The New Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

Zaul22

Theoretically you could make the £5 fee back in cashback and therefore get 5.12%, but the cashback is only for a few months. 

Middle_of_the_Road

winkowinko said:

Barclays will automatically make you a premier customer (for free), if your income/ or amount you hold with them exceeds a certain amount.

I had the required amount (can't remember what the threshold was) with Barclays about 10 years ago, but then bought a house, and took the balance down to well below the minimum amount required to be a premier customer. 

I called them and asked if they were now going to start charging my £5 a month for my blue rewards saver, but they said they wouldn't. That was 10 years ago, and I still have my full premier customer perks now without actually having much money with them besides the £5k in the rainy day saver.

In a nut shell, give them (if you have it) whatever it requires to automatically become a premier customer, stick £5k in the rainy day saver, and then withdraw the rest. They won't downgrade your account.

It's good that worked out for you. Also good for those who already have a Premier account. A good easy access for 5k.

Being that they don't have any other decent savings products, leaving any substantial funds with Barclays would defeat the objective, and I doubt many people would risk rapidly moving 10s of thousands in and out of an account just to gain 5% interest on 5k. 

AndyTh_2

JamesRobinson48 said:

winkowinko said:

Barclays will automatically make you a premier customer (for free), if your income/ or amount you hold with them exceeds a certain amount.

The criteria for Barclays Premier are as follows.

Premier eligibility

You’ll need to have a current account with us and either pay in a gross annual income of at least £75,000 – or have a total balance of at least £100,000 in savings with us, in eligible investments, or a mix of both.

If your payments or balances drop below what you need to stay with Premier, we’ll let you know.

and they did for me when I stopped paying my salary in (instead paid in 800 for the Blue rewards), giving me notice if it didn't meet critera by x time they'd downgrade the account.

After I moved my salary back to it, it eventually said I'd made the requirements

ColdIron

JamesRobinson48 said:

winkowinko said:

Barclays will automatically make you a premier customer (for free), if your income/ or amount you hold with them exceeds a certain amount.

The criteria for Barclays Premier are as follows.

Premier eligibility

You’ll need to have a current account with us and either pay in a gross annual income of at least £75,000 – or have a total balance of at least £100,000 in savings with us, in eligible investments, or a mix of both.

If your payments or balances drop below what you need to stay with Premier, we’ll let you know

I have premier but have maintained a current account balance of about £30 for a couple of decades and apart from the RDS no savings or investments with them. I use it as my nominated account for most other accounts and you'd be surprised how much goes through it in a year especially when moving 1 year fixes about. I'm pretty sure they don't discriminate between income and any other payment

If you are in the same position try and apply for it, you may be surprised. They can only say no

AndyTh_2

JamesRobinson48 said:

AndyTh_2 said:

Thanks. It's bad enough that MSE doesn't even mention Blue Rewards benefits are available to Premier account customers for free in it's article https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2024/06/barclays-blue-rewards-loyalty-reward-shake-up/ 

Barclays Premier customers aren't eligible for the full suite of Blue Rewards benefits. But they are eligible for the Rainy Day Saver and the Blue Rewards Saver.

they are actually eligible for the full suite, I've now got Barclays Cashback again and had AppleTV+ since they added it

winkowinko

Yeah the eligibility for it is much higher than I remember.

pookey

soulsaver said:

Barclays Rainy Day Saver 5.12% £5k max:

At first glance, appears to be a smaller balance, top rate.

But the requirement for a Premier/ Blue rewards ac & accompanying charges means you can't actually achieve that rate? 

So I'm considering deleting it from the ToTP list. 

Any thoughts?

I closed my account as it didn't seem worth it to pay the £5 fee as they stopped reimbursing it

ForumUser7

winkowinko said:

Barclays will automatically make you a premier customer (for free), if your income/ or amount you hold with them exceeds a certain amount.

I had the required amount (can't remember what the threshold was) with Barclays about 10 years ago, but then bought a house, and took the balance down to well below the minimum amount required to be a premier customer. 

I called them and asked if they were now going to start charging my £5 a month for my blue rewards saver, but they said they wouldn't. That was 10 years ago, and I still have my full premier customer perks now without actually having much money with them besides the £5k in the rainy day saver.

In a nut shell, give them (if you have it) whatever it requires to automatically become a premier customer, stick £5k in the rainy day saver, and then withdraw the rest. They won't downgrade your account.

Do you remember how long it took to automatically become a premier customer from when you qualified please?

Bridlington1

@soulsaver
Paragon Double Access Savings Account Issue 9 4.75% £1k min (23/8) NLA

Family BS Market Tracker Saver at 4.76% (£500 min) (08/08) To reduce to 4.65% from 1/10/24

winkowinko

ForumUser7 said:

Do you remember how long it took to automatically become a premier customer from when you qualified please?

It was almost immediate. I had to park some inheritance money short term, and as I was an existing customer I decided it would go with Barclays. Had a chat with the manager in the branch, and it was he who said they'd upgrade me. I didn't even ask for it.