Tesco Internet Saver

claire07

My internet saver bonus finishes 1st December and I have been offered a continuation of the introductory bonus but starting from early January. Am I missing something or is there any reason why they don't continue the bonus from the maturity date (other than they hope inertia will mean you leave the money in the account for the intervening period at a poor rate?)

Milarky

claire07 wrote: »

My internet saver bonus finishes 1st December and I have been offered a continuation of the introductory bonus but starting from early January. Am I missing something or is there any reason why they don't continue the bonus from the maturity date (other than they hope inertia will mean you leave the money in the account for the intervening period at a poor rate?)

I suspect you are right. Whilst not being ungrateful for the opportunity given by the bonus rate, that is exactly what I would do if I wanted to keep hold of someone else's cash at 1.25% for a month or so. In my case my bonus period 'black-hole' was two weeks - mid-September to 1st October. I emptied the account on 16th September, naturally, but most people would probably not be prepared to shift money for such a short period (the 'Tesco-is-very-good-to-us' customer)

btw [shouldn't say this, really but] did you know that Tesco and Natwest (so, I suppose all of 'RBS') have a strict 6.30pm cut off for both inwards and outwards payments? What this means is any payment after this time (even where it goes by Faster Payments) gets 'clocked' the following working day.

Whilst this means that customers putting their cash in after 6.30 lose a day (plus W/E) in interest, it also works against the bank where the customer takes their cash out after the 'cut off'.

The daily transfer 'out' limit is £10000 btw

[Just saying, like]

claire07

Thanks milarky. Very interesting about the timing of payments in and out! Think as the bonus they're offering is the same as the one on accounts they're offering now I'll open another one now ready to move the money in when the bonus runs out in December. That may be being optimistic as I remember the original account took rather a long time to get operational!

premierfella

claire07 wrote: »

Thanks milarky. Very interesting about the timing of payments in and out! Think as the bonus they're offering is the same as the one on accounts they're offering now I'll open another one now ready to move the money in when the bonus runs out in December. That may be being optimistic as I remember the original account took rather a long time to get operational!

Check to make sure the bonus would apply to the second account you are opening.
From http://www.tescofinance.com/personal/finance/savings/savingsaccounts/internetsaver/summary-box.html

Please note: Only one account per person is eligible for the bonus. Tesco Personal Finance plc reserves the right to withdraw this promotion at anytime.

claire07

Thanks for that reminder about the bonus applying to a second account. Should have read the T&Cs more closely. That decides it, nearer the 1st December I'll move things elsewhere (probably aa internet extra or natwest) until the bonus kicks in again in January.

chugbug

I have just opened a new Post Office online account provided by the bank of Ireland because it pays 2.99 % interest on easy access. Unfortunately on the first day of use the Post office website lost two sets of my personal banking details. Their Help desk are not very helpful in trying to resolve the problem, possibly due to lack of training. In my opinion the website may have some security problems which they are unable to resolve at the moment. So I suggest caution if considering transferring any of your hard earned cash to the somewhat unprofessional Post Office Online saver. Bank of Ulster still pays around 2.5%

ANGLICANPAT

Yes, they do this regularly. My bonus account finished early this year and luckily I noticed the whole one month 'hole' and moved all but a couple of pounds elsewhere, then back when the bonus resumed . Im sure they rely on people being too flat out and busy to read the dates carefully - hoping people presume that its a straight forward follow on. It used to be just insurance companies, but Im getting to the point now where with anything and everything I deal with, I feel obliged to view everything with my 'this is a trick look for the catch ' head on . Ive always read small print, but now, it takes twice as long checking out what they HAVENT mentioned , and pondering whether what they DO say could be interpreted differently to work against me. Yes, paranoid maybe , but I think you need to be these days lol.

claire07

It also seems a bit self defeating as once people move money out of the account they may find somewhere better to keep it. Although I found the account really great to use the rate with the bonus isn't that fantastic so if something better comes along I'm likely to have moved my money into that and not put it back.

rdtrdt

ANGLICANPAT wrote: »

It used to be just insurance companies, but Im getting to the point now where with anything and everything I deal with, I feel obliged to view everything with my 'this is a trick look for the catch ' head on .

Indeed. In the financial world, it now seems standard practice to present a facade of trustworthiness and good customer service, while at the same time doing everything legally possible to gouge customers for a bit extra, often relying on people's lack of understanding or lack of time to appreciate the implications of certain aspects of products.

Consider RBS's Natwest which runs an ad campaign heavily promoting itself as Britain's most helpful bank.

At the same time it promotes its Fixed Rate Bond accounts which, if you open one today, initially pays you just 0.5%* interest until January 4th, i.e. nearly 7 weeks, until the fixed rate period commences.

No one who is clued-up would open such an account. Therefore, in my opinion, that product has clearly been designed to take advantage of some people's inability to appreciate the product details or their implications.

So, what Natwest is really helpful at is helping itself to is a chunk of the interest on your money. The TV adverts don't seem to mention that though.

BritRael

A few months ago I phoned Tesco to close my account. The lady asked why I wanted to close and I explained that the interest rate was now poor as the introductory bonus had expired. She then said (no I do not have it in writing ) that actually I was on 3% (until December 2010) but it is "not displayed as not all customers get this rate". Because of this new information I did not close, but will be doing so next month.

alanq

rdtrdt wrote: »

At the same time it promotes its Fixed Rate Bond accounts which, if you open one today, initially pays you just 0.05% interest until January 4th, i.e. nearly 7 weeks, until the fixed rate period commences.

I agree with your comments but NatWest is paying BoE base rate (0.5% not 0.05%) until January 4th.