National Savings & Investments inflation-linked five-year bonds offer a perfect chance to both get the best currently available return on your savings and to have easy access to your money just after one year. Which makes them extremely popular with the savers and gives a real headache to the high-street banks, which even complained about them.
If you are looking for a new savings account to open, now is probably the best time. According to Moneyfacts.co.uk, the number of savings accounts, both individual and business ones, is at its highest in almost 25 years. There are currently 2,385 deals on offer in the field of savings accounts.
If you are looking for a home for your savings, fixed-rate accounts and ISAs are an obvious choice, of course. But have a loser look at your local credit union – you might be surprised by the returns it is possible to get banking with them.
Credit unions are community-based organizations, owned and controlled by their members, and allowing them to make savings and take out loans – often on better conditions that those that are offered by high-street banks.
Some of them are based on the geographical area you are living in, others are formed by workers of the same organization. Continue Reading
Yorkshire Building Society offers its special savings account for senior citizens, those who are 50 years old or over – Advantage 50+ Saver (Issue 3). Here are its main features.
• Interest rates are variable, bonus-free and tiered. You can get 1% gross AER on balances from £5,000 to £24,999, 1.25% AER on sums from £25,000 to £49,999, 1.5% AER on balances from £50,000 to 99,999 and 1.75% AER on anything above £100,000
• Minimum balance that should always be maintained on this account is £5,000
• Additional deposits are accepted
• Withdrawals are unlimited in number and notice-free, but you need to always keep a minimum balance on your account
• There is a limit to how much you can withdraw in any given day from a Yorkshire BS branch or Agency: cash is limited to a maximum of £1,000 a day from a branch, £500 from an Agency, maximum £5,000 in any given week in a branch and £1,000 in an Agency
• Check withdrawals, processed in one day, are limited to £150,000 in a branch and £50,000 in an Agency (some small Agencies limit this to £10,000 – check with them first)
• Advantage 50+ Saver can be operated in branch or via a Yorkshire BS Agency
• If you want to close this account, it is necessary to make a 90 days’ notice – otherwise you will incur a penalty in the form of a loss of interest for the same period. Continue Reading
Norwich & Peterborough Building Society offers a special instant access savings account for senior citizens – 50 Plus Savings Account (Issue 2), available to anybody from the age of 50 and on. Here is what you get opening it:
• Interest rate is gross 1% AER (variable) and comes without any bonus interest
• Minimum investment is £5,000 and maximum is £1 million
• There is no notice or charge to make withdrawals
• Account can be operated in branch, by post or online, although you can only open it in branch or by post
While a possibility to operate account in a branch or by post is usually appealing to older savers, a large minimum investment, which is also a minimum balance that should be always kept on this account, together with a poor return of just 0.8% after tax do not make this savings account particularly attractive.
With a new Branch Saver Account from Norwich & Peterborough BS you could get gross 2.25% AER (variable), including a bonus interest for the first year on a minimum balance from just £1. All you need to do is to remember to switch to a better instant access savings account before the promotional period is over.
One more thing is very important concerning this building society’s financial products! Norwich and Peterborough has been recently merged with Yorkshire Building Society and will operate as a separate brand of the latter. The deal is expected to be concluded by November 2011 and savers will need to check if the two will continue to operate under separate bank licenses or will be covered just by one. In other words, how much of your savings will be protected under the FSCS.
For more on how your savings are protected, see Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
