The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

MaxBlax

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875467#Comment_81875467

Calculators and theoretical guides do not help me and are not what I am looking for. I am interested in what forumites actually do.

anna42hmr

we had this issue all day yesterday with Principality the last attempt at 5pm and text not coming through until 11.30 last night (also on ee) hoping will get it sorted soon showing as doing maintenance at the moment.

wmb194

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875516#Comment_81875516

Just chase the best rates above what you can earn in an easy access account. It does depend on how much cash you have available but I start with the highest paying and work down. This approach will involve opening current accounts though e.g., with First Direct for its 7% RS, Lloyds for its 6.5% Club RS and Zopa for its 7.1% RS.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875516#Comment_81875516

To what purpose? Everyone's reasons & circumstances that influence their decisions on if/when/where to save will be different, and certainly different to yours.

Unless you are writing an academic treatise on the subject of Regular Savers, it's difficult to see why the habits of others can be of value to you, unless you wish to discuss specific experiences of using specific institutions or products.

Maybe describe in a little more detail what it is you are trying to determine.

WillPS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875516#Comment_81875516

Step 1 - open regular savings accounts, picking from those available to you and filter according to preference (you might decide to only take those offering more than 6% to start with, for example, or to exclude those where the funds can't/shouldn't be obtained until maturity like First Direct).

Step 2 - every month deposit as much as you can, starting with the highest interest paying. Empty or close lower interest accounts to pay in to higher interest ones with room to spare.

Step 3 - monitor this thread and repeat step 1. Some accounts are only available for days so if there's anything that meets your criteria act quickly.

Give it a few years and you'll have a nice rotation of maturing funds.

A spreadsheet is a smart idea for keeping track of what's where, although truthfully I did it all in my head for the first couple of years when we had a dozen or fewer accounts.

Bridlington1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875421#Comment_81875421

I take the approach that I'll stick my money wherever it'll earn the most interest. Generally regular savers offer the highest rates of interest (see page 1 of this thread for the top regular savers currently on offer).

Whether it's worth depositing money into a regular saver would depend on your circumstances. I generally make the comparison of regular savers vs easy access accounts and ISAs.

If you don't earn enough interest on your savings to pay tax on the interest then regular savers would typically be the best option as long as it pays a higher rate of interest than the top easy access accounts and the top easy access cash ISAs.

If you're a basic rate (20%) taxpayer and have used up your personal savings allowance then the comparison usually becomes whether a regular saver pays more interest after tax than an ISA (tax free) would, in this instance if you had, say, a 4.5% cash ISA then any regular saver paying more than 5.625% (4.5/0.8) would give you more interest after tax than the ISA would. If you're a 40% taxpayer you could make a similar calculation and so on.

For most though the top few regular savers would be worth funding, but how far down the list you decide to fund is dependent on your circumstances.

For me personally I'm a basic rate taxpayer and have used up my personal savings allowance so as a starting point I simply work down my list of regular savers from highest rate to lowest rate until I've either run out of money to put in them or I come to a regular saver that pays less after tax than the top easy access cash ISA I can find.

clairec666

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875516#Comment_81875516

Ultimately you do need a calculator, because you need to work out what works for you.

There's not one straightforward answer to your question. Contributors to this forum each have their own unique circumstances, and we are probably not a fair representation of the entire population of regular saver holders.

MaxBlax

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875531#Comment_81875531

The purpose: To elucidate from other forumites their reasons & circumstances that influence their decisions on if/when/where to save and thereby potentially learn something, simples.

WillPS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875562#Comment_81875562

Respectfully, you'd probably be better placed looking at the 'being nosey…' thread on this board instead where people share how much they're saving and what their strategy is.

I don't really find it that insightful tho tbh, if you have more money you can do more saving - not exactly a revolutionary discovery. Similarly, if you've paid your mortgage in your 'forever home' and you're approaching the end of your career you're going to have significantly more available funds each month than a renter at the beginning of their career who is using regular savings as part of a strategy to build a decent deposit.

The only universal truth is that there are interest rates available in regular savings which cannot be had with any other cash savings - so if you are saving these should be 'first stops'.

Bridlington1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875585#Comment_81875585

Respectfully I would also point out that people's regular savers strategy is well within the scope of this thread so I have no issues whatsoever with people choosing to discuss it here, and if I'm being perfectly honest would rather such discussions take place in this thread than to have two regular savers discussion threads splitting discussion in that manner.

I've tolerated the being nosey thread these last few months but shall confess my patience with the way it is being run at present is wearing rather thin.