Best "bills" account that pays interest?

Temrael

Hi all,

I'm looking to make better use of my bills account. This is an old Santander Edge account that's reverted to an Everday Current Account (fee free, but no interest).

I typically keep a bit of a "float" in my bills account and would like to do more of this (having my Solar FiT payments paid there so they can help soften my energy bills etc.). I'd also like to remove my large Octopus balance and then move to variable DD (just paying the monthly bill each month in full).

So my question is, what current accounts might fit the bill (pun intended)?

I'd like to avoid any temporarily high interest rates if I can, as I don't really want to move this again in 3, 6 or 12 months.

The two that seem ok are…

a) Club Lloyds - 3% and I can meet the funding requirement ok
b) Kroo - 3.15% the only annoyance is they aren't part of the Current Account Switching Service

Nationwide at 5% is nice but only temporary (and I think I could have more than £1,500 in there at times).

Santander Edge Up would be easy but is only 2.5%, I'd like something that's closer to inflation.

Are there any others I've not thought of that I should look at? I can't do Chase unfortunately as we were with them and they won't let us back. 🙄

Thanks,

Temrael

Oh, duh I forgot that Club Lloyds is tiered interest. That rules them out.

grumpy_codger

How big is the "float"?

I think some cashback on DDs can be more attractive than the interest.

E.g. https://www.zopa.com/bank-account/cashback-current-account?

Temrael

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82069076#Comment_82069076

Thanks Grumpy, yeah looks like similar proposition to Santander Edge Up, but without the fees.

I'm wondering if Nationwide may be the way to go.

It'd be annoying to have move after 12 months, and I'd probably have some funds over the £1,500 interest cap, but given it's 5%, it would probably still work out a better average interest rate than the 2% ones.

macy08

You could also try LHV bank they pay 3.75% on credit balances https://www.lhv.com/personal/accounts

Temrael

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82069394#Comment_82069394

Thanks Macy, have you used them yourself?

That rate is great but I've read Trustpilot reviews talking about transfers out getting held up, accounts being placed in review and customers having no access to their money for ages until it's resolved.

macy08

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82069449#Comment_82069449

I've been using them just for my direct debits for about 3 months now and have had no issues. I like that I get a push notification the day before that a direct debit is coming out the next day. They pay me interest on the money sitting there to cover the direct debits which is great too. I don't regularly transfer money out but when I've done it I've had no issues whatsoever and money appears in the receiving bank straight away. The only gripe I have which I knew when signing up is that they still have not implemented standing orders, hopefully they'll have that up running sooner rather than later. Based on my limited experience I would recommend them. Maybe try with one direct debit initially and see how you get on

Temrael

Thanks Macy, that’s useful.

Newbie_John

If your bills are £600 and you keep on average £1000 in that account then the interest rate is meaningless.

At 4% you will only get up to £40 a year, probably less than £20 as your daily balance after bills will be lower.

Cashback on direct debits even after fees could make more, 2% on £600 is £120 a year.

Nationwide tends to pay it's fair share yearly - and we have a joint account for bills which qualifies us both - £100 each.

There are also other paid accounts with perks - travel isnurance, mobile insurance - that could be better than "interests".

Do the maths with your numbers and see what's best.

confederated

LHV is your best bet to be honest, BUT you will get no viable support. They don't even have a phone number and one customer emailed them to query why their card wouldn't work abroad and he got a reply a month later. We pay for our banking one way or another and it is a compromise to some extent. Get really high interest rates and you may well find customer support lacking.

I have an account with LHV but was plagued by companies not accepting their details for direct debits. Some sites didn't like the debit card number and they're not part of CASS. My intention was to use them for my main banking requirements but there were too many negatives. If I were to experience a scam, whether through my own stupidity or otherwise, or had some other issue, knowing I couldn't contact them in a timely fashion is unacceptable in this day and age.

ZeroSum

Possibly zopa. £30 pa cashback on DDs plus 2% interest on balances