natwest isa 7.32%

runciblespoon

Milarky: I don't have the call recording here, but that wasn't what the CSA said. I specifically asked about the bonus period and was told it will start from the moment there's money in the account (or words to that effect, I'll check later when I have access to the recording).

Went into my village branch, to discover it is counter service only except the one day a week when someone comes for other business. So had to go into town.

Went into town at lunchtime, branch wasn't that busy. I saw an adviser within about 5 mins, who was a 'Service Quality Assistant', or something like that - she said she'd been drafted in to cope with short staffing. She did know about the new product - said they'd received a fax from head office but probably the customers knew more than them!

First of all she opened a First Reserve account with zero balance. Apparently the computer won't let you open accounts with zero balance, so the printout said 'holder will open with £1'. I didn't hand over any cash for this, and assume the £1 will get ignored. Apparently they automatically issue a card with this account, but I'm free to cut it up.

All went swimmingly until I said that I wanted to cross out the 'I want to subscribe to this cash ISA for 2008-9' because I didn't want to prejudice my options for 08/09 money. The form on the computer has a 'I'm going to pay in £XXX' option and again there was the problem that she had to put £1 in that box. I asked if she was happy for me to cross out that box, and the bit about subscribing to a cash ISA in this and subsequent years. She didn't know, so then spent 10 mins on the phone to head office. At the end of the day she said it was OK that I could open the account with just a transfer and no cash deposit, and that I'd had it confirmed on the phone earlier in the morning seemed to settle it. I crossed out the 'I'm paying £1' and the '2008/9' bits of the form and signed it.

Then we had to fill out the ISA transfer request forms. These are the same ones as linked upthread, and even though all the details are on computer we had to fill them out by hand in black ink.

Took about 35 mins all told. I'm glad I didn't go to a busy city centre branch to do this

runciblespoon

Right, here's a partial transcript of my call this morning. It's not as clear as it could have been, as I think the CSA and I were talking at cross purposes - she was talking about the stepping on the account (6.67% to 7.32%) while I was talking about the bonus. Anyway, the last sentence of the exchange seems to cover the question I was really asking:


Me: Also, can you explain how the bonus rate works?

CSA: Yeah, certainly. You just get an extra bonus, it's 2% AER bonus. That's applied over the course of a year with your monthly interest that you earn on your ISA. So it's a rate that you receive for a year, it's just an extra... not sure how much it works out on a monthly basis but I know that the, say that if you have the 27,000 the full amount in there you get the 7.32% AER. That's applied over the course of a year, however that works out as a monthly nominal rate.

Me: OK. So it says it's calculated on the whole balance for 12 months from the receipt of the transfer request...

CSA: Yep.

Me: So assuming the transfer request doesn't go through for two or three weeks would I not get the ISA on the first month, for example because I won't have had the full balance in there for the first month?

(I meant 'bonus' not 'ISA' in that sentence, but she seemed to understand what I meant)

CSA: Um, you should, umm, let's just have a look for you... I'll check that...

(pause)

CSA: Won't be a second, I'll just bring up some additional information

Me: What's on the website isn't very clear

CSA: No, we've got some additional information here I'll just bring that up for you.

(pause)

CSA: Right, the bonus interest will apply from the date the transfer is received. So when the money's clearing in the account you should still receive the interest on that. We've got here, it says that the bonus interest is going to apply from the date that the transfer is received into the account. You'll get interest paid on the balance that's in the account, though, so as soon as you make a transfer request the interest that you're paid on the account itself is gonna be whatever percent. So if there's no money in the account at all, until that point the starting interest rate is gonna be 6.67. So f you've still got money you can put in an ISA this tax year, if you've still got room to invest in an ISA you'll get 6.67% on whatever you put in there, up until the moment that your transfer goes into your account and the interest is calculated on a daily basis. You will still receive the higher interest rate from the day you put the extra money into the account, the day that transfer hits.

Me: If I do a transfer without any money for this tax year, does the clock for the year start ticking the moment the cheque is received from my old ISA provider, is that how it works?

CSA: Yes, that's how it works. The year that you get the bonus interest for is from the date the transfer is received by us.


From my conversation in-branch today I think what they're getting at is if you just deposit cash you don't get the bonus rate. To do that you must do a transfer from another provider. That's what she's talking about in the long paragraph above.

Gazza_UK_3

I am going to go for this I think. Printed application forms off and just filling them in.

Section where it says transfer date, what date do I actually put in there? Will today's date suffice? Also where you put the current ISA provider details, it asks for an account No and sort code, but I only have account No's, so I take it sort code is just left blank?

Say for example, this was all processed and active as of Oct 1st, I take it I would be looking to transfer again at the end of Sept 2009?

Cheers,

Gazza.

coolio_2

What ID would you need to take into the branch? I have a Natwest current a/c if that helps

COCO

Hi, a current account would be ok.

COCO

Gazza_UK wrote: »

I am going to go for this I think. Printed application forms off and just filling them in.

Section where it says transfer date, what date do I actually put in there? Will today's date suffice? Also where you put the current ISA provider details, it asks for an account No and sort code, but I only have account No's, so I take it sort code is just left blank?

Say for example, this was all processed and active as of Oct 1st, I take it I would be looking to transfer again at the end of Sept 2009?

Cheers,

Gazza.

I think you will need the sort code, just ring the bank in question and ask for it.

You would have to transfer at the end of the bonus period, or if they were to drop the variable rate say in a couple of months time, which is possible but so could the rest of the top payers and if that were the case Natwest could still be the top rate?.

Jonbvn

Given what I've read about this account in the posts above, and NW's perceived ineptitude, I wouldn't even consider opening this account if it was paying 20%!

It has got Nationwide written all over it!

Gazza_UK_3

So is this another avoid with barge pole ISA then?

runciblespoon

Gazza_UK wrote: »

Section where it says transfer date, what date do I actually put in there? Will today's date suffice? Also where you put the current ISA provider details, it asks for an account No and sort code, but I only have account No's, so I take it sort code is just left blank?

When we filled in my forms in the branch, we left the transfer date box blank. It's only if the old ISA needs notice so NatWest don't request the money early and cause a penalty. You can always put in today's date if you like.

For the account number, we wrote in the account number above the box (which was of the form ABC1234XYZ so didn't fit the box, and there was no sort code). Wrote the name of the ISA provider on the line for it, and in the blank space underneath wrote the address and phone number of the ISA provider just in case (it was rather an obscure one).

Say for example, this was all processed and active as of Oct 1st, I take it I would be looking to transfer again at the end of Sept 2009?

That would sound plausible.

COCO

Been and opened 2 today, 1 each for my wife and I, must say quite painless.

As the post above says, i too had to put the old isa accont number outside of the box because it would not fit and had to guess the amount i was transfering because i do not know what interest it will have earned?.

This lady who dealt we my transfers had done her home work because Monday she knew nothing but today she was on the ball and new everything about it.

Just hope it goes through quickly!!!!!!!!!!.