Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

Well, I know this is the main issue with Santander customer services. Quite often the one behind the telephone will tell you a different thing.

This is the telephone number that I used.

[FONT=&quot]0845 972 4724 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0845 972 4724 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

[/FONT] While I have no reason to suspect about the claim as a Santander Adviser, I invite you to try yourself so you could prove it.

I have 1 super fixed rate monthly saver i9 and 4X fixed rate Monthly saver i12. So If I could vary the amount it will be vary useful. I normally change the SO by myself.

The problem here is that if something goes wrong, I can not say that someone from MSE forum who said to be Santander Adviser said that.

Could you please raise this issue to your boss, if you find colleague provide a wrong advise.

I believe beside the Faster Payment problem, customer services over the phone is the main issue with Santander. There is no point to call them if you do not believe what they are advising you. Also if we are not careful we might find our self to get a rubbish interest rate of 0.1% where we are expecting to get 4%.

ses6jwg wrote: »

You have been advised incorrectly.

I am a Santander adviser and have a FRMS myself. I have varied the payment between £20 and £250, and you can vary the payment.

adindas wrote: »

The problem here is that if something goes wrong, I can not say that someone from MSE forum who said to be Santander Adviser said that.

This is a worry for me also, but you can always fall back on the Ts&Cs of the account. If they didn't give you any then ring up and ask for them, as they don't seem to be available online. In the Ts&Cs I was given it says nothing about the interest rate being reduced if you vary the payment amount between £20 and £250, only that it will be reduced to 0.1% for that month only if you pay under £20, or for the rest of the term if you pay over £250.

I got the feeling from the advisor I spoke to that if they set up a monthly transfer from your Santander account, then you physically can't change the amount. And I think this is the reason they are telling people they have to pay the same amount every month. If anyone who has a transfer set up from their Santander account rather than an SO from another account can confirm/deny this, that would be very helpful.

However, if you set up an SO yourself (preferably coming from another bank to be on the safe side), they cannot possibly stop you from varying the amount. Then since the Ts&Cs of the account only require an amount between £20 and £250 to be paid each month between the 2nd and 21st of the month, in order to qualify for the full 6% interest, then this is what you should be paid.

This is pure speculation on my part, but backed up by the Ts&Cs and some anecdotal evidence from people who say they have varied the amount and still been paid the full interest. I have not seen any replies from people who have varied the amount and lost their interest as a result, but that's not to say it hasn't happened.

Personally I'm setting an SO up for £250. I will try as hard as I can to pay in this much every month, but if I really have to reduce it then I will. Then at the end of the year, if they don't give me the full interest I will be complaining since they wont have kept to their Ts&Cs, but I really hope I don't have to do this.

Milarky wrote: »

The '2nd'!! What about the 1st of any month? I've set my SO to pay from '1st' - and most months that is when they get the transfer. I hope that's not what the T&Cs (wherever they have hidden them!) actually do stipulate constitutes 'a month'?

I have had 9 of these and always transferred on the 1st.

However, I noticed that the T&Cs 4c stipulate the SO should be set up to leave the originating a/c between the 2nd and 21st.

And ditto for the two Ipswich regular savers (Holiday Save and Smart Save) I have that have just matured. The account stays open and any new money that you deposit gets the 3% bonus - any that you leave just gets the 0.5% basic, but you can make one withdrawal / year so I'm just withdrawing that and keeping the account going. 3.5% not too shabby, although certainly not the best available.