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I was told similar in the Leeds branch on Friday, that my original series account will be closed.

I could say it won't affect me much as the balance is modest at the moment, but on the other hand I was half hoping to pay in up to £1000 in March.

I would have swapped to the latest version there and then, but apparently a half hour appointment is needed, booked in advance. How tedious is that?

I can't really see why they are making the change. I suppose in theory someone might have £100k in a long-lived account, but there probably won't be many like that.

redux wrote: »

I was half hoping to pay in up to £1000 in March.

The monthly maximum for Issue 2 is £500. For Issue 3 it is £250.

Flexible Regular Saver allows up to £1000pm but only pays 1.50% including bonus.

I haven't had my letter yet - is the Leeds RS 2 closing on March 1st when interest is paid or at some later date?

The letter is ambiguous about interest earned from 1st March to 3rd March (yes, I know it's petty, but) they don't say the bonus-inclusive rate will be payable for those dates rather than the basic rate alone and it should be included IMO because

• i) They have elected to remove the product on a non-bonus anniversary date for whatever reason (but beyond the control of the customer)
• ii) you can't receive the bonus for the year ending 28th Feb if you now close your account early so you have to 'sit it out' till 1st March at the earliest
• iii) 1st March is a Sunday and they are electing to transfer closing balances on the Tuesday rather than the Monday (So I suppose you can request payment on 2nd in advance) but they are cutting it fine.

Yes Leeds does have a streamlined operation for account redemptions/closures - which is a good thing admittedly.

I repsonded to this letter by asking them over the phone to consider allowing me to transfer my closing balance to a RS Iss 3 instead of taking their 0.85% with access or their tied in bonds at 2%/2.6%. My arguments were:

• a) The letter explains the closure is: "to simplify our savings range, and streamline the number of accounts we offer" (and does not mention interest rates)
• b) on checking with them, the Regular Saver Iss 3 will remain available after this exercise, paying 3%+ comparing more favourably to the rates offered by the transfer.
• c) A regular saver (i.e. an account offering limited access for a better rate and allowing further additions also) is closer to my existing product and more closely meets my needs than any of the alternatives being suggested.[Leeds may point out they you can add without the obligation to do so to their 'Tracker' paying 0.85% in repsonse to that. In response to that, you could say that they are only porviding this account until 31/07/16 - for 18 months anyway, at which point you'll have a decision of whether to 'move it' again]
• d) There's also the question of how they propose streamlining the accounts they 'offer' (market?) by launching three new accounts in this way?

The real reason Leeds wants to close these (and other?) closed issue accounts is to save interest - except they don't give that as the reason in their letter. Thus, they can't resist the argument that a transfer into a regular saver Iss 3 instead would not meet both their 'stated needs' as well as the customer's needs. They don't need to launch new products (whose features guarantee they wouldn't be selected by customers with that choice) anyway - again confirming they are acting in a unstated fashion aimed at cost cutting.