Has anyone any opinions on the newly advertised Marcus account from Goldman Sachs please? From what I can make out, it pays 1.5%, there are no charges and you can only pay in or withdraw into another single bank account which you register.
Any gotchas?
"Is my deposit covered under the UK bank deposit protection scheme is the first question I'd be asking." GS do some pretty high risk trading. They were basically flat bust when the sub prime loans fiasco hit the world in 2007 and had to be bailed out by the Federal Reserve. It might not be so lucky next time.
It's a promotional rate, the 1.5% includes 0.15% bonus for the first twelve months. Look around for better deals.
I opened one a couple of weeks ago. Dead easy and yes deposits up to £85k are covered. Having a single linked account is fairly normal for these sort of offerings.
The account was open and functional within minutes and no need to send in any docs. It took about 10-15minutes for my first "pipe-cleaner" deposit of £1 to show up and subsequent deposits made in the next few minutes did not turn up in the order they were sent but within 30 mins £25k had gone in.
1.5% a lot better than the 0.1% from my bank to keep a house deposit safe for a few months
I think you will find it is currently the best instant access around for decent sized sums. There are a few better deals for first 12 months and under about £2500.
As this is a DIY group I'll point you to where you can answer such questions very easily:
And the relevance of that to the first £85,000 in a Marcus account is...
+1
Bob Minchin laid this down on his screen :
Good to hear! I will double check the up to £85K covered, but it seems to be the only account with a decent interest, where there is not a uselessly silly upper limit before zero interest kicks in, with the benefit of instant access.
There was no reason not to, so I opened an account with them a couple of days ago, expecting to receive an email to say it was open. I gave up and logged in a few minutes ago, to find it had been opened - then the email arrived confirming it was in fact open.
UK.DIY seems an odd place to ask about this but ... being as you asked: I opened a Marcus account on the day after it was launched - simple. FYI Virgin also have a 1.5% instant access account if you prefer them or have more than 85k and want to spread any risk. Also FYI, FundingCircle investments are equally simple and the returns are far higher than 1.5%, but have some risk.
snipped-for-privacy@aolbin.com formulated the question :
There is a wide range of experience here.
My risk is already spread, I'm just looking to transfer a large sum which recently stopped earning much interest, to a better interest account.
I do a full financial review each year at this time, of all my outgoings and all of my accounts.
The rate is variable, 1.5% AER variable (incl a fixed 0.15% bonus for 12mths) which means the rate could actually drop as low as 0.15%
Post Office offers 1.45% AER variable (incl fixed 1.2% bonus for 12 mths) which means the rate can't drop below 1.2%
If you don't need absolutely instant access, better rates are of course possible, even on 90 day notice.
Yep, its not a fixed rate but a variable rate. These organisations tend to advertise a competitive rate of interest until they reach their target investment amount and then reduce the rate of interest paid on the account. The only guarantee is the 0.15% bonus after 1 year, and only for the first year.
From their terms and conditions When you opened your Marcus account we gave you a product summary. This showed you the interest rate when you opened your Marcus account, and any bonus rate.
We may change your interest rate from time to time. If we do, we?ll let you know.
The important part is that you can take your money out at any stage.
It seems ok. I've got one which I use as a temporary parking place for any surplus money from my current account, so that it can earn a bit of interest.
When setting it up, they have some rather odd 'money laundering' questions about the source of the money which you will be investing. They wanted more information from me, which delayed setting up the account by several days. Since other people got a faster response, maybe I didn't answer the questions in the best way.
Anyway, once it was up and running, money could be moved in either direction very quickly, using the Faster Payments system. [My wife has a similar account with Aldermore, and that is much slower when moving money *and* pays a lower interest rate].
As with any account, you need to keep an eye on rates to make sure that it remains competitive.
Roger Mills has brought this to us :
I had no questioning at all, just the usual name, address, DOB and details of the too/from account, plus email and a password.
Once I had read opinions on here about the account, I transferred the usual test pound, with Faster Payments. I mucked it up, at the first attempt, because I had forgotten about the texted password, to set up a new payee. On my second attempt, that £1 appeared in the account within two minutes. I then moved a larger lump in, but that didn't appear for
15 minutes. I now need to transfer a very large sum from my high interest account (which is now not so good interest) into my nominated account, then into the new Marcus account.Yeah They gotcha money! Sorry could not resist it. Brian
Be lucky to have that sum to invest in the first place... Brian
Hard work and thrift, dear boy, hard work and thrift.
(Won't make you rich, but it sounds good.)
Owain
Jim K.. pretended :
Why not!
Jim K.. has brought this to us :
When seeking advice, it is always good manners to provide some feedback on whether the advice has been useful, has been followed and the result. I try to demonstrate good manners.
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