Best savings account?

Virgin money have just opened a 3% Cash ISA easy access account, which you can open if you have a virgin money current account (which is also free to open apparently), but I'm now starting to wonder whether I might leave it a bit, because if I jump on every single one of these I'm going to end up opening an account a day and moving money constantly!!!

Easy Access Cash ISA Exclusive | ISAs | Savings | Virgin Money UK

Credit cards, Mortgages, Savings, ISAs, Investments and Insurance – Our quest to make banking better starts here
uk.virginmoney.com uk.virginmoney.com
 
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Raymond Lin said:
I think sooner or later, if you have £20k savings you will be able to get like £80 a month from interests alone (at 5%), which makes Premium bonds much less attractive. That is almost £1k a year, which is still under the threshold before any tax.
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Agreed. But if it's currently sitting earning nothing you may as well try your luck with PBs. Free to set up and use the account and instant access if you need the cash quick.
 
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Karl said:
Virgin money have just opened a 3% Cash ISA easy access account, which you can open if you have a virgin money current account (which is also free to open apparently), but I'm now starting to wonder whether I might leave it a bit, because if I jump on every single one of these I'm going to end up opening an account a day and moving money constantly!!!

Easy Access Cash ISA Exclusive | ISAs | Savings | Virgin Money UK

Credit cards, Mortgages, Savings, ISAs, Investments and Insurance – Our quest to make banking better starts here
uk.virginmoney.com uk.virginmoney.com
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@200sols above mentioned that Hargreaves Lansdown have a product called Active Savings which solves that issue. Seems a great idea :)

I need to stop stressing about interest rates. Putting £500 a month away and needing the money in 15 months means the difference between 3.5% and 4.5% is pretty negligible!
 
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HL Active savings also have a cash bonus offer on until the end of the month.

www.hl.co.uk

Active Savings

A new savings account for your cash savings, letting you pick and mix savings products from a range of banks and building societies though one easy to use online account. Discover Active Savings today.
www.hl.co.uk www.hl.co.uk

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That looks interesting but the only downside is you can't really see what rates they are offering without signing up unless I'm missing something.

EDIT: Ignore - I found it :)

Hmmm...the rates don't seem that great - 1.83 is the maximum currently on easy access.
 
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LeeUK said:
Anyone remember Icesave back in the pre-credit crunch days with 9% interest? Those were the days, hope they are coming back (high savings interest, not Icesave). :)

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I had a reasonably large sum (more than the FSCS protection limit at the time) in one of the other Icelandic banks during 2008, to be used for a house purchase later that year. I think it was earning about £400/month in interest or something like that. Once it all started crashing down and another icelandic bank failed, I pulled my money out but I was a bit slow off the mark, had a very nervous few days where I could no longer access my savings account and it hadn't arrived in my current account either, the funds were in limbo.

Edit: Actually the funny thing was it was earning so much interest that despite withdrawing all the money it then had another interest payment for the proportion of the month the funds had been in there, which ended up at another Bank that took over their accounts. I don't think I ever got round to closing that so presumably I have a 14 year old dormant account sitting around somewhere (the bank who took it over got taken over themselves at a later date, it's probably completely lost now).
 
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Halifax at last offering over 4% on the 1 year fix for current account holders, saw on HotUKDeals and done one in about 30 seconds, there's probably better but I was just putting it off tbh and I like their online banking
 
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Chip do 2.9% easy access and First Direct do 7% regular savings. So you can drip feed. Also if you have never owned a house you can open a lifetime ISA where you get a 25% on deposits worth upto £1,000 a year.
 
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HangTime said:
Edit: Actually the funny thing was it was earning so much interest that despite withdrawing all the money it then had another interest payment for the proportion of the month the funds had been in there, which ended up at another Bank that took over their accounts. I don't think I ever got round to closing that so presumably I have a 14 year old dormant account sitting around somewhere (the bank who took it over got taken over themselves at a later date, it's probably completely lost now).
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My mum had something like that happen years ago - a few hundred from the last interest payment had turned into 3 grand many years later when she rediscovered the account - this was back in the days of double figure percentage interest.
 
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Energize said:
Chip do 2.9% easy access and First Direct do 7% regular savings. So you can drip feed. Also if you have never owned a house you can open a lifetime ISA where you get a 25% on deposits worth upto £1,000 a year.
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First Direct regular savings is only available to existing 1st Account customers. A lifetime ISA nothing like a standard savings account.
 
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Energize said:
Also if you have never owned a house you can open a lifetime ISA where you get a 25% on deposits worth upto £1,000 a year.
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You can, but unless you then use the money to buy a house or as a retirement fund you get rinsed to withdraw it. Don't go banging money into one of those unless you know what you're signing up for.
 
Surveyor said:
First Direct regular savings is only available to existing 1st Account customers. A lifetime ISA nothing like a standard savings account.
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It's not difficult to open a current account with them... and he never said standard savings account, he just said an account with more interest, I'm sure he's not stupid enough to sign up to a lifetime ISA without knowing the money can only be used to buy a house or withdrawn when you reach 60.
 
Energize said:
Chip do 2.9% easy access and First Direct do 7% regular savings. So you can drip feed. Also if you have never owned a house you can open a lifetime ISA where you get a 25% on deposits worth upto £1,000 a year.
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The 7% regular saver isn't ideal if you have the cash right now. Drip feed means it doesn't compound fully, equivalent of like 3% iirc.
 
Merlin5 said:
Thanks guys and thanks for the links. Barclays might be better than I thought. I see they do an account called Barclays Rainy Day Saver at 5.12% for a limited amount of money, so I'll speak to them about that.
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Probably best one. But it's variable. Should be good for a year though

I opened a 3yr fix with nationwide ar 4.75. With markets being so bad at the moment I thought was worth putting a few k in one.

Obviously can't take money out of these.
 
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dLockers said:
The 7% regular saver isn't ideal if you have the cash right now. Drip feed means it doesn't compound fully, equivalent of like 3% iirc.
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Yeah basically half the rate. The barclays 5pc one is better (assuming it stays 5pc for the year.

Roughly. Works out at 1/2 the advertised rate on the final balance. Ish. It's close enough to compare anyway
 
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Energize said:
It's not difficult to open a current account with them... and he never said standard savings account, he just said an account with more interest, I'm sure he's not stupid enough to sign up to a lifetime ISA without knowing the money can only be used to buy a house or withdrawn when you reach 60.
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Someone else might be though if they just see you get a chunky bonus every year and assume it's just like a normal savings account (yes I know, their own fault for not reading what they're signing up to but it wouldn't be the first time).
 
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