The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

brucefan_2

Discussion re: Separate Threads

Can I add my voice to those who would not welcome separate threads for each institution's RS products.

This thread is sufficient and a terrific source of knowledge and information, which I have benefitted from on numerous occasions, usually when something unexpected gets posted, which in turn is often a response to an earlier contribution.

A brief heading to each post would make it easier for those who wish to ignore certain conversations to do so; otherwise please keep things as they are.

And a huge thankyou to Brdlington1 for his time and commitment in curating this thread.

qbadger

Well whichever camp you're in, it's rather ironic that a discussion about where discussions should happen has managed to take over the very thread it's about.

It's turtles all the way down.

KneadtheDough

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82065885#Comment_82065885

Making posts easier for all

It would be great if everyone put a bold or capped heading at the top of their post to identify what/who your post is about. This was suggested last year (and probably before that), and most people do, but a lot don't. It doesn't take long to do.

surreysaver

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82065991#Comment_82065991

Making posts easier for all

This isn't the first time this issue has been brought up. I'll always try to include the name of the provider, even if an abbreviation of it irks some readers

surreysaver

Discussion re: Separate Threads

Indeed. The danger of separate threads is you'll miss something of interest to you

clairec666

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066157#Comment_82066157

Separate threads…

That's why I thought a separate sub-forum (like the ISA sub-forum) would be useful. Anything recent would be on page 1. Any new accounts would be mentioned on the main thread so you can turn on notifications on the thread, and you can enable notifications for new posts on the forum too. I actually think you'd be less likely to miss something.

Bridlington1

On the question of separate threads for each RS:

If I may give my tuppence worth, I would prefer to leave the structure pretty much as it is, although I'm always open to feedback on how the threads can be improved and have implemented some of these suggestions in the past.

To my mind I think it's worth considering why this thread exists in the first place, its main purposes are to provide a list of the top regular savers currently on offer and to provide a place for all forum users to discuss regular saver accounts and ask any questions about them that you may have.

I aim to make it as useful as possible to as many as possible, there's always going to be trade offs with any approach, moreover it is impossible for me to please everyone simultaneously, therefore it is worth taking that into account in any discussions.

If I were to please everyone simultaneously I'd have to be both in favour of having one regular saver thread only for everything to be discussed but at the same time be in favour of getting rid of the main regular savers thread entirely and having one thread for every single regular saver. I would also need to include a list of feeder accounts on the regular savers thread but also be firmly in favour of not allowing them to be included in the thread and redirecting people to the top EA threads instead. I'd need to guess and post any savings account application links I can find and share every way possible to gain accounts against the Ts&Cs but then clamp down on any discussion that so much as stretches the Ts&Cs of the accounts. Above all though I'd be a stark, staring, raving schizophrenic.

One of the main advantages of the structure as it is is that everything you need is in one place and it's easy to know what should be posted and where, anything to do with regular savers gets posted here, if you want to state how many RSs you have then post in the League Table thread and if you don't want the discussion you can follow the archived thread and you'll be notified when a RS is launched or withdrawn or gets their rate changed.

Moreover certainly when my time is pressed, having one central thread is a heck of a lot easier to follow and get everything I need from than having dozens of different threads to have to sift through, I'd certainly find it harder to keep up to date with everything if information was dotted about all over the place so I would agree with the concerns raised by others that it could result in information being missed.

I would also pose a question of my own, which is how many instances do you have online where you have this sort of structure for RSs? There's parts of the internet where you have lots of short-lived threads about RSs, some about individual RSs, but I'm yet to encounter any other place on the internet where you have a long running thread (if you include its predecessors) that covers all RSs in this way. I'll leave it up to others to judge whether this is a good reason to keep the structure as it is, but I'd say it is worth bearing in mind.

I would also add that the current structure does make it easier to keep p1 of this thread up to date and ensure the lists on p1 are visible to as many as possible, if we did have a thread for each RS, then the job of maintaining this thread would become much harder. I'm not sure I would be the person to maintain it if this came to pass as believe it or not, I do have other commitments outside of the forum and other hobbies etc I could spend more time on.

On the point about labelling which RS(s) your posts relate to:

I would say this is a very good point, I try to make it clear in the first sentence of each post I make which RS(s) I'm on about, even if I don't necessarily put a header as such, e.g. I might say ``The Ts&Cs aren't especially clear in this regard, but when contacted Dudley BS" if I'm referring to Dudley BS etc.

Unfortunately there is a limitation of the forum that quoting isn't as good as it could be (the links in them instead of seeing the full conversation drive me round the twist sometimes).

Making it clear which RS you're referring to in the post is beneficial though I would agree, therefore I would encourage others to do so.

As ever though, if people wish to provide feedback on the way the threads are run, they're more than welcome to message me and I'll certainly consider them, but of course I cannot guarantee I'll implement every suggestion as I have to consider the wider forum and the needs of the community as a whole.

surreysaver

What I try and do is mention the name of the provider in my posts, and bold it too, to help it stand out

clairec666

I appreciate that it's nice having everything in one thread, the downside is that if you recall seeing something useful (say, which current accounts have caused problems with funding Buckinghamshire, to provide a recent example), you have to sift through several pages before you find what you need.

The search function on this forum isn't ideal for this. I've developed a few tricks to help me find stuff.

Edited to add…. I usually put the topic/account in bold if I'm quoting another post, as the main context is hard to see, but I don't usually bother when I'm commenting without a quote. Hope this is okay.

friolento

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066207#Comment_82066207

I like the idea of a sub-forum for Regular Saving accounts, for the reasons you have given