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

archangelrich

I really hate Santander....

So, I got my statement through - interest paid in January, the anniversary of opening the account.

Interest came to just under £200 net of tax, which has left me massively befuddled. I've paid in every month, between the limits, so it should have been 5% all year. I opened the account with the maximum £5k allowed, and paid in every month the maximum £300 allowed to keep the 5% for that rate. So I get that I should have earnt roughly £340 gross or £272 net in interest.

I think I'll be following beefturnmail's example - this is just absurd!

mili.

Hi all

Much like the above post - the interest I earned was £195. I initially deposited £5000, so what I got end of the year wasn't even 4% net of tax...

anyways i tried calling twice and each time they put me through to one person to the next and they just take my number - but no one bothers to call. and then i get the same letter as everyone else - asking for £10 to see the calculations... sigh. so i resorted to emailing the ceo and mentioned what i should be receiving. however, i didn't provide any account details as i didnt think it was safe via email (however, giving it to the mickey mouse employees on phone is just as scary...) but will wait to see what they say. I was wondering if i should be giving them my account details to check the calculations??? :think:

archangelrich

I've not had anything back from Santander at all - I gave up calling after they said the account could only be accessed in branch (not over the phone), and the last time I had to write and complain, they referred me back to the branch who cocked it up the first time.

What's the e-mail address for the Santander CEO?

beefturnmail

For e-mail addresses of CEO's go to www dot ceoemail dot com

cheap-information

Deleted_User wrote: »

I've prepared an excel spreadsheet to calculate the annual interest on a santander first home saver account (assuming you qualified for 5% interest for the entire year). The spreadsheet is found here:

Instructions are contained in the purple box at the top of the spreadsheet. Essentially you enter your starting balance and the amounts and dates of each payment into the account. The spreadsheet then calculates the interest owed (giving you the figures both for the full interest and the amount santander would pay you after deducting 20% tax).

I prepared this tool as a check after seeing that someone else got the wrong interest. Luckily Santander calculated my interest correctly.

I suspect the guy who had the wrong interest has done something to break the Santander system (i.e. payments into the account close to month end or month start) - not his fault though! Santander are pretty useless if things go wonky.

Thanks for that, just used it now and Santander actually paid me the correct amount.

Added to this I opened up the account with £35k and I didn't get penalised for paying too much into the account for that month!

archangelrich

Well, I wrote to customer services, who told me I had to go into the branch, since it was a branch based account.

None of the staff there had the faintest idea, and couldn't even work out a basic interest calculation (I tried to explain as I opened it with £5k, and 5% of 5k is 250, as a minimum the interest should be £250, but they didn't get it). So they escalated it up to the Customer Services Department - the same department that told me to go in branch in the first instance.

And yes, I also got told that the interest drops to 0.1% after 12 months, despite pointing out the statement they were holding clearly indicated that it was 5% whilst the T&Cs of the account were met.

And this was coming from the branch manager. Fair enough, it was a rare account, but I actually got told because the account has been discontinued, staff don't have access to the T&Cs of the account any more to see what the issue is!

archangelrich

Deleted_User wrote: »

I've prepared an excel spreadsheet to calculate the annual interest on a santander first home saver account (assuming you qualified for 5% interest for the entire year). The spreadsheet is found here:

(choose the "free download" option)

Instructions are contained in the purple box at the top of the spreadsheet. Essentially you enter your starting balance and the amounts and dates of each payment into the account. The spreadsheet then calculates the interest owed (giving you the figures both for the full interest and the amount santander would pay you after deducting 20% tax).

I prepared this tool as a check after seeing that someone else got the wrong interest. Luckily Santander calculated my interest correctly.

I suspect the guy who had the wrong interest has done something to break the Santander system (i.e. payments into the account close to month end or month start) - not his fault though! Santander are pretty useless if things go wonky.

And a big thank you for this - I've just worked out I've been underpaid on interest by about £80.

(And I can't quote the full message - as a new user, I may be a spammer apparently )

rb10

archangelrich wrote: »

I tried to explain as I opened it with £5k, and 5% of 5k is 250, as a minimum the interest should be £250

Remember to deduct tax at 20% if you are a taxpayer - so it'd be £200.

archangelrich

I lost them LOOOOONG before I got to net and gross.....

afmfifgh

That time of the month again....

Just to let people know that the account ('First Home Saver Special Issue 1', not 'First Home Saver') is still paying 5% as of 02/05/2012.

Page 10 of 13 about half way down, Rates correct as of 2nd May 2012:

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223422086130&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600

Surprised there has still not been a rate drop but I am not complaining :beer: