ABBEY REGULAR SAVER ISSUE 5 Matured EARLY

exel1966 · 9 August 2007 at 5:56PM

Having made my 13th payment into this account on 01 August I wasn't expecting it to mature until 01 Sept as the conditions state that the account doesn't mature til the 1st of the month following the final payment.

Well, that isn't quite true as whilst speaking to Abbey head office on another matter they informed me that interest had been paid to the Issue 5 on 02 August and the account can be closed at any time.
So today I went to my local branch and transferred the money to another account.

So, if you have one of these and don't want to wait a few weeks contact Abbey and take your money.

EDIT : It would appear that I've opened a can of worms here without realising it. What I don't understand is why some of the 13th payments have been accepted and some returned. Mine was set up to leave an account on the 30th July and arrive 01st Aug which it did, the payment was accepted, therefore earning more interest. Did those who had their 13th payment rejected send the payment after the interest (02 Aug) had been paid because if they did according to Abbey the account had already been effectively wrongly closed and that may explain it.

Milarky · 9 August 2007 at 6:20PM

Can you clarify if interest is paid from 1st August up until today without penalty also - since the terms and conditions do state that interest is paid at a lower rate (0.75%pa) in the calendar month of any partial withdrawal.

exel1966 · 9 August 2007 at 6:26PM

Interest was paid, though I'm not that good at working out what the exact rate was after the intial interest was paid.

Received £102.57 Net 02 Aug for the £3250 and then another £4.70 net today on closure.

What do those payments tell you ?

ctdctd · 9 August 2007 at 8:04PM

exel1966 wrote: »

Interest was paid, though I'm not that good at working out what the exact rate was after the intial interest was paid.

Received £102.57 Net 02 Aug for the £3250 and then another £4.70 net today on closure.

What do those payments tell you ?

Interest for a full year at 8% is about 3000*.08*.8*6.5/12 = £104 so yours sounds about right - the 13th £250 was only in for a day to 2nd August so didn't really count. As your payment date was the 1st, looks like they lost a month somewhere - ask them for the extra 8% for a month:-)

Slightly confused by the £4.70 for 7 days as 8% on £3250 would give about £3.90 and the Flexible Saver pays 3.95% so £1.96 or so.

From the T&C's for the current RS account:-
Interest is paid directly into the account after close of business on the 1st of the month following your 13th monthly payment into the account. Your account will automatically become a Flexible Saver account at this time,

Milarky · 9 August 2007 at 8:13PM

ctdctd wrote: »

Slightly confused by the £4.70 for 7 days as 8% on £3250 would give about £3.90 and the Flexible Saver pays 3.95% so £1.96 or so.

Assuming it's '8' days [1st to 9th] and not '7', it comes out at £4.55 net - close enough. It certainly means they have paid interest at 8% gross for the part month. Which makes it worthwhile closing the account at the end of this month (being the 13th Month) to get the maximum interest anyway. See Condition 8 [term]: "If the first monthly payment is made [in] August 2006, the account will mature on 1 September 2007"

exel1966 · 9 August 2007 at 8:41PM

It would appear that I may have jumped ship early, but fortunately all the funds have been spread into a newly opened Abbey current account paying 8% and other RS paying 10% (x2) and 12% so all's well that ends well !!

Still not sure they've underpaid me as you suggest ctdctd, though I'm far from good at these calculations.

david78 · 9 August 2007 at 8:56PM

Who are your 10% and 12% regular savings accounts with?

RayWolfe · 10 August 2007 at 8:38PM

Got mine checked today. Interest paid 2nd August instead of 1st September.
Enquiry from staff differed:
1st said: The terms have been changed to 12 payments and I would have been notified, it is now a Flexible saver and is available for withdrawal. Hold hard, says I, you don't go changing T&Cs part way through a Fixed Rate, Fixed Term account. Let me speak to another person.
2nd said: Terms were always 13 months from opening, i.e. 12 payments. You hold hard too said I and whipped out the account brochure which said 13 payments. Don't know why they worded it that way said he, because it meant 13 months not 13 payments. Check Mate, as I then whipped out the full T&Cs which, of course referred to 13 payments after the month of opening!
Much head scratching; refused to phone head office but said he would ring me tomorrow after finding out the REAL situation.
Much more training required, methinks.
Why do they just invent reasons instead of finding out?

Milarky · 11 August 2007 at 8:19AM

I have checked my account too, now. It was 'matured' by Abbey on 1st August (based on 12 payments received - not 13) also, despite being opened with a first standing order payment on 1st Aug 2006 (received 3rd)

I queried with the T&Cs in front of me and the best the Abbey staff could suggest was the reason after having a confab was that the account was opened in July (25th) with a nil balance, so their system probably set the account maturity date to 'August' rather than 'September' as a result and (which is incorrect) that I could have made my first payment in July had I wished...

I've also had a payment returned to my bank in the last two days. I can't yet confirm if it came from Abbey however and neither can the bank but Abbey say that no 13th payment has been credited to the account and they can't check if a standing order would have been sent back either (poor auditing systems there, then!)

I agree with Ray that this is NOT by the book - the account conditions for the Abbey FRMS Issue 7 (7.25%) do now mention the Flexible Saver as the follow up account BUT everything else in the current T&Cs looks the same as was - including a 13th monthly payment:

FRMS Issue 7: I]does not display properly in Firefox[/I
4. Opening the Account

i. The Account must be opened with a nil balance.
ii. You must set up a standing order to start from the next calendar month following opening. The standing order must be for an amount between £20 and £250 to be credited to the Account monthly.
iii. You must arrange for the standing order to leave your originating account between 2nd and 21st of each month

8. Term

i. The Account will mature automatically into a Flexible Saver account after close of business on the 1st of the month following your 13th monthly payment into the account. Therefore, for instance, if your first monthly payment is made on 20 July 2007 -the Account will mature into an Abbey Flexible Saver account on 1 August 2008.

I got my call transferred to the 'complaints' department (actually 'Customer Satisfaction' dept.) and the guy there logged my issues politely enough. That is what I suggest anyone affect by the unexpected (early) closure of their account does. Meanwhile close the account and get your money out - as this will not affect your right to any remedy available.

Assuming the account was to be continued to the end of its original term, Abbey will have failed to pay interest to the customer at 8% (or 7% depending) from one calender month based on a balance of 13 regular payments. However, you would earn a rate of some kind elsewhere - so it's basically the difference between (say) 5.75% and 8% for one month - which is no more than £5 net really. Still, they should have operated an account with terms which they are capable of following or else made the account more flexible in the first place. All of this (customer service) loses customers quicker than anything else. Abbey's regular savers are the most inconveniently operated bar none.

Speculator · 11 August 2007 at 9:15AM

This is all very confusing. Based on the terms and conditions, my Abbey Regular issue 4 is due to mature on the 1st of November. It was opened with a nill balance on the 5th of Sept.

I will update my passbook on the 1st of October to check for any early interest payment and I will adjust my 13th payment from the 1st of October to the 8th of October to avoid the possibility of a return payment.

This will probably be the last time that I open a Abbey Regular Saver, not worth the hassle.

Careful_ly · 11 August 2007 at 10:41AM

It looks as if things have gone wrong at Abbey with this account, my 1st payment went in on 3.8.06 and on seeing this thread I've been intouch by phone.
Interest of £102.44 has already been credited and my payment which they received on 2.8.07 (13th Payment) has been sent back to my bank on 10th, having never reached my monthly saver.
The person I spoke to denied that anything had gone wrong with this account, could not explain why interest has been paid a month early and says they have a system fault which has caused some incoming payments not to reach the correct accounts. He assured me that I am still getting 8% on this account.
Customer complaints do not work on Saturday and will be intouch with me on Monday.

ABBEY REGULAR SAVER ISSUE 5 Matured EARLY

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