Rabodirect Joint Savings Account

shuffles03

Hi,

Myself and my partner are looking at setting up a joint savings account where we can deposit as little or as much as we want depending on how much we have to spare. We've just rented an apt together so we're not sure how much we can save on a weekly/monthly basis. Is Rabo a good choice?

From what I've read on their website, we're allowed to lodge/withdraw whenever we like. Am I right?

Also, in terms of building up a savings history if we ever decide to apply for a mortgage, would this type of account be good for that or is an account with a direct debit savings habit more ideal?

Thanks in advance.

NinjaTruncs

In terms of Mortgage application banks are going to want to see consistent savings. So you would be best to set up a DD for a set amount that you know you can save each month and then manually add to that if you can. They want to know that you can hit the mortgage repayments every month. They will also stress test it, just because you are paying rent of 1,000 PM and saving 300PM doesn't mean you will get a mortgage of 1,300 PM they may still only give you a mortgage with repayments of 1,000 PM to cover interest rate increases.

shuffles03

Does Rabo offer a DD facility? If not, who would you recommend? Preferably one that doesn't incur penalties for manually transferring money on top of a DD. We're setting up a joint Current account next week with BOI for rent, bills etc. Maybe BOI then?

BuffyBot

I think a standing order, rather than a direct debit, is what you would be looking at here. And yes, you can create a standing order from your current account to your Rabo account. You can also make additional manual payments if/when you like.

shuffles03

So based on the above criteria, Rabo is a good bet? Is anyone else better i.e. BOI?

Thanks for the responses.

chris85

I am in similar situation. Live with other half and saving for a house possibly in a year or two, we setup joint rabo savings account and we both have a standing order going into it every few weeks. Was easy to setup via post/online and they are helpful on the phone if you need to discuss anything with them.

Frank Black

shuffles03 wrote: »

Does Rabo offer a DD facility? If not, who would you recommend? Preferably one that doesn't incur penalties for manually transferring money on top of a DD. We're setting up a joint Current account next week with BOI for rent, bills etc. Maybe BOI then?

Myself and the OH have a Rabo account which we use to save. It's slightly fiddly to set up the standing order (I find banking365 more user friendly) but overall it's a very good service. You receive a fob which you need to keep for logging on and transferring money etc. I find that when transferring money out of Rabo, that it will usually take a couple of days for the money to appear in my BOI account.

We successfully applied for a mortgage last year, and gave the lending institute copies of our statements from Rabo - so no issue there, presuming the bank are satisfied with your saving history/deposit amount.

You will also have the ability to purchase investment funds through Rabo (main reason we set up a Rabo account) if it is something which interests you - you can set up a DD to purchase say €100 of a particular fund every month (they have a huge choice of different fund types - some obvioussly more risky than others - but these offer a potentially better return than the interest you'll get from their savings account (values may fall as well as rise, past performance is no guarantee of future performance etc..).

Overall, Rabo provide a very good service and I would have no problem recommending.

bluescorpion

I think Rabos latest interest rate is just 2.25%. Might be worth looking at Permanent TSB and KBC Bank who are offering 3.5% on their online svaings accounts.