Regular savers Banks or Building societies.

Bob2000

I've recently opened  over the last few months' 5 RS accounts. 3 with banks and 2 building societies. Are there any pitfalls with just using one over the other institutions?

jaypers

Absolutely none that I can think of other than the fact that some Building Societies only offer accounts to physical customers rather than online. If you find a rate you like and the institution has FSCS protection, go for it. 

Kim_13

If you prefer Regular Savers, it’s likely a necessity to go with more than one institution. Few have more than two such products, most only allowing one. Providers having more than one competitive Regular Saver available at a time are the exception.

TheBanker

A benefit of opening RS accounts with several Building Societies is that some Building Societies occasionally launch loyalty products (better rates) that are only available to existing members, or sometimes people who've been a member for >12 months. If you have a history of holding regular savings accounts, you would usually qualify, whereas a new customer might not. 

pochisoldi

TheBanker said:

A benefit of opening RS accounts with several Building Societies is that some Building Societies occasionally launch loyalty products (better rates) that are only available to existing members, or sometimes people who've been a member for >12 months. If you have a history of holding regular savings accounts, you would usually qualify, whereas a new customer might not. 

I've had a couple of building societies who have had good regular savings rates, but nothing worthwhile come renewal time. My policy has always to keep at least £1 in an instant access account to "maintain the customer relationship". (One easy way of doing this is to let the regular saver mature into an "easy access" account and then leave £1 behind.)

For a couple of building societies I've pre-emptively opened easy access accounts just to establish membership - this paid off within a month with the Skipton with their "Members Regular Saver Iss 3". 

The easy access account gets drained to minimum balance (if required) and retained whilst "regular saving".

For the record, from recent experience YBS and Skipton have both allowed "existing member" accounts to be opened with a sub £100 easy savings account balance, with £100 being the usual minimal balance to get you membership and a vote at the society AGM)