a cheap area in retirement, or rent. The notion of the 'housing ladder' is to buy the cheapest you can afford as early as you can in order to lock in some housing equity that will grow with prices. Then work up to the home you really want. I'm not sure what the market is like in France, but some do that yes.

You could already afford to buy multiple houses in the NE, based on what you appear to have saved.

Bridlington1

Just a reminder Principality BS Online Bonus Triple Access (Iss8) trkr 4.45% inc 1st yr bnus (07/08) drops to 4.25% tomorrow

ranciduk

Shawbrook have a new Bonus Easy Access Savings Account 

It pays 4.3% but only for the first six months 

New customers only 

porcorosso

I might just throw my money into bitcoin. Will outperform all these savings accounts