Which savings account is best?

[AsItShouldBe]

I have been saving £150 every month, in a savings account which is AER/Gross p.a (variable)
6.17% / 6.00% on balances up to £5,000. It's 1.75% for Balances over £5000.

I currently have £3000 in it. The maximum i can add each month is £150.

I'm not geat with maths so just asking whether I should move this to the nationwide account that is 8% which I think is paid after 12 months. This account allows a maximum of £200 a month which I might be able to do at a push.

My plan is to save £5k as my emergency fund.

If someone could explain how I work this out so I know how to do it myself for next time, that would be really helpful.

So if the Nationwide rate only allows a £200 saving each month i would leave your current savings where they are, continuing to earn a very decent rate of interest, and put your next 12 months into the Nationwide. Then you could consolidate, depending on rates, in a year's time, when you should easily have your £5,000. Unfortunately chasing the best interest rate means you can end up with various pots of savings all over the place, and you have to be organised to keep track.

(Looks like you also need to open a Nationwide current account to get their 8% saver.)

Are both regular savings accounts? If so, the rate is only fixed for 12 months, and usually you need to keep contributing every month in order to get the interest at the end of the 12 months.

The 8% account is definitely a regular saver. I suspect the Nationwide one is too.

Can you confirm?

I would keep the account you have and get it up to £5k and then open the regular saver and put as much in as you can for 12 months then review in a year

The Nationwide 8% account is the Flex Regular Saver and the other account that I have 3k is in the Natwest Digital Regular Saver.

OK, so for the Nationwide Regular Saver (8%) you need a Flex current account with them - do you have that? (You can open one easily.)

You can only save £200 a month, so you’ll get 8% on £200 in month 1, then on £400 in month 2, and so on.

In the meantime, your Natwest saver is earning 6% on the whole £3,000 every month.

So the best thing to do, mathematically, is to stop saving into the NatWest account every month but leave the £3,000 in there.
Save your £150-200 a month into the Nationwide Regular Saver for 12 months.

After 12 months you can see if it’s worth putting the whole lot together somewhere.

There’s a good explanation and a calculator for regular savings vs ordinary savings accounts on the MSE site.

Thank you all. I will look into opening the Nationwide accounts and start saving in there for the next 12 months.