EBS Platinum Vs Short Term Fixed

J

jambo.ie

Registered User
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I am holding off buying a house and have a lump to put away for a few months. I want to try and beat inflation without risking the farm so to speak. I also want access to this money relatively quickly if I decide to buy.

I have been looking around at the interest rates offered and the Platinum Account from EBS currently offers the best rate at 5% CAR. This rate tracks the 1 month EURIBOR and is updated weekly. Looking around I see that this rate is currently on a serious high. It seems to depend on the liquidity of interbank credit markets, which is poor at the moment and unlikely to improve? (poor liquidity leads to higher cost of credit for banks?)

The next best rate I can find is also from EBS and is for a 3 month fixed rate deposit. This offers CAR of 4.94%. I would intend rolling this over each quarter until I decide to buy. The risk here is that next quarter this rate will go down?
 
How much are you talking about here? Platinum Account minimum deposit is €150K. Also it seems to be paying 5.0429% CAR [broken link removed].
 
The sum is in excess of the minimum for that account. For the sake of .1% the 3 month fixed would be more prudent I suppose. Then there is the risk that next quarter the 3 month rate will be down. If I decide to buy a house I don't think I can wait 6 to 12 months to get the cash back off EBS though.
 
What about mixing and matching a number of the other lump sum demand/short term and regular saver (those without restrictive terms & conditions) accounts opening multiple accounts if you are a couple (e.g. one each and one joint making three where possible)? You know - 2 x < €15K (or x 3 if you can open two individual and one joint account) in FA eSavings etc.
 
Thanks for your help on this. By opening two individual accounts with €15,000 in each at 7% I would get a few hundred extra. Definitely not to be sniffed at. I suppose it's lazy to just put it all in the one account when there's hundreds to be made.
 
Don't put €15K in the account. If the balance is €15K+ then the rate on the full amount falls from 5.22% to 4.33%. You need to lodge less than €15K and then make sure that the balance never reaches €15K in order to maximise interest returns. For example c. €14,200 would be safe if you withdraw interest annually, c. €14,930 (?) if you withdraw the interest monthly as it is credited etc.
 
Sorry - I was referring to the First Active eSavings account above because I thought that you were referring to it in reply to my earlier post. Apologies for any confusion caused.
 
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