nat west E Isa

bennyspringfield

You may like to know that the national westminster bank,have today reduced the
interest rate on their E isa on accounts opened on or after the 15thMay09.
I was myself and my wife in the process of opening this account online
on the 9thmay09 and was supposed to open instantly as i was already
a national westminster customer which incidently took nearly 6weeks to activate,
waiting for them to send paperwork etc;It did not open so I phoned and they said it would take a couple of days to appear.(instantly?????).once again it did not and then paperwork appeared in the post,which I was to return.just a delaying tactic perhaps?
We were about to transfer our existing isa,s into these accounts when I
discovered what they had done.I am sure there are probably many people who will not realise they have reduced the interest rate by 1% and go ahead opening their accounts.When I complained by phone to the online service they said "sorry but it will be at the reduced rate".I have also complained via their online complaints dept.and am awaiting their reply.I just thought that people should be made aware of this and should also be updated on "money saving expert" a.s.a.p.
what a disgraceful way to conduct a business I am absolutely disgusted!!!

masonic

It was a variable rate account. They could have reduced the rate for everyone if they wanted. It seems Natwest has rewarded its existing customers, at the expense of new customers. Isn't that the way most people want things to be?

oily_rag

bennyspringfield, I agree entirely. I too made a complaint today about the shoddy treatment I have received from Natwest regarding their e-isa.
I live in a village and travelled 15 miles into town specifically to open the instant access saver account Natwest require as a condition for opening their e-isa and then made the application online on May14. This was the day before they dropped their interest rate and when I enquired by telephone I was also told they will not honour their higher rate because the account isn't technically open until the paperwork has been returned.

I informed them that I wasn't interested in the lower rate and that the original higher rate should be honoured for applications dated before the change but to no avail. Obviously despite their apologies Natwest have little regard for the inconvenience caused to customers and we can go jump off a cliff for all they care.

My complaint has been lodged too but I'm not holding my breath. I'm still waiting for the call back I was promised by the call centre operative. Tomorrow however they will be receiving another call on their freephone number... and then another... and another... and another until I consider this matter resolved. They have wasted my time and I have no scruples about wasting theirs until I receive a written apology at the very least.

Good luck with your complaint too ;-)

littlesnuggy

No! I've finally got all my paperwork & was going to post it off tomorrow, along with my transfer forms... can you confirm this will only be eligible for the new, lower rate? So fed up with Natwest if this is the case.

Edit: Checked the site, aaargh. Back to square one! I've been trying to open this ***** account since the start of April, so I've already 'lost' one month's potential better interest rate (got £18k currently sat in a Nationwide ISA earning <1%)

Thanks to bennyspringfield for pointing this out though, otherwise my forms would have gone off tomorrow and I'd then have had to try and stop the transfer happening.

oily_rag

littlesnuggy, all I can advise is that you put in a complaint like myself and bennyspringfield. Probably won't do any good but it sure as hell makes you feel better. These banks are so arrogant! :mad:

oily_rag

To update this saga I've just called the Natwest complaints dept who passed me onto the E-Isa dept and the guy there assured me that pending applications dated before 15th May will receive the higher rate of interest. I explained that I'd only made the online application and not yet received the paperwork to sign and return but he still stated that I would get the higher rate.

However, I'm not prepared to go ahead and open this account on just his assurance and so will look at another provider, maybe Standard Life.

Anyone wishing to speak to the same advisor as I did can call him on 0845 30 30 320 and ask to speak to Jason.

willo65

oily_rag wrote: »

To update this saga I've just called the Natwest complaints dept who passed me onto the E-Isa dept and the guy there assured me that pending applications dated before 15th May will receive the higher rate of interest. I explained that I'd only made the online application and not yet received the paperwork to sign and return but he still stated that I would get the higher rate.

However, I'm not prepared to go ahead and open this account on just his assurance and so will look at another provider, maybe Standard Life.

Anyone wishing to speak to the same advisor as I did can call him on 0845 30 30 320 and ask to speak to Jason.

If this is what you were told then send the forms back and open the account and then ring and check the interest rate before you do the balance transfer. Also if he told you this then if you do get the lower rate i would think he could get it amended.

adambro

oily_rag wrote: »

Anyone wishing to speak to the same advisor as I did can call him on 0845 30 30 320 and ask to speak to Jason.

Probably more than one person called Jason working at NatWest unfortunately.

beingjdc

My Lloyds FRISA ended yesterday. On the first day of the tax year I opened a Natwest E-Isa with £3600, and applied to transfer my Lloyds FRISA, postdated to yesterday, to get me over £10k in the Natwest E-Isa.

Am I going to get 3.51%, 3.25%, or something else, on the transferred amount?

Kavanne

beingjdc wrote: »

My Lloyds FRISA ended yesterday. On the first day of the tax year I opened a Natwest E-Isa with £3600, and applied to transfer my Lloyds FRISA, postdated to yesterday, to get me over £10k in the Natwest E-Isa.

Am I going to get 3.51%, 3.25%, or something else, on the transferred amount?

you'll get the 3.51%AER/3.45%gross because what matters is when you OPENED your e-isa, not when you made a transfer

opas

I was about to get really frustrated with this as I have been waiting for weeks to get this set up (2 months if you include the e-saver fiasco!). My application letter is dated 11th May and I signed the form and sent it back on the 14th. I just phoned Natwest to check and the customer services adviser asked for my application ref number and said, yes I'm fine and I will get the 1% bonus (phew! - although I want to see this on the paperwork they send me) - so I got the same response as oily_rag. bennyspringfield, would it be worth trying to speak to someone again? I called the application team on 0845 3030 299.

Perhaps they should reword their website to say 'applications made on or before the 14th May' rather than customers who 'open' an e-isa account etc as there is a confusion about what constitutes an open acount.