From what I've read it ticks almost all of my boxes. I need a savings account that will effectively do standing orders so that I can set it up to pay a fixed amount each month and I want it to pay as much interest as possible on my balance of course. By definition a monthly standing order going out precludes any account with a limit on the number of withdrawals per year (assuming the limit is fewer than 12!) so I'm looking at easy access and those that have the ability to set up regular payments out are very rare.
Right now I use IF Finance (part of Lloyds Group) but they are trying to run that down and the interest rate is 0.25% compared to the 1.42% for RCI.
The info on the RCI website doesn't actually say it can do monthly withdrawals and I will obviously check with RCI before going further but a comment dated October 2018 from dgp1000 right at the end of a thread on the MoneySavingsExpert forums (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/sh ... ?t=5778676) says...
I know this is an old thread, but RCI Bank allow standing orders to be paid from their Freedom Savings Account (currently paying 1.3%). All payments to and from need to be from your linked current account, but this shouldn't be a problem in michaelmorris circumstances, as I use mine in the same way as he wants to use his.
... so I am optimistic that it will meet my key criteria. I can live with all money in and out needing to go through a single linked current account.
There are a couple of nice-to-have features (for me) that the account doesn't seem to have namely (1) an iOS (or Android I assume) app for easier management, and (2) membership of Open Banking so that I could see my RCI account balance from within my main NatWest app. Maybe one or both of those are coming but I can live without them.
So...
- Can anyone already with an account confirm dgp1000's info that the RCI Premium Savings account still does support standing orders?
- Has anyone already enquired about an app and/or Open Banking participation and if yes then what answers did you get if any?
- Does anyone have any other candidates for decent interest savings account that support standing-order payments out that I might have missed? None of the other candidates on that MoneySavingsExpert thread would work for me by the way because either the balance in my account will on average be way higher than the £10K or so that would be optimal if using an interest-paying current account to do the job and the other suggestions of Yorkshire or Newcastle Building Societies didn't seem to be anything like the 1.42% interest rate of RCI Bank.
- Julian