Banking Without Borders
00:11:43 · Jonny Pease
Castle Trust, I would probably push closer towards because they're paying 5.1% and it's new, existing, doesn't matter about that. It's got a lower minimum as well of a thousand pounds. And then Shawbrook again, one year fixed cash ICE of 5.02% minimum of 10,000 pounds. That's new customers only. And if you've had a Shawbrook account, perhaps, but you're looking for the best one year fixed cash ICE, Zopa at five percent. The thing with that is you'll have to open, you'll you'll have to open a free Zopa smart saver to get it. Only takes a few minutes to open, you know, a little bit longer to be verified. Super simple to do. I've done it myself. The key message here looking at this table, Jan, the gap between one year and five years is 0.23%, right? So if the bank hikes on Thursday and it say it continues going up next year, uh you're not going to get paid a huge amount more for locking away for five years when in it is possible that those five-year fixes could ramp up even more. I mean, how f how much farther further could they go if the bank hikes? Right. Look towards six percent. Um, so you know, it's not it's not financial advice, it's it's not a personal recommendation. If this was me, I'd be looking probably if I wanted to lock away um possibly a two-year fix at 5.1%, Castle Trust, for example, or or even just going to Zopa for the one-year fix, if if I wanted to fix.
00:13:06 · Jan Watermann
[00:13:06] S1: Yeah, you know, Jonny, I find it really interesting that um there's so many different providers ranking for top rates with uh fixed rate cash ISIS with fixed rate bonds, that's the absolute opposite. We have one name that's dominating literally every single term that we have in our comparison table to Afin Bank. Let's start with their one-year fixed rate bond, 5.17%. Um, only downside here, it's a thousand pound minimum, and that goes for all of their accounts, by the way, and it's app only. So if you're looking for a branch to manage it or website, can't do that, have to use your smartphone. But personally, I could live with that. Um, seems like manageable downsides to me. Um, if you say you have less than a thousand pounds to deposit, take a look at OakNorth, they have 5.12% for this one-year fixed. Um, two-year fixed looks slightly different, 5.28%. Um, so it's already a little bit more. If you're looking for alternatives with less than a thousand pounds to deposit, Vida or OakNorth, Vida has 5.26%, OakNorth has 5.21%, Afin's three-year account comes of 5.28%, and their five-year account comes of five point four percent. Wow, you know, almost 5.5%. Then you have to kind of round it up, then it's almost 6%. Uh so 5.4% extraordinary amount really is Jonny. Uh, have to mention that. Solid option in general. Would I fix for so long right now? Boah, you know, it's a it's a matter of your own philosophy, of your own savings goals. But um, personally, I'd be a little bit careful, uh, especially because the one-year fixes they're kind of competitive as well. You know, for me personally, I'm not not exactly sure I can commit money for so long into a savings account. I have other investment purposes personally, but you know, it depends on everyone and their personal philosophy and they can they can figure that out.
00:14:49 · Jonny Pease
[00:14:49] S0: Notice accounts, as always, are a bit of a funny story, aren't they? But let's talk about them because we've got the Stafford Building Society with the notice 365 days, 4.75%, minimum £25,000 investment. After that, we have the Bank of London and the Middle East at 90 days for 4.58%, minimum 10 grand. Uh, that is a Sharia account, so it's an expected profit rate, non-interest rate. Chetwood at 105 days, paying uh 4.47%. And then Birmingham Bank, who were interestingly last month's uh table topper, they are paying 4.4% with a minimum of £5,000. Um and if you drop below that minimum, once you've opened it, it will close the account. The top rate is Stafford Building Society at 4.75%. But just look at what you're signing up for, like a full year's notice and a £25,000 minimum. It's the same verdict as every month, isn't it, Jan? Unless you specifically want money, you can't raid on impulse. You know, if you're someone that really has a difficulty saving money, and perhaps you have a very important savings goal, but you want to have some accessibility uh that's maybe a lighter touch than a fixed account, then go notice. Otherwise, yeah, look at easy access. Or regular savers. I mean, even regular savers, Jan. Talk to me about those because that mark is also incredibly competitive.
00:16:09 · Jan Watermann
[00:16:09] S1: Yeah, they're extremely competitive. So the way this works, Jonny, is um these banks they're offering a better than normal interest rate in exchange for you signing up. That comes with some conditions, typically a yeah, tight monthly cap, but you can just avoid it by opening up several accounts. Let's start at the very top here, and we we calculate by estimated interest you could receive of each of these accounts. We have the Mansfield Building Society at the top of 6%. That's variable comes with a monthly cap of 500 pounds, might be enough for you. And in case it's not, you can get the AIB 6% variable, also 195% of estimated interest, because it comes with a cap of 500 pounds every single month. And it requires the AIB current account, which comes with a 200 pound switching bonus founded on DepositScout. Um, extremely competitive. If you're looking for a general new current account and you can yeah, you're also looking for a regular saver, that's the choice you should make. First direct, they offer 7% but have a tighter monthly cap of only 300 pounds. So you can own only earn 137 pounds of interest with that account, and it requires the first direct current account, which is relatively easy to open though. Tembo has a totally new regular saver with 8%. 8% tremendous, right? And that comes with a cap of 250 pounds per month. Yeah, generates you a total of 130 pounds of interest over the year. It's only for new customers, and you have to keep one thing in mind, and that's a it's actually pretty harsh cash, in my opinion. So you're getting a 5% bonus, right? And that bonus is paid at month 12, so literally after a year. Um, if you if you get that account right now, you'll receive 5% of your interest next year, around this time. Funny, right? I'm not sure I could live with that personally. Um, Chase 6.5% um with their the Chase Saver, pretty competitive as well. 300 pounds monthly limit requires the Chase Current account, which is an excellent account, which we regularly recommend. And Santander also offers 8% on the regular saver, but they only have a uh pretty tight monthly cap of 200 pounds, um requires a standard sentencing as well. Hmm, what should you do? Honestly, I'd love to sign up for all of these accounts and combine them.
00:18:24 · Jan Watermann, Jonny Pease
Um if if you have a if you have a a lot of money you can in if you have a pretty generous amount of money you can in um save every single month, you should do exactly that. Combine these accounts, take advantage of the extraordinary interest rates, and really uh really maximize it if you can. And we have a a calculator built on depositscount.com to just take a look, um combine all of these accounts, and if you actually do that with with the accounts I just named, um you'd be saving 1850 pounds every single month, and that would earn you 783 pounds and 25p of interest over the year, which is extraordinary, right? So if you can save so much money, you should probably do that. That's the best way, in my opinion. [00:19:07] S0: That regular saver stack is available at depositscout.com. I'll pop a link for it in the description box. Interestingly, that was actually a feature or a product that someone suggested to Jan and I that we build. I want to mention that because I I'd love, you know, if you're if you're watching this and there's something that you would like to see on deposit scout.com, please just drop it in the comments. We'll happily try to integrate or build it in for you. All of the accounts that we've talked about today will be available in a pinned comment. But if we have missed any accounts, if there's anything that we didn't mention that you like the look of, also use the comment section to let us know. All right, everybody, thank you very much for watching and we'll see you again in the next one. [00:19:42] S1: Thanks everyone.