The New Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

mebu60

SnowMan said:

mebu60 said:

BreakingGlass said:

Coventry

I’ve just opened the new 4 Access at 4.3%, funded with the £1 balance (plus over £2k interest) from closing my old 4 Access, which was at 4.2%.

Annoyingly I am still waiting for the new account opened earlier this morning to appear so that I can follow suit. 

I managed to open the 4 access - 1 year and it appeared immediately and I was able to close and transfer my old 4 access closing balance into it. So surprising that you are having problems.

I even logged out and logged back in again immediately to Coventry but no joy. Just required a bit of patience which is a virtue I do not possess, all done now.

In between opened a West Brom 4 Access Saver Issue 4 at 4.28% as insurance for when the Issue 1 currently at 4.4% either reduces or ends on 31:12:25 (note the Issue 4 has a maturity date of 31:01:27 to avoid the obvious issues with Issue 1 finishing at the year end the day before a bank holiday but the Issue 4 date is a Sunday so again, an odd easily avoidable choice). 

Not the only thing that sets West Brom apart. Although Coventry and West Bromwich are geographically relatively close they are miles apart in their application process. Coventry use your existing details. And, after a slight delay, it's all done. Despite being logged in to West Brom I had to re-enter all my information. And now they hope to let me know within 3 working days whether my application is approved! 

I am also intrigued as to how sign-in will work. Currently it is the Issue 1 account number, DoB and a PIN. Will that then display both accounts? Can I use either account number to log in? What happens when Issue 1 is closed? 

friolento

huw01 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

huw01 said:

I moved from Chase to Ulster for the 4.5%, not sure I can be bothered with the extra ffaff of opening a Zopa account for an extra 0.25%. Both are variable with a top up rate for 12 months. Who knows where we will be in 6 months time with either.

Why do you not have the Zopa CA/RS already? No hard search and £300/mth 7.1% RS. What's not to like?

Because I have Regular Savers with Monmouthshire (7% and 6% £1500 per month), First Direct (7% £300), Co-op (7%, £250), Nationwide (6.5% £200), BofS & Halifax (£250 x 2, 5.5%) and Santander (£200, 5%). So by cycling money from an easy saver into those each month and as I am retired now I still need to live and have money to move from the easy saver to my current account each month. I know that the Zopa is 7.1% but come on, there becomes a point when you have to say I'm happy with what I have and I cannot honestly be bothered chasing the extra 0.1% or 0.25% percentages.

There are other things to be getting on with in life. I know this is a money saving website but I think I'm doing ok and I'm not losing a second of sleep in missing out on a few extra quid of interest.

7.1 is nearly 2 more than 5 😉

I opened the Zopa pre-Biscuit version for their DD cashback - that’s another £30 on top of the better savings rate.

Apologies for off topic post

flaneurs_lobster

huw01 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

huw01 said:

I moved from Chase to Ulster for the 4.5%, not sure I can be bothered with the extra ffaff of opening a Zopa account for an extra 0.25%. Both are variable with a top up rate for 12 months. Who knows where we will be in 6 months time with either.

Why do you not have the Zopa CA/RS already? No hard search and £300/mth 7.1% RS. What's not to like?

Because I have Regular Savers with Monmouthshire (7% and 6% £1500 per month), First Direct (7% £300), Co-op (7%, £250), Nationwide (6.5% £200), BofS & Halifax (£250 x 2, 5.5%) and Santander (£200, 5%). So by cycling money from an easy saver into those each month and as I am retired now I still need to live and have money to move from the easy saver to my current account each month. I know that the Zopa is 7.1% but come on, there becomes a point when you have to say I'm happy with what I have and I cannot honestly be bothered chasing the extra 0.1% or 0.25% percentages.

There are other things to be getting on with in life. I know this is a money saving website but I think I'm doing ok and I'm not losing a second of sleep in missing out on a few extra quid of interest.

Very healthy attitude, if this stuff is just a chore then don't sweat it.

I'm lucky(?) that I treat this chasing of maximum returns as a bit of a game and somewhat of a hobby.

I have all the same RS accounts that you mention (and more), this month I'll be foregoing funding anything with a rate of less than 6% and even then I'll have to be selective since there are few accounts maturing this month and I have simply run out of available funds.

EDIT: Yes apologies again - talk of Regular Savers on the wrong thread - let's leave it there.

SickGroove

When can you put the required £500 into Zopa to trigger the 4.75% bonus rate every month? 

I open it yesterday, put the £500 into the main biscuit account which triggered the bonus, so can I do this on the 1st of every month or does it need to be the day I triggered the initial 4.75% bonus rate ie 21st of every month?

friolento

SickGroove said:

When can you put the required £500 into Zopa to trigger the 4.75% bonus rate every month? 

I open it yesterday, put the £500 into the main biscuit account which triggered the bonus, so can I do this on the 1st of every month or does it need to be the day I triggered the initial 4.75% bonus rate ie 21st of every month?

Sadly not calendar month. The month for the bonus rate starts on the day you activated the bonus

flaneurs_lobster

SickGroove said:

When can you put the required £500 into Zopa to trigger the 4.75% bonus rate every month? 

I open it yesterday, put the £500 into the main biscuit account which triggered the bonus, so can I do this on the 1st of every month or does it need to be the day I triggered the initial 4.75% bonus rate ie 21st of every month?

Looks like the "reset date" (Zopa's term) is the date of the boosted account being offered, so the 21st. My app shows I have to add £500 before 21 Nov to "lock in your 4.75% AER bonus rate" .

janusd

SickGroove said:

When can you put the required £500 into Zopa to trigger the 4.75% bonus rate every month? 

I open it yesterday, put the £500 into the main biscuit account which triggered the bonus, so can I do this on the 1st of every month or does it need to be the day I triggered the initial 4.75% bonus rate ie 21st of every month?

when enabled in the app, the first month is included without the need to deposit the £500 (At least for me as an existing CA holder) - if you hadn't put the £500 in yesterday, you could have waited until the 1st and that would have enabled the bonus for 21 Nov - 21 Dec.

AlwaysLearnin

Presumably you could effectively make it calender month if that suits you better, by putting £500 in at the beginning of Dec, and the start of each month thereafter?

SnowMan

mebu60 said:

SnowMan said:

mebu60 said:

BreakingGlass said:

Coventry

I’ve just opened the new 4 Access at 4.3%, funded with the £1 balance (plus over £2k interest) from closing my old 4 Access, which was at 4.2%.

Annoyingly I am still waiting for the new account opened earlier this morning to appear so that I can follow suit. 

I managed to open the 4 access - 1 year and it appeared immediately and I was able to close and transfer my old 4 access closing balance into it. So surprising that you are having problems.

I even logged out and logged back in again immediately to Coventry but no joy. Just required a bit of patience which is a virtue I do not possess, all done now.

In between opened a West Brom 4 Access Saver Issue 4 at 4.28% as insurance for when the Issue 1 currently at 4.4% either reduces or ends on 31:12:25 (note the Issue 4 has a maturity date of 31:01:27 to avoid the obvious issues with Issue 1 finishing at the year end the day before a bank holiday but the Issue 4 date is a Sunday so again, an odd easily avoidable choice). 

Not the only thing that sets West Brom apart. Although Coventry and West Bromwich are geographically relatively close they are miles apart in their application process. Coventry use your existing details. And, after a slight delay, it's all done. Despite being logged in to West Brom I had to re-enter all my information. And now they hope to let me know within 3 working days whether my application is approved! 

I am also intrigued as to how sign-in will work. Currently it is the Issue 1 account number, DoB and a PIN. Will that then display both accounts? Can I use either account number to log in? What happens when Issue 1 is closed? 

I've got the West Brom 4 access (issue 2) and 4 access (issue 3) and I can log in either through the issue 2 or issue 3 account number (the pin and dob are the same in both cases).

When I opened a second account with West Brom a while back (so different two accounts to those above) I input my address without the county in the address (county is optional in addresses), and while everything else was the same as my original application, they rejected my application. When I rang them up eventually I worked out that they were treating my address as different just because one had the county in it and one didn't. Initially they just told me my application details were different, and it was only when I insisted that nothing had changed, did I discover it was the lack of county causing the issues. Unhelpfully they refused to resolve things and insisted I had to apply again from scratch. At the time you couldn't even see your address when you logged in so it would have been impossible for me to know what address they held for me to enable me to apply again had I not insisted that my details were the same. At least now you can see the address they hold so you don't have to remember whether you originally entered the county or not.   

flaneurs_lobster

AlwaysLearnin said:

Presumably you could effectively make it calender month if that suits you better, by putting £500 in at the beginning of Dec, and the start of each month thereafter?

Zopa Easy Access

 Having already deposited by 21 Nov? Suppose that works if you are committed to only funding accounts at month-start.