MSE News: Savings loophole allows under-35s to earn 5%

The_Fat_el_Hombre

It does irritate me that you can't view it ionline, surely you should be able to do that with all accounts in this day and age?

I've lost track of how much money I've put in and am waiting for the next time they send a statement, hopefully within the next month

Simon11

I hate the fact that you can't see it online:(

I've just opened this account today and put in £5,000

Am I able to put in £300 straight away or do I have to wait next month and then continue paying 300 month?

I don't want to put in 300 by standing order now and get 0.1% for this month......

thanks!

The_Fat_el_Hombre

Simon11 wrote: »

I hate the fact that you can't see it online:(

I've just opened this account today and put in £5,000

Am I able to put in £300 straight away or do I have to wait next month and then continue paying 300 month?

I don't want to put in 300 by standing order now and get 0.1% for this month......

thanks!

I think you have to wait til next month, but I'm not 100% sure Simon so I'd wait for someone else to confirm or deny it

keet83

i think that the deposit doesn't count towards the monthly payment. i paid a deposit of £1000 then started a regular payment starting the next day, so i hope it doesn't. you're best contacting santander themselves.

keet83

dont think that many abbey/santander employees know about it. i questioned about opening one in a bank and they didn't know what it was so they had to get their manager. after that though it was done within 15 mins.

you'll be better going into one of banks than on a phone.

nnj10

Having read all the posts in this thread I decided to give this account a go.
Went into my Abbey high street branch this saturday morning, and experienced the "politeness" of Abbey customer care. Don't want to describe the whole experience.
The complete process took around 30 minutes.
The guy looking after me wasn't sure that I can pay-in more than £300 in a month.
I told him that I intend to pay-in all my home deposit saving in this account due to better interest rate. He was a bit adamant and was like "As I told you, you can not payin more than £300 in any month".
I then pointed him to their website showing the account limit upto £50000 and told that the only way some one can hit this is by paying in more than £300 in any month (albeit just loosing interest payment for that month only).
He had to go and confirm with his manager about this. Came back and told me it was OK.
Got my account details as mentioned by others - a generic sort code and an account number. Have got a reference(similar to roll no.) to identify me the in pool of all account holder.
Also, I have opened this account with Zero balance. I intend to transfer £100 as initial "test transfer" and then SO of £100 from my other non-santander account. I intend to use up most of the account limit of £50k with 18 month horizon (considering the interest received and monthly SO of £100 will not exceed £50K at the end of 18 months at the current interest rate)
Hope they will not close my account down for putting-in more than £300.

I could not see any T&C on the website which says they reserve the right to close my account if I pay-in more than £300 in any month. Can anyone please point me to any link if such condition exists.

The guy tried to sell me his Cash-ISA (which doesnot allow transfer-in).
I said thank you as I have already used up my allowance for this year.

cutie84

Hi, I opened one of these accounts up a few weeks ago. I didn't realise that you had to give the £5000 there and then. So the lady said she could open it, and put it on hold, and as long as i paid within a week i would be okay. After 4 days (time taken to go from a savings account to my current account) i had the money, and went back in. The manager said i couldn't put the initial deposit in later, so she closed the original account, and opened another. Incidently if you do need to withdraw money at any point, you can simply reopen this account according to the lady.. It's only one per customer at any point.
So i read the terms and conditions, and they vary between what the customer can see and the bank staff on thier checklist. Such as the initial deposit, we read it to be between £100 -5k theirs say £10-5k ..
Also the customer doc states set up direct debit after the deposits made, and on the santander checklist it states the month following opening.
Also enquired about the going above 300 in any month, she said as it was effectively a regular saver account you need to save regularly, and not add previous savings - or else the account would be closed.
No wonder the bank staff can't really advise, the documents they go by are not at all clear.
I think the thing to bare in mind is that the interest rate is high, and they probably will do whatever they can to wrangle out to paying..

Nessie23

Hi,
I have just open a First Home Saver. They don't seem to open many of these accounts at my local Santander Branch so they weren't very familiar with the account characteristics. Compared to some of the experiences described above, the advisor that went through the application was quite friendly and efficient!

Because this is not a usual account I would suggest anyone opening this account take a printout of the account details on the Santander website.
http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?appID=abbey.internet.Abbeycom&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1210611105334&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateB2#1210618105174

In addition, I can confirm that on the accompanying leaftlet and T&Cs that they hand out when you open the account, it states that:
1. "Your standing order will need to be set up to start the month after you open the account, and will be paid between the 2nd and 21st of every month"
2. "If you pay in more than £300 or less than £100 in any calender month you will receive 0.10% on the whole balance for that month.
3. "If you deposit more than £300 in a single month we reserve the right to close your account."

keet83

i think they would only close it if you put a vast amount in during one month, after all if they close it, they loose you as a customer AND all your money. i think they may be very lenient on this although im only guessing so it is a risk.

Zelie

Could someone clarify what these terms mean?

The website says that "all we ask you to do is have a mortgage interview up to 90 days before you come to close the account." which is fair enough but it also says "Instant access to your First Home Saver via branch. Please note there are no partial withdrawals allowed on this account. You can access your funds at any time but will need to close your account. To close your account you will need to bring in two forms of ID plus the validation checklist that you were given on account opening."

To my mind that means it's not instant access. Does this mean that if you suddenly need a withdrawal in a hurry (i.e. for a deposit) they can legitimately not pay the interest owed on the account because you haven't had the interview within the 90 days before that?