The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

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. 

flaneurs_lobster

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? 

The Regular Saver Issue 8?
Yes
Yes
No

s71hj

My Progressive regular saver matured but I can't see how to withdraw money from it. The only option offered it to transfer funds to another Progressive account. Anyone have any tips! 

flaneurs_lobster

s71hj said:

My Progressive regular saver matured but I can't see how to withdraw money from it. The only option offered it to transfer funds to another Progressive account. Anyone have any tips! 

The Rainy Day Saver? Mine's due to mature next week, got an email 10 days ago that says

On the day following maturity, your account will rollover into the current issue of our Online Instant Access Account. 

Says you can transfer out of that, can't remember if there's already a nominated (external) account in place.

Aidanmc

s71hj said:

My Progressive regular saver matured but I can't see how to withdraw money from it. The only option offered it to transfer funds to another Progressive account. Anyone have any tips! 

Has it converted to an easy access savings account?
Maybe as its weekend may not change to Tuesday, bank holiday on Monday.
Mine matured a couple months ago, don't remember any issues making a withdrawal.

DealSeeker11

s71hj said:

My Progressive regular saver matured but I can't see how to withdraw money from it. The only option offered it to transfer funds to another Progressive account. Anyone have any tips! 

Mine matured 2 weeks ago. The entire fund including interest was automatically transferred to a new instant access account. I went to View Account/Set Linked Bank Account to set up my nominated account, it then allowed me to close and and withdraw the entire fund to my nominated account.

I suggest you do this on a working day because I suspect when you try to set up a nominated bank during weekend the system just raises a ticket but nothing happens. On a working day, I was able to set it up and got my money on the same day.