The New Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

pecunianonolet

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868257#Comment_81868257

You become a member with building societies and sometimes accounts are only exclusive for people having had continuous membership with a building society, sometimes it just allows you to open accounts an institution is launching in the future only if you have been a customer before. Some, especially building societies, sometimes have accounts that are postcode restricted for new customers but available for existing customers. Also, having login details makes an application often much quicker when you apply as existing customer.

thunderroad88

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866218#Comment_81866218

I closed my West Brom account today and transferred everything to my Coventry account with a similar rate. I just couldn’t be doing with the archaic interface and processes that exist with the WB…when I first opened the account they got my initial interest payment wrong and I had to talk a customer service exec through how to correctly calculate interest. While their rate was good I put up with it but the withdrawal process is soo slow and painful it’s just not worth it, so never again for me. It’s a bit amateurish really and makes me have concerns about how good their security processes might be…

refluxer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868257#Comment_81868257

It looks like they used the account for just over a year before reducing the balance to £1.

If you have no other accounts with that bank or building societies, keeping £1 in an easy access account once the rate is no longer competitive (rather than closing it) can be a good way of retaining membership and makes it far easier to open other accounts in the future.

It also means that the account can obviously be used if the rate becomes competitive again, although this is rare in my experience.

gpman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868257#Comment_81868257

I, for one, have many savings acounts with just a quid in. I'm sure many others do too.

Three reasons off the top of my head:

1. Sometimes institutions require you to be an existing customer in order to be eligible for one of their later, better paying accounts
2. It's 'a foot in the door', so often easier & quicker to open a new account with them later if they offer something attractive. i.e. you've already passed their security/identity checks., you've already got access to their online platform, etc. You've even got an account set up with your nominated account that you know works, if there is some issue with depositing funds into a new account with them e.g. CoP delay.
3. As the interest rate is usually variable, it goes up and down as do all the others but by different amounts. I swap money between the accounts as to who is offering the best rate at any given time. A average payer today may be a good payer next month because it raises it's rate, or your other accounts have reduced. But next month, the good account may be off-sale so if you don't already have that account, you'll miss out.

I'm sure there are many other reasons too.

Perhaps I could turn the question back to you? What's the point in not opening it to just keep one quid in it?

EthicsGradient

Another reason for keeping an account open with the minimum: sometimes, your interest in a tax year will go over the zero-tax limit if you close an account, but you reckon you'd have space to receive the interest tax free in the next year (normally just one paying annually, which is rarer now, I admit).

janusd

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868257#Comment_81868257

to earn 4p a year in interest lol. 😀

for any number of reasons - I think it was 4.75% when I opened it and it did have a £100+ balance for well over a year… though RCi Freedom Savings has never really been a top rate paying account - just looking at my 2023/4 spreadsheet, I probably had 20+ EA accounts with a higher rate; even today, I have 18 (excluding max balance accounts) paying a higher rate.

for me, it's no great hassle to have multiple EA accounts open should they be, become, or return to being, competitive - or to make it easier to open additional account types with the same institution… it's just a line on a spreadsheet.

I think all my top 10 EA accounts are now no longer available (Ulster, Zopa, Cahoot etc) - so they would have likely started with a £1 in them… I could go on, but @gpman has summarised it well. 👍️

where_are_we

Cahoot Sunny Day Saver is still available @5% although up to £3000 maximum.

Another reason for keeping an account open is to view interest earned in a tax year. Sometimes it is not easy to retrieve this information if you want to check HMRC`s interest figures.

FishInGlass

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868351#Comment_81868351

Maybe they are thinking of how someone else might have to deal with your estate should you die unexpectedly. I am currently dealing woth my mother's estate and even though she had funds with a relatively small number of institutions the time involved dealing with it all adds up. It is certainly making me review my accounts going forward.

pecunianonolet

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868422#Comment_81868422

Got a Sunny day Saver open. Can you apply for another and have 2 or more?

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868524#Comment_81868524

You can certainly try. I have 4. At least two of those were upgraded from Simple Savers.

There may be TopCashback available too.