Skipton Building Society Questions and Answers

Skipton_Building_Society_Representative

johnmoney05 wrote: »

Hi, is the new 5% Regular saver account allowed the existing special saver account holder to apply? Do they have a FREEPOST address for posting application? Thanks.

Hello johnmoney05,

If you already have a special saver account then you are more than welcome to open a regular saver account too.

I'm afraid we do not have a freepost address for this account, however you can apply in branch if you wish http://www.skipton.co.uk/branches/

I hope this helps,

Caroline

Skipton_Building_Society_Representative

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Question to Skipton:

How do you feel about offering a "Retirement Saver" account at 2.50% AER, when many unsophisticated savers may believe this is some sort of pension scheme with tax relief?

Hello Loughton Monkey,

Thanks for your question.

My Retirement Saver is a simple instant access account to help people budget and put aside money for their retirement. We make no claims about it being in anyway a specialist retirement product.

People may wish to save in the account before moving money into pensions, ISAs or other retirement products or simply save in a My Retirement Saver account and have complete control of their money. The website does state that “You'll have easy access to your money whenever you need it because at the end of the day it's up to you to determine what retirement means for you”.

Any suggestions about how we could make it clearer would be gratefully received.

Many thanks,

Caroline

Skipton_Building_Society_Representative

ctdctd wrote: »

Hi Skipton and :wave:,

I've just opened a new RS in branch with £500.

If the opening date is Nov 23rd, when can I pay in the next months subscription?

Is it calendar month - e.g. from Dec 1st to the 31st?
Or is it month from opening date - e.g. Dec 23rd to Jan 22nd?

Staff in branch were not sure and the T&C's do not make it plain.

Thanks in advance!

Hi ctdctd and :wave:,

I have checked with our Products team and have been told that the Regular Saver is based on calendar months, so from the 1st of each month you can deposit up to £500. This can be a single payment or multiple payments within the calendar month.

I hope this helps,

Caroline

juicyjude

I must say this is an excellent idea for a company rep to post on this forum. Wonder if any others have plans to do this if they were granted permission. Quick question, how long does Skipton intend the regular saver to be offered for? Thank you for your reply

Skipton_Building_Society_Representative

juicyjude wrote: »

I must say this is an excellent idea for a company rep to post on this forum. Wonder if any others have plans to do this if they were granted permission. Quick question, how long does Skipton intend the regular saver to be offered for? Thank you for your reply

Hi juicyjude,

Thanks for your comments - much appreciated!

We will keep the Regular Saver open for as long as we can. However, as with most competitive products, we may need to withdraw it at short notice so if you'd like to open an account, visit your branch as soon as you can.

I hope this helps,

Caroline

juicyjude

Thanks very much Caroline, will give this one severe consideration! I like the idea of it being so flexible with regard to how much can be put in every month with the obvious restraints of min and max amounts so I could put in differing amounts each month. I must say I also like the fact that I can go into branch, without all the usual palaver of internet banking and speak to a real person!!! We have a branch locally. Many thanks

steady__eddie

Quote:
Originally Posted by juicyjude
I must say this is an excellent idea for a company rep to post on this forum. Wonder if any others have plans to do this if they were granted permission.

I bet that you wouldn't get any volunteers from Santander.

Froglet

steady__eddie wrote: »

Quote:

I bet that you wouldn't get any volunteers from Santander.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Loughton_Monkey

Caroline,

A glance at your products reveals that you seem to be offering 'clean' rates. But to be honest, many of them are not competitive. I would be very interested to know what the 'thinking' is your end?

You see there are lots of people (myself included) who are retired, with quite a stash of free capital. OK, we might have an underlying pension income, and a modest amount of Equities in ISA's (best left to obtain growth). So we have to save the 'cash' and live on some of it. As you will be aware, it is not possible to beat inflation. The best we can get is just over 3% - by using a complete mixture of (a) the usual 'laundering' of £1,000 through Lloyds Vantage/Santander Current/Halifax Reward (we are a mercenary bunch!), (b) Fixed rate bonds for 2 years or so, (c) a modicum of Regular Saver accounts, and (d) the 'bonus' accounts which last for 12 months and pay around 2.75%/2.99% (with diary notes to move it after 12 months).

So (and I'm certain you have discussed all this in your products departments) you have a dilemma. At, say, 2.5%, even though 'clean', you are not going to get any large chunk of my savings. Or lots of other people in similar circumstances. My own income is too important to me to think too much about 'Service' or 'Building Society' etc. and to 'lose' 0.25% or more.

Similarly, I can understand that if you give a bonus - say to a 3% rate then you will be flooded (me included) but of course we will all politely wave goodbye after the bonus finishes. But so many banks are doing this. Do they need the cash (for lending) more than you do? Can you borrow on syndicated loans at a cheaper rate? Or maybe you aren't lending and don't need the 'savings' money? Possibly you simply want to concentrate on 'semi-competitive' rates for those who are loyal to your name, or simply prefer Building Societies because all of a sudden they don't trust the evil banks?

I'd be interested to learn of any comments on this issue?

adindas

Hi Caroline

I manage to open RSA (5% APR) today in one of you branch. I wanted to pay my first installment £500.00 in cash but the branch say that they can not accept cash therefore I paid it with cheque which is quite unfortunate, as there is a delay the money go into my a/c. I think this need to be changed.

On my pass book that I got today it was written:
23/11/10 CHEQUE (01/12/10) XXX (branch code) etc.
What this actually mean.
Does it mean that my first installment is on 01/12/10, therefore I can not pay £500.00 in December and need to wait in Janus for second installemnt.

Does it eally take 7 days to clear the cheque ? This is actually disadvantage to me as I intended to pay in cash but because it was not allowed, I need to pay by cheques I have lost the interest for several days.

ADINDAS