Our Cash Management system takes a more pro-active approach to be taken with our client’s savings. The benefits of doing so are numerous, but most importantly it delivers a better result for you, if you follow the 6 principles below.
Do not be Over-Loyal
No savings provider can offer the best savings account at all times!. In reality, providers only offer savings accounts with good rates of interest when they are in need of capital. They will then maintain that rate of interest, until the offer expires. At expiry, the rate of interest is then reduced as quickly as possible. Staying with any single provider therefore costs the saver money!
Protect Your Capital
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is a protection scheme of last resort. It provides a level of security on the first £85,000 saved with each individually protected savings provider. This means that having an account in joint names offers £170,000 of FSCS protection, or if one person has £170,000 saved with 2 different account providers (each with their own licence), the same applies.
Terms and Conditions apply! It is therefore important to obtain professional advice and to consider this when choosing your savings account provider(s).
Make a Financial Decision Every Year
All introductory savings account offers have specific offers over specific timescales, currently ranging from 1 month to 7 years (at the time of writing).
Most Instant Access and Notice Accounts maintain the introductory rate of interest for 12 months (remember that these are still variable rate accounts). Beyond this, Fixed Term Accounts offer fixed rates of interest for longer periods of time and should therefore be considered for larger amounts held on deposit.
Have a Plan
Having a ‘plan’ provides the structure to choose the most suitable accounts and to manage them most effectively.
It is important to understand your immediate 12 month financial requirements, first and foremost, and to place this amount of money in the best instant access account. This account could then be linked to your current account to satisfy your instant access requirements.
Any additional savings could be spread over longer term accounts to achieve better rates of interest.
Review the Whole of Market
You can only ever be sure of identifying the best rates of interest if you review the offering of every suitable account provider.
With over 100 account providers available, offering the protection of the UK FSCS, there are many to review. Some of these are overseas national banks, which some people may deem unsuitable. These include banks such as; Bank of Cyprus, National Bank of Greece, First National Bank (Nigeria), etc.
We have defined the most suitable savings account market, for our clients, to include any savings provider with a commercial or retail trading presence within the UK. We do not consider accounts offered by overseas national banks to fall into our suitability category. We will therefore review all of these providers every time you require a savings solution, to ensure we identify the best accounts for you within our selection of circa 75 providers!
Be Pro-Active
You will only maximise your savings returns by being pro-active. Take the control and initiative to identify and implement the best savings accounts that are available. However, we understand how difficult this is, which is why we are here to help.
For more information please call Rowena Griffiths on 0203 301 1248.