Quick question re withdrawals from Nationwide Regular Saver

Fella

Hi all,

I have a Nationwide regular saver & I pay in £250 each month by DD. Current balance about £2500. I also have a Nationwide Flex account.

Am I correct in thinking that I can transfer (for example) £2K into my Flex account & as long as I transfer the same amount back into the regular saver, in addition to my DD, I'll still get the (admittedly unexiting...) top rate of 3.10% inerest? Obviously I won't get it on the withdrawn amount whilst-it's-withdrawn(!)

In other words, do Nationwide allow unlimited transfers in & out during a month without penalty so long as the net balance increases by £200-250.

Am pretty certain that's how it works but would like to be sure.

thanks
Fella

RayWolfe

That is how it works Fella.
Indeed, in better times, you could (still can) put in more than £250 and take it out before month end to get the higher rate on more than the monthly limit.

RayWolfe

That's the way to do it. On 1st Jan, I removed all but £10 'cause I need the money later this month. That went into esavings until I need it (higher rate there than the lowest monthly saver rate as I don't intend to replace the money.)
I have a higher paying esaving with another bank so any future surpluses will go there for the time being but I will keep the NW monthly saver as it may prove useful later on but, for now, I intend to leave it dormant. Of course, I do have other - less flexible - monthly savers paying from 10% downwards!

RayWolfe

No insider knowledge. Just their T&Cs!
I have done small extra amounts but never checked the interest to that level, i.e. spreadsheet with daily balances. My spreadsheet looks at monthly increases as a guide to correct interest. However there is one guy on here who does, or did, large amounts of excess and thought it worked. He posted about it ... I recon about a year ago.
Trouble is, as interest is not paid til November it would be difficult to do a substantial test now to see if it works. That said, the T&Cs say what they say! (I can't find the words: Interest is calculated on the daily balance but I don't know of an account that isn't)
Anyway, at current rates, this discussion is a bit academic and too hard for me on a Saturday night when I started a bottle of shiraz a couple of hours ago!;)

cottager

So hang on a sec while I try and catch up with these trains of thought and see if I've got this straight or completely misunderstood...

This is a regular saver with a max of £250/month. But it has an extra which most regular savers don't -- the flexibility of unlimited withdrawals without penalty, and even a rest from saving altogether.
If you pay in at least £200/month and provided the balance doesn't increase by more than £250/month, you get the 3.10% gross rate.

And Sloughflint, because of the lower rate now on the eSavings, you're wondering (possibly) if you could take advantage of the higher RS rate by whizzing in surplus from eSavings on, say, 2nd of every month, then making sure it's out again, back into eSavings, before the 1st of the next month, bar £200-250 which you would leave behind to qualify for the higher rate. Then repeat that process every month.

But you're not sure yet if this is actually allowed?
And if you fall foul of the rules you may earn nothing on the money and have lost the 1.95% you would have got by leaving it in eSavings?
And there's no way of knowing this till after the interest is calculated on 31 October?

Is that about the sum of it?

Well, I'm in a similar situation and it sure is an intriguing idea... but don't think I'm brave enough to test it!
I'm sure I'd muck it all up anyway, not being disciplined or organised enough to make the in/out transfers at the vital times so precisely.

There does seem to be slightly conflicting info between some of the T&Cs applying to this account on the one hand, and the general description pages and FAQs for it on the other.

In particular I'm wondering if the theory could be stymied by these two conditions in the T&Cs at
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/legal.htm#instantaccess

61. The overall balance in the account can be increased by a maximum of £250 per calendar month from the starting balance. The starting balance is the account balance at the start of the first day each month. Interest paid to the account does not count towards the monthly increase in balance.

65. We will reject payments that increase the starting balance by more than £250. The whole amount will be returned to you.

How do you read 65 in view of the definition of 'starting balance' in 61?

Will be interested to see what you decide to do in the end

RayWolfe

65 is easy to test. Put in £255 and see what happens. If it's returned, you can then put in £250.
Incidentally, my T&Cs are paper, dated Feb 2008 and there is no clause 65! It could be a later addition to stop people like us from abusing the system.

LittleVoice

You could check with one month's experiment (say January). At the beginning of the next month (February), you can check what interest rate will be applied (to January).

LittleVoice

RayWolfe wrote: »

65 is easy to test. Put in £255 and see what happens. If it's returned, you can then put in £250.
Incidentally, my T&Cs are paper, dated Feb 2008 and there is no clause 65! It could be a later addition to stop people like us from abusing the system.

You could definitely put in £255 if you had already withdrawn £5. You need to ensure that the extra will mean that the balance has increased by more than £250 since the month start.

cottager

sloughflint wrote: »

Nor am I

:rotfl: :rotfl:
OK, since we've both bottled out we'll leave RayWolfe to do the testing then...

sloughflint wrote: »

In fact, what I'll probably do (and works out better) is keep the e-savings on empty ...

I've been trying to get it empty for at least a fortnight, even before the last cut, but every time I think I've found a slightly better little home for it the rates go down again, so it's still there!

Afahmaep

Another use for this account (for me anyway) is the ability to take £300 out of the ATM and then a further £500 over the counter per day.
When used alongside the Nationwide Flex account card I can get £1600 in cash per day.

RayWolfe

cottager wrote: »

:rotfl: :rotfl:
OK, since we've both bottled out we'll leave RayWolfe to do the testing then...

How kind!
Because I've just shut it down (left £10) from 1st Jan and don't have plans to reopen for some time, I won't be able to take up your generous offer.

But realistically, I suspect that Clause 65 is the thing to be dreaded. A bit like what's in room 101 ...

Seriously, I do like this account for its flexibility. In addition to the benefits that Afahmaep likes, it is always good to use for short term bursts of small savings with instant transfer to the flex account whilst the rate is better than esavings. However when - if - NW ever get round to FP, that benefit will disappear.