Regular Savings Accounts Article Discussion

YorkshireBoy

mcspanna wrote: »

Is this correct?

No.

Interest accrues daily...on your closing balance each day.

So, your choice is (fairly) simple...do you put money in an account paying 10%, or do you put it in an account paying 6.5%?

It's an easy choice really isn't it (providing of course you don't need access to the money before the regular saver matures)?

LongTermLurker

mcspanna wrote: »

By my calculations you get 0.66(recurring)% interest per month and therefore it is only worth paying in the full £500 for the first 5 months and then knocking the monthly payment down to the £25 minimum because from that point on I can get more interest in Bradford and Bingley (6.51% before tax) or Kaupthing Egde 6.5%?)

Is this correct?

No, I don't think that's right - both accounts put you in the same position so the 10% account still wins.

Each month, whichever one you have, you get x%/12 (or more precisely, every day you get x%/365) - that's the same with both accounts so in the last 7 months you still benefit at the 10% rate. If you moved it to KE you would just get 7 months at 6.5% instead of another 7 months at 10%

benwrigley

I currently have a 4.75% fixed rate interest only mortage with First Direct that I am I also paying off month by month.

I'm thinking about opening a 10% regular saver with Halifax and making the maximum deposit each month rather than repaying my mortgage.

It seems obvious to me that I'd be better off with the savings account but is there a utility for comparing savings and mortgages?

I am, of course, aware that one major difference between the two is that I pay tax on the savings.

Thanks in advance.

kaligand

Am I missing something. If you paid £500 each month into your Halifax Regular Saver, over 12 months you would save £6000 in total.At a guaranteed 10.00% AER this means you'd earn £260 (after basic rate of tax) in interest during the 12 months.
But if you already have £6000 in an account earning 6%, thats £360 or £281 after basic rate of tax.
So its OK if you want to start new savings but no good to move existing savings.

In fact maybe the savings are marginal even for new savings as it is only max 6000. Sometimes this site wastes time.

JamieB

kaligand, if you already have £6000 in a savings account paying 6%, then the best thing to do is keep that money in there, transferring £500/mo into the regular saver paying 10%. That way you earn £390 interest (after basic tax), £133 from the 6% savings account and £257 from the regular saver. (See here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts#savingscalc).

That way you are maximising the amount of interest your money is earning at any given point in time.

stumck

It may be too late to get the 10% regular saver account on line as there is up to 7 days for the on line registration to go through and a password, etc., to be provided! I tried to get an account yesterday and am still waiting for the details of my account to be able to deposit the money in time !

notalk

This tip applies to you if you are a Bank of Ireland current account holder in Wales, Scotland or England or if you are interested in a regular saver bank account offering 9.57% gross/10% AER.

I found out today that the Bank of Ireland have a new High Interest Regular Saver Account available to their customers in Northern Ireland which offers this amount of interest if you pay in at least £1,000 per month, and then are prepared to save between £25 and £250 per month by standing order. The interest rate only applies as long as you save the monthly sum.

Full details are available by tapping in the Regular Saver account page at www.bankofireland.co.uk and ringing the freephone number advertised there.

As an existing account holder in Wales, I simply asked them to activate this, and they agreed, confirming that I won't have to change my existing account name, number or branch.

I've been a customer of the Bank for 25 years and find them to be very good - the lack of a branch network "on the mainland" isn't too big a problem.

I don't work for them and I'm not an Independent Financial Advisor!!

LongTermLurker

notalk wrote: »

I found out today that the Bank of Ireland have a new High Interest Regular Saver Account available to their customers in Northern Ireland which offers this amount of interest if you pay in at least £1,000 per month, and then are prepared to save between £25 and £250 per month by standing order. The interest rate only applies as long as you save the monthly sum.

Just to clarify notalk's statement, you have to open a current account and pay £1000pm into that, and are then eligible to open a linked RS account at 10% - a bit like the A&L offering.

Full details at http://www.bankofireland.co.uk/personal-banking/savings-and-investments/regular-saver-accounts/

This new account is available when you open a clear Current Account with us and use it to pay in your main monthly salary of at least £1,000.

• Earn 9.57% gross1/10% AER2
• Rate guaranteed fixed for 1 year
• Save a fixed amount between £20 and £250 per month by standing order from your clear current account
• Interest paid monthly
• No withdrawals are allowed

Important If, for any reason, you stop making the minimum payment to your current account or you stop making standing order payments to the High Interest Regular Saver Account or you pay more than £250 in any month, the rate we will pay from that time will be reduced to the rate paid on our Demand Deposit account for the remainder of the term.

Looks like a good account if you want a linked current account.

edit - I've posted this on SS2's thread and credited notalk

moneysavermick_2

hi all new to this... i just though i would let money savers know halifax do an international reg savings account where your able to save up to £2000 each month but again the offer closes on the sunday.
http://www.halifax-international.com/Savings/regular-saver.asp is where you find you more info.... hope this is of use to anyone!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul_Herring

LongTermLurker wrote: »

Just to clarify notalk's statement, you have to open a current account ...

I cannot find any details on the interest rate (if indeed there is interest paid) on these accounts.

From the T&C's:

When you become a customer we will give you information on the interest rates that will apply to your account and when we will take it from or pay it to you. You can get information on the most up-to-date interest rates by contacting your branch or on our website.

For accounts held in Great Britain:
https://www.bank-of-ireland.co.uk

Leads me to http://www.bank-of-ireland.co.uk/about/rates.html which makes no mention of the current accounts in the rates PDF.