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

pazza2000

I do not have a current acc. (or any other product) with them. Will try and transfer out via the phone which would be far more convenient.

Thanks

chamelion

Just went into branch to clear up the confusion. Yes, my rate has dropped to 3%, no it won't drop any further.

I closed my account - painfully slow process. Got my interest, walked out. Money has been pushed to my post office saver at 3.17% AER - marginally better than santander but at least I can access it all online. Otherwise i'd have just stuck with Santander.

Now to find something to dump this money into - quite a painful loss

Moneygrabber24

Well, Its great to see that you can , at least, transfer money out of this home saver over the phone. I managed to do this today.....

Eponym

Moneygrabber24 wrote: »

Well, Its great to see that you can , at least, transfer money out of this home saver over the phone. I managed to do this today.....

Was that to a non-Santander account?

adonis10

chamelion wrote: »

Just went into branch to clear up the confusion. Yes, my rate has dropped to 3%, no it won't drop any further.

I closed my account - painfully slow process. Got my interest, walked out. Money has been pushed to my post office saver at 3.17% AER - marginally better than santander but at least I can access it all online. Otherwise i'd have just stuck with Santander.

Now to find something to dump this money into - quite a painful loss

Is that Post Office account an old one? Can't see that rate anywhere. Assuming it's one you had but obviously the FHS had a better rate for a while.

Moneygrabber24

Eponym wrote: »

Was that to a non-Santander account?

No it was to my santander current account, but then I just went online and transferred the money from the current account to lloyds tsb. Pretty simple really. ....

Zekko

chamelion wrote: »

I closed my account - painfully slow process. Got my interest, walked out. Money has been pushed to my post office saver at 3.17% AER - marginally better than santander but at least I can access it all online. Otherwise i'd have just stuck with Santander.

You should have left it open with £1 in it.
3% instant access accounts are painfully difficult to get at the moment, and may be for some time into the foreseable future.

pazza2000

Moneygrabber24 wrote: »

No it was to my santander current account, but then I just went online and transferred the money from the current account to lloyds tsb. Pretty simple really. ....

I wonder if you can just so easily transfer via the phone to a non santander account? Will try this out on Monday as it sounds like i will not have the time (reports of upto 2 hours) to do this in branch through the week.

Essex123

pazza2000 wrote: »

I wonder if you can just so easily transfer via the phone to a non santander account? Will try this out on Monday as it sounds like i will not have the time (reports of upto 2 hours) to do this in branch through the week.

My girlfriend and I both made withdrawals of just over £5k by Faster Payments.

In my case it took 45 mins to process the request. There was some form filling and head office authorisation was required because I haven't regularly used the account (erm, £300 a month was going in). The cashier was quite rude to me.

My girlfriend was refused the transaction in the first branch she tried because the cashiers were too busy and the customer service people were all blocked out with appointments. She was directed to the second branch in town, which turned out to be shut. Eventually she went to another town, and they did the transfer in about 30 minutes.

There is now exactly £50k in my account which I will shift when rates improve elsewhere. I dread having to go back in for that transaction! Santander have the worst customer service I have encountered.

antispam246

Just to verify, I can add my account online now. So I can easily shift it out to wherever without having to go in branch. Just have to double check interest but it looks good (: