The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

Bridlington1

clairec666 said:

Chaykin said:

Could someone please be so kind and remind me how the temporary "raiding" of a full (£5,000.00) NatWest/RBS Digital Regular Saver works? Am I right in thinking that I can withdraw the full amount and replace it in full as long as it's in the same calendar month? E.g. could I withdraw £5,000.00 on Fri 02/01/2026 and return it in full on Fri 30/01/2026. Of course I understand I would lose out on interest but want to avoid the need of having to fill it up again by £150/month. (not including interest/round ups/rewards)

Yes, that's how you would do it. I've never withdrawn and replaced the full £5000, but often do it with £1000+, and it's always worked (i.e. no rejected payments). I always return it in separate transactions of £150 each to be on the safe side, but I don't know if this is necessary.

It isn't necessary to replace in separate £150 transactions. Just be weary of replacing the funds too late in the month though. I seem to recall one person on here made this mistake a while back, withdrawing the full balance and then trying to replace them on the final day of the month. As the funds were replaced too late in the day, the whole payment (about £5k IIRC) was rejected and they had to start topping it up from scratch, £150/mth plus round ups/rewards.

If you want to play it safe though you can just withdraw down to about £4675, this allows you to replace £150 at the end of the month, £150 at the start of the following month (only a few days later at most), with interest/rewards topping the balance back up to £5k whilst staying within the usual £150/mth deposit limit.

Kim_13

Bridlington1 said:

clairec666 said:

Chaykin said:

Could someone please be so kind and remind me how the temporary "raiding" of a full (£5,000.00) NatWest/RBS Digital Regular Saver works? Am I right in thinking that I can withdraw the full amount and replace it in full as long as it's in the same calendar month? E.g. could I withdraw £5,000.00 on Fri 02/01/2026 and return it in full on Fri 30/01/2026. Of course I understand I would lose out on interest but want to avoid the need of having to fill it up again by £150/month. (not including interest/round ups/rewards)

Yes, that's how you would do it. I've never withdrawn and replaced the full £5000, but often do it with £1000+, and it's always worked (i.e. no rejected payments). I always return it in separate transactions of £150 each to be on the safe side, but I don't know if this is necessary.

It isn't necessary to replace in separate £150 transactions. Just be weary of replacing the funds too late in the month though. I seem to recall one person on here made this mistake a while back, withdrawing the full balance and then trying to replace them on the final day of the month. As the funds were replaced too late in the day, the whole payment (about £5k IIRC) was rejected and they had to start topping it up from scratch, £150/mth plus round ups/rewards.

If you want to play it safe though you can just withdraw down to about £4675, this allows you to replace £150 at the end of the month, £150 at the start of the following month (only a few days later at most), with interest/rewards topping the balance back up to £5k whilst staying within the usual £150/mth deposit limit.

I recall someone also trying to replace on a weekend, so as NatWest/RBS treat deposits on a non-working day as being received on the next working day, it was received in the next month and rejected.

clairec666

Bridlington1 said:

clairec666 said:

Chaykin said:

Could someone please be so kind and remind me how the temporary "raiding" of a full (£5,000.00) NatWest/RBS Digital Regular Saver works? Am I right in thinking that I can withdraw the full amount and replace it in full as long as it's in the same calendar month? E.g. could I withdraw £5,000.00 on Fri 02/01/2026 and return it in full on Fri 30/01/2026. Of course I understand I would lose out on interest but want to avoid the need of having to fill it up again by £150/month. (not including interest/round ups/rewards)

Yes, that's how you would do it. I've never withdrawn and replaced the full £5000, but often do it with £1000+, and it's always worked (i.e. no rejected payments). I always return it in separate transactions of £150 each to be on the safe side, but I don't know if this is necessary.

It isn't necessary to replace in separate £150 transactions. Just be weary of replacing the funds too late in the month though. I seem to recall one person on here made this mistake a while back, withdrawing the full balance and then trying to replace them on the final day of the month. As the funds were replaced too late in the day, the whole payment (about £5k IIRC) was rejected and they had to start topping it up from scratch, £150/mth plus round ups/rewards.

If you want to play it safe though you can just withdraw down to about £4675, this allows you to replace £150 at the end of the month, £150 at the start of the following month (only a few days later at most), with interest/rewards topping the balance back up to £5k whilst staying within the usual £150/mth deposit limit.

Good to know - I won't bother splitting the transactions in future.

I recall once making a deposit on the last day of the month which was dated as the 1st of the next month. Can't recall whether it was a working day, or what time I made the transaction.

This month I made a withdrawal of £250 from Natwest DRS on the evening of the 1st December, to top up my Coop regular saver. The transaction is dated as 2nd December at Natwest, but 1st December at Coop. So could have been counted twice for the day's interest.... I'm not going to go to the effort of doing that every time for the sake of a few pence interest, but will bear it in mind when trying to top up Natwest before the end of the month.

friolento

It would be really helpful if providers did publish their daily cut-off times as these vary widely. As this is unlikely to happen, the only safe-ish bet is to make all your deposits before mid afternoon on working days.  

pecunianonolet

Principality

Provided maturity instructions yesterday evening well after business hours for a reg saver 3 that matured today and wanted another reg saver 4. This would have been the 5th one.

When I checked in the morning, the reg saver was funded with £200 and remaining balance plus interest was moved into my nominated account. This evening I realised that Principality sent my other £200 as well so they must have manually checked. Exact same for OH. 

Usual message so they either forbid it in the T&C and run a fair use policy up to a certain number or they start to enforce T&C's from now on, which of course is their right and I enjoyed it while it lasted. 

However, quite inconsistend behaviour because if it's against the T&C's they should have closed all the other ones running too, which they haven't.

Dizzycap

Just

Just logged into Principality and find a routine maintenance with regards to updating my account. I'm wondering if Principality BS are closing the loophole for future maturity instructions for the same RS / Bond Issue being available as a maturity option? Interesting, because I've never seen Principality undertake this type of maintenance.

I had an issue 3 6 month RS mature today which was converted into another issue 4. However, I also noticed late last night that I had a missed call from Principality BS on Thursday morning, but my maturity instructions were still actioned, this time. I might not be so fortunate with a couple of PBS RS maturing in January......

It will be interesting to see if anyone else experiences issues with future maturity instructions not being actioned due to already holding a certain RS / Saving issue number. We can but hope for everyone's sake...... 

s71hj

Bridlington1 said:

clairec666 said:

Chaykin said:

Could someone please be so kind and remind me how the temporary "raiding" of a full (£5,000.00) NatWest/RBS Digital Regular Saver works? Am I right in thinking that I can withdraw the full amount and replace it in full as long as it's in the same calendar month? E.g. could I withdraw £5,000.00 on Fri 02/01/2026 and return it in full on Fri 30/01/2026. Of course I understand I would lose out on interest but want to avoid the need of having to fill it up again by £150/month. (not including interest/round ups/rewards)

Yes, that's how you would do it. I've never withdrawn and replaced the full £5000, but often do it with £1000+, and it's always worked (i.e. no rejected payments). I always return it in separate transactions of £150 each to be on the safe side, but I don't know if this is necessary.

It isn't necessary to replace in separate £150 transactions. Just be weary of replacing the funds too late in the month though. I seem to recall one person on here made this mistake a while back, withdrawing the full balance and then trying to replace them on the final day of the month. As the funds were replaced too late in the day, the whole payment (about £5k IIRC) was rejected and they had to start topping it up from scratch, £150/mth plus round ups/rewards.

If you want to play it safe though you can just withdraw down to about £4675, this allows you to replace £150 at the end of the month, £150 at the start of the following month (only a few days later at most), with interest/rewards topping the balance back up to £5k whilst staying within the usual £150/mth deposit limit.

I'm keeping this strategy in my back pocket as I have a pinch point funding wise probably some time between Jan and March but I must say on a wider point about interest rates and saver ratevs ISA rate trends, increasingly it feels like the best strategy for me (even accounting for tax on RSs) is to withdraw from ISAs and put the money back in before end of tax year. 

janusd

Dizzycap said:

Just

Just logged into Principality and find a routine maintenance with regards to updating my account. I'm wondering if Principality BS are closing the loophole for future maturity instructions for the same RS / Bond Issue being available as a maturity option? Interesting, because I've never seen Principality undertake this type of maintenance.

I had an issue 3 6 month RS mature today which was converted into another issue 4. However, I also noticed late last night that I had a missed call from Principality BS on Thursday morning, but my maturity instructions were still actioned, this time. I might not be so fortunate with a couple of PBS RS maturing in January......

It will be interesting to see if anyone else experiences issues with future maturity instructions not being actioned due to already holding a certain RS / Saving issue number. We can but hope for everyone's sake...... 

i've seen that routine maintenance box before, with their same standard wording - so at this point, I wouldn't read too much into it.

my latest maturity occurred on Friday morning - my last Issue 3 to a second Winter RS - it went through without issue - though I submitted the maturity instructions early and had already received written confirmation.

my next maturity is the 22nd, so I guess I can submit instructions from Monday - I was planning on getting a fourth Issue 4, but will ponder on it over the weekend... will let you know if/when the instructions are rejected. 

cricidmuslibale

I suspect that one of the reasons why PBS has quite recently become much keener on preventing its savviest savers from opening too many 6 month Regular Saver issue 4s (or, for that matter, too many Xmas 2026 RSs) each is because they are very aware that interest rates generally are predicted to fall significantly albeit gradually over the next several months at the very least, and their mortgage holders will thus naturally expect the interest rates on their mortgages to drop gradually but also significantly as well.

Therefore, in order to make sure their overall profit margin does not become too tight, PBS (and other similar savings & mortgage providers) will be a lot more careful not to allow too many fixed rate, high interest savings accounts - in PBS’s case the 6 mth RS4 and the Xmas 2026 RS - to be opened altogether than they would be if interest rates were static or predicted to rise significantly. Strictly enforcing the Ts and Cs and, as much as they possibly can, limiting these very attractive savings accounts to one per person per issue is of course a very good way of doing this, unfortunately (for the likes of us, not them obviously)!

P.S. Assuming PBS would ideally prefer the limited number of 6 mth RS issue 4s and Xmas 2026 RSs that it is willing to sell in total to be shared by as many of its savers as possible, and not just its most ardent & eager savers (i.e. folks like us on the MSE forum), then clearly this is another reason why it would ideally not want its most ‘dedicated’ savers to acquire more than their fair share of these two RSs individually and collectively!

clairec666

janusd said:

Dizzycap said:

Just

Just logged into Principality and find a routine maintenance with regards to updating my account. I'm wondering if Principality BS are closing the loophole for future maturity instructions for the same RS / Bond Issue being available as a maturity option? Interesting, because I've never seen Principality undertake this type of maintenance.

I had an issue 3 6 month RS mature today which was converted into another issue 4. However, I also noticed late last night that I had a missed call from Principality BS on Thursday morning, but my maturity instructions were still actioned, this time. I might not be so fortunate with a couple of PBS RS maturing in January......

It will be interesting to see if anyone else experiences issues with future maturity instructions not being actioned due to already holding a certain RS / Saving issue number. We can but hope for everyone's sake...... 

i've seen that routine maintenance box before, with their same standard wording - so as this point, I wouldn't read too much into it.

my latest maturity occurred on Friday morning - my last Issue 3 to a second Winter RS - it went through without issue - though I submitted the maturity instructions early and had already received written confirmation.

my next maturity is the 22nd, so I guess I can submit instructions from Monday - I was planning on getting a fourth Issue 4, but will ponder on it over the weekend... will let you know if/when the instructions are rejected. 

Logged in this morning and I can see the "Faster Payments" warning, but not the "Routine Maintenance" one