Savers Rights: Name & Shame Accounts which hide interest rates

jonmimir

VIRGIN credit card - PRAISE... just logged in for the first time and they show not only the rates, but also the dates when my special interest rates for balance transfers and purchases expire. I've never seen this before and I think it's brilliant.

rb10

jonmimir wrote: »

VIRGIN credit card - PRAISE... just logged in for the first time and they show not only the rates, but also the dates when my special interest rates for balance transfers and purchases expire. I've never seen this before and I think it's brilliant.

This thread is about savings - many credit cards will show you all this info (my Halifax one does too).

EalingSaver

The vast majority are bad, and even more complicated what with the recent habit of bonuses. The good ones used to be IceSave and KE...but then they had nothing to hide on their rates (just their stability)

It drives me nuts that you have to go 'hunting' for the actual rate on your account. No excuse at all; purely a trick to try and sweep things under the carpet. For on-line accounts be totally easy to put the rate next to the account information.

Birmingham Midshires and YBS are the only two really good ones now. So comments below are accepting that its already difficult with all of these because they don't post it alongside your account information.

A&L: agree with most posters that it is very poor, not helped by their constant closing of accounts and staring new "issue 157" versions. Yes you can do the 3 digit thing, but what if you don't have to hand. I recently got burned: used the 'historic interest rates' link thinking this would give me rates for no longer available accounts. Very misleading. Starting putting money into my dormant eSaver issue 2 on wrong information.

Bradford and Bingley: Difficult, again not helped by their myriad closing and opening of new issues.

Capital One: Diabolical. Even their help is wrong - in theory meant to be available from the More Info button next to the account information. IN practise they removed that months ago.

Natwest: OK so long as you remember the bonus you're getting.

ICICI: I quibble with others who say this is troublesome. They don't have a myriad of accounts and don't mess with bonus rates, so relatively transparent.

ING: Difficult, due to remembering bonus rate applicable to the account.

Prinicipality: think this one is OK, but as I now only have a £1 in there can't remember.

Egg: Can't comment as I was fortunate to open an account which had not just a bonus but also a lock on the underlying variable for 12 months...so giving me 6.3% on instant access tee hee. So haven't needed to check in recent times.

Tesco: Relatively OK, so long as you remember the bonus that's applied to your account.

Halifax: Only use for fixed term and regular saver, but my recollection is that its one of the better ones giving the actual rate when you click through to the specific account.

So my worst votes go to Capital One, B&B and A&L.

EalingSaver

MrsMillar wrote: »

Why an internet account can't simply either display the rate, or have a link to the rate applicable to that particlar account, I've no idea.

Ah, but I think you do.....its because they don't want you to know...

tom747

1. Name and shame Bradford & Bingley. The other thing they do is tempt you in with a new account at a competitive rate. And then after a couple of months drop the interest rate and start ANOTHER account to tempt in more suckers with the higher rate. My wife opened an account in december which was already replaced in six weeks. It shoud be possible to frame legislation that would forbid this.

2. Also why don't they show how they calculate the interest? As far as I know this applies to all savings accounts. I've never seen one that shows how they calculate it. If they add interest once a year - or even monthly - they just show a single line with the added interest. There must have been some calculation involving days and rates. They should be legally obliged to show it. It's not rocket science.

Tom

silentfox

:T The best is when they have withdrawn an account and you have to go through the historical rates on a website to find the rate, only to find it isn't even there and you then have to email them. Also would help to let you know when the "bonus" rate stops applying.

bramblejam

Excellent idea!

Now we need another one for Credit card statements! They should say what rate you're paying and when any promotional rate runs out.

alanq

Whilst this thread is mainly about keeping tabs on constantly changing rates I also have a gripe about fixed rates accounts with most organisations. Why don't they print the interest rate in the passbook / on the certificate?

Many, for example Britannia Building Society print just "x Year FRB Iss n". One has to track down the account literature to find out what rate the account is paying unless one remembered to pencil the rate on the passbook/certificate.

Some, for example Bradford & Bingley's show neither the interest rate nor the maturity date. Is it an anniversary of opening the account or some fixed date for all accounts of the same issue? Unless pencilled on to the document one has to track down the information.

Stroud & Swindon is even worse not stating the term of the bond, the interest rate nor the maturity date. Just "Fixed Rate Bond - Issue n".

Praise for the Yorkshire Building Society which prints both the interest rate and maturity date on the passbook. e.g. 2 YR FR BOND 31/07/10 (7.00%).

Primrose

I'm currently hacked off with Derbyshire Building Society. Applied for a two year fixed rate bond on 10th March. Still waiting for an acknowledgement & cheque not yet cashed as at March 25th. When I phoned to check application had been received I was told that their website notified of a minimum 15 day delay and that interest wouldn't be credited until cheque had been cashed. I really think institutions need to get their act together and improve customer service. They want the deposits but treat their customers very badly when we respond.

freebonzo

I too pledge my vote for the A&L and their careful way of burying "historic" interest rates as far down the website as possible (5 keystrokes are needed - if you can find your way through all the advertising guff). Then when you get (near) there you find that the account that you thought was unique is actually one of a range of (obscure) flavours - where the rate depends on the account number, the phases of the moon and its inside leg measurement.

Some while ago this incensed me to such an extent that I ungratefully) dared to suggest to A&L that this could - er - be improved. I received the usual customer-un-focused set of reponses:- 1 - ooh noone has ever suggested that before; 2 - their priority is transparency and any other method of displaying this info would be loathed by their customers; 3 - I was probably barking mad for making such a wicked suggestion; 4 - they know best about such things (this was before the masses all suddenly realised that everyone else also shared the same opinion about Bankers) ; 5 - the world would probably come to an end if they were to adjust their websites to produce this info more readily; - oh yes and - 6 - ooh - no other banks do that. (with the implied worry that - were they to do so - they might get slung out of the Total Bankers Union.....)

All these responses bore an uncanny similarity to the experience you often have when you take a car into a garage for a fault to be repaired.....?

So - good on you Martin for highlighting this issue. My one gripe is that so many websites actually play along with the Bankers approach. There must be dozens who report frequently about the rates for brand new deposits. And very clever and helpful they are.

BUT - and please correct me if I'm wrong - I have found none - nor any piece of software - which provides that info on "legacy" accounts. I know that part of the banks approach is to create so many that its impossible to keep tabs on particular ones - and that this would thus make it more difficult to produce this info - than from the glossy figures that banks produce for new accounts.

But with all the ingenuity and strong feelings that there clearly are about this iniquity - surely somebody out there could create some sort of service where you could insert your own details just once and would then receive an automatic report each time one of the Good Old Boys thought it safe to reduce the rate on those accounts still further? I for one would even be prepared to pay for such an important service. (Mmm - well - perhaps thats going just a bit too far.....!?