The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

gt94sss2

ColdIron said:

OrangeBlueGreen said:

They really should update their systems so customers can close accounts themselves, it is 2025.

You can do this already in online banking if you have 2FA enabled

Choose 'More' at the top, then 'Close Account' and follow the instructions

That just leads you to https://uk.virginmoney.com/vmforms/current-accounts/account-closure-request/ where you have to enter all your details and the account closure is actually a manual process by VM - all the customer is doing is submitting a request.

As a sidenote, I don't recall the maturity of any other regular saver generating so many posts!

pedrodelgado

Question. Would it be more beneficial to open say 4 regular savers from different providers and put the maximum allowed in each one for say the first couple of months then a nominal amount to keep them open for the remaining months, thus having a bigger overall sum for 11 or 12 months than you would have had if opening one and saving monthly into that? Any thoughts?

pedrodelgado

badger09 said:

Skipton 
Thanks for the heads up on Skipton’s slow processing of incoming SOs early hours on 1st. I intended to set up SO from BoS from 1Sept but will fund by FP or debit card instead. 

Skipton are slow and totally ignore weekends lol.

apt

pedrodelgado said:

badger09 said:

Skipton 
Thanks for the heads up on Skipton’s slow processing of incoming SOs early hours on 1st. I intended to set up SO from BoS from 1Sept but will fund by FP or debit card instead. 

Skipton are slow and totally ignore weekends lol.

They tend to be quicker during working hours 

subjecttocontract

pedrodelgado said:

badger09 said:

Skipton 
Thanks for the heads up on Skipton’s slow processing of incoming SOs early hours on 1st. I intended to set up SO from BoS from 1Sept but will fund by FP or debit card instead. 

Skipton are slow and totally ignore weekends lol.

I must agree that Skipton are indeed slow but I can t criticise them for ignoring weekends as we have some upper crust family members who don't know what a weekend is !

clairec666

pedrodelgado said:

Question. Would it be more beneficial to open say 4 regular savers from different providers and put the maximum allowed in each one for say the first couple of months then a nominal amount to keep them open for the remaining months, thus having a bigger overall sum for 11 or 12 months than you would have had if opening one and saving monthly into that? Any thoughts?

Depends on your situation. If you've got a lump sum of, say, £1000 to put in now, you'd have to spread it over a few regular savers, because most have a monthly limit. So your £1000 would be earning high interest rates from day 1, and you can put deposit the minimum amount in future months (some accounts don't even require a deposit each month). The slight downside is that all your accounts will likely mature at the same time, so you'll be looking a new home for your money again in a year's time.

I'm sure @Bobblehat can rustle up a good spreadsheet to come up with the best strategy!

WillPS

friolento said:

s71hj said:

friolento said:

akh43 said:

No it doesn't really appeal, I have a 6.50% Nationwide, 6.25% Skipton and 5.74% Coventry and decided to drop to 3 RS for a while unless something higher than I have appears, which I doubt.  Not closed the Virgin EA I transferred the money out for now so its showing zero.  I don't really want to wait until September so maybe I should actually close the EA account to see if that generates the last bit of interest. Strange way of doing it giving the final interest so long after maturity.

All I have left with Virgin is the current with pennies in, the M Saver again with pennies in and the other 2 accounts at zero, hence why looking to get rid as have had many issues with Virgin over the past few years.  I only opened in the first place to get a good rate ISA several years ago and have never really used the current account, just used for savings.

6.5% is better than 5.74% and 6.25%, no? 

If your 10% Virgin RS was full, you should receive something in the order of £22 interest for July.

You would be in good company if you kept a cost- and maintenance-free dormant VM current account, as it might serve as a pre-req  for interesting accounts, such as their ISAs and Regular Savers. The 6.5% gives those with historic VM accounts essentially two (some people even three) 6.5% Nationwide RSs. Who knows what other gooddies and opportunities might appear. 

What are these 2 or even 3 Nationwide 6.5% RS of which you speak?! 

Some of us have the now NLA Nationwide 6.5% RS. Those lucky enough having two VM current accounts with different sort codes can have two 6.5% VM RSs, one against each of the current accounts. As VM is owned by Nationwide, that makes 3 Nationwide RSs.

It's not NLA:
https://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/flex-regular-saver/

(It's now on Issue 6 but the last 4 issues have all been practically identical - 6.5% variable which doesn't seem to change)

WillPS

Section62 said:

OrangeBlueGreen said:

...Though now Nationwide has bought them, they won’t care. Hopefully Nationwide will soon merge everything into their own systems, getting rid of double profiles and the mess that was never ironed out when they merged the 2 old Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks. 

This won't be happening soon.  Virgin is operating as a separate wholly-owned subsidiary with its own banking licence.  That needs to be changed before individual's profiles are merged - assuming Nationwide does this, rather than keeping VM as a (renamed) separate entity.

Nationwide's own systems also have their own issues and archaic aspects - such as use of a card reader for some app functions, and not being able to pay cheques in by app.  Supposedly Nationwide are developing an entirely new banking platform... but there seems to be little information about how this is progressing.  It sounded ambitious.

If I were a betting person, I'd put money on the new Nationwide platform (when it eventually arrives) being first launched on the VM side of the business, with some (then all) VM customers being migrated onto it as guinea pigs.  If the new platform turns into a TSB-style disaster then it would be better PR-wise for that to happen with the brand which is due to vanish, rather than the core Nationwide brand.  Also, my personal feeling is the VM systems are in greater need of replacing than the Nationwide ones... although that might not be the Nationwide way of thinking.

"We will ensure a careful and considered approach to integrating Virgin Money into the Group, that is aligned with the interests of all of our customers. We are preparing to transfer the assets and liabilities of Virgin Money's main operating subsidiary, Clydesdale Bank PLC, into Nationwide, which we expect to complete in 2026/275. This will be part of the wider integration programme that we expect to take several years to complete." https://www.nationwide.co.uk/-/assets/nationwidecouk/documents/about/how-we-are-run/results-and-accounts/2024-2025/annual-report-and-accounts-2025.pdf

mhoc

Its very interesting that in July we were all in a flap about maturing Principality savers and how many new Principality six month savers issue 3s we could open.
Then having sorted them all out it all went calm and serene again until Virgin and Monmouthshire sprung new regular savers on us this week causing far more issues than Principality ever did    

The next thing I am pondering is about Nationwide 6.5% fixed which is due to mature at the end of September - whether to close and start a new Nationwide 6.5% variable - is there any benefit.
Or just to hang on until October and assume that Nationwide will still have a 6.5% saver.

Also pondering about the LLoyds and Halifax savers if they need to be renewed - maturity dates in May 2026.

No cash flow issues just keen to keep the best rates for as long as feasible.
Bank of England have another meeting  this week and mid September - numerous rumours floating around regarding another rate drop this year and the thinking is September. ....

10_66

ForumUser7 said:

BestSeagull said:

ForumUser7 said:

Anyone's Green Regular Savers and Regular Monthly Savers at Darlington state Easy Access Saver @ 2.50%?

I had the regular monthly saver with Darlington which has, as you say, converted to an easy access saver. I was speaking to them about something else and it came up in the conversation that this was going to happen. They said customers had been notified. I didn't question it as I assumed that I must have missed whatever they sent but sounds like maybe some of us didn't get the memo! 

I was hanging on to it just in case it became competitive again on the way down but to be honest, I'm quite happy to have it off my RS list now.

No notification here either. Would suggest all forumites affected who were not properly notified contact Darlington BS. If it’s only like one or two of us it’s potentially a postal issue, but if it’s more wide spread perhaps they forgot to issue the notification to part of the mailing list or something.

My 12 Month Regular Saver hasn't even reached its maturity date yet, and it's showing as a Maturity Easy Access account at 2.35%, it should still be the former at 5%.  No communication from them regarding the maturity of this, or for converting the others either.