Update! Santander First Home Saver Account: 5% on up to 50k savings (up to 35 only)

atypical

Bin_Boy wrote: »

Initial Lump Sum: £2400 * 0.05 = £120
Regular Payments: (£300 * 12 * 0.05)/2 = £90
Capital Gains Tax: (£120 + £90) * 0.2 = £42

Total Interest Payment After Tax should therefore be around £168.

Yet in my statement I have £108.46 after deduction of £27.11 tax.

It looks about right. It's not called capital gains tax though.

According to this calculator the regular payments should earn £77.53 after tax + £96 after tax for the lump sum = £173.53 net total.

It looks like they've probably applied the 0.1% penalty rate at some point. Call and ask how they've calculated it.

Bin_Boy

atypical wrote: »

According to this calculator the regular payments should earn £77.53 after tax + £96 after tax for the lump sum = £173.53 net total.

It looks like they've probably applied the 0.1% penalty rate at some point. Call and ask how they've calculated it.

Thanks atypical.

I agree all I can think of is that they've applied the penalty rate on multiple occasions. But this doesn't make sense to me as the standing order is set up for the 15th of every month and the terms and conditions clearly say:

'You will receive a lower rate of 0.10% gross/AER when you pay in under £100 or over £300 in any calendar month, but for that month only.'

I suppose I have no choice but to phone them and enjoy the usual fun of trying to sort anything out with Santander, which I need to do anyway given that they've now been unable to close my current account in branch on my last 2 visits but not known why. Fun for me tomorrow!! :j

beefturnmail

I had similar problems with the interest calculation on this account - When I phoned them up, Santander accepted the calculation was wrong but then failed to correct it for 2 months. I wrote to complain and received a fob-off reply 2 weeks later.

I then e-mailed the CEO, and was called back the following day but someone who actually knew something, and received a full written explanation plus £50 compensation within a week....

Bin_Boy

5 Phone calls and 2 incorrect transfers later (Over an hour and a half - so glad I called on the home phone) and Santander are going to pass on the information to the relevant team who will get back to me within 5 working days.

It sounds as if they've worked out the interest on the basis of statement months from account opening eg. 18th May - 18th June, rather than on a Calendar month.

Which means they have applied the penalty period every time a Sunday or Bank Holiday has delayed a standing order (probably twice because this would likely mean 1 month had no payment and the next 2 payments). I think the account description is quite clear on this so hopefully it will be sorted out when they write to me in the next 5 days.

I would advise every else with this account to keep a close eye on the interest though. With the amount of money people may have in the account one bank holiday delayed payment could be quite a significant amount of interest.

beefturnmail

Bin_Boy - that's interesting. I was told it's because my payment's were on the first of the month that were causing problems and they told me (over the phone and in writing) to move it to between the 2nd and 21st to avoid the problem re-occuring. The requirement about paying in between certain dates has been discussed earlier in this thread but is not actually in the t & c for the account (it is for other similar Santander saving's accounts but not this one), however I moved it to the 5th as Santander had advised me to in writing. Even so, I wasn't convinced that this was the reason for the problem, as the months when the lower rate had been applied didn't seem to tally with when bank holidays were (e.g. one month was last July). If they're working it out on the basis of statement months rather than calander months that could explain it - this could be happening to everybody and could well happen again on my account. (I actually half hope they do mess mine up again as it'll hopefully mean another £50 compensation, increasing the effective interest rate again!)

Bin_Boy

beefturmoil - To be honest I didn't bother getting a detailed breakdown of which months they'd applied the penalty to compare it with sundays and bank holidays. But this was clearly the explanation I was given by the person on the phone and is what I expected the issue to be.

My standing order is set up for the 15th, which accords with the 2nd-21st rule mentioned earlier in the thread (although nobody from Santander ever advised me that the payment had to be between these dates). There is therefore absolutely no possibility that a payment has slipped between Calendar Months.

If they are using statement dates it's possible that them telling you to move your standing order would lose you 2 months interest depending on days. Might be worth keeping an eye out for!!!

Interestingly, I have never been provided with T&C's for this account by Santander (was only given a single sheet of paper on account opening). The website is the only T&C's and information I have ever seen and I have taken a pdf printout of this in case I require evidence of what it states. Has anybody actually been provided with an official T&C's booklet or know where to find one?

beefturnmail

There are the general t & C for savings accounts which have a section on terms specific to this account on page 11:

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223402638542&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600

Interestingly it doesn't say 'calendar month' here just 'month' though as you say the web page clearly says calendar month. Doing it on statement month is also clearly ridiculous - exactly because of week-ends and bank holidays. They should agree with you to correct it, but don't hold your breath on them actually doing this! - the first time I rang they said it would be corrected and then proceeded to do nothing for 2 months, which I only realised when I got the next statement.

bongoali

Hi All, I have had a home saver for a while now. Thinking of depositing a large amount (>£300)into the account but am wary of the small print.
I am assuming that the best time to put the large amount of money in is around the end of the calander month - because that way I will earn interest on the amount in the account it is currently in and only lose a couple of days interest when it arrives in the Home Saver. So from the 1st of the following month it will be earning 5% in the Home Saver.

Does this sound about right please?

Reason for asking is some of my Santander current accounts have had their own 'month'. So I don't want to deposit £25k into Home Saver at the beggining of the 'month' and lose twenty something days of interest.

I know I could ask Santander but dred having to phone them.

Thanks

atypical

bongoali wrote: »

I am assuming that the best time to put the large amount of money in is around the end of the calander month - because that way I will earn interest on the amount in the account it is currently in and only lose a couple of days interest when it arrives in the Home Saver.

The site says:
"You will receive a lower rate of 0.10% gross/AER when you pay in under £100 or over £300 in any calendar month, but for that month only."

I understand that to mean the lower rate will apply for the whole month in which the extra amount is paid.

pscho

Does anyone know how long the 5% rate lasts? Does it drop to a lower rate after a year?