Ford Money Flexible Saver

AVENUE · 11 February 2019 at 10:52PM

Hi There

I was wondering if anyone here has any thoughts or experience of Ford Money & its Flexible Saver. I've always saved with the Usual Suspects over the years and currently with Halifax. But my Instant Access account with them now only pays 0.20 & even going with an Isa this would only pay 0.60 & this will change back to 0.20 after 12 months.

I've looked online & most of the better rates are only ones which reduce after 12months due to them having a bonus included in them. Whereas Ford's rate is 1.42% which is flexible but does not automatically reduce after 12 months.

I do not want to lock my savings away & was thinking of putting around £30- £40,000 into an account of this nature, so would appreciate anyone's thoughts or experiences.

It says "easy access" not "instant access" which seems to allow for perhaps a couple of days before you'd get your money in a withdrawal.

https://www.fordmoney.co.uk/savings-products/flexible-saver

Many Thanks.

londoninvestor · 11 February 2019 at 10:57PM

AVENUE wrote: »

It says "easy access" not "instant access" which seems to allow for perhaps a couple of days before you'd get your money in a withdrawal.

It does take a couple of days in my experience. (However, I suspect that's true of some of the accounts that call themselves "instant access", too.)

It's not the absolute top rate - which you can obviously see from your investigations online - but it's not too far off.

To Ford Money's credit, when they increase the rate, they do so for everyone - unlike many providers who will start offering a new top of the table "e-Saver Issue 94" account, while everyone with the previous issues is stuck on their previous rate unless they actively change to the new one.

I've never had any problems with the reliability of the website. Don't think I've ever phoned them, so not sure what that service is like if you need it.

If you want to take a low-maintenance approach and not be regularly reviewing and switching, it's a pretty good product.

AVENUE · 11 February 2019 at 11:49PM

Thanks that's much appreciated, yep your right its not the very highest but some of the higher ones include a bonus or have restrictions on withdrawals which was what attracted me to this one.

Have you found it easy enough to move money in & out and do they respond quickly to any queries?

Many Thanks - Avenue

soulsaver · 12 February 2019 at 12:04AM

I have no issues with Ford - I used it for its RS acs from inception & for its flexible cash ISA now.
Also research:
Tesco 6k at 3% AND their 1.42% internet saver.
And Marcus at 1.5%.

londoninvestor · 12 February 2019 at 12:45AM

AVENUE wrote: »

Have you found it easy enough to move money in & out and do they respond quickly to any queries?

Yep moving money is pretty easy. You pay in using Faster Payments from your nominated account, and withdraw using the Ford Money website. Nothing really special to say about the website - which I mean in a positive way, i.e. it does what it says on the tin, and it's pretty clear how to find what you need.

I've never really had anything to query with them so I'm not sure about that side of things.

littlemissbossy · 12 February 2019 at 11:11AM

I have a fixed rate saving account with them, I've never had any issues except when I forgot my password and locked myself out of my account. A quick phone call sorted it out.

All good.

cloud_dog · 12 February 2019 at 11:51AM

We have their easy access account. Everything is fine, never had to contact them so can't comment on this.

In today's world of instant everything the couple of days lag for withdrawals seems a little slow but, how often do you really need virtually instant access to savings. Ours tends to be known, planned, scheduled stuff.

Edit: A big thumbs from us for the continual and relatively quick assessment of interest rate increases.

EachPenny · 12 February 2019 at 12:19PM

cloud_dog wrote: »

We have their easy access account. Everything is fine, never had to contact them so can't comment on this.

In today's world of instant everything the couple of days lag for withdrawals seems a little slow but, how often do you really need virtually instant access to savings. Ours tends to be known, planned, scheduled stuff.

Edit: A big thumbs from us for the continual and relatively quick assessment of interest rate increases.

I agree with all of the above. I have needed to contact them a couple of times (by phone) but that related to the Regular Saver accounts. They dealt with the queries quickly.

I've maintained a Flexible Saver with a small balance, and increased it significantly when the account was at or very close to the top of the interest rate rankings.

Payments going in appear to be processed in batches through the day, so don't show up immediately, but usually within a few hours. (I get a text message from Ford when the payment is processed, which is useful)

Payments going out do drag a bit sometimes, but as cloud_dog says, when do you really need true instant access? (I keep money in various current accouts at 1.5% for that purpose anyway

)

I'm happy enough with Ford that I've recently started putting money into their fixed saver (2% for 12 months) because that is less hassle than managing some of the regular savers other banks offer at that rate.

AVENUE · 12 February 2019 at 5:28PM

Brilliant, thanks for all the input here, seems like a good option for me at the moment. Don't really want to tie my money up for too long now as approaching senior status & its not really worth it for the limited increase in rates just now, so this, I think will suit me fine just now.

GiddyInvestor · 13 February 2019 at 10:30AM

No problems with Ford or the flex saver at all. Payments back to my nominated account I think in one working day.

where_are_we · 13 February 2019 at 11:00AM

Been with Ford since their 4% days and no problems. Their 2 % 1 year fix is reasonable.

Ford Money Flexible Saver

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