Lloyds TSB instant access monthly saver 8%

lipidicman

Kazza242 wrote:

I find Lloyds' explanation to jackieblue and L_a_t_p very odd!

Their explanation doesn't make any sense to me. I opened my account on 24th May with £500, then first SO reached the account on 30th May and second SO on 1st June. I checked my monthly saver again this morning, the balance is still £1,000. If Lloyds' argument was correct, then why have myself and so many other Lloyds monthly saver holders not had the same problems?

I just hope all goes well when my July SO goes in.

I just had that thought too! If there is a problem with this then it is down to Lloyds staff having a poor understanding of their Head Offices use of the term 'calendar month' and I for one will be giving 'em 'ell!

chesky369

"and the account isn't launched to the public yet" it's on the Lloyds TSB main website under 'monthly saver' and says you can apply now.

mary

When I opened mine in branch on 23rd May, I commented there didn't appear to be any publicity about it and the manager told me that as there was another mortgage or loan or something they were promoting, the publicity couldn't be displayed in the branches until June 14th!

anticlaus105

Opened current account in branch other day. No fuss what so ever. Have took the platinum for now as discounted for 3 months but think i will swithch to standard after that (get £50 anyway for closing my no longer used A+L current account).

Will be in again to open reg saver next week. Hope that goes as smoothly.

One question....how do you initially fund the reg saver? Can your initial £500 be paid in as cash or does it have to come from the current account?

MPH80

anticlaus105 wrote:

One question....how do you initially fund the reg saver? Can your initial £500 be paid in as cash or does it have to come from the current account?

Cash will be fine. Although the account opener couldn't take it - I then had to queue for a cashier.

M.

Kazza242

MPH80 wrote:

Cash will be fine. Although the account opener couldn't take it - I then had to queue for a cashier.

M.

When I opened my monthly saver on the 24th May, in branch, the account opener deposited my initial £500 payment plus £250 for my first SO over the counter for me. I brought it all in in cash.

s71hj

Can I have some advice from the financially savvier of you. My dd went through 30th, then I changed ok to the 1st. However, my oh's went through the 31st, then changed to the 1st, but kept bouncing back. Emailed a complaint + got a call from branch initially saying there needed to be 30 days between transactions. Poor dear did very well with me gesticulating wildly about things like months with 28 days in, and the fact that mine had gone through ok. At one point the guy asked her for my a/c no. which I wasn't about to offer him! Anyhow, within a minute he called back offering to credit her £1.32, being the additional interest he reckoned it was worth for the extra 30 days. Other threads have given me the impression it is much more than this, so can anybody give me a definitive answer on this, and ideally the workings out as well. Interesting precedent anyhow - we haven't done anything wrong, but we're going to compensate you! Perhaps it's my oh's charm!

moneyandmountains

s71hj wrote:

Anyhow, within a minute he called back offering to credit her £1.32, being the additional interest he reckoned it was worth for the extra 30 days

I presume that the sum that this will affect is the £250 monthly standing order.

e.g. £750 (£500 + £250 paid in month 1)
£250 in month 2

So at an 8% AER the monthly interest is
(1.08)^(1/12) -1
i.e. approx £1.61 on this £250 sum

Now 1- (1.32/1.61) = 18.5%
i.e. approximately 20% less than the £1.61 which would account for basic rate tax

lipidicman

Kazza242 wrote:

Yes, the interest rate is fixed:D . If you go to the monthly saver webpage, you'll see that it says:

"Receive unlimited instant access to your savings with no penalties and enjoy a fixed interest rate of 8.00% AER*/gross for two years".

http://www.lloydstsb.com/savings/monthly_saver.asp

This was the bit I didn't like:

lloydstsb wrote:

15) We may vary this account’s features or conditions, by giving you notice in a newspaper, branch, letter or online - whichever is appropriate for the change we are making and the type of account you have. We may do this for example to:

• Make a change to your benefit, or not affecting your rights and obligations;
• Meet legal or regulatory requirements;
• Correct errors, omissions, inaccuracies and ambiguities;
• Deal with reorganizations within our group;
• Cover service differences for new computer or other processes;
• Bring us in line with market practice:
  
• Reflect developments we wish to make to your account and changes in customer demand or requirements.

Do you think this allows them to overide the fact that they state the rate is fixed for two years?

Kazza242

lipidicman wrote:

This was the bit I didn't like:

Originally Posted by lloydstsb
15) We may vary this account’s features or conditions, by giving you notice in a newspaper, branch, letter or online - whichever is appropriate for the change we are making and the type of account you have. We may do this for example to:

Bring us in line with market practice:

Do you think this allows them to overide the fact that they state the rate is fixed for two years?

Lloyds TSB are permitted to change the terms and conditions of their accounts at any time. The Banking Code, to which they subscribe to, does state under the section Terms and Conditions, that:

The_Banking_Code wrote:

When you become a customer, we will tell you how we will let you know about changes to terms and conditions.

If the change is to your disadvantage, we will tell you about it personally at least 30 days before we make the change.

As a change from a fixed rate to a variable one is more likely to be to the customer's disadvantage, the section above, where they have to inform the customer at least 30 days before the change, would apply. I can't see them changing it from a fixed rate though, to be honest. Afterall, Lloyds TSB did launch this monthly saver to compete against the likes of A&L, Barclays, Halifax, and HSBC whose regular savers all offer fixed rates of interest.

Paul Pester, director of consumer banking at Lloyds TSB said:

"We have designed our Monthly Saver with the customer in mind. We looked at what our competitors are offering and found their products too restrictive. Many only offer the high rate of interest for 12 months, others don't allow withdrawals and some, like the Alliance and Leicester account, is only available to new customers."

http://www.savingforchildren.co.uk/Easy_access_Lloyds_saver_account_181_1_17122898.html

His comments suggest to me that they have put a lot of thought into how they can out-do their rivals with this account. I don't think they have any intention of changing to a variable rate, as this would significantly weaken their offering.