Natwest/RBS 2.85% esaver

gocat

Hmmm opened a esaver last October to take advantage of the bonus and transferred all monies over from previous natwest esaver.
Then today get a letter from natwest saying
"over the next 6 months from 1 December 2012, for every month you pay £100 or more into your e-saving account (ending ****) we'll give you a 2% Gross p.a. (fixed) interest bonus on your whole savings balance for that month."

Anyone else get this. Why would they offer a bonus on an old esaver when I've already opened a new one

RetiredInThailand

gocat wrote: »

Why would they offer a bonus on an old esaver when I've already opened a new one

I'm not sure that their left hand knows what their right hand is doing when it comes to the esaver accounts. It seems to be an endless list of things being done without much thought as to the end result. Look at the latest offer which was obviously over-priced, over-subscribed and quickly withdrawn. And look at the way they offered to prolong the bonus on some esaver accounts with very low balances last year but did nothing to satisfy long-time customers with large esaver balances, many of whom just transferred all their funds elsewhere and were probably quite annoyed about not being taken care of by NatWest.

ccbrowning

I got the flyer as well. The cynic in me thinks it is a ploy to get people to put money in the lower interest-bearing account.

gocat

But they got our money already so why offer this :question: .
Dont know how much difference the interest 3% vs 2.85% over 6 months would make on say £30,000.
Anyone know?
TIA

aleph_0

My money's on them deciding to give an offer to e-saver accounts that have recently been emptied. So they've sent out an offer to these accounts, without cross referencing to see the reason they've been emptied is that the money has been moved to a new Natwest e-saver.

nilrem_2

gocat wrote: »

Dont know how much difference the interest 3% vs 2.85% over 6 months would make on say £30,000.
Anyone know?
TIA

Well ignoring Tax £30,000, @3% would give £900
whilst the same amount @2.85% would yield £855 so £45 difference.

nilrem_2

aleph_0 wrote: »

My money's on them deciding to give an offer to e-saver accounts that have recently been emptied. So they've sent out an offer to these accounts, without cross referencing to see the reason they've been emptied is that the money has been moved to a new Natwest e-saver.

Not sure about this, I emptied my old esaver accounts when the bonus ended but have not had this offer!

ccbrowning

It's not really 3% on that other offer, according to what I received on Friday. I think someone misread the text - the fine print says it's a 1% bonus on top of the standard 1% and the total is 2%. It's confusing since the table shows 1% on the left and 2% on the right, but the text above the 2% says "standard variable interest rate including conditional bonus".

nilrem_2

ccbrowning wrote: »

It's not really 3% on that other offer, according to what I received on Friday. I think someone misread the text - the fine print says it's a 1% bonus on top of the standard 1% and the total is 2%. It's confusing since the table shows 1% on the left and 2% on the right, but the text above the 2% says "standard variable interest rate including conditional bonus".

I haven't seen this offer but IMHO most of the stuff Natwest sends about these offers is often confusing.

You only have to look at this thread to read about lot's of confusion with people having to contact NatWest for clarification and even then getting conflicting information.

Often their own staff don't know!

Drother

Well Sainsbury's have notified me they are lopping 0.5% off my easy saver next Feb, so I'll be emptying that account to my Natwest account.........of course unless Natwest do the same, whats the odds of that happening