NOW CLOSED - Northern Rock - 3% easy access - for those with 10K

psychic_teabag

I phoned them this evening : initially they confirmed that the initial deposit had to be at least 10k, then reconsidered and said that it would be fine to build it up to 10k in pieces, but that I'd only get 0.1% until reaching the minimum balance; would be the full 3% thereafter.

Nick_sub

I was going to go for this until I realised they don't have Faster Payments. Wake up Northern Rock! What's more £35 for a CHAPS transfer seems steep to me (am eventually going to buy a house with the money).

SnowMan

Nick_sub wrote: »

I was going to go for this until I realised they don't have Faster Payments. Wake up Northern Rock! What's more £35 for a CHAPS transfer seems steep to me (am eventually going to buy a house with the money).

I agree that accounts like the Tesco and Nat West offerings which offer faster payments for sending and receiving are extremely useful to have.

Northern Rock can receive faster payments, it is just currently they can't send faster payments. They do say on their website here that they are looking to send faster payments in the coming months. Now we all know not to take that at face value or to assume that it will be for the full 10K, but it is possible that things will improve over the duration of the account.

If you are going to transfer back a sizable sum for a house purchase then you are going to hit up against the 10K faster payment limit that most banks apply in any case (a few allow multiple payments of 10K) and there is no guarantee that a faster payment will arrive the same day of course. The plus point of the 3% interest will probably make up for the negative of loss of interest through transferring out through BACS

Stompa

When I opened this account I chose the 'new online customer' option. Part way through the process a pop-up appeared informing me that they thought I may be an existing online customer, and would I like to sign in.

Now I have had accounts with them before, but closed the last one more than 7.5 years ago. It seems that NR, like an elephant, never forgets!

SnowMan

Stompa wrote: »

When I opened this account I chose the 'new online customer' option. Part way through the process a pop-up appeared informing me that they thought I may be an existing online customer, and would I like to sign in.

Now I have had accounts with them before, but closed the last one more than 7.5 years ago. It seems that NR, like an elephant, never forgets!

Ah, not just me then. I had an account that I closed just over 6 years ago, and got the same message :rotfl:

Fortunately they seem to let you re-register without difficulty.

oldfella

I phoned them this evening : initially they confirmed that the initial deposit had to be at least 10k, then reconsidered and said that it would be fine to build it up to 10k in pieces, but that I'd only get 0.1% until reaching the minimum balance; would be the full 3% thereafter.

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suggest you retain the date/time and name of the advisor, or get it in writing

Old_Slaphead

Old_Slaphead wrote: »

Just tried £1 transfer to test the water

Account opened yesterday and £1 test transfer showed up this morning.

talexuser

thanks for the info, opened account today but will have to wait a couple of days clearance to send across 10k from my bank.

psychic_teabag

SnowMan wrote: »

Technically by paying in £1 you are infringing the terms and conditions which says that the initial deposit must be at least 10K

Technically, paying the initial deposit via BACS/FPS seems to breach T&C 2.2.1 which says that the initial deposit must be paid by cash, cheque or internal transfer, and only subsequent payments can be by BACS. Though of course the application process itself does suggest using BACS.

The summary box doesn't seem to mention a minimum initial deposit. In fact, I'm not sure it actually says the min balance is 10k. It does of course say that the full interest rate is payable on £10k+, but by giving a rate for lower balances it implies that it isn't technically a minimum balance. Pedantically the balance is 0 until the first deposit arrives, so it always spends some time with a balance below 10k. (Unless the account is in some sort of pending state.)

drlabman

How long are these limited offer e-savers at NR usually available for?