Agreed. Smart money is on easy access and short term fixes/notice savers. Regular savers continue to lead the way for the limited amounts they’ll take (although tbh my 6.2% reg savers are looking a bit thin now compared to when I took them out, hopefully Natwest Group will nudge this towards 7% soon).
The Starling account is still a poor choice if this is what you want to do tho.
I haven’t seen Starling mention this anywhere so I presume they’re offering it because of the consumer duty but they don’t want anyone to actually use it 
I locked a sum away in June for a year at 5.85%
That money is currently being spent on my 0% credit card and was locked away purely to gain the interest before paying the credit card off at the end of the 0% term.
Works for me 
Has anyone heard of/used Flagstone?
They seem to have some easy access products that beat the interest rates available elsewhere. But when talking five figure sums I get a bit twitchy about the technicalities of FSCS and how it works when someone else manages my money on my behalf…
I’m aware of them and considering creating an account. I’m not sure whether you have to fund the account before you can see the deals, though, and I’m a bit reluctant to move £10,000 from elsewhere just to see what’s available. The available interest rates that they are showing on their website are not that competitive, although it does say that offers will be tailor-made for you if you do sign up.
Hadn’t heard of them, so took a look.
So, they’re essentially a shop window into bank offerings where you can choose from available savings products, avoiding the site-by-site search for a place to put your money.
You place your savings with them - you decide which savings products to place funds in. You can see all your accounts in one place. Beyond that, I don’t see a benefit (though they offer an all-in-one tax certificate).
Oh, and you pay them for the privilege by sacrificing a portion of your earned interest.
Savings security isn’t an issue as each account is individually protected by FSCS, anyway.
Frankly it’s a solution looking for a problem, maybe aimed at would-be savers who think the whole thing is complicated and needs some sort of third-party management.
I think there is a market for it. But main value is probably for those who have more than £85k savings and want to spread across multiple banks without having to manage multiple logins. Hargreaves Lansdown Active Savings is another similar product, albeit with a much lower minimum deposit requirement.
Over on the Monzo community someone was showing 5.07% instant access which beats everything else out there. They say it wasn’t advertised before signing up, so that’s what’s making me tempted.
With savings rates changing daily it’s certainly a solution for a problem at least I have. I’m tired of looking at who’s offering the best rate and then considering whether I should move my money to them and if so what it would take. I also worry about fraud checks holding up my money and so it’s mostly been sitting with Chase at their now less than stellar rates.
They take their cut before they show you the interest rate so as far as you’re concerned the service is “free”.
My main issue is this though. It’s unclear whether their holding account is FSCS protected or not, and they talk a lot about “safeguarding” and money being held in trust.
I also worry about how simple or complicated an FSCS reimbursement would be in the event of some bank going pop given the money isn’t directly deposited but rather handled via an intermediary.
Not in my book. It’s just that the fee isn’t transparent.
But that job remains yours - flagstone wouldn’t do the monitoring and moving - they simply make account rates more visible.
Really important point, and I’ve never seen a holding account arrangement which is FSCS protected.
That’s sufficient turn-off for me even if I were attracted by the model.
I guess that’s it, in a nutshell. Seems like overkill to me, though.
I haven’t looked into Flagstone, but HL Active Savings explain their approach in a clear way. Money assigned to a savings product is covered by FSCS, and money in their holding account (which they refer to as cash hub) is protected under FCA Safeguarding rules: Are my savings safe? | HL. I suspect Flagstone uses the same/similar approach.
4.6% at Cahoot (aka Santander)
I’m not sure that is now available and the HSBC rate was much higher than the other instant access ones when it was.
However, I believe you can create an account and view Flagstone’s offerings without funding it.
I haven’t looked at Hargreaves Lansdown active savings in a while but these are their current offerings 
And yet Santander’s own branded easy access saver account rate is poor, so poor I transferred what I had in it, out.
Yes. A lot of examples out there of healthy-ish fixed rates against ridiculous easy access - big banks too 
Put money into Paragon 4.45% yesterday via Hargreaves and now today Allica bank is available at 4.50%
To be fair as this is a savings platform it’s easy to open accounts and move money around.
Always a front runner, and I like their UI.
I have some at 4.60% and some at 4.70% WEF 10 Aug.
Think I’m done moving money around then until a 5% rate is offered tbh
I’ve just had my first month’s interest applied to my Ford Money account and I’m quite pleased if I’m honest.
Slightly disappointed they decided not to increase their rate after the latest BoE rise but I’m not bothering to move my money around again unless they fall significantly behind other EA rates.
Upshot is, still much better than Chase rate where all of my savings were before.
