Meanwhile Chase had yesterday finally become competitive again by increasing its rate to 2.7% from 4th of January 2023, but that has now been overtaken by events. Serves as a reminder though to check when any increase is applicable from, and whether it is immediate or deferred. OakNorth has also gone down the deferred route.
Zopa’s finally written. I do like it when they stay in touch:
We’re getting in touch to let you know that rates for our Smart Saver are changing. Here’s what that means for you:
- The new rate for your Access pots will be: 2.86% AER* variable (2.82% gross**). This was applied to your account on 15/12/22. The old rate was: 2.40% AER* variable (2.37% gross**).
- The new rate for your 7 Day Boosted pots will be: 2.91% AER* variable (2.87% gross**). This was applied to your account on 15/12/22. The old rate was: 2.45% AER* variable (2.42% gross**).
- The new rate for your 31 Day Boosted pots will be: 3.06% AER* variable (3.01% gross**). This was applied to your account on 15/12/22. The old rate was: 2.60% AER* variable (2.56% gross**).
- The new rate for your 95 Day Boosted pots will be: 3.26% AER* variable (3.21% gross**). This was applied to your account on 15/12/22. The old rate was: 2.80% AER* variable (2.76% gross**).
You don’t need to do anything. We’ll automatically adjust the interest rates for your Smart Saver.
Thanks,
The Zopa team
*AER stands for Annual Equivalent Rate. It shows what the interest rate would be after a full year, including the compound interest you’ll get from paying you interest each month.
**Gross is the rate we apply to your money and is without any deductions for tax.
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Good news! I’m pleased to see that Zopa are continuing to be competitive, and that they’re raising the rates on their existing accounts, rather than issuing new accounts with higher rates and letting the loyal/lazy customers suffer.
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If you move some funds from a boosted pot to an accessible pot does it provide a separate accessible pot or just one accessible pot ie if you have an accessible pot already do the funds get added to that pot? Also if your boosted pot becomes accessible do you receive the accessible rate of interest? Hope this makes sense.
You can also choose to boost the pot again. I tend to boost a pot, immediately give notice, then boost it again if I don’t need it straight away.
If you’ve got £5000 in a 7D pot and then access it do you have to do the whole £5000 so you can’t do part of it? Once it becomes accessible do you still receive the rate you’d get on your primary pot which is 2.86% currently?
And when Rexx says overnight, that can mean just after midnight and, in my experience, definitely before 1 am. So if you’re a night owl, you can make any changes you want pretty immediately.
The restriction (7 days) is on the pot itself, not the money in it. Once you give notice, the pot changes to an instant access one after 7 days and will give that rate of interest on anything in it. You can withdraw what you like from the pot and the remaining amount will earn interest at the easy access rate. You can also boost again for another 7 days (or 31, or 95).
What I tend to do when a pot matures is either move it back to my main Zopa account, create a new pot, or withdraw elsewhere, depending on rates, competition and personal considerations.
I leave the old pot open, with say £1 in it, to collect any small bits of outstanding interest on that particular pot. There will always be some, usually pence, because l think I am correct in saying that, if you are on monthly interest, the interest is paid on your pots on the same day of the month, say the 24th, irrespective of when the individual pots were opened. Then close the old pots a month later, by transferring the balance to main, and formally closing online.
Again, I am led to believe that if you close the old account as soon as it matures, rather than leaving it for a while, those odd bits of outstanding interest are allocated to your main Zopa account.
Sometimes I create a 7 day pot just while I think about what to do with the funds. That soon passes.
Ok, so this is me being dumb and trying to get my head around what those actual figures mean in the ‘real world’.
Working with £100 (nice round number). If I put £100 into the 95 day account, would that mean that if I left it for a year and did nothing, at the end of that year it would be worth £103.26? Or would that mean that for the first 95 days it’ll earn 84p (£3.26/365*95=0.84) and then after that it’ll earn interest at 2.86 for the rest of the year as an instant access pot? ((£2.86/365)x(365-95)=£2.11 + 0.84=£2.95).
If it worth using these to save ‘little and often’ and have multiple rolling pots (does anyone know if there’s a maximum you can have?) So, for a year setup a new 95 day pot every month with £20 in it, or even go even smaller at a £5 per week pot? (other than the general idea that any saving you can put aside is always a good idea!)
Yes, you are correct. No need to wait a month. Residual interest and any visible balance will automatically transferred to you Primary pot/account.
That is correct. It would earn for the entire period it is in there. The 95 days is for notice of intention to withdraw, not the term of the account for interest.
Open an account with as little as 1p each Monday, giving 95 days notice the same day, and, in approx three months, you will have a 7 day notice account offering top rate from Zopa.
This is unique to Zopa, I believe, as other providers make you quote the sum you intend to withdraw.
The only 95 day pot that you fund above 1p is the one next due to mature (i.e. the earliest maturity date).
For example.
19/12/2022 - Pot 1 : £100.00 Give immediate notice. Funds available 24/03/2023
26/12/2022 - Open Pot 2. Deposit 1p. Give immediate notice. Funds available 31/03/2023
and so on.
Then, on 24 March 2023, pot 1 will release. Take any funds that you need then, and transfer balance (minus 1p) into existing Pot 2. That will then release the following week.
Re-boost Pot 1 for 95 days, containing the residual 1p, and give immediate notice again.
I started this in September, and am now to reap the benefit of it 
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ok, I think I’ve got my head around that now. And yes, now I see it’s a 95 notice account, not a 95 day savings account that will magically unlock on day 95.
So, going with my original plan of saving £20 a month, it’ll look something like
1st week of the month - save £20, give notice to withdraw
2nd, 3rd, 4th week of the month, save 1p per week in separate pots, give notice
1st week of 2nd month - save £20, give notice to withdraw…etc
On day 95, move money into pot maturing next week keeping 1p back and boosting that for 95 day notice again, keep bouncing/boosting that each week to next pot.
1st week of next month - add £20 to pot to mature following week then when that pot matures, bounce that to the following week leaving behind 1p.
Keep that up all year so by the end of it, I’m bouncing £240 + interest each week and then if I continue into Year 2, I’ll be looking at £480 + interest by the end of that year etc. etc. if I don’t withdraw any.
At the moment I’ve got literally (scarily) no savings at all put aside so that’s top of my resolution list with a target of at least £1,000 to cover emergency things like 'the wheels have fallen off the car.
Yes, you have to explicitly request notice, to ‘force’ maturity. Otherwise the account will just sit there, albeit accruing interest. If you just left it for 6 months, you would still have to give 95 days notice to gain access, even though 6 months, or any period, has passed.
Of course you can make it into a term account, by giving notice ‘immediately’ after setting it up.
Oh that’s clever. I thought that once a Zopa pot was funded and notice given it was locked. Today, I learnt…!
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‘No need to wait a month’
I know, but I still like to see it coming through separately. 
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I understand that the maximum number of pots you can hold in one Smart Saver account is 20. I have had 14 at one point, but less now.
Good to know, though I only have 9, plus the Primary.
7x 95 day
2x 31 day
I tend to record all my finances in separate software and noticed that the Zopa balances are over counted by about 1-2p, going by the values on the activity feed. The drift seems to happen after interest payment so I’m guessing it’s some fractions of a penny + rounding issue.
e.g. interest payment might say +7.50 but the balance on the whole account suggests the increase was 7.51
not complaining about an extra penny but I wish they’d just round up to 2 decimal places so it makes accounting much easier to manage!
I queried this with Zopa who said interest is calculated to 8 decimal places therefore it may differ by a penny when added to the principal amount.
See article below
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Yeah it is an irritating feature as it’s per pot.
Last month I was 5p out so had to hunt to find the entries to tally up.
First World problem, but 