Natwest/RBS 2.85% esaver

RetiredInThailand

You have to pay for CHAPS. I found it better just to make 1 transfer every day for GBP10,000 direct from my NatWest eSaver to my Santander eSaver. OK, it took two weeks but it was simple and free, and I could do it myself from my online banking. The less I have to deal with bank staff, be it in-branch or on the phone, the happier I am.

Ifts

RetiredInThailand wrote: »

You have to pay for CHAPS. I found it better just to make 1 transfer every day for GBP10,000 direct from my NatWest eSaver to my Santander eSaver. OK, it took two weeks but it was simple and free, and I could do it myself from my online banking. The less I have to deal with bank staff, be it in-branch or on the phone, the happier I am.

Sometimes its worth paying the CHAPS charge.

I'm reluctant to pay for a CHAPS payment if I can help it especially moving small amounts of money, but when moving large amounts over to a savings account/fixed rate bond I don't mind paying the CHAPS charge, as I know the return on the money in a savings account will far outweigh the cost of a CHAPS transfer.

In your example above, the amount involved would have earned ~£150 over the 2 weeks it took to transfer it daily, so I would have thought paying for a one off CHAPS payment would have been cheaper and easier to do (one less thing on your daily to do list).

Apreciar

Ifts wrote: »

Sometimes its worth paying the CHAPS charge.

I'm reluctant to pay for a CHAPS payment if I can help it especially moving small amounts of money, but when moving large amounts over to a savings account/fixed rate bond I don't mind paying the CHAPS charge, as I know the return on the money in a savings account will far outweigh the cost of a CHAPS transfer.

In your example above, the amount involved would have earned ~£150 over the 2 weeks it took to transfer it daily, so I would have thought paying for a one off CHAPS payment would have been cheaper and easier to do (one less thing on your daily to do list).

Exactly, I hade well in over £200k and it was certainly the cheapest route to take. Some folk prefer to save a penny and lose a pound, it's up to them.

psychic_teabag

£100k earns about £58 per week at 3%. But if moving from an account paying 2.85% to an account paying 3.1% the difference in interest is about £5 per week, before tax.

Okay, if the bonus has already expired, that increases the difference. But OTOH the Santander esaver has been offering 3.1% for quite a while now, so sticking with natwest until now has presumably already lost more than 2 week's worth of the difference :-(

Joint account holders can get £20k out per day with a bit of trickery.

RetiredInThailand

It's true that in some cases CHAPS is worth paying for, but not in this one where there was plenty of warning about what was happening.

I stuck it out with NatWest until the last moment because I like banking with them and I was hoping that they would introduce a replacement bonus/account to stop people leaving. Sadly they didnt.

I arranged my FPS transfers every day for two weeks, timed to end on the last day of the old NatWest bonus, so I didnt lose any interest and it took under a minute a day to set up from my online banking (NatWest online banking is superb, far and away the best I have ever used, and is one of the reasons I want to stick with them).

I have been getting .2% less with NatWest than I would have with Santander for some time, but it was worth it and I would move the cash back like a shot given the chance. Santander is run by complete idiots.

cv65user

RetiredInThailand wrote: »

You have to pay for CHAPS. I found it better just to make 1 transfer every day for GBP10,000 direct from my NatWest eSaver to my Santander eSaver. OK, it took two weeks but it was simple and free, and I could do it myself from my online banking. The less I have to deal with bank staff, be it in-branch or on the phone, the happier I am.

same as me ,whilst waiting for my santender to go through paper work . im using FPS natwests 10k limit a day over a week (I set up a a scheduled payment so its automatically FPS 10k a day and i don have to do anything more) to my halifax online saver 2.80% (with unlimited withdrawls) as my new temporary account,

then i will BACs/FPS whole amount from my halifax online saver 2.80% to my new 3.10 % santander.

probably better to do it 10k FPS then BACs. at least with FPS you can have visual . where as last time I used BACs to transfer the whole amount I remembered i had to call up natwest a few times worried the BACS never reached into my account. I do remember it took just under a working week which for me is same length of time as using FPS 10k a day service.

i also did experience going into branch to sort my esaver (which i knew i cant) to be told to use telephone, then to be told to go back in branch to sort it out. then to be told to sort it out online when you couldnt manage it online other then transferring money in./out . lol monkeys at branches and call centres

Ifts

RetiredInThailand wrote: »

It's true that in some cases CHAPS is worth paying for, but not in this one where there was plenty of warning about what was happening.

Yes, you are right it was not worth it for you doing it via Chaps. Sorry I forgot you would have also been earning some interest on the money in your eSaver so the loss was minimal, thought it was in a account earning nout, doh!

Tippytoes

Mmm...strange how you can pay any amount in, but they limit you to £10k per day out - unless you pay for CHAPS....for YOUR security.

NatWest....never again. Bandits.

RetiredInThailand

NatWest aren't the only bank that has a daily limit for online FPS payments.

I also used to think the limit was a bit annoying, until I thought about the alternative: that anyone hacking into my online banking could completely empty all my accounts in just one transaction. I'd rather have the daily limit, thanks.

I just wish that UK banks would do what my Thai bank does: send a free SMS to my mobile every time there is any movement on the account, indicating what the transaction was and the remaining balance. It seems like the most obvious and basic security feature to me.

alanq

RetiredInThailand wrote: »

I just wish that UK banks would do what my Thai bank does: send a free SMS to my mobile every time there is any movement on the account, indicating what the transaction was and the remaining balance. It seems like the most obvious and basic security feature to me.

First Direct offer this but not in real time. The text messages seem to be sent out about 08:00 the following morning.
http://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/ourservices/mobile-banking/text-message-banking