Bradford & Bingley paying 6% on savings account ?

jordan_ash

I noticed this offer in their shop window, it was shut so I couldn't go in and get details. What it appeared to be was a max of £2,500, you had to feed it a minimum of £1,000 a month and you received annually paid interest of 6%. Can't see it on their website, though.

I've already got a similar account with Alliance & Leicester, where you have to feed it at least £500 a month, pays 6% on up to £2,500.

If I open an account with Bradford & Bingley is it conceivable that I could just switch (say) £1,000 (from a natwest current paying zero %) between that account and the A&L account in order to comply with each minimum monthly amount ? I'd already have the max of £2,500 in each account which would mean in effect that I was getting an annual interest rate of 6% (before tax) on £5,000.

I got my fingers burnt letting Nationwide handle stock market investments for me so I'm looking to get the best interest rate on what little I've got left. I'd be very interested in people's views.

Baldur

jordan_ash wrote: »

I noticed this offer in their shop window, it was shut so I couldn't go in and get details. What it appeared to be was a max of £2,500, you had to feed it a minimum of £1,000 a month and you received annually paid interest of 6%. Can't see it on their website, though.

It will almost certainly be the Abbey variant of the account, as A&L, B&B and Abbey all come under the overall Santander brand and the B&B website redirects you to Abbey.

agsnu

This was almost certainly an advert for the Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct Current Account. (A&L, B&B and Abbey are all owned by Santander, who are merging them into one.)

jordan_ash

agsnu wrote: »

This was almost certainly an advert for the A&L Premier Account. (A&L, B&B and Abbey are all owned by Santander, who are merging them into one.)

Though if that is the case why the variation in what you to pay in monthly to each account i.e. £500 to A&L and £1,000 to B&B ?

Baldur

jordan_ash wrote: »

Though if that is the case why the variation in what you to pay in monthly to each account i.e. £500 to A&L and £1,000 to B&B ?

If you follow the link in my post to the Abbey variant, you will see the £1,000 minimum funding shown:

To qualify for these rates a minimum of a £1,000 a month needs to be credited to the account, or standard rates apply

agsnu

jordan_ash wrote: »

Though if that is the case why the variation in what you to pay in monthly to each account i.e. £500 to A&L and £1,000 to B&B ?

Looks like I was wrong, it was the Abbey one. Probably discrepancies because they've only just started the integration relatively recently - A&L and B&B have now started to adopt the red Santander brand colouring, the Santander name has started appearing in places. I think they're planning on making everything be branded Santander by sometime earlyish next year - so I suspect that by then they'll have sorted out the mess? Who knows, though.

jordan_ash

So I could open the Abbey variant account with £2,500, move £1,000 from a natwest account into it on the 1st of the every month, then move the £1,000 back and forth every month - and qualify for 6% interest on the £2,500 ?

KTF

Yep. Plenty of people do that.

withnell

B&B offer Abbey products, not A&L products - at the moment A&L still operates as a separate entity on different systems and fscs protection.

Abbey will rebrand to Santander early 2010, with A&L happening later (could be much later depending how system integration goes!)

stowupland4

A couple of questions.
To open the Abbey Current a/c would I have to switch banks (I bank with Lloyds) to get the 6% interest on the £2500, or does it work the same as the A & L prem direct?
As I have the A & L prem direct, would that exclude me?

Baldur

stowupland4 wrote: »

A couple of questions.
To open the Abbey Current a/c would I have to switch banks (I bank with Lloyds) to get the 6% interest on the £2500, or does it work the same as the A & L prem direct?
As I have the A & L prem direct, would that exclude me?

See the link in my post #2 for the account details.