The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

Bobblehat

TheWoodler said:

I was making the point that Monmouthshire themselves don’t seem to learn. It’s a pattern quite apparent to me from previous RS issues.

No need to shout at me about discussions or point me to the no chat thread - I am, after all, contributing to the same discussion in a temperate fashion without shouting at anyone. 

Fixed .... Sorry!

nomorekids

jameseonline said:

So my new strategy might be close Skipton currently paying 6% on £2000.

That will fund 2 months worth of Monmouthshire.

Can stick £1000 straight in & the other £1000 can be put into my Santander Edge Saver or something until I can fund another £1000.

Then maybe start emptying my Club Lloyds.

Then maybe start closing Principality accounts.

I'm also not as "availability of funding rich" as others on this group, you could do what I do and list everything on a spreadsheet with the aim of putting everything in the best account in terms of what each pound you currently have at your disposal, can earn you, raid those lower down the list if you've instant access but close nothing until the account naturally matures, you never know you may be funding that account later as interest rates change.

Hattie627

Bridlington1 said:

TheWoodler said:

Monmouthshire’s app issues are really just an updated version of previous issues with postal opening and so forth. 

As a result they do dominate these pages every time they release a market-leading offer, because they don’t seem to applied learnings from previous issues. 

I agree with @francoghezzi ’s assessment - I personally have had cause for a serious complaint with them that spiralled due to their initial handling so my impression is that this is part of the bigger picture alluded to above.

I understand things go wrong occasionally, and I’ve sometimes had cause for complaint elsewhere, but that was a particularly memorable example. My view is that if it causes you beyond a certain amount of hassle, then you’re working too hard to earn that money, as the process should be doing the work for you. 

I’m almost tempted to suggest that Monmouthshire RSs should have their own thread!  as the issues they invariably generate do tend to monopolise this thread for quite a while. 

 I'll probably spend tomorrow on the coast with a picknick.

I'll be spending tomorrow enjoying a picnic. I won't be nicking any picks.

Kim_13

I probably won't have £1,000 per month for the full term, so I'll worry about too much money coming out in August 2026 at a later date. I would like to continue funding Melton (especially Adcock) if I can, given the long terms and their form for holding rates. I made the mistake of prioritising NatWest DRS ahead of Issue 6 earlier in the year only for the former to drop the rate.  

I can see the logic of funding the Virgin account first before Monmouthshire, as it's a fixed 6.5% with a year to run. The mood music seems to be 1 more cut in 2025 and Monmouthshire have form for cutting by more than the drop.

As my 6% fixes all end in 2025, it's an easy call to minimally fund those that need it (hopefully Premium Bonds will fund the Principality one, as it's been maxed out to date.) Any that can be replaced will be maxed out from that time. 

I was also trying to cut down my number of accounts, but in a month that has a maturity, you need more accounts than you can usually afford to fund unless you have the money earmarked for a particular purpose and don't need to redeposit it. I usually wouldn't max out an RS with a £1,000 limit, but I won't pass up a good account for that reason and will just fund it as much as I can. I am nowhere near a branch so the app version was my only option.

Due to a maturity this month, I maxed out Dudley (opened speculatively and at the bottom of the 6% variables due to no withdrawals), Loughborough and Halifax for the first time since they were opened. 

TheWoodler

@Bridlington1 thank you for the considered and thoughtful post in response to the actual point I was making and as a brilliant example of polite disagreement.

My issues with MBS were of quite a serious order (after opening an RS that was inundated) that involved two specific pieces of legislation and I do feel it’s worth letting people know about that RS-relevant experience as clearly more that one person shares a similar view. 

IMHO after onboarding it can still be more hassle than it’s worth for the return on your money, and I stand by my view of the organisation, but as you and I are demonstrating in our different ways, mileage can vary! 

trickydicky14

Bridlington1 said:

TheWoodler said:

Monmouthshire’s app issues are really just an updated version of previous issues with postal opening and so forth. 

As a result they do dominate these pages every time they release a market-leading offer, because they don’t seem to applied learnings from previous issues. 

I agree with @francoghezzi ’s assessment - I personally have had cause for a serious complaint with them that spiralled due to their initial handling so my impression is that this is part of the bigger picture alluded to above.

I understand things go wrong occasionally, and I’ve sometimes had cause for complaint elsewhere, but that was a particularly memorable example. My view is that if it causes you beyond a certain amount of hassle, then you’re working too hard to earn that money, as the process should be doing the work for you. 

I’m almost tempted to suggest that Monmouthshire RSs should have their own thread!  as the issues they invariably generate do tend to monopolise this thread for quite a while. 

I take a different approach, MBS are fine in my experience when the account's up and running, ok they don't have the most advanced systems (to put it mildly) but they get there in the end and they have improved in recent years. Now account opening is automatic via the app, gone are the days when you'd need to fill out an online form and then wait for several days for your account number to arrive by post, sign a form which had to be sent back by post and manually add accounts to online banking, and that itself was an improvement from having to apply for accounts by post.

Now it's a case of wait for the app to work, log in, open the account and the account shows in the app very quickly with your account number being sent by email. It's a far cry from when they launched a Christmas RS at 5.5% in 2022 when Royal Mail were on strike. I'm not saying they're perfect by any means, but they are slowly but surely getting better.

Moreover you don't have to spend that long on it. In my case once the app was back up and running I was able to open the account, and a welcome letter with account number arrived by email within minutes, I've not logged back into the app since, I'm just going to wait till later next week to send money to it, make another deposit on 1/9/25 and then keep funding. I'm not complaining, I've got a 7% regular saver out of them for very little effort, now I'm going to sit back and enjoy the long weekend, I'll probably spend tomorrow on the coast with a picknick.

Additionally I've no objections whatsoever to people wishing to discuss MBS in this thread, discussing regular saver applications is one of the functions of this thread, if someone wishes to create their own thread specifically for discussing MBS they can do that too, I've no issues with that either, but they can still use this thread if they want.

I acknowledge that some prefer to have a thread without the lengthy discussions about MBS's technical issues, which is why the Archived thread exists in its current form.

Enjoy your picknick and try not to look at your phone too much.

Bridlington1

nomorekids said:

jameseonline said:

So my new strategy might be close Skipton currently paying 6% on £2000.

That will fund 2 months worth of Monmouthshire.

Can stick £1000 straight in & the other £1000 can be put into my Santander Edge Saver or something until I can fund another £1000.

Then maybe start emptying my Club Lloyds.

Then maybe start closing Principality accounts.

I'm also not as "availability of funding rich" as others on this group, you could do what I do and list everything on a spreadsheet with the aim of putting everything in the best account in terms of what each pound you currently have at your disposal, can earn you, raid those lower down the list if you've instant access but close nothing until the account naturally matures, you never know you may be funding that account later as interest rates change.

I take a similar approach, all accounts are listed in a spreadsheet, which I fund and when depends on cashflow.

A slight variation of your approach though, I tend to ``refresh" rather than just empty accounts I'm raiding if they're still available though to push the maturity dates on a bit. I've had a few different version of the Santander regular saver, I'm on my second Penrith regular eSaver, my third Darlington 12 Month RS (Issue 1) etc. Newcastle's regular saver has also been refreshed a few times.

Also I'll sometimes stagger some regular saver deposits if I've got accounts maturing mid-month, e.g. I've got Zopa's regular saver pot maturing on 2nd October so shall most likely delay funding some of my regular savers by a day to accommodate it.

surreysaver

Bridlington1 said:

nomorekids said:

jameseonline said:

So my new strategy might be close Skipton currently paying 6% on £2000.

That will fund 2 months worth of Monmouthshire.

Can stick £1000 straight in & the other £1000 can be put into my Santander Edge Saver or something until I can fund another £1000.

Then maybe start emptying my Club Lloyds.

Then maybe start closing Principality accounts.

I'm also not as "availability of funding rich" as others on this group, you could do what I do and list everything on a spreadsheet with the aim of putting everything in the best account in terms of what each pound you currently have at your disposal, can earn you, raid those lower down the list if you've instant access but close nothing until the account naturally matures, you never know you may be funding that account later as interest rates change.

I take a similar approach, all accounts are listed in a spreadsheet, which I fund and when depends on cashflow.

A slight variation of your approach though, I tend to ``refresh" rather than just empty accounts I'm raiding if they're still available though to push the maturity dates on a bit. I've had a few different version of the Santander regular saver, I'm on my second Penrith regular eSaver, my third Darlington 12 Month RS (Issue 1) etc. Newcastle's regular saver has also been refreshed a few times.

Also I'll sometimes stagger some regular saver deposits if I've got accounts maturing mid-month, e.g. I've got Zopa's regular saver pot maturing on 2nd October so shall most likely delay funding some of my regular savers by a day to accommodate it.

I tend to follow a similar approach. The higher paying regular savers at the beginning of the month; lower paying ones at the end to allow for intervening payday or maturing accounts

liamcov

For the previous Monmouthshire, my online banking is showing 2 accounts (must be from online then app applications). Has this happened to others? Have you been funding both? Is that allowed? 

s71hj

liamcov said:

For the previous Monmouthshire, my online banking is showing 2 accounts (must be from online then app applications). Has this happened to others? Have you been funding both? Is that allowed? 

I tried and it bounced ed back.