Monthly saving deposits

billyhead

I am saving €600 a month by standing order taken from my wages into the 10 year national soladarity accounts with An Post which I believe offer the best overall return. The only thing is that every time I save 600 it opens a new account and the 10 year life starts from the date the monthly payment is made. I was thinking of putting a stop to this savings arrangement and looking elsewhere and get similar returns to the An Post account. Has anyone any advice as to where to best look or consider starting savings with. I have a current account with AIB but the returns for their savings accounts are not great. I don't need quick access to the money but it would be convenient to keep control and be able to monitor the one savings account rather then opening and starting numerous savings accounts each month which is what I want to do:D

Icsics

Look at the Best Buys thread. I opened a Nationwide UK regular saver @4%. Online banking & you don't have to have direct debit, as long as you don't go over €1000 in a month

JTMan

Nationwide UK will pay you 4.00% for monthly savings up to 1,000 EUR but the account matures after 15 months.

KBC will pay you 3.50% for monthly savings up to 1,000 EUR. High cap of 50,000 EUR at the 3.50% rate. No account maturity.

fafy

Fungus wrote: »

Nationwide UK will pay you 4.00% for monthly savings up to 1,000 EUR but the account matures after 15 months.

KBC will pay you 3.50% for monthly savings up to 1,000 EUR. High cap of 50,000 EUR at the 3.50% rate. No account maturity.

Just to be aware that 41% of the interest you receive(from non state savings products) will be taken in DIRT, so a headline 4% return, suddenly become 2.36 % in your pocket.
The 10 year government savings scheme beats 4% gross, and nets you 2.66 %, albeit a much longer term investment.

You could save in a high interest savings account (like Nationwide)for 12 months, and then put the accummalated savings into state savings, on an annual basis, therefore you have one new account starting each year, rather than 12 per year.
OR
only place what you definitely will not need, into the state savings account annually, and leave a cushion of funds in a shorter term account.

Generally speaking, interest rate returns are fairly poor at the moment, but in 2 to 3 years time, this should improve, as the ECB commences rate rises, which is really a matter of "when" rather than "if".

billyhead

fafy wrote: »

Just to be aware that 41% of the interest you receive(from non state savings products) will be taken in DIRT, so a headline 4% return, suddenly become 2.36 % in your pocket.
The 10 year government savings scheme beats 4% gross, and nets you 2.66 %, albeit a much longer term investment.

You could save in a high interest savings account (like Nationwide)for 12 months, and then put the accummalated savings into state savings, on an annual basis, therefore you have one new account starting each year, rather than 12 per year.
OR
only place what you definitely will not need, into the state savings account annually, and leave a cushion of funds in a shorter term account.

Generally speaking, interest rate returns are fairly poor at the moment, but in 2 to 3 years time, this should improve, as the ECB commences rate rises, which is really a matter of "when" rather than "if".

Thanks for the advice. The yearly account set up sounds interesting. I don't mind opening a new account with every monthly direct debit. It just becomes hard to keep a track of them all and my worry would be that after 10 years when the accounts expire with so many of them in my name I maybe done out of money that I am owed (might be a bit paranoid after the financial crash adn the devious going ons of the banks and other financial institutions

Kristopherus

billyhead wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. The yearly account set up sounds interesting. I don't mind opening a new account with every monthly direct debit. It just becomes hard to keep a track of them all and my worry would be that after 10 years when the accounts expire with so many of them in my name I maybe done out of money that I am owed (might be a bit paranoid after the financial crash adn the devious going ons of the banks and other financial institutions

I thought the 10-year solidarity scheme was primarily for Lump Sum savers. What will happen in your case from the description you gave in your OP is that you will get back your monthly investment + 50% less a small % of DIRT each month over a further 10-year period. That make absolutely no sense, or am I reading you wrong?

billyhead

Kristopherus wrote: »

I thought the 10-year solidarity scheme was primarily for Lump Sum savers. What will happen in your case from the description you gave in your OP is that you will get back your monthly investment + 50% less a small % of DIRT each month over a further 10-year period. That make absolutely no sense, or am I reading you wrong?

Kristopherus, Everytime I make a monthly direct debit transfer the 10 year starts from the date of the transfer of money, thus I would have multiple accounts expiring. The only other option was as mentioned by a previus poster save a lump sum over a longer period of time i.e year, 2 years etc and then transfer that amount into the An post 10 account. However doing this means it would take longer for the account to expire and the interest returns to be added to the deposit after DIRT has been deducted.

JTMan

fafy wrote: »

You could save in a high interest savings account (like Nationwide)for 12 months, and then put the accummalated savings into state savings, on an annual basis, therefore you have one new account starting each year, rather than 12 per year.
OR
only place what you definitely will not need, into the state savings account annually, and leave a cushion of funds in a shorter term account.

It still remains a 10 year investment if you want the full interest return. That is one hell of a long time and a lot of unexpected events can happen in that time-frame.

fafy wrote: »

Generally speaking, interest rate returns are fairly poor at the moment, but in 2 to 3 years time, this should improve, as the ECB commences rate rises, which is really a matter of "when" rather than "if".

Japanisation is possible. 25 years of low rates in Japan. We could be headed the same way. Inflation is well below target and decreasing. The Russian crisis will depress the European Economies further. The next step for the ECB is to reduce rates further.