The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

allegro120

francoghezzi said:

MHBS
On line the options (see above) for the maturity instructions for the Regular Saver ending 30/11: there is a message in on line banking. No appealing RS on offer so a full closure could be the most reasonable decision (at least for me). Easy process to set up what is needed: took me just a couple of minutes. Money will be transferred by the end of the 1st of December.
Instructions must be provided by 5pm Friday 28 November

I'm going for full closure. I still have 31.03.2026 running, so I don't need to think about continuous membership yet, but if issue 1 was the only MHBS account I had I would open 30 Day Notice with £1.  It's the only harmless option on their list.

Kim_13

allegro120 said:

francoghezzi said:

MHBS
On line the options (see above) for the maturity instructions for the Regular Saver ending 30/11: there is a message in on line banking. No appealing RS on offer so a full closure could be the most reasonable decision (at least for me). Easy process to set up what is needed: took me just a couple of minutes. Money will be transferred by the end of the 1st of December.
Instructions must be provided by 5pm Friday 28 November

I'm going for full closure. I still have 31.03.2026 running, so I don't need to think about continuous membership yet, but if issue 1 was the only MHBS account I had I would open 30 Day Notice with £1.  It's the only harmless option on their list.

The Save and Support can also be picked for £1, despite not appearing on their list. Pays 0.65% less, but avoids the faff of a 30 day notice if the account is no longer needed or to draw out the interest (wonder if they allow 1p withdrawals 😂 )

chris_the_bee

allegro120 said:

rallycurve said:

Principality BS

Regarding the renewal of a matured RS, would it be better to renew to an additional 6 month regular saver at 7.50% (£200 pm) or go with an additional Christmas regular saver at 6.50% (£150pm) but lasting for a full year? 

I am assuming it'll be possible to have multiple Christmas RS too via maturity instructions

I've picked 6 months this time.  Can't remember what tipped the scale, but it wasn't a simple decision to make. Last year I picked Christmas.

If in 6 months time the 6 Months RS will be still available at the same rate and the maturity scheme is still going, then 6M was the right decision to make. Otherwise, Christmas looks more attractive because of its length.

Principality BS
Interest on 2 X 6MRS (if still available in 6 months time) would be approx £54, whereas interest from a Christmas RS would be £63.37. However, if the proceeds of the fist 6MRS, £1,027 [(6*200)-200 for reinvest in 2nd 6MRS] were invested at say 4.5%, this would result in an extra £23.10 making the 2 X 6MRS more attractive. Perhaps someone with a clever spreadsheet could confirm or otherwise.

allegro120

Kim_13 said:

allegro120 said:

francoghezzi said:

MHBS
On line the options (see above) for the maturity instructions for the Regular Saver ending 30/11: there is a message in on line banking. No appealing RS on offer so a full closure could be the most reasonable decision (at least for me). Easy process to set up what is needed: took me just a couple of minutes. Money will be transferred by the end of the 1st of December.
Instructions must be provided by 5pm Friday 28 November

I'm going for full closure. I still have 31.03.2026 running, so I don't need to think about continuous membership yet, but if issue 1 was the only MHBS account I had I would open 30 Day Notice with £1.  It's the only harmless option on their list.

The Save and Support can also be picked for £1, despite not appearing on their list. Pays 0.65% less, but avoids the faff of a 30 day notice if the account is no longer needed or to draw out the interest (wonder if they allow 1p withdrawals 😂 )

Yes, that's a good option too.  Anything with £1 minimum operational balance and no other commitments would do the job.  Doesn't really matter what rate they pay or what notice you have to give.

clairec666

chris_the_bee said:

allegro120 said:

rallycurve said:

Principality BS

Regarding the renewal of a matured RS, would it be better to renew to an additional 6 month regular saver at 7.50% (£200 pm) or go with an additional Christmas regular saver at 6.50% (£150pm) but lasting for a full year? 

I am assuming it'll be possible to have multiple Christmas RS too via maturity instructions

I've picked 6 months this time.  Can't remember what tipped the scale, but it wasn't a simple decision to make. Last year I picked Christmas.

If in 6 months time the 6 Months RS will be still available at the same rate and the maturity scheme is still going, then 6M was the right decision to make. Otherwise, Christmas looks more attractive because of its length.

Principality BS
Interest on 2 X 6MRS (if still available in 6 months time) would be approx £54, whereas interest from a Christmas RS would be £63.37. However, if the proceeds of the fist 6MRS, £1,027 [(6*200)-200 for reinvest in 2nd 6MRS] were invested at say 4.5%, this would result in an extra £23.10 making the 2 X 6MRS more attractive. Perhaps someone with a clever spreadsheet could confirm or otherwise.

A clever spreadsheet, you say...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n50F6t5Jsb3kpjSVxP7HwvaoLDi0a0-IjllulAmxrGE/edit?usp=sharing

I rustled this up a while ago in response to a previous debate. I've set all deposits to £150 in order to make a direct comparison between the 6 month and Christmas accounts.
I'm making the assumption that a) the interest rate for the 6 month account hasn't dropped by the time you renew, and b) you can get yourself an extra one on maturity (i.e. if there's a new issue)

Assuming also that you don't have an initial lump sum deposit, and the £150 comes from income each month.

After 6 months the "excess" is put into an easy-access account for drip-feeding. I've set this bar quite low at 3.5% for this particular example. (Currently my drip-feeding accounts are all 5.5% regular savers which I can't fully fund, so my figures work out even better!)

Anyway, the conclusion is that 6 month RS + dripfeeding wins, in this scenario anyway.

easyasonetwothree

Principality

Has anyone been able to successfully get a second Christmas RS as a maturity option anyway? The 6m savers are slipping through the cracks but they might be a bit more on it for a longer term product..

s71hj

Kim_13 said:

rallycurve said:

Principality BS

Regarding the renewal of a matured RS, would it be better to renew to an additional 6 month regular saver at 7.50% (£200 pm) or go with an additional Christmas regular saver at 6.50% (£150pm) but lasting for a full year? 

I am assuming it'll be possible to have multiple Christmas RS too via maturity instructions

Personally, I'd take the 6m - but this may be my disappointment that they increased the contribution and cut the rate, rather than leaving it unchanged.

Extra contribution is £600, for circa £15 more interest than 2 x 6m savers (but that relies on being able to get another 6m in June and circle the £1,200 again.) 

Then again I'm not completely filling the savers I've got, so the appeal of the 1 year/£1,800 would be higher if I were.

Rightly or wrongly I tend to grab the higher rate but then I'd always have eaten all my sweets half an hour into the movie.. 

allegro120

easyasonetwothree said:

Principality

Has anyone been able to successfully get a second Christmas RS as a maturity option anyway? The 6m savers are slipping through the cracks but they might be a bit more on it for a longer term product..

I opened a second Christmas last year, can't see why it wouldn't be possible now.  It's on the maturity options list as well as 6m.

s71hj

clairec666 said:

chris_the_bee said:

allegro120 said:

rallycurve said:

Principality BS

Regarding the renewal of a matured RS, would it be better to renew to an additional 6 month regular saver at 7.50% (£200 pm) or go with an additional Christmas regular saver at 6.50% (£150pm) but lasting for a full year? 

I am assuming it'll be possible to have multiple Christmas RS too via maturity instructions

I've picked 6 months this time.  Can't remember what tipped the scale, but it wasn't a simple decision to make. Last year I picked Christmas.

If in 6 months time the 6 Months RS will be still available at the same rate and the maturity scheme is still going, then 6M was the right decision to make. Otherwise, Christmas looks more attractive because of its length.

Principality BS
Interest on 2 X 6MRS (if still available in 6 months time) would be approx £54, whereas interest from a Christmas RS would be £63.37. However, if the proceeds of the fist 6MRS, £1,027 [(6*200)-200 for reinvest in 2nd 6MRS] were invested at say 4.5%, this would result in an extra £23.10 making the 2 X 6MRS more attractive. Perhaps someone with a clever spreadsheet could confirm or otherwise.

A clever spreadsheet, you say...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n50F6t5Jsb3kpjSVxP7HwvaoLDi0a0-IjllulAmxrGE/edit?usp=sharing

I rustled this up a while ago in response to a previous debate. I've set all deposits to £150 in order to make a direct comparison between the 6 month and Christmas accounts.
I'm making the assumption that a) the interest rate for the 6 month account hasn't dropped by the time you renew, and b) you can get yourself an extra one on maturity (i.e. if there's a new issue)

Assuming also that you don't have an initial lump sum deposit, and the £150 comes from income each month.

After 6 months the "excess" is put into an easy-access account for drip-feeding. I've set this bar quite low at 3.5% for this particular example. (Currently my drip-feeding accounts are all 5.5% regular savers which I can't fully fund, so my figures work out even better!)

Anyway, the conclusion is that 6 month RS + dripfeeding wins, in this scenario anyway.

This opens an interesting debate in some ways (at the risk of straying into feeder accounts, albeit overlapping with RS's). We often discuss our lower threshold for opening an RS, but those with easy access/unlimited withdrawals that are a bit lower than our chosen lower limit for fully funded I now realise can be used for "money was only resting in my account" accounts like a mainstream easy access account. I sort of do it already with Santander without quite realising that's what I'm doing / defining it as a "thing" I do. I/we have 4, soon to be 5 Santander Edge savers paying 6%, then obviously the prospect of potentially almost endless Cahoot sunny days at 5% but my lower threshold for RS's is generally about 6% now This does create a case for opening lower rate but easy access and flexible contribution lower rate RS accounts.