Highest Interest-paying instant access passbook accounts please?
- posted
19 years ago
Highest Interest-paying instant access passbook accounts please?
Passbook? How quaint.
Some people prefer them, eg pensioners ?
Abbey Branch Saver pays 3% gross on balances under 10,000 based on zero withdrawals in a year.
Or Nationwide Bonus Saver pays 4.25% gross including bonus. A passbook is provided. Any withdrawals results in loss of bonus so interest rate reduces to a rather insulting 1% gross.
Can anyone better that?
Can anyone "worse" that, do you mean? What use is a savings account to a pensioner if it doesn't allow withdrawals?
I have visions of computer literate pensioners like myself pegging out and our widows having no idea where our cyberspace, electronic password protected assets are hidden. Derek.
In message , Ronald Raygun writes
I'm a pensioner, drawing down from a SIPP and qualifying for the basic crumblies state pension in July. I've just opened an ING Direct account. Once the account was set up, I dumped a fairly large sum into it. ING Direct is a very much a no thrills operation which operates through a link to a proper bank account. No ATM cards, no postal statements, not even a paying-in book. Interest is calculated daily and credited to the account at the end of each month.
To open the account required a link to a normal bank account with a monthly savings direct debit from that account to the ING account. Their account set-up software didn't allow that bit to be circumvented. I suppose that now the account is set up, I can cancel the direct debit savings element. All I wanted was somewhere to dump some money.
In message , Derek F writes
Thanks, Derek. You've just jabbed a hot needle into something that's been worrying me. I suppose I could write out full instructions, complete with customer refs, IB numbers, account nicknames (whatever they are) passwords etc. Risky! Jf
I jokingly recorded (many years ago) a tape to be played at my funeral and made references on it to offshore accounts. Now I should perhaps update it to include internet banking and my Betfair account:-) Seriously details of things like that should be included in wills. Derek.
james said
No not nicknames and passwords, just a list of the financial institutions and account numbers.
When someone dies you just write to the institutions with as much information as they will need to identify the account and go from there
- the deceased name and address will possibly be enough so the key is knowing where the money is.
They certainly do not expect passwords, and it would be risky to send them.
In message , Derek F writes
Well... If you remember that solicitors are lawyers... Or think about a will reading and last one out of the office is a plonker... Jf
Without a hint of irony, james astounded uk.finance on 04 Apr 2004 by announcing:
So which banks do you find thrilling?
I think you mean no frills. If you want a thrill, I suppose you should invest in pork belly futures.
You are mistaken, and I know, because I have one too. You don't have to set up a monthly direct debit for a specified amount each month, though you may do if you wish. The basic requirement is for a variable open ended DD, which is for the purpose of making "on demand" transfers.
This is because the normal method of transferring a sum from the "real" bank account to ING savings account is not to push the money from the main bank account, but to ask ING to pull it, using the "move money" button on their menu.
You don't want to cancel it with your bank unless you want to lose the ability to dump more money into it should the opportunity arise. You want to cancel the regular pull instruction at ING's end.
In message , Alex writes
Secluded, grassy ones, with a pretty teller who provides instant access, doesn't have a fixed endowment policy, and accepts deposits without proof of identity. Jf
Many thanks for the enlightenment. It seemed when going through the on-line hurdles that a direct debit link was required.
That makes sense. I suppose their request to start the account by sending them a cheque meant that the cheque also served as an element in proof of identity.
Succinctly put. Your plain English 'push-pull' abilities are needed by the bank. None of the above was made that clear on their website.
As someone commented earlier, I await with interest (sic) to see if ING's rates have a 'honeymoon' period and are allowed to stagnate through several interest rate rises. One cannot help wondering how much they've soaked up from other banks.
NB: I needed to query by phone last week the non-appearance in the account of a cheque I'd posted to them. I got through to an extremely helpful, English-accented chap who said that they had suffered a slight hiccup and not to worry because "I have a scanned image of the cheque in front of me". From his comment, I presume that they scan cheques received by post for answering queries like mine. I can't believe that OCR has advanced sufficiently to be able to read some of the scrawled cheques I receive.
I've found it seems to be faster to make deposits by setting up a bill payment or regular transfer option from your main account into the ING account, as the ING DD doesn't seem to kick in on the same day, and then once it does occur, the deposit takes several days to "clear"; whereas a funds transfer vanishes immediately and then turns up, ready for use, in the ING account two days later.
And equally importantly, you'll have no way of making withdrawals from the ING account if you cancel the DD!
Exactly.
I doubt that somehow. ING don't push money to your account by making a negative direct debit request. They'll do it by BGC, surely.
It is. But it doesn't have to be for regular specified amounts.
Indeed. Oddly enough they don't seem to require anywhere near as much ID as a normal bank would. That's why, I reckon, they need this "link" to a "proper" bank account.
I had assumed that the *only* way to put money in was to ask them to pull it by DD from your proper account, and that they did not need the infrastructure to deal with postal deposits. Unfortunately it seems I was mistaken. It's fuddy-duddies like you who'll be responsible if rising costs force them to cut their honeymoon rate. Best stick with the High Street, old chap, with those well-endowed instant-access dolly birds.
In message , Ronald Raygun writes of ING Direct:
I don't understand. What's fuddy-duddish about paying cheques into a bank account?
It's too traditional. With-it folk operate their fancy account by letting their finger dance across their keyboard, not by writing a cheque and posting it [and if it's someone else's cheque payable to them, they "launder" it through their trad account first].
As I said, I misunderstood and originally assumed the only way the ING account could be fed was by transfer from the linked "real" bank account, and that the consequent ability to dispense with the "traditional" cheques-and-cash-in processing facilities would help keep their costs down and depositor interest rates high.
We've discussed this before,
The existence of the DD proves the source account, which must therefore be the recipient account.
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