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Notice account launches giving you instant access to some of your cash

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
17/12/2018

Investec Bank has launched a new notice account giving savers the option to withdraw some of their cash instantly.

Notice accounts typically require you to give your bank or building society prior warning when you want to withdraw your money, with notice periods ranging from 30 to 120 days. Rates tend to be higher than you’d get with an easy access account.

But ‘Notice Plus’ aims to give savers the best of both worlds – a competitive rate and immediate access to a portion of their savings, without having to worry about penalties.

Savers choose a notice period: 35, 65 or 95 days’ notice to access their savings. They then decide what proportion of their cash they want immediate access to: 0%, 10% or 20%.

Interest rates start at 1.3% and go up to 1.85% including a loyalty bonus if you don’t place notice for 90 days.

Essentially, the longer the notice period and the smaller the easy access percentage, the higher the rate.

So, to get 1.85%, which includes the loyalty bonus, you need to select 95 days’ notice and 0% easy access (see table below for full details of rates).

Notice Period Immediate access percentage Interest rate Interest rate
(without loyalty rate) (including loyalty rate)
AER* AER*
0% 1.80% 1.85%
95 days 10% 1.75% 1.80%
20% 1.70% 1.75%
0% 1.50% 1.55%
65 days 10% 1.45% 1.50%
20% 1.40% 1.45%
0% 1.40% 1.45%
35 days 10% 1.35% 1.40%
20% 1.30% 1.35%

Account facts

Savers must deposit at least £10,000 to open the account and can save up to £1m.

The account is opened and managed online or via the Investec app.

The loyalty rate is 0.05% a year and you lose this rate from the day you give notice.

You’re eligible for the loyalty rate again if you do not place notice for 90 days from when you last placed notice.

Our verdict

This type of flexibility and innovation is exactly what savers need at the moment. With so much economic and political uncertainty, they want the option of getting their hands on some of their cash in case of emergencies but don’t necessarily want to put up with the poor rates paid on most easy access accounts.

The rates aren’t bad, but it depends on which option you choose.

95 days’ notice

The top paying 95-day deal is from Gatehouse Bank, which like Investec, pays 1.85% with no access.

Gatehouse is sharia-compliant, so savers are not paid interest but instead are given an expected profit rate (EPR).

65-days’ notice

Charter Savings Bank is the best buy 60-day notice deal with a rate of 1.61%. The best 65-day rate from Investec is 1.55% with no access to your cash.

35-days’ notice

OakNorth Bank pays 1.36% on its 35-day notice account, which isn’t as high as the 1.45% (including bonus rate) from Investec. However, the minimum deposit with OakNorth is £1,000.

Andrew Hagger from Moneycomms.co.uk says: It’s refreshing to see this type of innovation in the savings market – the low rate environment hasn’t helped people’s saving appetite in recent years, but rates are slowly picking up so this product is being launched at a good time.

“This is a very flexible option and I like the fact that the saver can customise the product so it suits their savings requirements – it gives the customer a three way choice with number of days notice, the percentage of balance that can be accessed if needed and a loyalty bonus option.

“Notice products are a half way house between instant access accounts and fixed rate bonds and the rates reflect this – the minimum £10,000 limit may exclude a few customers but the Investec rates are very attractive.”