A&L OnlineSaver Queries

antispam246

I've a few things niggling me regarding some of my saving accounts with Alliance and Leicester.

I have

OnlineSaver Issue 5
OnlineSaver Issue 6

I can't find my original T&C print out for either of these accounts and I'm not sure if the one on A&L website applies online to the new OnlineSaver 7. Further more A&L haven't got back to me regarding my queires so I figured I'd ask here.

1) As far as I can recall both these accounts pay interest annually? Is this correct? I've had one interest payment in Oct 2009 on Issue 5 already so I'm not entirely sure.

2) If they're annual interest payments would these then payout at the same time the bonus (1.65% for both) ends?

3) I'm fairly certain the rates for both Issue 5 and 6 have never changed, 5 being 3.15% AER and 6 being 3% AER is this still correct?

4) These are both instant access saving accounts. I opened 6 purely for £20 cashback. Having been paid that now there shouldn't be any issue moving the sum from issue 6 to issue 5 right? I don't recall any restrictions that would make this not possible, just want to ensure it. The bonus for issue 5 ends in august and for 6 it's december. So I was going to top up issue 5 from 6 leaving £1 in 6 and then in august when bonus ends and presumably interest is paid i'll move it all to 6. Does this sound like the best move?

5) If I close Issue 5 before interest is paid (e.g. if bonus ends before interest payment) would a&l pay the interest on issue 5 into another account , e.g my premier account?

anamenottaken

I have Issue 6.
Interest paid annually on 1 October.
3% gross interest

You can check interest rates on closed accounts by entering first three digits of account number on this page http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/savings/interest-rates.aspx

atypical

antispam246 wrote: »

1) As far as I can recall both these accounts pay interest annually? Is this correct? I've had one interest payment in Oct 2009 on Issue 5 already so I'm not entirely sure.

They both pay interest annually in October.

antispam246 wrote: »

2) If they're annual interest payments would these then payout at the same time the bonus (1.65% for both) ends?

The bonus expires the day 1 year after you opened your account. When interest is paid has no relationship to when the bonus ends. The interest will always be paid in October.

antispam246 wrote: »

3) I'm fairly certain the rates for both Issue 5 and 6 have never changed, 5 being 3.15% AER and 6 being 3% AER is this still correct?

Yes.

antispam246 wrote: »

4) These are both instant access saving accounts. I opened 6 purely for £20 cashback. Having been paid that now there shouldn't be any issue moving the sum from issue 6 to issue 5 right? I don't recall any restrictions that would make this not possible, just want to ensure it. The bonus for issue 5 ends in august and for 6 it's december. So I was going to top up issue 5 from 6 leaving £1 in 6 and then in august when bonus ends and presumably interest is paid i'll move it all to 6. Does this sound like the best move?

You could have moved the money back to issue 5 straight after you deposited your £1,000 minimum opening requirement. Remember that you have to transfer the money from issue 6 to your linked account, then back to issue 5.

antispam246 wrote: »

5) If I close Issue 5 before interest is paid (e.g. if bonus ends before interest payment) would a&l pay the interest on issue 5 into another account , e.g my premier account?

If you close the account they'll add the interest owed to your current balance and transfer the whole balance to (I believe) your linked account.

antispam246

RESOLVED. Just wanted to thank in written to above poster. I did as suggested, moved everything into highest paying, I setup new payees so I could transfer directly from each current account to any of the online savers, not just how they were linked originalyl when setup. Then when the bonus ends I can simply transfer to next saver and so on.

geoff_s---r

I've also been hunting through A & L's web pages for the interest rates for this account. Probably spent 20 minutes looking for "OnlineSaver Issue 6" on A & L's site. I also had to send a message asking A&L what it was. Ten days later they appear to be still looking, as they've not answered.

It's ridiculous, the interest rate is the single most important figure on a savings account, so it should be in large print on the top of every savings account statement. I wonder how many A&L customers have been unknowingly been shunted into their impressive obsolete accounts vault, getting a tenth of a percent on million pound balances.

I wonder if Martin might consider running a competition to find the least helpful savings supplier. Perhaps get some of Britain's finest financial minds and time them on extracting a simple interest rate for a named account from the bank's web site. I'd nominate Cahoot as almost as bad as A & L