The Old Regular Savers Discussion Thread 28/12/24-29/1/26

Archerychick

Dizzycap said:

judgingjudy said:

RBS Digital Regular Saver

I’ve had a payment bounced back today for funds I’ve added to this account to replace money that was withdrawn earlier in the month. 

The amount seems random as I’d taken out about £1425 on the 2nd, funded it last week with around £1220 from a matured Principality RS so had another £200 or so to pay back in when I get paid on Monday. 

They’ve today returned £676 and a few pence to me, saying I can only add £150 per month. Don’t know where they got the £676.xx from, and I’ve not had this problem before, but I’m not going to pick at that thread as it doesn’t actually state anywhere in the T&Cs that this is permitted, and I don’t want to draw attention to the fact I’ve done this a couple of times. 

A shame if this loophole has been closed, especially on the day an interest rate cut has been announced (although at 5.25% this account will be now less attractive than my ISA)

I had the same with my RBS Digital RS. I withdrew £2k on the 5th December and replaced it back in full on the 12th only to have £1099 (?) returned to my RBS Current account with the message you can only deposit £150 per month. As the interest rate for the digital RS will be cut to 5.25% as of 19th January 2026, I'm in no rush to replace the returned amount and will just add monthly funds with whats left over / compound interest.

The same has also happened with my Natwest Digital RS (Interest rate cut to 5.25% as of 19th January 2026) It was a nice loophole while it lasted!

Is anyone having issues with trying to open a Dudley BS 5.5% Var Online Festive RS? I keep getting an unsuccessful due to technical issues message along with the BS telephone number after submitting my online application?

How quickly did your funds bounce back from the NatWest RS? I had taken some funds out at the start of this month to fund other RS, and put back in £200 of it yesterday lunchtime. This hasn’t bounced back into my current account yet. 

invuk

Sorry if this sounds a bit thick but if you open a monthly saver does that mean you can deposit the maximum in each calender month at any time? In other words I could deposit the limit on 31/12/25 and 01/01/26. New to all this so just trying to get my head round it all! I appreciate the input from everyone on here by the way. TIA.

clairec666

A couple of niche regular saver questions:

1) Anyone had experience of refreshing Monmouthshire regular savers? Is it fairly straightforward? I might need to free up some funds in January to fill other accounts, and timing-wise Monmouthshire looks like my best option (not the members RS obviously as this is NLA)

2) Any accounts which allow unused allowance to roll over to the next month? Skipton, First Direct and HSBC come to mind, anyone know of any others?

flaneurs_lobster

invuk said:

Sorry if this sounds a bit thick but if you open a monthly saver does that mean you can deposit the maximum in each calender month at any time? In other words I could deposit the limit on 31/12/25 and 01/01/26. New to all this so just trying to get my head round it all! I appreciate the input from everyone on here by the way. TIA.

Basically yes.

If the account can be funded on a calendar month basis (most are).

It can take a day (or two or three) for some institutions to credit deposits to an account, you'd be wise to make that first deposit at least a couple of days before the month end (especially if there are non-working days involved) to ensure the funds reach the account in the current month.

Rule of thumb, accounts with the main banks will generally clear pretty much instantly, the smaller institutions usually slower.

wmb194

invuk said:

Sorry if this sounds a bit thick but if you open a monthly saver does that mean you can deposit the maximum in each calender month at any time? In other words I could deposit the limit on 31/12/25 and 01/01/26. New to all this so just trying to get my head round it all! I appreciate the input from everyone on here by the way. TIA.

You need to read the terms. If they only mention, 'monthly' or 'calendar month' then yes. Some e.g., Santander, Zopa and sometimes Coventry will talk about 'account month' or similar and that'll restrict you to monthly deposits  based on the account opening date.

Kim_13

invuk said:

Sorry if this sounds a bit thick but if you open a monthly saver does that mean you can deposit the maximum in each calender month at any time? In other words I could deposit the limit on 31/12/25 and 01/01/26. New to all this so just trying to get my head round it all! I appreciate the input from everyone on here by the way. TIA.

Correct, unless the account operates on an account month basis, then you wouldn’t be able to deposit again until 31st January. But those are the exceptions - Zopa, First Direct and HSBC from memory.

Section62

flaneurs_lobster said:

...
It can take a day (or two or three) for some institutions to credit deposits to an account, you'd be wise to make that first deposit at least a couple of days before the month end (especially if there are non-working days involved) to ensure the funds reach the account in the current month.

Rule of thumb, accounts with the main banks will generally clear pretty much instantly, the smaller institutions usually slower.

Payments made on non-working days to Lloyds/Halifax/BoS RS accounts will usually show online instantly with the balance updated, but the payment will actually be credited on the next working day.  So extra care is needed with timing end of month payments into those RS accounts.

fuzzzzy

Kim_13 said:

invuk said:

Sorry if this sounds a bit thick but if you open a monthly saver does that mean you can deposit the maximum in each calender month at any time? In other words I could deposit the limit on 31/12/25 and 01/01/26. New to all this so just trying to get my head round it all! I appreciate the input from everyone on here by the way. TIA.

Correct, unless the account operates on an account month basis, then you wouldn’t be able to deposit again until 31st January. But those are the exceptions - Zopa, First Direct and HSBC from memory.

And some accounts with the Coventry - catches me out quite frequently when I try to deposit on the first of the month along with all my others and it gets bounced back because I forgot my Coventry RS was opened on the 2nd.

PixelPound

Born2Save_3 said:

PixelPound said:

What's your biggest factor for choosing a RS?

- Highest interest rate? 

- fixed rate of interest? 

- withdrawal options? 

- Monthly Deposit limits? 

Obviously a High interest earns as much as you can (barring BoE cuts), where as fixed could beat these if there is more than a couple of cuts during the term. Maybe it's where you keep the emergency fund, so an option to withdraw it if something happens and it's needed is a big factor. Or maybe you don't like faffing around with lots of small monthly amounts and one with a high deposit limit means bigger total interest at the end. 

Why are you asking ? What will you do with the replies ? Are you connected to an organisation that may offer or does offer RS ?

For me it has been : 

* Is the rate better than my lowest EA rate

* Can I apply for it; i.e. branch application, post code restrictions or restrictions on the number of accounts that can be held, make applying not as easy

* Is the account still available:  (Please Dudley let us have a second chance...)

Turn offs are : 

* Passbooks and postal operation

* Low monthly deposit limits (<=£50 monthly) and mediocre rates (<=5%AER currently)

* Peculiar/unusual terms

* Slow/difficult transfers out

* Limited to having a single RS when organisation may offer several

Turn ons are : 

* Good rates

* Fixes

* Large monthly deposits, i.e. £500+

* Good maturity/renewal options

* Early access, if required

* Fast/easy transfers out

* Being able to have all the RS an organisation offers

* Keeps an active relationship with organisation that may offer other products of interest, i.e. CA, SA, Bonds, ISAs, maybe even mortgages. One organisation I've joined for RS, I had no idea offered a speciality mortgage I'm quite interested in.

There's likely to be other important factors too.

What am I going to do with the replies? I am going to .... read them. 

Am I connected to an organisation offering RS? No, just a video peaked my interest. Glad you think the question was worthy of what financial organisations would do (I think, though maybe on some of the questions they ask, maybe I should be insulted you think that 😂(I'm not, just saying that for the joke))

As to Why am I asking. This links to last answer. When Monmouthshire BS launched their members RS I found out about it via a YouTube video, and as I'd opened the normal 6% RS a month earlier went and signed up. It was what the video said that had me thinking for this. The suggestion was that this members RS was a better proposition than Principality RS at 7.36% and given the choice you should prioratise sticking your cash in the 7% rather than the 7.36%

I had always gone on rate first when choosing any investment, and in the case of RS would be transferring money from EA to RS and back again on maturity (or to other investments). So the suggestion was that as the Members-only RS was £1000pm and 7%, then putting cash here first gets more returns because you can put more in and it gets 7% for 12 months (rate cuts aside). In fact doing it for the first few months was better even if you couldn't afford to fund every month for the whole year.

It made sense once I thought about it, so now when I see new RS announced I look at what makes that RS different, if it doesn't have a top interest rate does it have something else that might offer something I don't have.Such as withdrawals so that put emergency money there instead on in an EA (yes you often can't replace the funds after withdrawing, but the idea of an emergency fund is most likely it won't be used unless a proper emergency (if dipping into your emergency fund regularly then it's not your emergency fund.

s71hj

Those opening the Dudley Festive regular saver, do you have to send a cheque or can you wait until the account is opened before funding? Just don't want our current account to have £500 hanging around on low Interest through the Christmas period waiting for them to clear.