Which bank is providing the best interest rate on a savings account at present?

juggernaut777

Hi,

What's the best way to earn interest on your saving?

I have little savings but I still want to ensure that I am getting the highest possible return on them in interest.

I do not have time to run a business or do anything more involved this year or next year so please advise based on your own personal experiences.

Thank you.

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Some people told me to invest in premium bonds but this video completely kills that suggestion:

The expert in the video is saying go for the 3 percent interest rate at Santander 123 account or Club Llyods 5 percent interest rate account. The latter is only offering 2 percent these days. So I feel a bit lost. Is there a ny bank providing 5 percent or more?

nkwong

It definitely depends on how much you have.

Nationwide FlexDirect account is quite nice if you have a little bit of savings - gives you 5% on £2500 for the first 12 months.

Club Lloyds is definitely a lovely one too nowadays - gives you free perks like 6 free cinema tickets, alongside 1.5% up to £5000. I think it dropped 0.5% since I opened it a year ago.

Santander 123 now only offers 1.5% up to £20,000 (which is excellent if you have a lot!). The video must be quite dated as this drop happened about 2-3 years ago I think!

techiebloke

@juggernaut777

Nationwide's Flexdirect current account pays 5% for first year (provided you've not had one in the past 12 months I think it is) and then 1% but you have to have two direct debits and pay in min of £1,000 a month.

There's also TSB which pays 5% but they are still having intermittent IT troubles.

juggernaut777

''Nationwide FlexDirect account is quite nice if you have a little bit of savings - gives you 5% on £2500 for the first 12 months.''

@nkwong So I can only earn 5 percent on a maximum amount of £2,500?

"Santander 123 now only offers 1.5% up to £20,000 (which is excellent if you have a lot!)"

Are you really happy with 1.5 percent? Isn't that a significant fall from the previous 3 percent and Lloyds' 5 percent rate? ☹

juggernaut777

@techiebloke You said: ''Nationwide's Flexdirect current account pays 5% for first year (provided you've not had one in the past 12 months I think it is) and then 1% but you have to have two direct debits and pay in min of £1,000 a month.'''

Wow, nice. What's the upper limit for this account? Is it £5000?

nkwong

@juggernaut777

Yes, 5% on a max of £2500. But you can open a FlexDirect regular saver which will give you 5% interest if you save up to £250/month.

Indeed I was quite upset when they dropped it from 3% but there wasn't much I could do otherwise, most of the high street banks didn't/some still don't offer much better! Santander do offer a Regular eSaver though (5% if you save up to £200/month).

Again, Club Lloyds only offer 1.5% now up to £5000. They dropped it about half a year ago. They do have a Monthly Saver - think it works out to be about 2.5% (the last time I checked) if you save £400/month.

juggernaut777

@nkwong

You said:

''Yes, 5% on a max of £2500. But you can open a FlexDirect regular saver which will give you 5% interest if you save up to £250/month.''

I don't earn much so should I just transfer £250 from lousy savings account to them every month to make the 5 percent interest i.e. £12.5? Can this money come in from another bank of mine - there will be no objections made, right?

''Indeed I was quite upset when they dropped it from 3% but there wasn't much I could do otherwise, most of the high street banks didn't/some still don't offer much better! Santander do offer a Regular eSaver though (5% if you save up to £200/month).''

What's the upper limit for this one? And can I use the approach mentioned initially?

That one sounds really bad.

By the way, you seem to know a lot so thank you very much. Where do you see other investment opportunities these days?

nkwong

@juggernaut777

You said: "I don't earn much so should I just transfer £250 from lousy savings account to them every month to make the 5 percent interest i.e. £12.5? Can this money come in from another bank of mine - there will be no objections made, right?"

I've always used a monthly standing order to transfer the money into the bank that I hold the regular saver with, and then transfer the money via another monthly standing order to my regular saver from there. It just makes it easier for me to watch where my money is at all times.

You said: "What's the upper limit for this one? And can I use the approach mentioned initially?"

Santander 123 Regular eSaver - you transfer £200 into your Regular eSaver each month (but it has to be from your own Santander account for sure). It matures at the end of 12 months, and you just reopen a new one and start all over again.

You said: "That one sounds really bad."

Think this was RE the Club Lloyds Monthly Saver - Maybe so, but I've found that you do get back quite a bit of interest nonetheless - since you save £400/month instead of £250/month like the other Regular Savers out there!

You said: "By the way, you seem to know a lot so thank you very much."

No problem! Always happy to help!

You said: "Where do you see other investment opportunities these days?"

Awkwardly, I'm halfway doing a Chem PhD at the moment so haven't looked into hardcore shares/stocks/investments to be frank. During UG, I had so much free time so had always kept a keen eye to the other things, but now, not so much!

I'm lucky enough to have been able to save up quite a bit due to my parents generosity with paying most of my student accom fees when I was an undergrad, but since moving away from the family home, I have been thinking of renting out a house up north and landlord-ing whilst I finish up my studies. Undoubtedly, would mean having to pay a big deposit up on a house, but if I do end up living in it in a few years time, it *could* be a worthwhile investment!

juggernaut777

@nkwong Wow, great info, thanks! I am with a few people .. will get back to this thread as soon as I am able to. Good luck with your PhD!

juggernaut777

@nkwong

"I've always used a monthly standing order to transfer the money into the bank that I hold the regular saver with, and then transfer the money via another monthly standing order to my regular saver from there. It just makes it easier for me to watch where my money is at all times. "

Is this allowed? To my understanding, the £250 is going from account A to the regular saver account via standing order and then the same amount is going back to Account A and this keeps happening every month to fulfil the condition, is that correct?

May I please know why you have chosen to purchase your potential property in up north? What's the advantage and which areas up north are you considering?

nkwong

@juggernaut777

You said: "Is this allowed? To my understanding, the £250 is going from account A to the regular saver account via standing order and then the same amount is going back to Account A and this keeps happening every month to fulfil the condition, is that correct?"

Errrrrrm. Would this help a little better?

Salary goes into Account A (the account my salary goes into) --> Transfer £250 from Account A to Account B (where Account B is the current account I have the Regular Saver with) --> Transfer £250 from Account B to my Regular Saver.

You said: "May I please know why you have chosen to purchase your potential property in up north? What's the advantage and which areas up north are you considering?"

I moved up north to study for my PhD, hence why I'm buying up north - I'll be here for a few more years too.

I'm considering both Leeds and central York. I know both locations quite well since I've been here since the start of my PhD. Landlord-ing over places near to where I'm currently living would be a plus since I wouldn't need to rely on other people to do any upkeeping of the house or deal with problems with tenants if I'm not able to travel. House prices here are also definitely more reasonable than in London.

I did consider London locations a few years ago. I was born and raised in London and my parents kept their family home there after I left for uni. I would have family and friends there to help me maintain the house etc etc., but then buying another house there is super expensive, and out of my budget for now. To me, getting a house in London where I like is the equivalent of getting two quite nice family homes in York. Plus if I ever were to move back to London, I'd probably live in my family home anyway.

shahzadh

I have been thinking of landlord-ing my self however it would need to be down south where prices are not cheap and ideally a house rather than a flat.

I did the maths and i would just about break even for the first few years depending on how it goes. In the future, I may consider a property up near Leeds or maybe Manchester or even Scotland ( But I read in Scotland they are less favourable for the landlord )

juggernaut777

''Salary goes into Account A (the account my salary goes into) --> Transfer £250 from Account A to Account B (where Account B is the current account I have the Regular Saver with) --> Transfer £250 from Account B to my Regular Saver.''

Oh thanks. So in order to have a direct saver, one needs to have a current account with that same bank. Correct?

If that's correct then how come you don't want your salary to be going directly to your current account which is linked with your direct saver of the same bank? Sorry, just want to get this absolutely right 😛

@nkwong You said:

''House prices here are also definitely more reasonable than in London.''

Is it possible to get a 1 bed room flat for a £100,000 or less in Central York or Leeds?

juggernaut777

@shahzadh You said: ''( But I read in Scotland they are less favourable for the landlord)

Why? There are so many universities in Scotland so it should not be very difficult to find international students as tenants etc. It makes me wonder why Scotland is bad for landlord ..

nkwong

@juggernaut777

You said: "Oh thanks. So in order to have a direct saver, one needs to have a current account with that same bank. Correct?"

Yes for most regular savers (Santander 123, ClubLloyds, Nationwide Flexclusive Regular Saver, for instance).

Other normal savings accounts don't require you to necessarily have a current account though.

You said: "If that's correct then how come you don't want your salary to be going directly to your current account which is linked with your direct saver of the same bank? Sorry, just want to get this absolutely right Smiley Tongue"

No problem! I have a few current accounts that have their own regular savers so I can't exactly give my employers like three different bank accounts to pay into - therefore, I just use standing orders to transfer money out of the account my salary gets paid into to make it simpler.

But to be honest, I gave my employers my bank details a few years ago - and changing it around would probably just be unnecessary effort.

You said: "Is it possible to get a 1 bed room flat for a £100,000 or less in Central York or Leeds?"

If you go to Rightmove.com --> York

There's a 1 bed apartment in Clifton Moor ~30 min drive/bus for £125k atm.

Even so, there's 1 bed near Fossway ~10 mins walk into the center of town for £130k atm too.

I'm not too sure there would be anywhere in Central York for £100k or less though. If there is, there's a high chance the place will pretty much need some renovation.

There are occasionally some houses that come up slightly cheaper but are sold by auction - could be worth looking in to?

Leeds:

You are probably more likely to find a house which is priced for less than 100k around here. I think this one is about 12 mins drive from the City Center: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-74951843.html.

shahzadh

I can't remember where but I read that the tenants tend to have more right if anything goes wrong meaning more risk for landlords.

hepple73

@juggernaut777 For an easy access, no [reasonably reachable] ceiling and no mimimum monthly pay in, try Marcus, they pay 1.5%

I use the Nationwide direct account as and when their T&C's permit and when paying in that monthly payment, remember it doesn't have to sit there any longer than it takes to withdraw it again. Using internet banking, this can be achieved in a couple of minutes each month.

Try here for more bank accounts offering good interest rates

Oh, and if do go for the flexdirect and you have a friend who already has a Nationwide account, get them to recommend you and you each get £100

juggernaut777

@nkwong

Thanks!

You said:

''There are occasionally some houses that come up slightly cheaper but are sold by auction - could be worth looking in to?''

Are there any good websites which only show us deals of auctioned houses in UK? I read in a book of Robert Kiyosaki that it is good to look for foreclosures. So do you think it is a good idea to specifically look at such auctioned properties to make maximum gain in the short and the long run?

juggernaut777

@hepple73

You said: ''I use the Nationwide direct account as and when their T&C's permit and when paying in that monthly payment, remember it doesn't have to sit there any longer than it takes to withdraw it again. Using internet banking, this can be achieved in a couple of minutes each month.''

Wow, hepple73, does this really mean, there is no risk of missing out on the monthly deposits as their terms and conditions allow account holders to literally just ''play'' with the same £250 every month? Of course, I am not this short of money to do this. I am only asking to be clear that there is genuinely no risk of missing out on £250 per month deposit condition, even if god forbidden I lose my job etc.

hepple73

@juggernaut777 wrote:

@hepple73
You said: ''I use the Nationwide direct account as and when their T&C's permit and when paying in that monthly payment, remember it doesn't have to sit there any longer than it takes to withdraw it again. Using internet banking, this can be achieved in a couple of minutes each month.''
Wow, hepple73, does this really mean, there is no risk of missing out on the monthly deposits as their terms and conditions allow account holders to literally just ''play'' with the same £250 every month? Of course, I am not this short of money to do this. I am only asking to be clear that there is genuinely no risk of missing out on £250 per month deposit condition, even if god forbidden I lose my job etc.

Sorry @juggernaut777 but I've only just been alerted to you tagging me in this thread.

Yes indeed, you can play with the same money, month in, month out and with any account.

For instance, I have 3 accounts with bank of scotland that all require a £1000 deposit each month, so I transfer the same £1000 from my Halifax reward account (they are the same banking family so you can access both accounts on the same log in) and bounce the same £1000 to and from each bos account and my halifax account until I'm done. A minute's work each month at most :cathappy: