MSE News: Last chance to grab 3.2% Santander Cash ISA online

My application was processed within 7 minutes today (6.50pm), however i did my moms later on at 11pm and still only got the acknowledgement email so far, no acceptance email. We bank with A&L so is probably quickier for us.

Just so you know, if you open it up in Branch there are some advantages:

1) If there are any problems you can go into Branch and sort it out rather than having to go through endless call centres

2) The staff get a bonus for it

I do actually.

But the first part of what I said is true.

If somebody comes in and opens a Flexi Isa in Branch we can have it actioned and opened and an account number assigned within an hour, all details are then posted out to customers from head office within 7 days.

Any problems with accounts opened in branch can be dealt with in branch. No call centres, no hassle.

Sorry for being thick, but am I missing something here?

This MSE 'top rate' Cash ISA at 3.2% not only involves what appears to be -- judging from the experiences chronicled by other MSErs elsewhere on this forum -- a pair of banks amongst the most blazingly inept in the UK financial services sector. . .

. . . It's also a 3.2% rate for new money only. You cannot transfer in.

Now, let's compare this acclaimed, headline-making, transfers-in prohibited, available by branch visit only, 3.2% top rate Cash ISA from A&L and Bank Santander with the absolutely none headline-making 3.0% Cash ISA from, er, Dumfermline Building Society.

For which you can apply online: you fill in the on-screen form which is then handily turned into a pdf; you print it out; pop it in a Freepost envelope with your cheque; and that's it.

The Dunfermline Building Society rate is guaranteed fixed for one year. No ifs. No buts. There's no in-built 'introductory offer'. Equally obviously, there's no requirement on you to tie up your savings for a much longer term: 12 months, and that's it. Job done.

But what's of greater interest here (in every sense of the word) is that unlike A&L and Bank Santander, transfers-in are allowed. Not prohibited.

Now. . . my math isn't good at the best of times, but I'm figuring that 3.2% equals £3.20p in the £100, £32 in the £1,000, £320 in £10,000 and £640 in £20,000.

Whereas, er, 3.0% on £20,000 earns forty quid less. Except: you can't get 3.2% on £20,000 anyway. . .

So in my situation, the position is:

* headline-making best buy top rate A&L / Bank Santander Cash ISA: 3.2% for 1 Year on no more than £5,100. Maximum interest payable: £162.00;

* none headline-making not best buy not top rated Dunfermline Building Society Cash ISA: 3.0% for 1 Year Fixed: £150 on £5,100 + £450 on transfer in of £15,000 = £600.

Fair enough, some folks will have less in their accumulated Cash ISAs to transfer-in. Some will have more. The illustration I'm providing relates only to me. But whatever the amount, it's only necessary to have £1,000 ready to transfer-in and that's £180 for the year's interest: £18 more than A&L / Santander.

I've no particular qualms about the Dunfermline Building Society: it's owned by Nationwide. I'm not fussed about it not being an Internet account, either: the term is fixed, the rate is fixed, the interest will be paid only at the end of the term. No reason for me to go online to look at how the interest is or is not accumulating, because it won't show.

So, um. . .

Just what is it that has MSE so excited about the £10-extra-on-five-grand (3.2% versus 3.0%) from a pair of (seemingly) bonkers banks with a record of lousy customer service and, in my own experience, stupefying incompetence?

(I've posted on MSE's Vents, Praise & Nervous Breakdown thread about A&L and Al Capone, the person A&L now thinks I am. Or Clyde to my wife's Bonnie.)

Also: so, um, what is it that has MSE so excited about the 2.75% A&L / Bank Santander Cash ISA that allows transfers in. . . when I've just opened my little Dunfermline Building Society Cash ISA allowing transfers in at 3.0%?

I appreciate the hard graft and the vast amount of time that goes into just the savings aspect of this site alone. I also appreciate, it ain't easy to prioritise this offer v that offer in a constantly changing fiscal landscape. So no, this post isn't intended as any kind of criticism.

Rather it's to say that as things stand, MSE's "Top Rate Accounts" list is just a leetle misleading where many typical savers are concerned: Barclays at 3.1% but no transfers-in? Birmingham Midshires which does allow transfers in but at 2.7%?

Shomething wrong, shomewheres. . .

PS: No, I don't work for Dunfermline Building Society.

PPS: I don't own a kilt or am remotely related to Mel McGibson.

PPPS: I've never even been to Dunfermline.

I went to my local Santander branch to open a flexible Isa yesterday only to be told they couldn't open it instore as they had a backlog and they gave me a printed info sheet and told me to ring up to open one. As it was late yesterday I didn't get around to it and rang first thing this morning to open the account. First thing on the phone was a message saying that I could not open it over the phone but only in branch but I hung on in there as that is what I was told to do by my branch.

When I got a customer adviser he told me I couldn't open one as it was now closed. I told him that my local branch had told me to ring and why would they tell me to ring if they knew it was closing yesterday, but he would not be swayed. I also told him it was still showing as current online, still he insisted he could not open one for me and tried to persuade me to open one of the lower interest accounts. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he told me I couldn't. I insisted I speak to his supervisor and he took my details and said someone would ring me within 24 hours. 2 hours later same guy rang me back and suddenly he can open the account due to the differences in info given me.

Clearly one hand doesn't know what the other is doing!