Abbey 7% Fixed Rate Monthly Saver launch 14/07/06

Prudent

Milarky wrote:

It becomes a 'Monthly Saver' account on maturity and I believe it is still passbook based and cannot be operated online (so no ability to check balances - you have to phone up for that). Official info here

(Someone else has already posted this link in a different thread :beer:)

I can confirm this. I got my passbook today and was told I would need to bring it into a branch to be updated. Seems an inefficient way of working when the account could be managed online.

buses7675

Hi (again!)

Just had a proper reply by email from Abbey, nice and detailed, as follows:

Thanks for your reply.

The minimum opening balance for the 2 year Special Growth Bond is £1. Please note however, an opening balance of £1000 will be required, to qualify for the Fixed Rate Monthly Saver account.

The Criteria for opening our Fixed Rate Monthly Saver account, with the 8% interest rate is any one of the options below.

Switching current account to Abbey using Account Transfer Service
Or, applying for an Abbey mortgage in one of our branches
Or, taking out an investment with Abbey (Lump sum, regular premium or pension)
Or, opening another Abbey savings account with £1,000 or more which isn't currently saved with Abbey (including Cash ISAs and Fixed Rate Bonds)
Not available to holders of 7% FRMS (Issue 4)

So yes, the minmum opening for the special growth bond is only £1, and if you put £1000 in it, you really can have the 8% regular saver!

I asked about having already had a cahoot account, with regards to the ID check, it was suggested that as it operated seperately they'd need to do the checks anyway. No problem, just a bit slower, buy hey, two good accounts to be had!

Now just need to actually get through to someone on the phone!

Cheers

Steve

s71hj

I'm yet to get info on the account through. Can anybody who has, tell me whether, having opened another savings account with £1000, qualifying therefore for the 8% saver, it is a requirement to keep £1000 in the other acccount for the 12 months the 8% a/c is open. Could somebody perhaps scrutinise the t&cs if you have them. With interset rates forecast to possibly rise, and other savings options around, I think it would be more economical for me to open the 7% account if the 8% one effectively tied up £1000 for 2 years at only 5.5% (fixed rate bond).

Milarky

Prudent wrote:

I can confirm this. I got my passbook today and was told I would need to bring it into a branch to be updated. Seems an inefficient way of working when the account could be managed online.

It's worth checking if you can post the book in for this - as well as the closure balance at 12 months - rather than taking time out to go into a branch in person.

EDIT Actually that's 13 after and a bit months not 12:

"Your [account] will automatically become a Monthly saver on 1st of the month after your 13th payment. For example an account opened [with no initial deposit] in July 2006 will have the first Standing order paid [from 1st] August 2006 and will become a Monthly Saver [after a 13th payment from 1st August 2007] on 1st September 2007."

Thus everone gets the same interest based on the amount they pay in regardless of when the account is applied for and opened. It goes without saying that Standing Orders set to 1st of each month are best in these circumstances

s71hj

I've now had stuff through from abbey. Re 8% saver, there is nothing that I can see to say that having opened another Abbey account with £1000, and then opened a regular saver at 8%, you have to keep the £1000 in the other account to retain the 8%. Has anybody else had any thoughts about this, or spoken to staff in branch etc about it.

buses7675

s71hj wrote:

I've now had stuff through from abbey. Re 8% saver, there is nothing that I can see to say that having opened another Abbey account with £1000, and then opened a regular saver at 8%, you have to keep the £1000 in the other account to retain the 8%. Has anybody else had any thoughts about this, or spoken to staff in branch etc about it.

From the info I was emailed, is says that

Or, opening another Abbey savings account with £1,000 or more which isn't currently saved with Abbey (including Cash ISAs and Fixed Rate Bonds)

So that strictly only means that it need be opened with £1000, suposing you opened an easy access account of some type with £1000 then withdrew the money shortly afterwards.

I know interest rates are going up, but are savings accounts really likely to exceed 5.5% AER by very much and for very long? From the last time they were going up in 2004 the best account anyone offered that I can recall was the 5.6% cahoot (Abbey again!) introductory rate savings account which was kept at 5.6% for a good while IIRC. Other than that you'll probably only be getting something higher than that with regular savings accounts.

Bearing in mind this is 5.5% AER fixed for two years, I'd have thought you'd probably do quite well on that anyway, the only thing is that the money is tied up for that time.

I'm no expert btw, so if anyone does know otherwise please do let me know and don't take this as gospel!

Cheers

Steve

Prudent

Milarky wrote:

It's worth checking if you can post the book in for this - as well as the closure balance at 12 months - rather than taking time out to go into a branch in person.

EDIT Actually that's 13 after and a bit months not 12: Thus everone gets the same interest based on the amount they pay in regardless of when the account is applied for and opened. It goes without saying that Standing Orders set to 1st of each month are best in these circumstances

I think I have made an error setting up the SO. I assumed that I could make 11 payments plus the intial deposit. Is is possible to change a standing order?

s71hj

buses7675 wrote:

From the info I was emailed, is says that




So that strictly only means that it need be opened with £1000, suposing you opened an easy access account of some type with £1000 then withdrew the money shortly afterwards.

I know interest rates are going up, but are savings accounts really likely to exceed 5.5% AER by very much and for very long? From the last time they were going up in 2004 the best account anyone offered that I can recall was the 5.6% cahoot (Abbey again!) introductory rate savings account which was kept at 5.6% for a good while IIRC. Other than that you'll probably only be getting something higher than that with regular savings accounts.

Bearing in mind this is 5.5% AER fixed for two years, I'd have thought you'd probably do quite well on that anyway, the only thing is that the money is tied up for that time.

I'm no expert btw, so if anyone does know otherwise please do let me know and don't take this as gospel!

Cheers

Steve

Based on that it's difficult to see how they could penalise you for opening another a/c with £1000, then immediately withdrawing. Re the benefits of the 5.5% fixed rate, I have to get 7-8% on savings accounts to beat what I effectively get by putting the funds into my offset current account. If that weren't the case, I think I probably would be going for the 5.5%.

Ronn1e_2

I called into my local Abbey branch yesterday and (eventually) managed to get the 8% regular saver a/c by opening a 5.5% 2 year bond with £500.

The guy dealing with me stated later on in the discussion that he was shocked when I asked about the 8% a/c because "it is only for special customers" and admitted that he and the IFA were the only two people in the branch that knew about this a/c.

My sister in law visited another branch yesterday and they flatly denied the existence of the 8% a/c.

So if you want the 8% a/c be persistent.

Afahmaep

When I opened my 7% AER Fixed Rate Monthly Saver (Issue 4) I was given the Fact Sheet for it along with the Fact Sheet for the 8% AER Fixed Rate Monthly Saver (Issue 5).
It was to highlight that they are mutually exclusive.
On the Issue 5 Fact Sheet there is a paragraph that states

'But remember you can only open one Fixed Rate Monthly Saver account, either Issue 4 or Issue 5.

Also the Terms and Conditions are not on the Fact Sheet for Issue 5 but a paragraph at the bottom states

Important: Keep this information safe together with the Brochure including the Terms and Conditions for Fixed Rate Monthly Saver (Issue 4) as these Terms and Conditions apply for Fixed Rate Monthly Saver (Issue 5).