My experiences with Raisin in case they help anyone. I have been watching this platform for some months and a few weeks ago decided to take the plunge.
You register with them first (hopefully using a referral, see later) and that gets you into the platform. They collect all of the basics including ID needed to open savings accounts so this is the hardest work you need to do.
Then you
fund your Raisin account (sort code and account number). The funds do not show instantly (a bit scary, I know) but generally do show by early evening. Funds can be sent in dribs and drabs so you don't need to send big sums until you are confident. This is better than lots of fixed savings accounts that demand large amounts in a single initial payment within a tight time window.
You can then
select from the marketplace of savings accounts, rates, terms and providers available. They are not always the absolute market leading accounts but are pretty close and remember they are taking away all of the admin of meeting the needs of different savings providers (and some of them can be hard work). The bonuses below also add substantially to the interest earned in the first year.
I chose a fixed 1 year at the top of the table and stated I was saving
£10,000 to qualify for the
£50 Welcome Bonus. This number is important since they will not open your savings account and send the money to the actual savings provider until you have sent that amount to your Raisin account.
Once you have funded your Raisin account with the correct amount that triggers the opening of the account with the actual provider. You can take up to 30 days to send the funds and until they send them on you can withdraw your application. So if you fear rates are rising you can
hedge by selecting an account and then wait a few days to see what the marketplace does.
It typically take 2 working days for the funds to be sent and for the actual savings account to be opened. By the end of the second day (late evening in my experience), you will get a Welcome email stating it is open but actually it will have been visible as open by around 17:30 on that second day.
So a bit longer than normal when dealing direct but here are the Pros:
Pros:
- Only one platform to deal with
- Only one payment account to send funds too
- Able to see all of your savings quickly and easily in one place
- Much easier renewals and maturity instructions
- Ease of admin and tax management etc.
- Single basic platform app to view and transact
incentives
So at the moment there is the long term £50 Welcome bonus if you save at least £10,000 for 6 months (details and terms from
https://www.raisin.co.uk/bonus/)
There is the Refer a friend incentive of £25 if you are referred by email and save at least £5000 (I will get £25 as well) (details and terms from
https://www.raisin.co.uk/refer-friend-bonus/)
and if you are really quick you could get £10 for each £5000 you put into a new account by 31 Dec (
https://www.raisin.co.uk/boost-bonus/) This is getting tight to do more than 1 since account needs to be funded and open by Sat!
I hope these experiences help people since I had lots of questions when I considered this. If I have helped you then please consider letting me refer you to get your extra £25 - just drop me a PM with your name and email and I will get them to send you the appropriate referral email for you to use (its pretty quick)
If you have any questions in this regard then please do not hesitate to get in touch and I will try to help.
If you have been, then thanks for reading this far!