Skipton Building Society Questions and Answers

psychic_teabag

Skipton_Building_Society_Representative wrote: »

Very sorry for the confusion. The 'month' works on the monthly anniversary of the account opening.

My response to ultrawomble (see above) should clarify the situation following more investigation.

Thanks,

Caroline

FWIW I asked about the definition of month via the esavings login and got the answer that it is per calendar month rather than anniversary month. So I don't think we have a consistent story yet ..?

Skipton_Building_Society_Representative

calypso_rhapsody wrote: »

Yes Caroline i do appreciate that systems changes take time ... but first you have to decide to make the changes - am i right in taking your answer to mean that you are in fact going to introduce BACS and not just thinking about it?

It would be great if it were in place when our 3.3% Ebond matures - though even better would be if you were offering such good maturity rates that i did not want to move the money (it does strike me as odd that i could get a better rate by opening a new bond than by rolling over my maturing bond ... but no doubt you have your reasons!)

Dear calypso rhapsody
My name is Claire replying on behalf of Caroline who isn't available this afternoon.
We do constantly review our processes but I'm unable to give you a definitive answer about a specific change until we are ready to roll it out. Sorry if this isn't the answer you wanted but I can say we are trying to make all our processes easier wherever we can.
Regards
Claire

scott_lithgows

Why does the now closed issue regular saver only pay 1.8% including bonus?,poor compared with the new issue.Not everyone wants to set up a new regular saver every year.

moneedope

I won't have the cash free for the regular saver account till next week (3rd Dec) so should i follow ultrawomble's system and wait for the end of next month or should i just open it next week??? I'm really confused now. How much would I gain by waiting to the end of the month? I pay normal tax.

SnowMan

moneedope wrote: »

I won't have the cash free for the regular saver account till next week (3rd Dec) so should i follow ultrawomble's system and wait for the end of next month or should i just open it next week??? I'm really confused now. How much would I gain by waiting to the end of the month? I pay normal tax.

I would say open it on 3rd December (or whenever is convenient after that) and then make sure subsequent contributions go in early in subsequent months (e.g. the 1st of each month).

Ultrawomble would argue that you should wait until the end of December and make subsequent contributions on the 1st of each subsequent month which might increase your interest (assuming the full 6k invested) by about £6 net in the total scheme of things (i.e. including interest from the account money is coming from and going to), but that depends on a lot of assumptions about rates for money not in the account and opportunity costs and changes in the variable interest rate.

Not sure opening and dealing with maturity payments over the Christmas period is a good idea and the account may then mature on a non working day or you may not get round to opening it at all, or the account might not be around come end of December. So down to personal preference but personally I would say just open it when it is convenient.

To put the account into context by putting the full £500 in each month you are getting around £52 EXTRA net interest by getting 5% over the year (assuming the 5% doesn't reduce) rather than just leaving the money in an instant access account all year and earning say 3% for the year.

mary

I've just received the passbook with my own personal account no. Does anyone know what is the sort code and acct. no for Skipton, as I would like to set up a payment for 1st Dec, yet their offices are now closed?

calypso_rhapsody

Mary i sincerely hope that you won't use any account details you get in response - how on earth do you know that it is correct and not the respondent's own account? Skipton accept payments by debit card so i suggest that you call them and arrange a payment by card on 1 December if the account you are transferring from has a card ... otherwise get the information on Monday and accept a day or two delay

It may be worth digging through the website as i vaguely recall the customer service person that i asked this question of telling me it was there - though i had not seen it.

EarthBoy

mary wrote: »

I've just received the passbook with my own personal account no. Does anyone know what is the sort code and acct. no for Skipton, as I would like to set up a payment for 1st Dec, yet their offices are now closed?

The sort code is 20-78-42 and the account no. 70798924 as shown on the Skipton website here:

http://www.skipton.co.uk/savings_and_investments/e-savings/

http://www.skipton.co.uk/customer_services/pdfs/bankDetails.pdf

Don't forget to quote your Skipton a/c no. as the reference.

calypso_rhapsody

Well done Earthboy for finding the weblinks!

Claire - thanks for your reply. I note from this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2111343
that your websaver instant access account offers BACS payments - so you have the systems to do it.

Why have you charged me £25 for a CHAPS payment and told me that BACS is not possible? I suspect i've missed a trick as i could have opened one of these websaver accounts, instructed you to transfer the maturing funds there and then moved it immediately for no fee. (OK i do appreciate that BACS takes 3 days whereas CHAPS is instant so i would have had to do the sums .... but the principle is valid - you have a facility to pay by BACS but you decline to use it for a maturing bond).

I am increasingly feeling that Skipton (and to be fair many others - see the thread about Clydesdale that is running currently) are very intentionally holding onto the money of maturing savings accounts for an extra 5 -10 days (depending on how long the post with the cheque takes and when the weekend falls). In my view this is tantamount to theft - it's my money and i want it back on the agreed date, not several days later!

And i note that you did not respond to my comment about the fact that maturing savers are not offered the best rates if they want to roll over.

Skipton_Building_Society_Representative

calypso_rhapsody wrote: »

Well done Earthboy for finding the weblinks!

Claire - thanks for your reply. I note from this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2111343
that your websaver instant access account offers BACS payments - so you have the systems to do it.

Why have you charged me £25 for a CHAPS payment and told me that BACS is not possible? I suspect i've missed a trick as i could have opened one of these websaver accounts, instructed you to transfer the maturing funds there and then moved it immediately for no fee. (OK i do appreciate that BACS takes 3 days whereas CHAPS is instant so i would have had to do the sums .... but the principle is valid - you have a facility to pay by BACS but you decline to use it for a maturing bond).

I am increasingly feeling that Skipton (and to be fair many others - see the thread about Clydesdale that is running currently) are very intentionally holding onto the money of maturing savings accounts for an extra 5 -10 days (depending on how long the post with the cheque takes and when the weekend falls). In my view this is tantamount to theft - it's my money and i want it back on the agreed date, not several days later!

And i note that you did not respond to my comment about the fact that maturing savers are not offered the best rates if they want to roll over.

Dear calypso rhapsody

Thanks for your reply and I completely understand your point. We do want to make the process as easy as we can for customers to pay money in and withdraw money out the way they want to. We regularly review our processes and implement positive changes wherever possible, many of which are based on customer feedback.

As you have pointed out we do offer BACS payments for our web based accounts which is one of the features available through this channel. These types of accounts are newer to our range which has meant they have been developed more recently and have different systems and processes behind the scenes. We ultimately want to be in a position to offer this facility to all our customers but these things do take a little time to develop.

I’m sorry I didn’t respond to your comment about the maturing saver rates. Maturing bonds are offered follow-on bonds and instant access accounts at the time which are linked to the method in which their account was originally opened or transacted on. It is worth noting that our full product range is generally available as well as the ones we have specifically offered upon maturity. In the pack you are invited to go to a local branch, call us for further details or vist our website about these.

The rate referred to in your email is linked to an Online Bond which involves an individual opening their own account and going through the security steps necessary. This can only be done by the account holder due to the sensitivity of the data, hence the reason for the slightly higher rate as it greatly reduces the administration involved.


Regards
Claire