Principality Building Society-WARNING

Stuha

It appears when trying to withdraw money/close account with the Principality Building Society, there are two things to beware of:

If you wish to close the account online, Principality will not act on a request for electronic transfer for 4 days.
If you close the account and request a cheque, this will take up to 1 week and be sent 2nd class.
Rang to discuss this with them and was told it’s in the T&Cs, which I believe it is not.
This is a supposedly titled an E-Saver online account but not exactly instant or prompt/fast payments wth any with actions, Once again with most Financial institutions, delays and withholding of the funds for maximum gain to them.

premierfella

To help others, if you ever do consider closing the E-Saver it is advisable to withdraw the balance down to £1 first via BACS withdrawal, which is processed in the usual timeframe, and sorting out the closure once that withdrawal is processed.

The 2nd class posting of cheques is a known issue which deserves highlighting - I found it annoying in the past and have since switched to having maturity funds from Regular Savers, etc transferred to the E-Saver account (usually takes a day to show) and processing a BACS withdrawal from there (which of course means the usual BACS delay, but this is preferable to having large cheques delayed in the post which still need clearing when they arrive).

ctdctd

Stuha wrote: »

It appears when trying to withdraw money/close account with the Principality Building Society, there are two things to beware of:

If you wish to close the account online, Principality will not act on a request for electronic transfer for 4 days.
If you close the account and request a cheque, this will take up to 1 week and be sent 2nd class.
Rang to discuss this with them and was told it’s in the T&Cs, which I believe it is not.
This is a supposedly titled an E-Saver online account but not exactly instant or prompt/fast payments wth any with actions, Once again with most Financial institutions, delays and withholding of the funds for maximum gain to them.

And to balance!

I have had several regular savers and also have an e-saver.
I have closed the regular savers by post when they matured and had the funds transferred into the e-saver the day they got the RS passbook.
I have then been able to do a BACS transfer from the esaver either on the next day or scheduled as I required.

Their service seems fine to me but I haven't had to have any cheques sent to me.

Essex123

This seems to be particular to E-Saver.

I've had various bonds and regular savings accounts with Principality mature, and when I've asked them to close the account and give me a cheque its always been processed and sent back to me first class on the day they received the request (or the maturity date if later).

One of the better BS's in my experience.

premierfella

Happy to accept the last and withdraw my comment - my memory regarding the 2nd class posting of cheques by Principality must be suspect. I should confirm that I have generally found Principality to provide good customer service.

I have, however, definitely had an issue in the past relating to a cheque lost in the post which was not dealt with in the usual efficient manner. I would recommend Principality members with one or more of their regular savings accounts consider having an E-Saver account to transact maturities through to avoid the potential for closing cheque issues.

claire07

Things may have changed but last year when I had a Principality Bond mature they said they couldn't transfer it to my e-saver I had to have a cheque which then took over a week to arrive.

Speculator

Just to add, if you want to close a Principality a/c and transfer the money to your e-saver account, make sure you send the passbook direct to their e-savings department.