3.1% Easy Access Account - Coventry Poppy Online Saver

savetilibleed

You can be paid interest to the same account, a Coventry account or an external account.

Uther

savetilibleed wrote: »

You can be paid interest to the same account, a Coventry account or an external account.

But does each monthly interest paid to an external account, count as a one of the 4 penalty free withdrawal's.

I ask because i just tried to transfer my full balance and got a message saying it couldn't be completed - must call them. I want to be prepared.
The T's & C's do say for interest credited to the account, withdrawal's do count towards the 4 penalty free limit.

If this is the case then if you have monthly interest to an external account, you could never close the account without a 50 day interest penalty.

savetilibleed

Uther wrote: »

But does each monthly interest paid to an external account, count as a one of the 4 penalty free withdrawal's.

I ask because i just tried to transfer my full balance and got a message saying it couldn't be completed - must call them. I want to be prepared.
The T's & C's do say for interest credited to the account, withdrawal's do count towards the 4 penalty free limit.

If this is the case then if you have monthly interest to an external account, you could never close the account without a 50 day interest penalty.

No, monthly interest paid by Coventry, to an external account is not a withdrawal, so therefore does not count as one (or any) of the 4 penalty free withdrawals. If that were the case, then at the fifth interest payment, you would lose money, additional withdrawals being subject to a charge of 50 days loss of interest.

No idea why you couldn't complete the transfer. Maybe something to do with less than a pound in accrued interest. Don't know. Or them realising from your attempt that you wanted to close the account.

thizzby

Hi

I've just come a cropper on this account - another case of not reading very carefully the t & c's. I opened my account on 18/8/11 and expected to be able to close it when on the anniversary ie 19/8/12.

I've used all 4 free withdrawls during the year so I'd expect the anniversary date to be the date when I could close the account without a penalty payment - BUT no - I was told the t&cs state the year begins when the 1st withdrawl is made which for me was 19th November and having used all my free withdrawls I have to wait another 3 months to get my money without paying the penalty.

I feel cheated by these people and have told them so. This is in my opinion another case of unfair t&cs. Wonder if there is a case for financial ombudsman. The FSA have cleared the account according to the COventry.

Thizzby:mad:

innovate

[STRIKE]

thizzby wrote: »

I feel cheated by these people and have told them so. This is in my opinion another case of unfair t&cs. Wonder if there is a case for financial ombudsman. The FSA have cleared the account according to the COventry.

Afraid, Thizzby, the only one you have to blame is yourself. You chose not to read the T&Cs that you agreed to when you signed up. The Coventry is very clear, and the terms are dead easy to find :

Withdrawal arrangements

You can make 4 no-notice, penalty-free withdrawals each year. Additional withdrawals can be made but will be subject to a charge equal to 50 days' interest on the amount withdrawn. This will automatically reduce your capital investment. Withdrawals of interest credited to the account, and account closure will count as a withdrawal. The minimum withdrawal is £1.

http://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/savings-and-investments/productfeatures.aspx?prodCode=PES1[/STRIKE]

Apologies, seems I got this all wrong - see my later post.

talexuser

I'm afraid I have to agree. I had the same account and the closure accounting for one of the withdrawals was clear at the outset. The withdrawal limitations led me to swap to an unlimited access account of same or greater rate when one came along.

2010

thizzby wrote: »

I've used all 4 free withdrawls during the year so I'd expect the anniversary date to be the date when I could close the account without a penalty payment - BUT no - I was told the t&cs state the year begins when the 1st withdrawl is made which for me was 19th November and having used all my free withdrawls I have to wait another 3 months to get my money without paying the penalty.

If you`ve used all four then closure will be a fifth, incurring a 50 day loss of interest penalty.

Not the Covs fault, unfortunately yours.

LittleVoice

innovate, talexuser and 2010 - it seems to me that thizzby was well aware that the closure of the account would be a fifth withdrawal. The problem was that Coventry are saying the "year" that they count for withdrawals is not the account year (ie the date from which the account was opened) but basically any 12-month period starting from the date of the first of the withdrawals.

I would be challenging the interpretation of a year too. Innovate's extract from the terms and conditions doesn't specify what a year is. Perhaps it is elsewhere in the t&c. Can you find it?

innovate

Actually, seems you are absolutely right, LittleVoice, and I totally misread thizzby's post!!! Really sorry, thizzby, seems the heat got to me.

I had assumed instinctively that "year" means "calendar year". But since there was at least 1 of 4 withdrawals in 2011, then at least one withdrawal would be possible now in 2012.

I cannot find anything on the Coventry site that defines "year", so I agree now, this looks a bit like sharp practice. Not sure if thizzby has already officially complained, which would be the first step, before any complaint to the Ombudsman.

Apologies again to thizzby, I jumped too fast and thanks LittleVoice for pointing it out.

savetilibleed

I just sent a message a few moments ago to Coventry re a Poppy Online Saver (2) which has the same restrictions, to get this clarified, even though it does now seem clear. I also wanted to know about withdrawal limits into the linked account per transaction so asked that too for clarification.