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

someone

Showing online for me too, will be handy when my e saver ends

ImageChange

Showing online for me too, as of today.

Perfect timing, as it saves me a trip to the branch to transfer funds on Thursday. Now I can do something useful with my day off instead

Moneygrabber24

Yep you can add it online. ........ Very convenient. ...

Moneygrabber24

Can you imagine.. .this account was first introduced by Abbey National back in 2008 when it was offering 8%!! http://m.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/nov/02/abbey-first-buyers-loans

Did anyone have this account at that time?

afmfifgh

Logged into my old Online Banking and found the account was listed. Credit where it is due, good customer service from Santander as I have not had to do anything.

Also did a test transfer to an external bank and it went through instantly arriving in the external account within a few seconds.

Saves a trip in to town

Also:

Just to let people know that the account ('First Home Saver Special Issue 1', not 'First Home Saver') is still paying 3% as of 04/12/2012 on the balance up to £49,999.99 no interest is earned on balances of £50,000 or more.

Page 10 of 13 about half way down, Rates correct as of 12th November 2012:

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223427307120&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600

antispam246

Thanks for clarifying. I think the mix up over the rates is due to the very similar accounts. I have the Special Issue 1 which is handy as my eSaver Issue 4 ran out couple of weeks ago so I can now move that to my Home Saver (:

Edit: I called up again to clarify and contrary to what I reported earlier I can also confirm that the Home Saver Special Issue 1 is still 3% and no planned changes to rate as of yet.

iwant2asave

Hi,

Just wondering how the interest works on this account in terms of when it will be paid also taking into account the previous rate?

rb10

iwant2asave wrote: »

Hi,

Just wondering how the interest works on this account in terms of when it will be paid also taking into account the previous rate?

Exactly the same as it was before ... annually, on the anniversary of opening.

afmfifgh

afmfifgh wrote: »

Logged into my old Online Banking and found the account was listed. Credit where it is due, good customer service from Santander as I have not had to do anything.

Also did a test transfer to an external bank and it went through instantly arriving in the external account within a few seconds.

Saves a trip in to town

The credit for good Customer Service didn't last very long. I contacted Santander via their online secure message yesterday asking what was the maximum amount I could transfer out to an external account in a single day.

Here is the reply:

Santander wrote:

"Good Morning Mr ******.

Thank you for your email.

Regrettably, you are not able to set up an external online payment from your First Home Saver account.

If you attempt to set up an external payment you will receive an error message.

This account must be managed in branch.

You are able to set up external payments by visiting a local Santander branch.

Please visit your local branch with photographic ID and an advisor will be happy to make this payment for you.

I hope this information is useful and if you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to contact me via Secure Messaging or to ring my colleagues on 0845 9724724, Monday to Saturday 7am to 11pm and Sunday 8am to 10pm.
Kind regards,
Chris"

Obviously that is wrong as I did a transfer yesterday to an external account that went through instantly. Guess I will just have to see how much I can transfer for myself.

pazza2000

I have now carried out two transfer 'out' to a non Santander account. Each has taken only 5mins in branch and the transfer has been instant.