Once again, further proof that financial education needs to be part of the UK's school curriculum with proper exams instead of trigonometry and pythagoras' theorem....which I haven't used over the last 40 years since finishing secondary school.




It's a 5% savings account! How on earth do you think it's a 2.5% interest savings account? You put in £500 and get 5% on that. The next month you add another £500, now you're getting 5% on a £1000 and so on. You do not get 5% on a balance of £6000 for a whole year - that is just being silly. Or were you expecting to get interest on non-existent money?!


OR if you have the money, open a Nationwide FlexDirect account to earn 5% on £2500, put the remaining £17,500 into the 123 account and drip feed £500/month in to Nationwide's 5% Regular Saver. You're practically throwing money away if you're ignoring better products with higher interest rates.

In fact, what you should be doing is opening a TSB account and a Nationwide account earning 5% on £4,500. Then open a Lloyds account earning 4% on £5000. Add to that M&S bank, First Direct and HSBC's regular saver - that's £800/month earning 6% and now Nationwide have invited themselves to the party with their 5% regular saver.

With internet banking and online applications, it's so much easier these days than it was a couple of decades ago. A few hours of work and once you've set up some automatic standing orders, you're laughing (all the way to the bank).

Useful site for those with £££:
http://bankaccountsavings.co.uk

That's not proper maths. It is 5% PA from the moment you pay the money in, although the deposit limits mean most of it cannot be there for a full year. Until the money is paid in it could be earning interest elsewhere.

Must hold a nationwide account to qualify and have paid in £750 per month for 3 months into it.

Sounds decent

Must hold a nationwide account to qualify and have paid in £750 per month for 3 months into it.

Obviously, your accrued interest over the year won't be equivalent to 5% of the balance after the 12 months.

5% interest on savings, reminds me of the old days!

Tempting to switch accounts so I can take advantage of this, but then switching to other accounts, such as First Direct would get a cash bonus - which is best value? The maths gets a bit complicated and i end up staying where I am...

It isn't.

6% at first direct and I think m&s

That equates to an interest rate of 2.5 % over the year, if you had the £6k cash to put in, and could only deposit £500/month.

Ok opened thanks op :smiley:

if you can deposit £500pm for the full year, I think its about £130 after tax
Not to bad

Yeah, I worked out 4% after tax £500pm
500x4%/12*12, 500x4%/12*11 and so on

If you have the money, open a Santander
123 current account. It gives 3% on your
money up to £20,000.

Joint account holders are only able to have one of these. No doubling up either. £500 is maximum.

I have the nationwide account and their mobile banking is really good, with the ability to see your balances without even logging in! The customer service is second to none too. Get in touch if you want to open an account!

Decent compared to some of the rubbish rates out there at the moment

If you have 5k to invest, Lloyd's current account will pay more interest than this over the 12 months. Something like £160 over the 12 months. You can also get 6 free cinema tickets at vue or other benefits. Of course if you have 2 of these account you can't open a third.

Many thanks mate was looking for something like this to park some cash temporarily

I work out its about £160 before tax, so on average is about 2.5% interest. I'll stick with premium bonds

Do you have to put in £500 per month or can u put in a lump sum at the beginning.

He's comparing it to putting £6k upfront on day one into an account, which, at 2.5%, would return the same as this regular saver over a year.

He's missing that you can use the waiting money on this deal for other things when it hasn't yet been paid into the regular saver.

Indeed, but worth pointing out that you get cashback on quite a lot of bill payments, which you can offset against this.

I'm a bit lazy though, do u have to put regular deposits into the account, or can you just put one lump sum in at the beginning? I take it as the former?

It's a "regular saver", if the max is £500/mo how do you expect to put £6k in it at one time

The reason why people can get good interest rates is because they are subsidised by the lazy who can't be bothered to put in a small amount of work just once a year (see my posting above).

Useful site for those with £££:
http://bankaccountsavings.co.uk

Setup a standing order and you shouldn't need to worry about it every month...

If you pay in the full £500 for twelve months at 5% and make no withdrawals total interest is £136.29 .

Can you open on the phone or only online/branch?

Maybe the same with a lot of stuff, Aa renewal, insurance etc

If you had your way, you might well be complaining about your wonky house no doubt. So it is safe to say that you are neither a surveyor, architect nor engineer.

I see people in the thread mentioning tax. Its worth remembering that for many that won't be an issue as the new tax free limit kicks in in April 2016 and the interest payment on this account (if opened today) would be December 2016.

Yes that's true! I should stop being lazy.

Why would one be expected to have the qualifications of a surveyor, architect or engineer to be able to understand how savings accounts work? I don't get your analogy.

I have the full £20k in a Santander 123 (money from a house sale btw) as well as all my main banking and I earn £54 per month in interest and cashback. Thats just over £600 per year - £60 fee, so £540 in interest and cashback. Not too shabby if you ask me

Oh I know what he/she meant. It's just silly to think like that when it comes to these type of products.


There are times and places to learn such things. Solicitors study law at university, plumbers take apprenticeships, nurses learn how to take blood pressure readings at university, teachers take postgraduate PGCEs and surveyors, architects and engineers should learn this during their degrees/apprenticeships/courses.

Financial decisions are made by youngsters these days but without any formal education, apart from the bank of mum and dad. The basics of savings, loans, debts, credit cards, bank accounts etc. should be taught as a GCSE. The day they leave school, they're exposed to all this.

Of course, this is my opinion and everyone else is entitled to theirs. It's good to see that things are slowly changing:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/financial-education/

looks like you can't open this if you already have a Regular Saver product from Nationwide

"You can only have one Regular Saver or Flexclusive Regular Saver account at any one time, which can be held in sole or joint names."

There are alternatives offering the same 3% with no fees but 123 is great if you've already extorted those or just want a single account rather than several accounts.

For example bank of scotland lets you open 3 accounts in your own name allows £5k @ 3% in each

On the contrary, the payment date is very relevant. You are taxed according to the date you receive the interest, which will be one year after opening. So the full interest will be tax free (subject to your tax band, interest earned elsewhere in 2016/17 tax year, etc).

However, put the same £20k into the following -

TSB & Nationwide @ 5% on £4.5k
Lloyds @ 4% on £5k
Bank of Scotland @ 3% on £10.5k
Then drip feed £800/month into 6% reg savers and £500/month into the nationwide reg saver earning 5% and you'd be looking at £930 in interest.

£400 more for the exact same amount of money. Not too shabby if you ask me.

Thanks - I'm surprised at this loophole.

I'd like to offer you the opportunity of earning £800,000, its easy money. All I need is your bank details to transfer the cash.

Who was the £800 a month with, 6% with,bank of Scotland?

So just like the flex account its only 5% for 1 year, and they arent saying how much you will get after?
"We will write to you to remind you that your term is coming to an end. After 12 months, the account will move to an Flexclusive Saver, or the nearest instant access equivalent, and the terms and conditions and interest rate at the time will apply."

​you and your fancy "proper maths"

No one said anything about having to have qualifications of these professions to understand finance.

As originally asserted ... "financial education needs to be part of the UK's school curriculum... instead of trigonometry and pythagoras' theorem..." and without these basic principles you'd find that applied maths & physics (both curriculum subjects) might well suffer!

On a more serious note, the void in financial education referred to above is actually to do with maths; compound interest is already part of the GCSE curriculum.

great opened, standing order from c/a to this and back again.

Dont know why you think i dont know all that.

Santander, Lloyds, Tsb offer on going interest rates but nationwide seems to only offer 1 year incentives.

Is interest paid monthly or yearly?

You said "and they arent saying how much you will get after?" so clearly you didn't know.

Compared to banks like HSBC/Barclays/Natwest who don't offer any current account interest incentives, it's better than nothing.

I did know, i made two points about the deal listed. I didnt state flex account didnt tell you it went to 1%

I agree with you, but there is nothing stopping people from turning off X Factor (for example) and self-educating for 60 minutes, as after all there are plenty of resources around online (MSE is a good example). It's not like the old days where you had to trudge to the library to look for an elusive book pitched at the right level.

If the youngsters are young enough, you could argue it is part of responsible parenting to teach kids how finance works and how to to look after and get the best out of your money. But that takes the conversation in a whole different direction... :-)

only if you do not have any other regular savings with them unless cancelled

Unfortunately, yes but get over £460 in interest. Thats £400 in pocket.

Thanks!

heat added. I imagine its easy enough to open being a nationwide customer so Ill take advantage of this

Unless my calculations are off, I think this would give you £151.66 interest at the end of the year, if you're putting £500 in each month.

Anyone tried opening one without having paid £750+ into a FlexAccount for three months?

Check your maths Pal!

He is referring to his earlier comment, at Santander, £20000 at 3%

Tesco is the better deal for £6000.

You can open 2 bank accounts in your name and there are no monthly pay in requirements. Each acc pays 3% interest on £3k balance per account.

Saving accounts are good if you don't have the capital to invest and want to build up something over a period of time.

If you do have the capital they're not very good.

In this case, Nationwide are offering 5% over 12 months @£500 savings per month which equates to about 0.42% per month. This'll generate £165 interest on £6000 of accrued savings.

The Santander 123 account in comparison overs 3% up to £20,000 so if you had £6000 you'd make £180.

The differences are that with Nationwide you need £500 per month and with Santander you need £6000 up front which for most people is a very significant difference.

You can be pedantic and say "Oh but my money is better off in Nationwide for the first 5 months!" but really we're only talking about a few quid and if you care about such a low level of income then you have problems.

Starts to get a bit more tricky that way as you will need to cancel some DD's set them up with your new bank etc etc The effort soon begins to outweigh the benfit

Only the first deposit gives you a return of 5%......the second deposit gives you 11/12 of 5%...and so on.......up to the 11th deposit returns 1/12 of 5%........is that simple enough for you?
Or...........its 5% PER ANNUM.........only the first deposit qualifies as PER ANNUM

Given I have recently opened a Flexdirect account (me and the missus), we could go for this each as we have savings in our 123 account earning 3% so a little extra via this method.

One thing with the 123 account and the £5 fee (from January) - we're very much sticking with it even then as our mortgage is with Santander so we get £10 cashback from that alone every month. If it wasn't for that, I'd possibly look elsewhere as the £5 is barely covered by our DDs each month.

WTH is a referral?? Wondered that so many times...

Your post makes absolutely no sense.

payments will only be made for switches to FlexDirect, FlexPlus and FlexAccount

I have a flexdirect account which is closing on friday (switching bonus) can I still apply for this do you think?

I have a flexdirect account which is closing on friday (switching bonus) can I still apply for this do you think?

Compounded interest, still be crap on 10%!!!

I have a FLEXACCOUNT when I login online. Is that the same as a FLEXDIRECT account? Probably the worst account naming system I have seen!

EDIT - Managed to switch online to a FLEXDIRECT account and tehn had to print a form off to get my FLEX REGULAR SAVER account closed. Then I can open this FLEXCLUSIVE one, fill out an R85 so no tax payable and stick £6000 in there.

Cheers OP.

Nicely put. There is a reason that the moneysavingexpert site always harps on about "you might not get back as much as you think" and Its the same reason that regular saving account rarely carry over into a second year (compound interest?), and the reason why house PRICES generally go up over time (inflation?) its because there really are a lot of r*tards out there that do not understand number. Kinda explain the state of the UK economy.

Hmm, they don't have the same name...

This is too complicated for a simple man, a green muppet living in a bin such as myself.

Cold.

no they aren't

Bit risky having so many current accounts. They could start charging customers for banking/current accounts soon. :stuck_out_tongue:

Great post thank to Markshopper!

The flexclusive mortgage rates have gone for exisiting customers and was thinking of switching but will hang in there for another year.

If the banks do start charging for banking and current accounts they will have to give the customers notice in writing beforehand,

Should allow people enough time to close the accounts.

Like most people here I have several accounts open to take advantage of the interest offerd by various banks and am always on the look out for somewhere better to put my savings, so heat added from me.

Cheers OP, just waiting for the account to show on my online banking then I can let the money roll in as it's just sitting in a current account at the moment with pretty much zero interest!

Opening one of these, so I owe you heat.

Done.

If you have £6000 this isn't a great deal, as you only get around £165.01 interest before tax. Which is around 2.75% interest.

Most my money is in a Nationwide e-saver account, on which the interest is shockingly bad. Just logged in to try and open one of these to put some in instead but once I selected it on the page where you can apply to open an account, in the description it says "Flexclusive Regular Saver: An instant access cash ISA exclusively available to main current account customers (eligibility criteria apply). Minimum age is: 18." Surely it's not a cash ISA or Is it? In which case it would count towards ISA annual allowance?

It may sound silly and bothering, but could you suggest a 'process flow' for money for all these banks? Where to send money, where from, how much etc.. You seem to know this stuff really well and I'm sure it would help many people. Thanks for considering that :wink:

I'd say it depends on how much you have to start with. A good start would be using this or TSB and a high interest current account. The way I do it is that I have a high interest current account (Santander 123) that I put all my money into. Then I have a TSB account which pays 5% on up to £2000 as long as you pay £500 a month in, and a TSB regular savings, which gives you another 5% with a max of £250 a month.

So it goes like this. Say I have £5000 in my Santander. I create a TSB 5% current account and put in £2250 into that. From my TSB account, I put £250 of that into the TSB regular saver, leaving me with £2750 in my santander earning me 3% and £2250 on my TSB earning me 5%. That TSB has a £2000 limit, but I need to pay in £500 a month. So I set up 3 standing orders. Once a month my Santander pays the TSB account £500, reaching the monthly requirement to get the 5% interest rate. So at this point I have £2250 in Santander, £2500 in TSB current account, and £250 in TSB monthly saver. I then use a standing order from the TSB to pay £250 back into my santander so it earns me interest, and £250 into the monthly saver, so I end up with £2500 in Santander, £2000 in TSB current account and £500 in the monthly saver, earning me the max amount on that original £5000. With the standing orders set up, I don't even have to do anything, it does it all automatically.

This may seem pretty complicated at first, and takes some setting up, especially if you want to set up more accounts after that, but it's really worthwhile, and it's earning me quite a lot of money for not doing anything. I'm not sure if any of what I've said makes any sense, so please do ask any questions!

As a minor correction on that, note that the Santander 123 current account only pays 3% on balances over £3k so you'd need to up your example amounts a wee bit. It's 2% under that amount.

http://www.santander.co.uk/uk/current-accounts/123-current-account

Why and back again?

They've been saying that for over 10 years.

Wonder how much extra rather than leaving it in santander

Precisely! Times that by 3 for my partner and I. It was (and still is till January) only £2 a month but even after the increase to £5 it won't be too hard giving them £15 a month in return for receiving £150 a month in interest and cashback. But oh wait, should I cut my nose off to spite my face all because it's going to cost a bit more to receive ten times what it costs to run the accounts? Yeah, right! :smile:

Thanks

Wouldn't opening 3 TSB accounts be better than this? 6% over the year, when with 2 TSB current accounts and the TSB saver you can have £6000, at 5%, straight away.

Go on then. What's wrong with the maths there? They're saying they earn £460 in interest & cashback over the year and it will soon cost £60 to run the account over the same year leaving them with £400 profit? What am I missing here?

If anything, they may actually be underestimating the interest/cashback [depending] but judging by your attitude you appear to be inferring that they are grossly exaggerating it for some reason.

Opened one each for me & the missus tonight - easy to drip feed the £500 in and, once matured, one big mortgage overpayment.

That's what I meant, just worded it badly in hindsight. You get 3% but only on balances over £3k.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts

Your Result

After saving £500.00 a month for 1 year and 0 months, you will have £6,161.29 in savings, meaning you've earned £161.29 interest

Before TAX

I suppose I could leave in. Wondering if there is minimum amount to be left in the account? For example the TSB 5% you only get interest on balances up to 2k so that's why I mentioned back out again.

I have knocked Nationwide in the past,but Hey this is great news!
Nice 5% savers A/C can not moan at that!

Good work, got a Nationwide saver, rate is now crap, also have a Santander 123, will have to look into moving the cash about.

All great, sound advice. Sadly on forums and the Internet as a whole, it's not always the case...

See post #13.

I just went to open this and it allows you to select how much you want to open it with. It allows you to select over £500 (I tried with £2500). Does this mean that if I transferred £2500 I only get paid the 5% on £500 of it or is there any benefit of transferring the whole amount?

I'm due a £500 pay rise and had already resolved to transfer every penny of it to my existing flex account :happydance:

That's why I was surprised...it accepted my £2500 and requested that I submit it. Anyone else tried opening it with more than £500?

Stupid question but if you've been with nationwide for over a year and used the 5% they give on flex direct account and it reverts back to 1% after the year. Am I allowed to open a new flex direct account with the 5% offer or would i not be allowed?

My concern was that I have £2500 sitting on the account and don't find out to next year that I wasn't earning interest on the other £2000

Cancel that when you click submit it tells you that it has been opened with £0 as you tried to exceed the limit. Opened now with £500

Heat added. Am a Nationwide holder and was looking to transfer some savings. Job done. Thanks OP.

It works out at 2.71% gross for the first 12 months of savings, assuming you have £6k from day 1... that's lower than 3% if you haven't yet realised mate.

Maybe you're the one who should be taking financial lessons. :wink:

​

Also get Cashback if opening a new current account\credit card account http://www.topcashback.co.uk/search/merchants/?s=nationwide

Just let them have their 1.4% "tax free" isas, that aren't actually tax free and let them think they have a bargain

There will not be any tax to pay (unless you earn more than £1000 in interest per year as a standard rate tax payer, or £500 per year as a higher rate tax payer) because the first interest payment will be 12 months from the account opening date, and that will be, without doubt, after 6th of April 2016, when the new Personal Savings Allowance comes in.

I believe you can, or atleast could earlier this year when I opened another current account with them.

Thought I'd stumbled upon an archived page of hukd for a second. This and all these other accounts being mentioned have been on the go for years! Voted cold for posting ancient information and wasting my time!

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this but £75.75 TCB when opening a FlexDirect account (one of the eligibility criteria for this savings product)

If you had the 6 grand initially, and treated this as an investment. It would work out at around 2.5% pa.

If keeping up the monthly payments of £500, the average amount of money in the account over the course of the year, would be £3,000, therefore at a 5% interest would return £150 for the calendar year. (150/6000*100 = 2.5%)

Financially you can get better returns for similar risks, however this sort of account is aimed at people who can only afford to save over time and would therefore provide a great, low risk return, and not those with a £6,000 balance ready to invest.

​This is applying those maths skills to get the most from your money. if they just told you which account to open the knowledge would be useless by the time you came to put it into practice

I just opened one, pretty easy, all online in about 5 minutes. The 500 quid (no point in opening with more, they'll just return the excess) came from my nationwide loyalty saver. The rate is 5% aer, and if, like several posters, you don't know what aer means then you should ask someone.

A couple of points,..ime nationwide are very bad at lowering the rate after a couple of months. My loyalty saver used to be a good rate relative to the market, but that quickly dropped, so i'd probably expect the same here. Still, it's a decent rate for instant access and if you do withdraw some, you can pay it back that month, as long as the net amount is 500 quid or less.

I'd expect the rate to drop to something like 3%aer after 6 months, which makes the interest calculations some have done the best case and more like guesswork.

After 12 months - £500 per month at 5% would be worth £6139.43 (before tax deduction)

Thanks for the great advice. I'm heading to nationwide to open an account as you've just explained. Regarding all the other accounts, does opening/having multiple current accounts affect your credit rating at all?

No. It is effectively 2.75% interest if you have £6000 upfront, which is what I meant by my earlier comment.

the easiest and fastest account opening ever.

in wondered when I'd get rewarded with Nationwide, as I prefer them as my main account ppl. really good app!

^This. lol. :smile:

This is a bit of a rip off. This account replaces their regular saver account that used to pay 2.5% if you paid in 500-1k every month. A few months back they dropped the rate on this account to 2%. Now anyone holding the old account will get 2% for next 12 months. Then be switched to a low interest account that pays 0.5%.They can also only add £500 a month to this account now.

So now they are replacing that account completely and only offering an average of about 2.5% over 12 months. With a max of 6k. At the end of the 12 months they essentially dump you into an account that pays only 0.5% interest. Why is this deal so hot?? The reality is saving rates have fallen over last few years. Whilst Nationwide's profits have soared.

Overall the Nationwide is acting like the banks used to. You are offered money to set up accounts. (£200 between friends.) Good starting rates for first year. Then the intial bonuses are taken away leaving you on poor rates and searching for another deal elsewhere.

2.75 compound interest lol 5%:laughing:

It's not an average of 2.5%. It's 5% aer.
It's a 12 month account. It lasts 12 months. There are no bonuss on this account. After a year, the interest is paid and the account closed and the balance is paid into an unspecified account. It's all there in black and white and all perfectly normal for fixed term accounts. The deal is hot because the 5% aer for instant access is market beating - the main problem is the low 500 quid per month max you can pay in, and the fact that the interest rate is variable, meaning almost certainly the 5% aer will be lowered after a few months imo.

I'm amazed at the number of people that are smart enough to work out the total interest earnt, but appear to have no idea that any money that isn't yet deposited into this account can actually be kept in another account...

It pays 5% on any money in the account. That is 5%.

Now, if someone has £6000 kept under their mattress, and pays £500 into this account each month, it should be blindingly obvious they won't get a return of £6000 x 5% (plus compound interest). But I would hope that most people aren't dumb enough to effectively keep £6000 under their mattress earning nothing whilst blaming the bank account for that.

I'm a bit confused. Are people saying that if you have 6 grand, the interest on this account drops to 2.5%?

So those with 12 grand only get 1.25%?

120 grand and the interest lowers to 0.125%?

Sheesh, what the hell goes through some peoples minds?

The account pays 5%aer (currently). It aint rocket science.

The only bit I find relevant: £3000 x 5% = £150 maximum earnings.

Is £150 worth the trouble to open an account? How will my credit score be affected with (yet another) checking account?

There's other account transferral deals etc. that pay a similar rate. I'm probably too lazy...

Since its only for 12 months, wouldn't it be best to wait until April to open this due to the £1000 interest tax free allowance?

I think (but not sure) that savings accounts are not listed in your credit score and therefore do not affect it (check a free one, e.g. noddle).

I don't have a checking account there and would have to open one, which is definitely listed in the credit file. Does anyone know for sure if a savings or checking account affects the credit score?

Sorry if this has been asked but I just went to look at this and saw it's a Cash ISA. I was looking to open a help to buy ISA, can I open up a help to buy ISA and this at the same time?

Thanks

I saw a description on one page when I applied earlier about it being a Cash ISA, but that appears to be wrong, someone I think copied and pasted on their website wrong. The Flexclusive Regular Saver shouldn't be a Cash ISA.

It's simple to estimate what you get if you manage to fund it with 500 quid on the same date every months for a year(which is impossible actually, hence the estimate). It's about 155 quid, which is 5%aer. Some may have tax to pay on that.

No idea where you get that equalling 2.75% compounded whatever you compare it to.

use any compound interest calculator , bunging 6k in for a year =£165 =2.75%
bung 500 a month for 12 months = £165 at 5% compounded

considering you can get 1.61 easy access it works out as £69 better off for the hassle of opening it and putting £500 quid in each month and that`s before tax . will pass on this

I don't know why you continue to ignore the fact that a sensible and informed person would be earning interest on any money by keeping it in another bank account at at least 3% until it is actually deposited in the Regular Saver at 5%.

really on large amounts 100k 200k ?

We're talking about £6000 here, your sudden jump up to 100K and 200K whilst completely ignoring the important point suggests you are deliberately looking for arguments and aren't worth replying to further.

merely pointing out this deal is a fing waste of time , better off changing up a gear in the car to save fuel than even bothering to waste your time opening this pointless account.

you are completely ignoring the fact your original pool of 6k you are drip feeding into the 5% account is earning less too each month as it depletes down ??

£18.71 worse off by drip feeding the 5% account rather than just leaving it in a well informed 3% account lol

lots of arguing on here. Depositing £500 on day 1 and every month thereafter for 12 months should net you a gross amount of £139.43 over 12 months. You may have to pay tax.

To be clear for people not understanding why 5% isn't really 5%. its because its 5% AER (Annual Equivalent Rate) 5% on 6K is impossible if you can only pay £500 a month. So its a good headline rate, but thats the different between AER and AIR.

For those of you who like Excel. Try =FV(0.05/12, 12, 500, 0) which roughly translated says

Future Value if I make 12 equal payments of £500 at a monthly rate of 5% / 12 and with £0 currently in the account.

As some have already said. Its good, but is it worth the hassle? Probably not unless you are already in the market or are in a position to move money around for a few extra quid, in which case. Bonzer.



HTH

just use this

http://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

Of course the interest on the original '6K pool' would be earning less as it gets moved over, but it's being moved into a higher interest account which would obviously be increasing by a bigger amount than the other one is "depleting" as you put it, resulting in a net gain.

I said it wasn't worth replying further, but that was just too ludicrous.

obviously £18.71 is a lot to you ?

Yes, absolutely 5% on 100k is easy with this account - if you have 30-60 people in your family.

I still don't understand why you guys are arguing. The interest rate is not really interesting. The relevant bit is the ~£150 interest you can earn (as an upper bound, ignoring an alternative account/option). Then reduce it by tax, 1-3% for an alternative account etc.

So... is <£150 worth the hassle? if you are an existing customer and can open the account online - why not?

No idea where you pulled that figure from, but here's an actual breakdown to compare versus saving at just 3%, via the compound calculator...

£6000 at 3% in an account for a year

= £182.50 total

£0 saved at 5% increased by £500 per month = £165.01
£6000 saved at 3% depleted by £500 per month = £84.10

= £249 total for the year.

So that's £66 or so extra saved over having it in a 3% account for the year. Whether someone deems that worth the effort is up to them, but it's probably about the same effort or less as making several comments in a thread like this.

As other people have already said if you are investing the money elsewhere already it is earning interest for both the part of the year it is in the Nationwide account as well as in the other account.

MoneySavingExpert explains this perfectly with the drip feed calculator at
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts#dripfeed

Assuming the money was held previously in an Santander account at 3% for arguments sake (ignoring the £5 a month etc) then the following gives the result after the 12 months.

For a non tax payer or those under the £1000 savings earnings next year you get the following.

After drip-feeding the cash for 12 months...

Total interest earned: £244 (4.06%)
£83 from the normal savings & £161 in the regular saver.

If you'd kept the money only in the normal savings account you'd have earned £180 in interest.

Not too shabby (Thanks Ashe for beating me to it).

Well, knowing about that calculator would have made it slightly less effort for me, but at least it backs my results up! :smiley:

better make sure it hits the bank every month for such a paltry amount lol

lot of stupid on display in this thread

lot of stupid

Great deal thanks!

I do exactly the same but have two tsb accounts, a 6% m&s account and also pay my utility bills from Santander for cashback

Your math is terrible. How can drop feeding from 3% account to a 5% account make you worse off?

It looks, from your last sentence, that you redeemed yourself at the end there!.

Everyone's approach may be different, it doesn't necessarily mean they are wrong. Some folk may have a lump sum already and no current ability to save. Others may have ability to save and no lump sum up front. Those lucky to have both can of course explore options as you suggest.

I'd never presume that I know everyone else's circumstances so giving financial advice can be arduous.

The area of more concern I'd say is educating those that use very high interest payday loans or the "brighthouse" et al rip-off merchants that entice unwitting buyers with low monthly payments for goods - clearly aiming at those who completely miss the overall repayment cost and annual percentage rate.

The first interest payment will be 12 months from the account opening date, and that will be, without doubt, after 6th of April 2016, when the new Personal Savings Allowance comes in.

I came to the same conclusion. Maths Win.

is there a minimum that must be in the account each month i.e to earn the interest?

and this is why the economies in a mess... too many people saving.. Much better to spend everything you earn, if everyone did that we'd come out of this recession

Worst point of view ever

Its attitudes like yours that got us in this mess in the first place

Some people never learn I guess

:confused: wow ignorance is truly apparent , i think you will find our economy is fecked because aholes keep leveraging up on debt to pay for bigger and bigger purchases ,cars ,houses ,BTL wannabee landlords at the expense of savers and the prudent. and all our government has done is keep the debt flowing and increased it since 2008 by two fold .
yeah spending really helps don`t it

2008 interest rate instant access a/c 6.5% 2015 rate 1.5 % legalised theft to pay for idiots debts and the banks make billions along the way.

I'm obviously being flippant although I never mentioned spending what you dont have.. that is where the western World went wrong. Consumer debt driving an economy will never work.

It is fact though that to get out of a recession people need to start spending again.

If everyone saves as much as they can we will end up with a zombie economy and wont get out of this recession for decades.

you are aware housing costs is sucking all the money out the economy ? if everyone spends their salary on rent/mortgage what money is left to spend on goods ?

Sadly, 123 customers will be charged £5 per month from January instead of £2, that needs to be factored in.

Depends were you live I suppose. My mortgage is 10% of my household income> Wouldnt really want it any higher although if I was 90% LTV it would be 2/3rs of my income.

House pricing is stupid in London due to foreigners seeing it as an easy investment and loads of deluded people who think House price inflation is a good thing and then complain when petrol goes up 1p a litre

Who do you think your wannabee landlords are? lots of older people buying B2Ls to rent as the return is better than savings accounts... seems prudent to me at first thought.

lol well yes it is regional down south its quite common for people to spend 40 to 60% of their income on rent or mortgage.

with the recent changes by our chancellor removal of tax relief http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/11724804/Buy-to-let-How-todays-Budget-will-affect-landlords.html

and also increased stamp duty just announced

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/buy-to-let/12016822/Autumn-Statement-2015-Buy-to-let-stamp-duty-rise-final-nail-in-coffin-for-small-landlords.html

i would run a mile from BTL , it`s an easy target for tax revenue.

I currently save £400 a month into their Loyalty Saver account which currently gives me 1.2% AER and I am nearing the limit I can hold in the account.

When I opened the Loyalty Saver with Nationwide a couple of years ago the interest rate was 1.7% AER (which was amongst the best at the time for a High Street name), but it has steadily reduced since then.

So for me this this new Flexexclusive Regular Saver seems to be a good place to save £500 a month - however does anyone know if the 5%AER is guaranteed for the full year?

I saw that earlier in this thread there was a lot of comparison with the Sandanter 3% account. Whilst it may be good on paper in some circumstances, I would not personally touch Sandanter with a bargepole. I have friends who have had no end of difficulties with them and whenever you look at newspaper personal finance problem pages Sandanter must rate as the most complained about bank ever.

about time full council tax was charged on holiday homes too if you ask me.

yep and retrospective tax bill for the increased stamp duty changes applied to already owned BTL and holiday homes !

The 5%aer is variable - almost certainly meaning it will get chopped as the balances build up over the months. I'm expecting 3%aer within 6 months.

Nationwide's behaviour over their loyalty saver interest rates was reprehensible. At least we now know what Nationwide thinks of its 'loyal' members! They are money grabbers extraordinary and have no qualms whatsoever about tempting you into a variable rate account and then chopping the rate as soon as they have taken enough money into it. They are worse in this respect than any other banks/prtend banks.

As Nationwide rapidly lowered the rates on their loyalty saver, fortunately Tesco launched a new internet saver (as they do every year) at a much higher rate than the lowered loyalty saver rate. Also instant access. So my max balance in the loyalty saver all get transferred into the Tesco account.

I ditched my nationwide loyalty saver and went with premium bonds, which is equal to 1.35% if I get the average payout. Which only takes a few days for withdrawals to go through.

True. Kind of unusual for a regular saver to have variable rates!
I expect the rates to drop before 6 months too, but luckily it's an instant access with no notice period, so at that point I'll just ditch it and move the full balance to whatever is going to be the best option at that time

I just applied for this via the Online Bank and it's says it's a Cash ISA - this is not the case, it's a standard savings account (I called to check)

I just called to check this, I was worried like you. It's a standard account. I think it's a typo on the website.

Opened and deposited online immediately. Got quite a regular saver portfolio now:

N/W 5% = £500/mo
M&S 6% = £250/mo
First Direct 6% = £300/mo
TSB 5% = £250/mo
Lloyds 4% = £400/mo
Halifax HTB ISA 4% = £200/mo

More than I earn each month so my Santander 123 account might empty eventually!

What's the name of the TSB 5% saving account?

TSB Monthly Saver

http://www.tsb.co.uk/savings/monthly-saver/

N/W 5% :wink:

Worth adding HSBC £250/6%? These accounts will all end at some point so you'll have lump sums going back into your Santander to replenish it.

shame none of these thieving banks do decent lump sums how much interest does that add up to 1k?

AFAIK, the HSBC one requires a paid-for HSBC current account. All the others only require free accounts (or nothing in the case of the Halifax HTB ISA).

£660ish before tax, including interest on the initial £1000 deposit to the HTB ISA. Obviously the money not yet in the regular savers can earn interest elsewhere, though.

To be fair, the rates gotten from these regular savers and interest-paying current accounts is higher than even the best ISAs from a few years ago. You can net more money now, assuming you have enough cash to drip-feed from a decent current account(s) into these high-rate regular savers. The downside is that it requires juggling numerous current accounts.

I think the best instant-access ISA I've had was 4.5%, which was also from Nationwide. Allowed transfers in for a while too, due to an oversight in their T&Cs. Most were far below this, hovering around 3%.

This is wrong. The old regular savings accounts terms and conditions changed on 01/12/2015 to:
'Increase your balance by up to £500 per month, for 12 months. Unlimited instant access to your money and easy management online, with our Mobile Banking app or in branch. Notes
Rates are variable The term of the account is fixed for 12 months from the date of opening. After the fixed period, the account will transfer into a Instant Access Saver savings account, or its nearest equivalent. The terms and conditions and interest rate of that account, at that time, will apply

You can only have one Regular Saver or Flexclusive Regular Saver account at any one time, which can be held in sole or joint names.'
Quoted from the Nationwide website.

So yes they have introduced a 5%aer account that you can deposit £500 a month in. The old Regular saving account has have reverted back to the Regular saving accounts and have a £500 month limit. So people who have these accounts now have a 12M term at which point the money goes to an Instant Access Saver account. The reason for this is they don't want people stashing away 10-30k in these accounts at 2% when none of their rivals offer such a rate.

The same is somewhat true of this new account offering 5%aer.
'The term of the account is fixed for 12 months from the date of opening. After that fixed period, the account will transfer into a Flexclusive Saver account, or its nearest equivalent and the terms and conditions and interest rate of that account, at that time, will apply.'

Hope that clears that up.

You can get a hsbc advance account and get access to the 6% reg saver. Just need to pay in £1,750/month or £10,500 every 6 months. No monthly fee.

No charge on the HSBC account if you send £1750 in and out each month.

So to open most of these accounts you already need a current account and then open the regular saver .

Great 12 accounts for £600 and the headache of transferring money between all Of them.

The bankers really are laughing at us lol

If it's too much for you to handle then noones forcing you to do it.

I went into Nationwide earlier today to get am application form. They told me the 5%AER was fixed for the 12 months from the opening of the account. The terms and conditions on their website do not specify whether it is fixed or not - nor does any of the paperwork they gave me specify. I think I will ask for it in writing that the rate is fixed before I open as Nationwide seem to have stooped to the behaviour of other banks etc.by reducing rates for members once you have signed up (if my experience of their Loyalty Savings a/c is anything to go by) yet introducing accounts with a far better rate for new account holders.

It's not fixed. I doubt they were lying, probably just uninformed. It is very unusual to have a fixed-term regular saver with a variable rate. Good luck getting it in writing, I'm sure they'll just give you a copy of the T&Cs.

I agree that the old regular savings account is not available for new customers but where did you get the below from?
The terms and conditions on the website have not been updated:
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/support-articles/terms-and-conditions/regular-savings-terms-and-conditions
Not looking for an argument, genuinely would like to know. Also, in the new one (the Regular Saver) it does not say you can't hold one and an old Regular Savings.

It's quite explicit and clear on the website that the rate is 5%aer variable.

if you think the extra 36quid charge changes your mind on earning 600 before tax then maybe you haven't got the 20k in the first place?

Very good point - thanks for that :smiley:

They emailed me to tell me.

' Your Regular Savings interest rate has increased
As a Regular Savings customer we wanted to let you know that from today (1 December 2015) your interest rate has increased to 2.00% gross p.a./AER (variable) due to the launch of our new Regular Saver account. And you'll receive this rate regardless of how much you increase your account balance by per month for the next 12 months after which the balance will be transfered into an Instant Access Saver account or the nearest equivalent.

We'll be writing to you in the new year to provide more information about what this means for you. '

So this for me is a very bad deal as it has in effect obsoleted my existing saving account. It looks like Nationwide will obsolete old accounts each time they launch new saving products. They are squeezing the saving rates to increase profits. To get the full amount from this new account you would have to put money into the account on the 1st of the month.

Thanks for that. Haven't received the email (yet) and the T&Cs make no mention of this. Very bad news indeed.

The only applicable free account is the HSBC Advance account, and I was rejected for that in the summer.

With 500 quid deposited each month, and left alone, this account will bag you just shy of £140 interest.

Use this calculator if you're unsure and get your head in a muddle calculating interest:
http://www.hl.co.uk/tools/calculators/regular-savings-calculator

Not a bad selection there, how much is it returning every month, do you transfer via standing order on say the 1st of every month?

Regular savers pay out annually and they all mature at different times so it's hard to say. Assuming no tax is due (as will be the case come April 2016), a crude estimate would be nearly £50/mo on average. On top of that I get £100/mo from interest in current accounts but, as I said before, I don't earn enough to fill these regular savers without eating into my other savings so that figure will drop slightly.

Also some of them have fixed dates in which the transfers must take place based on when the accounts were opened (due to the strict nature of the standing orders that must be set up). If not, I transfer on the first of each month, yes.

Why don't they just do the normal £100 switch why do they have to overcomplicate it by making you find a friend whos already with the bank to switch and get the 100. I don't know anyone who banks with nationwide

We are not allowed to refer people on here, so all I can suggest is going by Topcashback for £78.75 cash back on Nationwide's bank accounts.

Nationwide's approach is actually more beneficial - if someone recommends you, they get £100, you get £100, plus you can get an extra £70-90 via cashback sites. Also, the cashback can be done numerous times, unlike with all other bank joining offers.

Might look into this properly. Got £20k in a standard Nationwide, but switched over to Santander banking after maxing their 123 account so have not been putting money in the Nationwide anymore, just sitting there getting 000000.1% im sure.
Always wanted to go into stocks but keep waiting and waiting for a crash that never happens and the same with a house. Feel houses are valued too much and wait for a crash.. been waiting 5 years now.
Can't see myself buying one within a year so might do this with the £20k in Nationwide, effectively free money.

Gosh your HTB ISA rate is very high. I don't need the HTB side of things (no mortgage yet) are all the help to buy ISA rates higher than the standard cash ISA.

Ironically had a clarification email from nationwide today about the old accounts. I think they got a few phonecalls about this. Looks like the £1k amount each month remains for the old regular savers account. Albeit you are switched to a 12 month deal which terminate on 01/12/2016. Not sure if you can have both accounts. Hmmm.

read your email again...

don't see how you can get cashback site money from a nationwide recommendation as they surely contact you directly with a specific link? if you know how that CAN be done, please let the site (and me) know... Ta.

Hi there,
What are the names of the TSB and Nationwide accounts that give 5% on £4500.

I've found the Tsb classic plus that gives 5% on £2000 and nationwide flex direct that gives 5% on £2500, but can't find the ones you mentioned. Much appreciated. Thanks.

You've got the 2 correct ones. £2k + £2.5k = £4.5k

Oh it can be done - I've done it countless times with friends and family members.

Basically, you get referred by someone who already has a nationwide account and that means you're on nationwide's referral system.

You apply via tcb or quidco for £75 cashback, open an account online and enter old account details for switching. About 2 months later you'll get £100 paid directly into your nationwide account as will the referrer. Around the same time, you'll get £75 cashback added to your tcb/quidco account.

Nationwide's refer-a-friend system doesn't use links. Literally you just invite someone and then once they've signed up they presumably have a system automatically correlating names and email addresses to see who is due referral bonuses. So just invite someone, wait for them to receive the email, then have them sign up as normal via a cashback website (ensuring they use the same email address when signing up as you used to invite them).

I didn't know until now how uneducated I was as to how to save money, I have a lot to catch up with!

Thanks Op - haven't had a regular savings account for a while now and since I qualify this looks to be a pretty good deal :smiley:

excellent advice... the kind of stuff that makes this site worthwhile. ta...

:(not been paying £750 a month in to nationwide so I dont qualify

I'm a Nationwide customer, they're great I reccommend them :smiley:

Good account but unfortunately charging £5 per month from next year (currently £2 per month)

Your intitial deposit gets 0.416% interest per month for 12 months [5% divided by 12 months], your second deposit earns 0.416% for 11 months, and so on umtil your final deposit earns 0.416% for the account's last month. Only the initial deposit earns the full 5% interest, each other month's deposit earns 5% less the number of 0.416% depending on the month number. To put it simply, your first 6 deposits will earn more than 2.5% - a good deal!

I've managed to open 2 of these accounts online (they took a couple of days to show up, and I only realised that when I read the second confirmation page after closing the first confirmation page). It looks as though I can't have one in my name, and the second as a joint in my partner and I's name.

"3. You can only have one Regular Saver or Flexclusive Regular Saver account at any one time, which can be held in sole or joint names."

If I try to be greedy and chance paying into both accounts, I assume they'll just transfer my money out of one account and close it. What would anyone else do?

Great deal

Beware, my regular saver recently matured but they paid me zero interest!!! I am in the process of complaining about this, hopefully they will resolve it...

My saver ended 1st December. Tryed to get the new 1 last night. Sayed I already have 1. Have to watch the interest, when is it played ?

I too found no interest paid into my Flexclusive Regular Saver account when it matured yesterday. I complained and received this: "The interest is due upon maturity. However, we have been made aware of a problem with the interest being paid to the Flexclusive Regular Saver accounts. We are looking into this as a matter of high priority and we aim to get this resolved and the funds paid back to your account as soon as possible. I apologise for the inconvenience this has caused you."

I had the same, paid in a few days hopefully.

I have already opened a new one and paid in the first £500.

Oh dear oh dear... Same here no interest paid in! Have emailed.
Not happy TBH.

No interest on mine yet, but looks like my new one is open.
Account redesignated from Flex Regular Saver

any update on this?

I had "Account redesignated from Flex Regular Saver" and then the next day (2 days ago) "Gross interest £139.55 Tax deducted £0.00".

I got mine yesterday.

It went in very quickly once I did a web note as a complaint.

No compo though.

My interest was paid. £159.43. A few days later than expected, but never mind.