A&L 5.38% Direct Saver

MiserlyMartin

I'm glad I haven't opened one of these up. This loss of 1 months interest is very confusing. The trouble is interest rates changes and new players are coming along so often now that I doubt it will remain competitive for long - and if you have £45,000 in there it will take you 45 days to get it all out, meanwhile you lose interest withdrawing it. I'm really surprised Martin has made this his best buy account!

masonic

MiserlyMartin wrote:

and if you have £45,000 in there it will take you 45 days to get it all out

Well, according to the above, 5 days if you do not have an A&L current account or 2 days if you do. That is assuming you don't just close the account, where, presumably, they would transfer it for you in one go.

jackthelad_2

- and if you have £45,000 in there it will take you 45 days to get it all out, meanwhile you lose interest withdrawing it. I'm really surprised Martin has made this his best buy account![/QUOTE]

No 4.5 days (10K transfer limit):D

dogstupid

I sent them a secure email today asking them to confirm the limits and their reply is as follows

"Thank you for your email regarding your Direct saver Account.
I would like to confirm that there are no limits to pay into the account on a daily bases and no limit on funds you can transfer out.
We do however have security limits if requests are made to transfer over the Internet whether in or out of the Direct Saver Account however for security purposes I am unable to confirm these limits.
If you were to request a transfer in or out via the Internet over and above these limits the system will direct you to call ourselves to action your request."

So it seems the current story isn't quite the same as other people have been told when asking the same questions.

The system does not tell you to call them when you try and transfer in over £25. I have already tried this and posted the text earlier in this topic. Obviously I don't want to try this on a transfer out as I will lose interest.

Has anybody else asked the same question and received a reply ?

MSE_Martin

Hi folks,

I haven't specifically checked the security limits on A&L. However I think this is building itself up to be more than it actually is. I hope I can help clarify a bit

1. A&L account is suitable for those saving £5k to £100k and planning not to withdraw money very often at all. If you want regular withdrawals, then as the article states you're better off with IceSave

2. If you are planning to withdraw money, do it at the beginning not the end of the calender month to minimise the impact of the lack of interest in that month.

3. This is a 'no-notice' account, not an 'instant access' account - much as Icesave and ING Direct aren't.

The difference is that with instant access you can take your money out straight away, with no-notice whilst you needn't give notice - you cannot simply withdraw money over a counter or from a cash machine, it needs to be moved to your main bank account.

This is a common feature of most internet accounts and in practice usually means it takes three days to get access to your cash. Then again a savings account isn't designed for day to day access.

4. Security limits. These are very common on banks, and I accept £10k is a rather low security limit for withdrawals. However in general security limits are about the maximum online transaction you can make. This is done to prevent fraud - if that happens, if you speak to the call centre, and go through the security checks your money will normally be moved without a problem - though it usually takes someone with a higher authority level to approve it.

I've personally been through this with other banks and never had a problem. It's important not to confuse a 'security limit' with a 'withdrawal limit'.

However I will clarifty with A&L as I know there's varying info here - to get the exact details

Hope this helps

Martin

ReportInvestor

MSE_Martin wrote:

I haven't specifically checked the security limits on A&L. However I think this is building itself up to be more than it actually is......

It's important not to confuse a 'security limit' with a 'withdrawal limit'.

Would you accept that many savers / A&L staff are going to be confused and that the security limit may turn out to be the withdrawal limit in a significant number of cases?

Significant because of the terms of the account, even if the number of people involved is a minority.

codetown

I think that if all customers use the direct secure email and ask the same question, the A&L guys will hae to realise that they need to give precise answers as this clearly seriously affects the operation and return of the account!

Can anyone indicate how to send secure emails from the A&L Online account site? I cannot find that option anymore...

ReportInvestor

My question was not about those investors who ask sensible questions. Just about those many who sensibly follow Martin's advice without asking questions.

MarkyMarkD

codetown wrote:

I think that if all customers use the direct secure email and ask the same question, the A&L guys will have to realise that they need to give precise answers as this clearly seriously affects the operation and return of the account!

Can anyone indicate how to send secure emails from the A&L Online account site? I cannot find that option anymore...

To send a secure e-mail, you go through the Help section of Internet Banking, then "Contact Us" then "Other ways to contact us" then "send us a secure message".

There's really no point lots of people e-mailing the same questions to A&L, particularly when the answer's already been obtained "officially" by Martin/MSE.

So, on the "loss of one month's interest", that's already been answered clearly in the post from MSE Dan.

The £10,000 internet transaction limit applies to internet transfersto non-A&L current accounts; the limit is £25,000 for internet transfers to A&L current accounts and there is no such limit for telephone transactions. This is because it's far easier for people to "phish" your online banking security information and most fraud of this type happens online, not by telephone.

As you aren't going to be making regular, large, transfers out of this account (because you'll lose interest if you do so) I don't think that having to make a phone call every few months to transfer your sums of >£10k is a huge hardship.

MSE_Martin

As noted folks - I am going to clarify the exact situation with A&L and it will be included in the article (if it merits it)