Remster

Thought i'd ask on here to see what savings accounts people are using for surplus funds. It needs to be Internet based for easy transactions.

Basically, I have maxed out ISA allowance for the wife & I and need to deposit 20k in a high yeild savings account. The money can't be tied up as we need to draw approx. £500 each month for the next 12 months back to our bill paying current account. Ideally this would be a D/D set up.

Some high interest savers penalise you for withdrawalls by not paying interest that month which would be no good for us.

Surely 5% AER is achievable?

Who do YOU use and are the prompt with transactions etc.?

Moonloops

4.8 to 5 % is normal for instant access accounts. There's a savings account finder on www.thisismoney.co.uk that will tell you who can do what..

Nevetas

Halifax regular saver is 7% IIRC

The Knives are out

Better check that

If it was Halifax would be flooded with money

The Knives are out

£1 Coventry BS Family 1st Saver (10) 5.00 4.00 3.00
£1 Co-op Bank Smart Saver 3.75 3.00 2.25
£1 Abbey Flexible Saver (5) 3.30 2.64 1.98
£1 Sainsbury's Bank (1) 3.35 2.68 2.01
£1 Tesco Personal Finance (1) 3.35 2.68 2.01
£50 Yorkshire BS Access Saver (2) 3.30 2.64 1.98
£100 Derbyshire Easy Save Tracker (11) 4.70 3.76 2.82
£100 Britannia Easylife Guaranteed (4) 4.75 3.80 2.85
£500 Skipton Branch Access (6) 4.35 3.48 2.61
£500 Post Office Instant Saver (8) 3.75 3.00 2.25
£1,000 Coventry First (7) 4.25 3.40 2.55
£2,000 Bradford & Bingley Premier Saver (3) 3.55 2.84 2.13
£3,000 Tesco Personal Finance (1) 3.55 2.84 2.13
£5,000 Tesco Personal Finance (1) 3.75 3.00 2.25
£5,000 National Savings Easy Access 3.55 2.84 2.13
£15,000 Tesco Personal Finance (1) 4.25 3.40 2.55
£50,000 Tesco Personal Finance (1) 4.50 3.60 2.70

Petem95

Bradford and Bingley are paying 4.85% AER on their internet account and theres no catches, no withdrawal fees and thats not an introductory rate.

I dont think you'll get any paying 5% with no catches or intro rates. Even though interest rates look set to rise at some point, a lot banks seem to be cutting rates on their high interest savings accounts- ING are down to 4.5%, A&L only paying 4.25% now!

Petem95

All the banks offer these, HSBC have one paying 8%, A&L 10% - but you can only deposit £250/month into the account, and its only high interest for one year, and theres terms like you have to pay your salary into their current account etc.

Ive openned the HSBC 8% one, but only because I bank with them anyway.

TopBanana

There's no such thing as a high interest savings account!

Nevetas

Just checked and I was correct

http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/regularsaver.shtml

So

Hope you don't work with money!

Remster

Cheers guys.

As has already been mentioned, there are good rates available from the likes of A&L and Halifax with their regular saver accounts. However, max. investment limits of £250/Mth and penalties for withdrawals make this type of account unsuitable in our situation.

Has anyone experience of these guys?
http://www.icicibankukpromotions.com/

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

First Direct e-Savings is paying 5% and has been for some time now. It's instant access, interest paid monthly and has access via telephone and internet. All round good account I'd say. With £20k, you'd be looking at about £55 a month in interest.

The HBOS 7% and the Barclays 10% have limited deposit amounts and other restrictions.

Petem95

Read a LOT of very bad things about ICICI - takes forever to open an account, requested money transfers can take ages or even arent completed at all, if you make contact via the phone the people are utterly useless - do a search on google - will make you steer well clear!

Looks good until you read the catch - "you get paid no interest for any month you withdraw money".... not ideal if you plan on taking out money often!

Remster

Petem95,

Found all the horror stories re. ICICI, thanks for the heads up.

Finally plumped for CAHOOT @ 4.85% AER.

Interest paid daily and unlimited withdrawals which fits the bill.

Sorted thanks for the input.

SlimJ_2005

Cahoot are good, been with them for about 3 years now.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

I opened up a Barclays one last month, pays 10%.

I pay in £250 P/M

You must have £1000 P/M paid into your account,

paul-s

The above rates are aer, but what about net ??

I get 3.3% net with natwest esavings

Warwick-hunt

you'd get about £75 a month from ingdirect, its 4.5 AER 4.41 gross

paulr

Halifax web saver is 4.50 gross. I have all my savings there,instant withdrawl.

If anyone knows any better?

As for 8.0% isn't that compound and as there's a monthly limit it'll only apply to the first months deposit?

Petem95

Bradford & Bingleys is 4.85% AER. no catches, and you can link the account to 3 other accounts, so it saves having to transfer funds to your current account then onto another bank if somewhere else offers better rates in future. Reduces the amount of time you are losing out interest - worthwhile if you are putting a resonable amount in (say £25k+)

Remster

Just received an e-mail from Cahoot to say A/C open, followed swiftly by another mail to say the rate will be dropping to 4.55% AER on 28th April 2006. Consequently, they won't be receiving MY money!!

Bradford & Bingley A/C now applied for at 4.85% AER

paul-s

whats the net rate?

RJMS

iTrader: (2)

Get a mortgage with offset savings account, no tax to pay on the interest, it just reduces your mortgage debt and of course it's at mortgage rates.

Not much use if you haven't got a mortgage though

paulr

Over the Halifax thats only £70 gross on 20k. Not worth the swap.