Nationwide e-savings will raise rate...

Milarky

Although no announcement has yet been made by Nationwide, I've come accoss this gem on their Media Centre:

In addition to this, Nationwide has announced an extension on its existing e-Savings guarantee. The Society guarantees to match or beat the Bank of England Base Rate until 30th September 2006.

(14 Jul 2005).

Thus they are now obliged to raise their rate in response to the BOE to 4.75%+ - although they have allowed themselves the option to drop it again in another 30 days time (once the matching period expires)

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/mediacentre/PressRelease_last.asp?ID=697

MiserlyMartin

I wonder if its worth an email to them quoting that rate guarantee? Surely they have already not honoured it?

[Deleted User]

MiserlyMartin wrote:

I wonder if its worth an email to them quoting that rate guarantee? Surely they have already not honoured it?

Have you done this? If you have not, I will. Should it not also be backdated to 3rd August like Cahoot was, otherwise there has been a period where it has not matched base rate?

Mr_Mumble

Ooh, good to know where the rate guarantee info came from. I was starting to worry that moneyfacts and therefore the Savings Accounts Guaranteed to Increase Rates post was wrong!

Noticeable that almost every other easy access account with a base rate guarantee has upped rates . Nationwide: Proud to be Different! :rolleyes:

si1503

I sent a secure message to nationwide earlier on today to close my e-savings with them. Going to move to the post office instant saver (currently 4.75% changing to 5% start of next month.) Quite disappointed that nationwide have taken so long to respond, the e-savings/flexaccount was a nice system, its shame the rates have slipped.

a&akay

si1503. Why close it? Keep the minimum in ie £1 and it may become a good deal in due course. Eg Yorkshire BS's became a poor account after their intial attractive deal ran out. It is now going up to 5.1%, see Clariman's post on the Stoozing site. I keep all my dormant poor savings accounts that allow it at the minimum £1. You can then transfer over the internet in a few days to the best deals as they try again to grab market share. It will become even better when the current rip off of up to 4 days wait comes down, hopefully next year.

kiwichick

Deleted_User wrote:

Have you done this? If you have not, I will. Should it not also be backdated to 3rd August like Cahoot was, otherwise there has been a period where it has not matched base rate?

I've just sent one, will let you know the outcome/response.

Thanks OP.

Allison.

si1503

a&akay wrote:

si1503. Why close it? Keep the minimum in ie £1 and it may become a good deal in due course. Eg Yorkshire BS's became a poor account after their intial attractive deal ran out. It is now going up to 5.1%, see Clariman's post on the Stoozing site. I keep all my dormant poor savings accounts that allow it at the minimum £1. You can then transfer over the internet in a few days to the best deals as they try again to grab market share. It will become even better when the current rip off of up to 4 days wait comes down, hopefully next year.

Thats not a bad idea! I guess I just wanted the close so I could get the interest from it and just reinvest the lot elsewhere, but what I can do is keep the flexaccount open, so if the e-savings does gain an attractive rate again I can set another account up instantly. Plus that way I keep the members benefits from holding a nationwide account for over a certain time period, which may come in useful in the future.

fonesaver

Just sent a message to Nationwide..we'll see what happens..

I understand that the Society guarantees to match or beat the Bank of England Base Rate until 30th September 2006 on e-Savings. After the BOE interest rate rise earlier this month to 4.75% the rate of e-Savings still shows 4.55%.
Can you tell me when this rate with increase to match BOE and will interest be backdated to the date of the BOE increase to 4.75%?
Thanks

Sapphire

I sent an email to Nationwide a couple of weeks ago and all I received back was a standard email telling me that they posted any rises in their interest rates on their website! I've therefore transferred most of my eSavings to a Post Office account. Perhaps they just don't want people to save with them?

Oh well, their problem . . . but not very good customer service.

I noticed they'd also raised their standard variable mortgage rates ABOVE the BoE rise in interest rates (as have Standard Life). Very poor show.

Milarky

Sapphire wrote:

I noticed they'd also raised their standard variable mortgage rates ABOVE the BoE rise in interest rates (as have Standard Life). Very poor show.

Yes, they posted that increase (0.35% rather than the 0.25% of the BOE rise) straight away -no hanging about. This staggered approach to changes by Nationwide is partly unavoidable (they want to give mortgage customers as much notice as possible) but not helped by the fact that the 'meetings' at which mortgage and savings rates are discussed are not held 'jointly' but rather on different dates. Since they would be discussing rates changes between BOE rate changes (i.e. at least once a month) anyway and frequently trim savings rates, for instance, tell me that they could not arrange to have one meeting every month (say) seven days after the BOE meets and decide everything in that forum?

Here's a quote from Nationwide:

A spokeswoman for Nationwide said the savings rates were still under review, but that any change would come into effect on the same day as the mortgage rate change.

Link: Guardian - Friday 18th August

So they have a plan (and had one on that date - to change savings rates on 1st September - but without telling anyone holding an affected account in advance)

The only press releases concerning savings products since the BOE decision on 3rd August have been:

Fixed rate bonds :
http://nationwide.co.uk/mediacentre/PressRelease_this.asp?ID=875

and

International fixed rate bonds
http://nationwide.co.uk/mediacentre/PressRelease_this.asp?ID=876

both on 14th August.

So they haven't said anything about variable rates savings - except that they will be changed to coincide with Mortgage payments.