The Anonymous Widower

Why Bother With Traditional Savings Accounts?

The Sunday Times today, has an article entitled Savers Face Clampdown On Access To Top-Rating Accounts. Here’s the first two paragraphs.

Savers are struggling to access the best-paying accounts as banks and building societies impose restrictions, such as limiting customers to certain postcodes, and slash the deposits that can be held.

A report for The Sunday Times by the consumer group Savings Champion shows the amount that can be saved in the best buy accounts has shrunk significantly in two years. In 2012, you could save up to £1m in the top two best-paying easy access accounts and up to £9m in the third-ranked. Today, the top three easy access deals allow up to £3,000 or £6,000.

And there’s a lot more in the same vein.

For nearly eight years now, I’ve not used a traditional savings account. I have over a hundred thousand of my hard-earned money in an account with Zopa and in that time, I’ve earned over five percent.

The banks can only get savers to invest in their rip-off products, as they know there are several hundred mugs born every minute.

And to me the great thing about Zopa is that it is not just a high-interest account, but one with fast planned access, where you can start saving with as little as a tenner. I talked about how to use an account to your advantage here.

You don’t have to live in a specific postcode, or have millions to play with and so long as you’re over eighteen and fund your Zopa account from a UK bank account, you’re in the club.

I should also say that with Zopa, I will also include other reputable peer-to-peer lenders. But I’m entitled to have my preference.

September 21, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Finance | Peer-to-Peer Lending, Zopa