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12% to 0.1% interest rate drop in 12 months?

I'm just wondering if this would come close to a new world record as far as drops in savings account interest rates go? :j

I took out a Halifax Regular Saver account in 2008 at 10% plus a bonus of 2%.

I paid in £500 each month for a year & in 2009 it paid out a few hundred pounds interest.

I kept paying £500 in to it every month thinking it had defaulted to the new regular saver rate (mistake I know).

After paying a further £4.5k in to it I closed the account after finding out the rate had dropped to 0.1%

I got just over £1 interest :rotfl:

Even the customer adviser burst out laughing & apologized for how crazy it was.
Bah.

Comments

  • opinions4u
    opinions4u Posts: 19,411 Forumite
    I'm just wondering if this would come close to a new world record as far as drops in savings account interest rates go? :j

    I took out a Halifax Regular Saver account in 2008 at 10% plus a bonus of 2%.

    I paid in £500 each month for a year & in 2009 it paid out a few hundred pounds interest.

    I kept paying £500 in to it every month thinking it had defaulted to the new regular saver rate (mistake I know).

    After paying a further £4.5k in to it I closed the account after finding out the rate had dropped to 0.1%

    I got just over £1 interest :rotfl:

    Even the customer adviser burst out laughing & apologized for how crazy it was.
    Bah.
    Why did you close it? You would have got the 12% for the first year and then whatever the new rate was (4% I think) in the second year.

    By closing it you lost yourself the 4% rate.
  • johnmoney05
    johnmoney05 Posts: 1,484 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Not surprised the customer adviser burst out laughing! I try not to.....sorry!
  • rb10
    rb10 Posts: 6,334 Forumite
    It sounds like you should re-read your Terms and Conditions - these make it quite clear that the interest rate is fixed annually, at whatever rate they are offering at the time.

    So, had you chosen to keep the account open, you'd have got either 4% or 5%, depending on when it was opened.

    It was always the case (including when the account was paying 12%) that by closing the account part-way through the year you would get a much lower rate of interest.
  • unitedwestand
    unitedwestand Posts: 205 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 23 April 2010 at 12:32PM
    opinions4u wrote: »
    Why did you close it? You would have got the 12% for the first year and then whatever the new rate was (4% I think) in the second year.

    By closing it you lost yourself the 4% rate.

    :eek:

    Thats what I thought!

    I opened the account in July 08, the interest was 12%.

    In July 09 the interest was paid out.

    When I spoke to the adviser, I was told that from July 09 the interest was dropped to 0.1% & come July 10 I would only get over £2 interest back.

    I asked for the account to be closed & moved the money in to a better account.

    Was that wrong? :(
This discussion has been closed.
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