Notice Accounts

Notice savings accounts you should earn more interest; because you are voluntarily putting a limit on how quickly you can get at your money, you should find banks and building societies willing to pay you more interest. Offering them the certainty of your deposit should be rewarded with a higher interest rate.

Putting your money into one of the variety of notice accounts on offer means that you must give the stipulated amount of notice before withdrawing any funds.

Typical notice periods range from 30 to 120 days. Withdraw your money without notice and you'll be penalised by losing interest on your savings equivalent to the notice period. Thus, withdraw funds without notice on a 30-day notice account and you'll lose 30 day's worth of interest.

Some notice accounts will allow a stipulated number of withdrawals each year without penalty but you may have to maintain a specified minimum balance on the account in order to benefit from this. Other accounts will offer an interest bonus but in order to be eligible to receive it, you must make no more than a set number of withdrawals in the year.

The interest rates on notice accounts are not as attractive as they used to be and you may find the restrictions onerous and cumbersome.

Last Updated: April 2008 © Moneyextra.com

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