Natwest e-ISA in Northern Ireland?

KeithJ108

Hi,

I tried to apply for an Natwest eISA online today. I was able to apply for the instant access savings account needed to open the isa but had a problem with the application for the isa.

I live in northern ireland. There are no natwest branches in NI but as it was an eISA I didn't think it would be a problem but the application askes me to select my nearest branch, for the isa to be based at.

If I select any branch will I be likely to have problems? Should I avoid natwest because there are no local branches? It's never been a problem before with other banks.

Thanks,

Money_Grabber13579

Are Natwest not the same as RBS, and hence Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland? Do the Ulster Bank not give roughly the same deals?

KeithJ108

No, the deals are very very different - 2.75% different.

Money_Grabber13579

I would give them a ring in that case and ask their advice on the matter. On the other hand, Halifax and Nationwide do fixed rate ISA's at around 3% I think, if that's of any interest to you?

Personally, I can't advise on the Natwest matter as I've never done it myself, so probably ringing them directly is the best solution.

chris888

KeithJ108,
Just wondering if you have been successful yet in applying for a Natwest ISA. I am also looking at opening a Natwest e-Isa, I too live in NI and I had the same problem as you when I tried to apply for the e-ISA. As you said there are no Natwest branches in NI and they too wanted me to pick the nearest Natwest branch in order to apply for the e-ISA.

However, I was able to apply on-line for thier e-savings account.
I applied for it at the start of the week, but I have not heard from them yet. I'm guessing there might be a slight delay in processing due to the Easter holidays, but i'm hoping to hear something next week.

Because I couldn't open a e-ISA account on-line, I applied for the e-saivings account first, which I probably will never use but at least it makes you a Natwest customer. I will then try and apply for an e-ISA when the e-savings account is set up, just to see if it works that way.

Kavanne

Just put any branch.

Porcupine

As Kavanne says, I think you can put any branch.

NW operate on a 'traditional' branch-based model (this is one of the results of their 'another way' marketing strategy). That means you can (I think) phone up someone at your branch, arrange an appointment, etc. It doesn't mean the branch staff actually have much power (they can't make decisions on, say, overdraft fees in-branch, they have to make a response to a service centre). But the facade is of more things being localised in the branch.

So they want to know what's going to be 'your' branch - that'll be printed on your chequebook, and your sort code will be from that branch. So feel free to pick somewhere on the mainland you have some associations with... you don't have to get out a map and a ruler to work out your nearest.