Natwest/RBS 2.85% esaver

samizdat

h176 wrote: »

Samizdat, hope I'm not the bearer of bad news, but you need to check your application ref. number. The first 8 digits represent the date you applied i.e. year/month/day, e.g. mine is 20101004*****, representing 4th October 2010. If you applied after 20th October 2010, you may have missed the bonus completely. It was withdrawn on 21 October.....

Today's online advert states under 'rates & important info'; "Including 1.85% bonus. Limited period offer for customers who applied for an e-Savings account between 29 September 2010 and 20 October 2010"

If you're on or before 20 October, your bonus interest should start earning from 15 November. Just a bit concerning if the account didn't open until 25 November. Anyone else have any views?
[snip] ...

Mine says 20101019*****, so I think I just made it in time. So bonus interest should already be up and running? Got quite a wedge to shove into the account, so would hate to get this wrong!

Trouble is, I wouldn't trust any answer I could get from Natwest - I would sooner rely upon advice in an anonymous forum. Oh dear.

h176

Samizdat, if your application date was 19 October 2010, you should earn the bonus. If your a/c opened on 25 November, your bonus should start earning on 15 December 2010.

Maybe best to see if any others on this Forum can agree/disagree on this. Please don't just take my word for it!

As you say, don't trust any answers from NatWest, unless you have it in clear writing from them! Looking back @ the last 23 pages, you'll see that NatWest has given a variety of different answers!

SimonM_2

samizdat wrote: »

Mine says 20101019*****, so I think I just made it in time. So bonus interest should already be up and running? Got quite a wedge to shove into the account, so would hate to get this wrong!

I believe that you should be earning bonus interest on your account already, from November 15th, as you "opened" your account in October. The account opening date should be the date that you applied for it online, assuming you were already a NatWest customer with online banking.

If you phone up NatWest you should be able to get them to confirm the opening date recorded on your account - I'd recommend calling the number at the top of your confirmation letter and not anywhere else, as they are the e-savings team.

However...

samizdat wrote: »

Trouble is, I wouldn't trust any answer I could get from Natwest - I would sooner rely upon advice in an anonymous forum. Oh dear.

...exactly, it's very hard to be able to believe anything that NatWest tell you, so even if they tell you something over the phone it may not actually be right. But then, I don't believe what they tell me in writing either, as they've shown that their written communication is full of errors and often wrong or misleading too.

So much for Helpful Banking.

samizdat

Thanks SimonM.

SimonM wrote: »

I believe that you should be earning bonus interest on your account already, from November 15th, as you "opened" your account in October. The account opening date should be the date that you applied for it online, assuming you were already a NatWest customer with online banking.

Actually, I am a new customer of Natwest.

Think I might just wait a month to be on the safe side, even though I'm keen to get 2.85%. Wow, rates these days do sound pathetically low.

SimonM_2

samizdat wrote: »

Thanks SimonM.

Actually, I am a new customer of Natwest.

Think I might just wait a month to be on the safe side, even though I'm keen to get 2.85%. Wow, rates these days do sound pathetically low.

As a new customer, you'll really appreciate NatWest's response to DevonJem (post 426 http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=38822608&postcount=426)

"They also said they expect customers to be familiar with their general conditions in their booklet"

Presumably as a new customer you most certainly wouldn't be familiar with that (and arguably nor would existing customers)

nilrem_2

Just in case anyone is still interested -:

I have just received my first interest payments with the new esaver account which does include the bonus interest.

I posted my application on 20th Oct, the account was opened on 27th Oct and interest added (inc a separate bonus amount) on 30th Nov.

The bonus on my older esaver account expires in Jan 2011 so I shall be moving it's contents over to the new esaver in the near future.

h176

Received an interesting phone call from NatWest Customer Care Team/Manchester last night.

It was their 'team leader' wanting to update me in response to my letter sent to them earlier this week, demanding a 'final response' letter from them, so that I can start passing on all information to the Financial Ombudsman Service & the Daily Mail 'Money Section' about their deceiving delayed bonus start date, their quiet sly attempt to revise the advert, & the shocking way in which they have handled my complaints.

This 'team leader' overlooks the FOUR(!)different advisors who have ALL seperately looked into my case, & decided they were 'unable to uphold my complaint'.....

Today, he is sending me a 'holding letter', & at the same time heis 'escalating' my case to the Nat West 'Head of Savings' dept., which is apparently at the 'highest level' within the savings side of the bank.

However, if I don't receive a swift written response, agreeing to 2.89% AER from my date of a/c opening ( Oct 8th), a respectable level of compensation for time & money wasted & their shocking handling of my case, & a written apology from their Head of Savings, then I'll still be passing on all my info to the F. Ombudsman & the Daily Mail!....

I would be interested to know if anyone else has now passed their complaint onto the F.O.S?

Keep you posted.

afwone

I made my complaint using the online form earlier this week when I saw that my bonus interest had been paid from 15 November. My original advice from NatWest customer service personnel had been that I would receive bonus interest from day 1 of account opening, but then later I had been advised that my bonus would be applied from 15 October.

I applied for the account at the end of September, but the date of opening appears on the account as 8 October. Most of my funds were then transfered into the account a week later.

I received an emailed response within a day and it seems that attempts had been made to phone me. A sum has now been transfered into my account that is equivalent to that of the bonus interest that would have been earned had the bonus been applied from 15 October.

The launch of this account has clearly been a mess, and NatWest staff as well as customers have been confused by the terms and how they were to be interpreted. However, for my part I am happy with the compensation offered.

h176

Afwone, your post makes interesting reading, as my account also opened on 8 October.

NatWest's bonus didn't start earning until 15 November with my a/c, and they won't budge on this.

By the wording of the advert that you read at the time of your application, they should apply the bonus to your a/c from 8 October, rather than 15 October.

If only they could answer to everyone else's complaint in the same way they have with yours!?.....

afwone

h176 wrote: »

By the wording of the advert that you read at the time of your application, they should apply the bonus to your a/c from 8 October, rather than 15 October.

If only they could answer to everyone else's complaint in the same way they have with yours!?.....

Perhaps you helped soften them up, so that by the time I complained I received an acceptable response!

I would agree that the interest should really be from the date of official account opening given the initial marketing of the account. In my case, however, it would not have made much difference as I didn't put in much money into the account till the middle of October.

I should say that in my complaint to NatWest I didn't bother telling them about the initial wrong advice over when the bonus would be paid. Just the later wrong advice (which I was prompted to seek after reading this thread).

I think it right that anyone who was misled by the terms of this account should receive adequate compensation for loss of interest. Apart from the delayed bonus payment issue, I think that this is a good account to have. The ability to transfer funds by faster payments and the highish interest rate (by today's standards) are features that are well worth having.