Steve Higgins's reviews - Smart Money People

Great for automatic savings

5

Chip is a great app that automatically saves your money for you. It links (read-only) to your bank account, monitors your balance and only saves what you can afford. It comes with a guarantee not to send you overdrawn! Reviewed on: 9th February 2018

Great prepaid card

5

Pockit is a great prepaid MasterCard with low fees, no dormancy charges and generous Cashback at many stores such as Halfords, M&S, ToysRus, B&Q, Zizzi, etc. Their new cards now also have contactless functionality. Reviewed on: 12th February 2017

Great rate on evil at savings, but a pain to open the account by phone

5

The application for a Santander regular saver can only be made by phone, which is a pain as it takes some time to go through all of the account conditions and T&Cs with the advisor. However once opened, it's easy to operate via monthly standing order credit and gives a good interest rate on your savings. Reviewed on: 5th September 2016

Generous 0% rate on purchases plus cashback

4

I was lucky enough to get a Santander 123 credit card under the original, more generous T&Cs. The account came with a lengthy interest free period on purchases of 18 months, plus the first year fee waived (as I had a 123 current account) plus cashback. My card fee is about to revert to the new £3 per month fee, but I've caculated that if I spend at least £150 per month in the fuel & travel category, the card is worth keeping. My tip would be to keep a careful record of when your 0% rate expires, and either pay off the card or transfer out the balance in advance of this. Don't forget to adjust any direct debit to pay the full balance each month if you continue to use the card for cashback after this date! Reviewed on: 5th September 2016

Great rate and straightforward savings product

5

The First Direct Regular Saver offers a market leading 6% on savings up to £300 per month, and matures after a year. You must add at least £25 per month to your regular saver, but you can make up any shortfall (up to the £300 per month maximum) in subsequent months. The account can be opened online, and once you've created a standing order to credit your monthly savings to the account, you can essentially forget about it until it matures. Definitely worth getting in today's low interest rate environment! Reviewed on: 5th September 2016

Reasonably flexible, with easy application process

4

I was able to redeem by Barclays/Woolwich mortgage and while I had to pay a redemption penalty, I was able to reclaim this as I took out a new mortgage with them and complete within 6 months. When applying for the new mortgage, the dedicated advisor was responsive, efficient and helpful, and the redemption penalty on my previous mortgage was refunded as promised. Reviewed on: 5th September 2016

Flexible and straightforward

4

Swiftcover have a good online portal for managing my policy, although some fees are higher than I'd like. Reviewed on: 14th August 2016

No longer a market leader

3

I joined the Newcastle BS when their "Big Home Saver" regular savings account was a market leader, paying about 3% . Over the last few years the rate has gradually declined to the point where I abandoned the society to pursue better rates elsewhere. Service with Newcastle was always good in my experience, although the online banking service was a little clunky. Overall a B+ (could do better!) Reviewed on: 22nd June 2016