The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

Bobblehat

s71hj said:

Bobblehat said:

I am struggling to see how 3 threads will be better than 2 ..... or 1 if you prefer?

Regardless it will continue to be an extraordinary resource,  largely thanks to the person who has maintained it for years and the person who has taken it over having been endlessly helpful to scores of us and but also thanks to everyone who offers help to queries about things that may be buried in  t and Cs but hard to find. Good to improve the structure of the threads but I personally don't want to lose sight of that.

Fully agree with all your points in your post above. But do you think 3 parallel threads will be better than the two Bridlington1 proposes? 

PowerSavingMode

Bridlington1 said:

PowerSavingMode said:

At the risk of showing just how thrilling I'm expecting my New Year's Day to be, is it pointless sending faster payments over to any regular saver on New Year's Day?

Thanks for reminding me. 

The answer to your question depends on the bank/building society in question, some treat payments received on non-working days as having been received the next working day for interest purposes, others do not.

I shall go through the first post of the thread and add a remark to each listing to state how payments received into each account on non-working days are treated.

I'm at work tomorrow so this shall probably be finalised at some point late tomorrow evening (30/12/24) so you should know by New Year's Eve whether you should fund each account listed on the first page on New Year's Day or not.

Thank you, that is really useful and very helpful. 

Nick_C

Bobblehat said:

I am struggling to see how 3 threads will be better than 2 ..... or 1 if you prefer?

Think of it as a filing system. 

You can have three files, where you can group things and know where to look for them.   Or you can have one big file which contains lots of diverse bits of information, and which you have to spend time looking through to find the information that you want. 

The entire forum is a filing system.  Posts are grouped by subject matter. 

Terms and conditions of accounts that are NLA; questions and advice about accounts that are available; and information that new accounts have have been launched.  These are three quite distinct topics that will be of interest to people at different times. 

The key thing about new accounts is that it is something many of us like to act on quickly.  Accounts can be launched but go NLA in days.  And if an account is launched towards the end of a month, then many people will want to open it immediately to maximise interest.

But if you dont find a thread useful, then don't subscribe to it.  

Bobblehat

Nick_C said:

Bobblehat said:

I am struggling to see how 3 threads will be better than 2 ..... or 1 if you prefer?

Think of it as a filing system. 

You can have three files, where you can group things and know where to look for them.   Or you can have one big file which contains lots of diverse bits of information, and which you have to spend time looking through to find the information that you want. 

The entire forum is a filing system.  Posts are grouped by subject matter. 

Terms and conditions of accounts that are NLA; questions and advice about accounts that are available; and information that new accounts have have been launched.  These are three quite distinct topics that will be of interest to people at different times. 

The key thing about new accounts is that it is something many of us like to act on quickly.  Accounts can be launched but go NLA in days.  And if an account is launched towards the end of a month, then many people will want to open it immediately to maximise interest.

But if you dont find a thread useful, then don't subscribe to it.  

So, are you proposing that Bridlington1 does not update his "No Chat" thread with the information in your thread, so we only need to look at your thread for new RS information? Is that how it would work?

Nick_C

Bobblehat said:

Nick_C said:

Bobblehat said:

I am struggling to see how 3 threads will be better than 2 ..... or 1 if you prefer?

Think of it as a filing system. 

You can have three files, where you can group things and know where to look for them.   Or you can have one big file which contains lots of diverse bits of information, and which you have to spend time looking through to find the information that you want. 

The entire forum is a filing system.  Posts are grouped by subject matter. 

Terms and conditions of accounts that are NLA; questions and advice about accounts that are available; and information that new accounts have have been launched.  These are three quite distinct topics that will be of interest to people at different times. 

The key thing about new accounts is that it is something many of us like to act on quickly.  Accounts can be launched but go NLA in days.  And if an account is launched towards the end of a month, then many people will want to open it immediately to maximise interest.

But if you dont find a thread useful, then don't subscribe to it.  

So, are you proposing that Bridlington1 does not update his "No Chat" thread with the information in your thread, so we only need to look at your thread for new RS information? Is that how it would work?

I wouldn't dream of trying to tell Bridlington1 how he should manage his threads. I value his contributions to the Forum, and recognise that his threads require considerable effort on his part to remain up to date.

But I do think we need a dedicated thread where anyone can post news of new RSAs that meet the "best available" criteria, without the information being buried in general chit chat.   "My" thread is for anyone to use.  The only maintenance I will be doing is occasionally refreshing the best available criteria, and I will follow Bridlington1's lead on this.

If people use the thread I have created, then it will become a useful resourse that complements Bridlington1's work, and allows forum members to be alerted to new accounts in the shortest possible timeframe. 

Bridlington1

WillPS said:

Can we just go back to having one thread with details of new accounts and discussion please? There was nothing wrong with the old setup.

After the last two pages I'm beginning to get the impression it would've made my life and the lives of those who follow this thread much easier if I'd never entertained the idea of having a no chat thread in the first place, but to borrow a phrase I've started so I'll finish.

Nick_C said:

@Bridlington1

Your archive of T&Cs is a useful source of reference, particularly for accounts which are NLA but which people still hold.

It doesn't seem to me to be an appropriate place to post news of new accounts.  You seen to want one thread to serve two totally different functions.

You continue to advocate that people post news and information about new accounts in this thread.  But that doesn't work.  The information gets lost.  Or we get perhaps 30 alerts about uninformative posts before finding a gem.

And your solution to this relies on you, and only you, updating an "archive" thread, despite this being the thread which should be about currently available accounts.

I don't think your suggestion will work. 

I also think the explanations about what the threads are for need to be short and simple as many people will class them as TLDR

First of all I think it worth acknowledging that there is no such thing as a perfect system that can please everybody, there are only trade offs between different ways of doing things that please some at the cost of displeasing others.

As an example of a trade off is that some would like the regular savers thread to discuss only currently available regular savers, others find it useful to discuss accounts that have gone NLA but are now maturing, regardless of whether I choose to allow maturing but NLA regular savers to be discussed it isn't going to please both sides of that debate.

I have tried to take the opinions of all users of this thread into consideration and employ a setup that is acceptable to as many people as possible whilst remaining as useful as possible to those who use the thread.

The core purpose of this thread is to provide a regularly updated list of regular savers with key details of each and a place to discuss regular savers. 

Given that some (yourself included) would prefer to see only updates about the top regular savers without the discussion I chose to create a space for this to happen too in the form of allowing The Archived History Of Regular Savers Thread *** NO CHAT*** thread to take on the additional function of being the no chat thread. I didn't need to do this, I could just have easily told you to simply keep checking the first page of this thread for updates.

The reason I opted to use the Archived thread rather than creating a separate no chat thread is that I saw little advantage to creating another thread when the archived thread could serve that purpose just as well.

Some want to be able to subscribe to just one thread in which the only posts are to announce a regular saver has been launched, a regular saver has been withdrawn, the interest rate on an existing regular saver has been or is due to change and the thresholds for inclusion in this thread are changing. The Archived thread does this perfectly well, the only difference between it and a no chat thread is that it contains a load of other information on the first page, which you can easily ignore if you wish.

It also ensures that all the information can be found easily in a smaller number of threads rather than being dotted around all over the shop.

Nick_C said:

[...]

You continue to advocate that people post news and information about new accounts in this thread.  But that doesn't work.  The information gets lost.  Or we get perhaps 30 alerts about uninformative posts before finding a gem.

It does work for most and has worked for many years, people post information regarding a new regular saver, this is then discussed, if you are not interested you may scroll on.

Posts that do not interest you may be useful to others, just because you do not find a post useful or interesting it doesn't mean that others do not find it interesting or useful. So long as the discussion is generally related to regular savers I have no issues with it.

Nick_C said:

And your solution to this relies on you, and only you, updating an "archive" thread, despite this being the thread which should be about currently available accounts.

Please re-read my earlier comment in response to your own and pay attention to the following:

If a new regular saver is launched and people wish to make a post in the Archived thread to mention this I have no issues with them doing so whatsoever so long as any discussion surrounding the regular saver is confined to this thread only.

I have also explicitly stated in the OP:

If you notice a regular saver account that meets the criteria for being included on this thread that isn't already listed, you notice an account listed on this thread has just been withdrawn or an interest rate change is announced affecting any of the regular savers on this list then please feel free to post a message on this thread and/or on The Archived History Of Regular Savers Thread *** NO CHAT*** thread detailing the changes.

If you choose to post information on The Archived History Of Regular Savers Thread *** NO CHAT*** thread, please ensure that you only post the information listed in the above paragraph and nothing else. The no chat thread should NOT be used to discuss regular savers as that is the purpose of this thread.

Alternatively you can write a separate thread and then post a link here if you wish.

Thus my solution does not ``rely on me, and only me, updating an "archive" thread" at all.

I don't think your suggestion will work. 

With respect you have chosen to start implementing a different suggestion which involves creating a third thread which in effect copies the work of another thread I'm maintaining without even bothering to give the new setup the opportunity to work or even allowing me to address any concerns you may have had.

If I'm going to be honest I would've preferred it if you had waited a reasonable length of time and allowed me to fully implement the new setup first rather than creating a no chat thread.

Nick_C said:

I also think the explanations about what the threads are for need to be short and simple as many people will class them as TLDR

Unfortunately if I do not give detail to my explanations it leads to a lack of clarity of what should and should not be discussed in this thread and in practice it led to some confusion over what should be considered ``on topic" discussion and what is ``off topic" discussion. I sought to explain in a way where there is little doubt over what should and should not be included in this thread.

The OPs detailing what the threads are about have been created primarily to explain to new users of this forum what the regular savers thread is about, it contains links that may be useful to new users and goes into detail largely for this reason and point to other threads that may be more appropriate for their savings needs if applicable.

I included a summary on the last post of the first page of this thread and on the Archived thread detailing the changes between the previous iteration of the Regular Savers thread run by Special_Saver_2 for many years and the current version run by myself so that those who are not new to the forum did not need to read the OPs.

Nick_C said:

Bobblehat said:

I am struggling to see how 3 threads will be better than 2 ..... or 1 if you prefer?

Think of it as a filing system. 

You can have three files, where you can group things and know where to look for them.   Or you can have one big file which contains lots of diverse bits of information, and which you have to spend time looking through to find the information that you want. 

The entire forum is a filing system.  Posts are grouped by subject matter. 

Terms and conditions of accounts that are NLA; questions and advice about accounts that are available; and information that new accounts have have been launched.  These are three quite distinct topics that will be of interest to people at different times. 

The key thing about new accounts is that it is something many of us like to act on quickly.  Accounts can be launched but go NLA in days.  And if an account is launched towards the end of a month, then many people will want to open it immediately to maximise interest.

But if you dont find a thread useful, then don't subscribe to it.  

To continue with your analogy, the system I am proposing is the equivalent of having 2 files as opposed to 3, these two files have been divided into clear sections.

Additionally if you have 2 people filing the same things in 3 different files using different filing systems things can become more convoluted than when you have only one person filing things in two folders which are arranged into their own sections.

If you feel the one person who is currently doing the filing could be doing things better it is surely better to provide suggestions to the this person rather than implementing your own filing system without warning? Otherwise you risk making the patience of this person run rather thin.

Bridlington1

francoghezzi said:

Never have I seen so much confusion. I really don't know what I need to open in order to stay informed. This has become an absolute mess. It took 20 minutes to read what a thread is all about. Madness.

I agree it has become a mess and there was no reason for it to become a mess. I tried to take everyone's views into consideration when creating this thread and to provide a degree of clarity over what should and should not be discussed and where and it appears to have failed spectacularly.

I feel I owe anyone who is reading this an apology for not making things clear enough, quickly enough and for spending the last few pages trying to clarify things.

To rectify this I am going to use a phrase which I did not wish to have to use but I created this thread and the archived thread, it is me who runs these threads so I should have the final say over how they are run and I shall exercise this right now.

The threads shall be run as follows:

This thread shall contain a list of the top regular savers on offer with a summary of the Ts&Cs of each. This shall be updated regularly, I aim to do this at least daily.

You may use this thread to discuss all things related to regular savers, be they currently available or NLA. This includes but is by no means limited to when accounts are launched, withdrawn, interest rate changes, maturing accounts, which regular savers people have, how many you have etc etc.

I shall also be running The Archived History Of Regular Savers Thread *** NO CHAT*** thread. This thread contains a long list of regular saver Ts&Cs among other things on the first page as it did previously.

The Archived thread also serves the function of being a no-chat thread. This thread operates on a strict no-chat policy, namely that the only posts users other than myself should make are ones that state an account that meets the thresholds defined in the OP has been launched, withdrawn or the interest rate(s) on an account has changed or is due to change and nothing else.

If you have any further queries please see the first page of this thread.

This is my final decision on the matter and I do not intend to change this decision at present.

Once again my apologies for the confusion and I hope this clears things up.

cricidmuslibale

Nick_C said:

Bobblehat said:

I am struggling to see how 3 threads will be better than 2 ..... or 1 if you prefer?

Think of it as a filing system. 

You can have three files, where you can group things and know where to look for them.   Or you can have one big file which contains lots of diverse bits of information, and which you have to spend time looking through to find the information that you want. 

The entire forum is a filing system.  Posts are grouped by subject matter. 

Terms and conditions of accounts that are NLA; questions and advice about accounts that are available; and information that new accounts have have been launched.  These are three quite distinct topics that will be of interest to people at different times. 

The key thing about new accounts is that it is something many of us like to act on quickly.  Accounts can be launched but go NLA in days.  And if an account is launched towards the end of a month, then many people will want to open it immediately to maximise interest.

But if you dont find a thread useful, then don't subscribe to it.  

I would hope that on this particular thread anyone - and especially anyone for whom regular savers are totally unfamiliar - with questions and/or seeking advice about regular saving accounts in general, e.g. how to make the most efficient use of them or what are the most common characteristics they tend to share that are probably best understood before making any deposits into them, will be made very welcome and treated with patience and understanding. Although many of us posting on here are now quite adept at managing multiple regular savers from different institutions on a monthly basis, perhaps it is also a good thing to remind ourselves every now and then that we too would have been regular saving newbies a few months / years / decades (in a few cases maybe) ago!

Money_Grabber13579

In my view, the more threads there are, the more likely it is that people will have access to incomplete information. When new accounts become available, very few people are going to post about that in more than one thread and so it will rely on others copying that across. But that in itself requires someone to read all of the threads and identify what needs to be copied across, which I just don’t think is going to happen reliably. As such, I feel it’s much better in one thread.

From what I’ve seen, mainly as a lurker, Bridlington is very active in this board and I suspect will work very hard to keep the first 10 posts of this thread up to date (I’m not suggesting they have any obligation to do so, but that’s my impression of how they will operate). As such, if you want to read the discussion, read all of the posts. If you don’t, just look at the first 10 posts of this thread.

masonic

Seems clear enough to me. The new pair of threads will more or less mirror the system soulsaver set up for Easy Access, which works well. People who want to skip the chat can bookmark the archived history thread, where history is of the making and anyone can announce material changes to RS accounts (only), and hopefully everyone will be more tolerant general discussion related to RS in this thread.