The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

Kim_13

Kim_13 said:

Cambridge BS RS renewed today, also with the 32p glitch someone mentioned a while ago. It does tally with the interest added, they just sent 32p less than expected to my nominated account. Hopefully that’ll land early enough for me to be able to move some of it to RS on the weekend deposit list today.

Still no sign of it, so I’m guessing they don’t actually send on a weekend (unlike Principality who definitely have funds landing on a Saturday.) I usually try to avoid weekend maturities but since they allow the account to be renewed through maturity options rather than the faff of sending off for a replacement by post it makes more sense to do that.

Edit: Now showing to be credited tomorrow, so not even the 0.25% interest on £1,500 of it over the weekend (Nationwide FlexDirect past bonus period.) Sigh.

snow62

Similarly to above comments with Cash ISAs, I've always maxed out each year, sometimes not till the start of April to earn higher interest elsewhere.  Personal example why: after my father died and we sold the family home (of 50 years plus) I had a large sum which took a few years to transfer into ISAs.  If I hadn't maxed out in previous years, interest on the amount that hadn't previously gone into ISAs would have continued to be taxable year on year.

I've now occasionally been raiding the Cash ISAs to fund RSs, but next April I won't be funding RSs until 6th April rather than the start of the month.  I will also be putting everything I can back into flexible Cash ISA before the 5th, including e.g. contents of Santander Edge Saver.  I will then take back out what's needed for RSs and to refill Edge Saver on the 6th.  I may not be able to use the full Cash ISA allowance next year, but if I can this gives me extra flexibility, so to speak, moving forward.

As for tax on interest for RSs (and other accounts), like others I keep a spreadsheet going throughout the year, entering each interest payment as it happens.  This is split into current accounts, monthly interest accounts and annual interest accounts.  Keeping it up to date means that at the end of the year it takes me exactly zero seconds to work out the total to be entered on my tax return.

surreysaver

RG2015 said:

I look at the rates of non ISA interest and subtract 20%. For example 6% becomes 4.8%.

I then compare this with the best ISA rates. If I could get an ISA with a better rate I would choose this ahead of a 6% non ISA. At the moment I would not touch a 5% RS since 4% ISAs are readily available.

The effect of the PSA and non fixed rates are less easy to determine, but a cut off of 5.5% (eg NatWest and RBS RSs) is where I am currently.

Also, a dedicated thread would seem to be a good idea.

My cut off is 5.25% (Lloyds and Newcastle), although I'll open a 5% and minimally fund if it's fixed or an organisation I'm new to

Kim_13

Section62 said:

Kim_13 said:

...
If I ran out of other allowances and the difference between an ISA and an RS was fractions of a percent, I’d take the ISA knowing that would be tax free year after year.

...

It doesn't have to be an either/or though.  A flexible cash ISA allows withdrawals that could be used to fund RS accounts paying a higher rate of interest, and so long as the money is returned to the cash ISA before the end of the tax year the ISA allowance is retained.

Are Flexible ISAs not a little less useful than they once were though? Since prior year money must now be returned to the same ISA as it was withdrawn from, unless you are flexibly withdrawing all but the minimum balance, there’s a high chance said ISA is no longer the best payer during the year and as a result, money left in it is earning less than it could be. 

If it were only fractions of a percent, I’d likely still take the ISA and avoid the faff of tax code adjustments and checking that HMRC had done it all correctly.

GetRichOrDieSaving

A couple of interesting points made about using the ISA allowance and returning it before the new allowance starts. As I’ve said a couple of times, I'm not currently attempting to max out my annual ISA allowance but will considered this approach for the future. Thank you for the contributions. 

janusd

Bobblehat said:

Every penny of interest gets recorded in my spreadsheet every month, including an end-of-year column for 1st April to 5th April, by month for each account. The accounts are split into sections ... taxable interest/payments & non-taxable interest/payments. I even work out interest prediction figures(*) for future months and even for the next tax year if appropriate to the account. Actual interest figures are fill-coloured "green" when received (or confirmed as predicted) and "orange" for predictions. Anything amiss (or I miss  ) stands out well with this colour method and I can investigate when it's spotted. 

(*) This sounds like a fair amount of work, but once set up, it's the spreadsheet formulae that do nearly all of the work for me each month and each year. I just have to enter, and/or just change the fill colour of, a few interest figures received each month. For reference, I also have the time to do it, having retired well over a decade ago!

that sounds eerily similar to my spreadsheet - every account (saving, current, isa, rs) listed in a separate row, the year split into 13 months/columns (April there twice due to tax year split); sorted by interest rate; actual interest added when received (filled blue for tax liable, lilac for ISA, red for fixed interest that I don't have access to); column at the end filled green if I have the certificate of interest for that account and they match what's recorded (red if it doesn't *screams* or light green if it's one of those accounts that don't usually supply CoI); accounts closed/matured are struck through.

as you say, it's the formulae that does all the work - it can total based on cell colour, so I know my taxable liability at any time - per account, per month or annually; it counts the number of open accounts, number of closed/matured accounts, works out tracker rates based on current BoE rate... and following a bizarre conversation with my dentist about savings, now works out my average interest rate across all open accounts (he asked me and I literally had no idea what the figure should be)... for anyone interested, it's 4.45% for all saving accounts and 6.25% for RS specifically... useless info, but there you go.

I don't bother with estimating - those accounts with annual interest are a pleasant surprise when I get to know their amounts.

Dizzycap

allegro120 said:

Hattie627 said:

Principality BS

I've got a couple of RS's (Healthy Habits RS and a Christmas 2025 RS) both maturing on 22nd December. Maturity options should be open online for both this coming Monday (8th). I'm thinking that I might delay entering maturity instructions until things become clearer. Cannot be bothered with the hassle of an illegitimate rollover being either rejected at the time of entering the instructions or allowed but later reversed. Anyone else got a maturity on or around 22 December? 

Yes, both are to mature on 21st December. I have the 8th in my diary for taking action. 

I'm not too hopeful about Healthy Habits, not all Principality's RSs had maturity option, Triple Access RS didn't.

Me neither  

Bobblehat

janusd said:

Bobblehat said:

Every penny of interest gets recorded in my spreadsheet every month, including an end-of-year column for 1st April to 5th April, by month for each account. The accounts are split into sections ... taxable interest/payments & non-taxable interest/payments. I even work out interest prediction figures(*) for future months and even for the next tax year if appropriate to the account. Actual interest figures are fill-coloured "green" when received (or confirmed as predicted) and "orange" for predictions. Anything amiss (or I miss  ) stands out well with this colour method and I can investigate when it's spotted. 

(*) This sounds like a fair amount of work, but once set up, it's the spreadsheet formulae that do nearly all of the work for me each month and each year. I just have to enter, and/or just change the fill colour of, a few interest figures received each month. For reference, I also have the time to do it, having retired well over a decade ago!

that sounds eerily similar to my spreadsheet - every account (saving, current, isa, rs) listed in a separate row, the year split into 13 months/columns (April there twice due to tax year split); sorted by interest rate; actual interest added when received (filled blue for tax liable, lilac for ISA, red for fixed interest that I don't have access to); column at the end filled green if I have the certificate of interest for that account and they match what's recorded (red if it doesn't *screams* or light green if it's one of those accounts that don't usually supply CoI); accounts closed/matured are struck through.

as you say, it's the formulae that does all the work - it can total based on cell colour, so I know my taxable liability at any time - per account, per month or annually; it counts the number of open accounts, number of closed/matured accounts, works out tracker rates based on current BoE rate... and following a bizarre conversation with my dentist about savings, now works out my average interest rate across all open accounts (he asked me and I literally had no idea what the figure should be)... for anyone interested, it's 4.45% for all saving accounts and 6.25% for RS specifically... useless info, but there you go.

I don't bother with estimating - those accounts with annual interest are a pleasant surprise when I get to know their amounts.

I'll pinch that one off you if you don't mind 

solartom

Re Principality  
Just given maturity instructions for Health Habit RS  due 21/12/25 they included the 6 Month RS,Christmas RS and RS Issue 36. No issues so far will report if/when/what happens.
 

surreysaver

solartom said:

Re Principality  
Just given maturity instructions for Health Habit RS  due 21/12/25 they included the 6 Month RS,Christmas RS and RS Issue 36. No issues so far will report if/when/what happens.
 

Just done mine. Asked for a 2026 Christmas Regular Saver. Let's see what happens.
I've currently three 2026 Christmas Regular Savers and five Six Month Issue 4 Regular Savers