The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

gpman · 13 July at 7:27PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068208#Comment_82068208

I wouldn't have been so quick to dismiss the idea of current account switching if it can work for you

Lets say you could deposit £400 into a new RS @ 8 % (you'll be lucky, £250pm will probably be the norm), that's £4800 over 12 months.
Extra interest earned when fed from a lowly 4% feeder account would be less than £100pa.

I'd expect more than that from a switching offer.

Halifax - I doubt you'll see any future switching offers to Halifax. Mind you, I never thought Halifax would offer a high paying RS account either, so what do I know?

Lloyds - who knows what the future may bring in regards a switching offer.

BoS - £175 switching offer on now.

I think the basic notion is that you need to have the respective brand's current account to have their RS, but some people may find a loophole to get the RS of one brand using the current account of another, as mentioned from the outset of the discussion today.

jifmoose · 13 July at 7:46PM

Switching bonuses are also effectively a "gift" and are tax-free. Compare that to (differential) interest on capital, on which you may have to pay tax, in the regular saver. I'd go for the switch bonus every time if the conditions aren't onerous. In fact I'm going to do the BoS one now.

…and then there's nothing to stop you feeding that bonus into a RS or any other interest-bearing account!

Kim_13 · 13 July at 7:55PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068219#Comment_82068219

And this LBG situation is worse given it is 5.5% vs 8% and not 5.5% vs (then) 7%. And this is fixed, not variable as Progressive was.

LBG have more potential complainers than Progressive would have done and have actually removed a facility in the Halifax case: you can't withdraw so have to renew and reopen (which was perfectly within the terms when the account was opened) but are now blocked from doing so. Progressive always allowed all but £1 to be withdrawn if customers were unhappy, and there would still be a Regular Saver there to be funded until the anniversary date if they needed the capacity later.

JamesRobinson48 · 13 July at 7:56PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068229#Comment_82068229

LBG:

You can open a Halifax RS without having any Halifax current account. I did so last week. Unlike Lloyds and Bank of Scotland.

brucefan_2 · 13 July at 8:06PM

LBG 8% accounts

Given that Santander enabled an upgrade option to their RS, if there's no facility to upgrade accounts currently held, I suspect that LBG's CS Team(s) might be a touch busy for the remainder of the week (and probably beyond!)

gpman · 13 July at 8:28PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068271#Comment_82068271

The Halifax RS, assuming the terms do not change, is a bit different to the other two brands offerings in other ways too.

There's no early withdrawal from Halifax (save for closing the account entirely) .

The others allow withdrawals (which are not replaceable)

Also, as another poster pointed out earlier, the Halifax RS has no maturity date, but the balance gets transferred to a different account once per year.

Kim_13 · 13 July at 8:43PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068312#Comment_82068312

On the last part, that's very true, which means there are a lot of people who aren't aware they are excluded yet since 5.5% hasn't been worth actively funding for some time. Of course if you are shuffling £50k around it might be, but I doubt that for the average person that is the case.

PRAISETHESUN · 13 July at 9:01PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068135#Comment_82068135

LBG

I have 3 different online banking profiles for LBG - one each for Lloyds, Halifax and BoS. They all use different details and I had to register for each online banking individually. When I signed up for BoS initially I didn't have any BoS accounts but I was able to register for online banking using details for my Halifax current account. Possibly might be able to do something similar now but with a Lloyds account instead?