Santander First Home Saver interest issue

Ark_Welder

Ark_Welder wrote: »

Does the interest compound monthly? Working out the interest on a daily basis and adding at the end of the year (I've assumed regular days in the month for the contributinos) then I calculate closer to the Santander figure.

So, £5000 has interest of 5% x 365 / 365 applied,
Month 1 £300 has 5% x 335 / 365 applied
.
.
etc

:rotfl:

I have to laugh at my own jokes...

Just noticed a Freudian: Santander, and the spanish-sounding 'contributinos'.

gadgetmind

Ark_Welder wrote: »

spanish-sounding 'contributinos'

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider have today announced that they have discovered the fundamental particle of compound interest.

Cardozo

I think they've got it right if your intital deposit only got 0.1% interest for the first month. For over paying by £4700. That's the only way my maths get close to their interest. Although their T&C's say a £5,000 deposit is allowed, definately keep chasing this up.

beefturnmail

gadgetmind wrote: »

Please can someone check my working. We opened an account with £5000 and have paid £300 per month into it. I have a spreadsheet that applies 0.40741% interest per month and totals everything. After 12 months, I get the total interest (compounded) to £352.14 yet Santander have only paid £329.08 in interest.

I get the interest as around £330 too. I think you may be counting an extra month's interest somehow(i.e. 13 months).

KI2000 - don't hold your breath in this being resolved. If you're given the runaround, Don't hesitate to go to the top (CEO) and demand compensation.

Santander's systemic miscalculation of interest in this way (intentional or not) is tantamount to fraud - how many people out there don't check/don't know how to check their interest cacluation in detail and assume they are getting paid the advertised rate, when they are in fact getting another?

gadgetmind

beefturnmail wrote: »

I get the interest as around £330 too. I think you may be counting an extra month's interest somehow(i.e. 13 months).

Yup, spot on, my spreadsheet was a bit of a dog's breakfast regards aligning the interest with the months, and I was reading it incorrectly. I've now made it sane and I get interest of £331.47, which is close enough to Santander's figure for the difference to be down to daily versus monthly interest.

Thanks all.

KI2000

beefturnmail wrote: »

KI2000 - don't hold your breath in this being resolved. If you're given the runaround, Don't hesitate to go to the top (CEO) and demand compensation.

Santander's systemic miscalculation of interest in this way (intentional or not) is tantamount to fraud - how many people out there don't check/don't know how to check their interest cacluation in detail and assume they are getting paid the advertised rate, when they are in fact getting another?

Thanks, I shall keep that in mind. I shall give them the week they said it'll take. If I don't hear from them after that I shall contact them again. Btw, I haven't received the first text yet.

In preparation for no contact from them in the week, are you saying I should go to the CEO as the next step? It seems a little hasty to me, but as you've been through the system before I will take your recommendations on board gladly.

beefturnmail

Up to you of course. I went to the CEO as the issue was ongoing and I was told different things by different people, and things didn't happen when I was told they would. when I tried to complain through the normal route, I just received a fob-off letter, from which it was clear the issue had not been investigated in detail and they were hoping I'd simply give. I wasn't prepared to spend my time playing their silly games any longer, by e.g. writing another letter, or waiting on hold to speak to some clueless automaton.

My thinking is this: companies make mistakes, this is fair enough and they should be given the opportunity to resolve them. I will always go through the normal procedure in the first instance.

When I've tried to do this and got nowhere, or I'm lied too, or I'm assured things will happen and then they don't, or I feel the complaints procedure is set up purely as some sort of war of attrition where the company tries to get you to give up - then I take it to the top. For some companies (Santander, Vodafone), this is the only thing that works.

KI2000

Update time.

I rang up again as they said by this time I would have received a text to say my recalculation request had been put in and another to say it had been done and a letter showing the revised amount would be on its way. Also said I'd receive a 8 digit security code in the post to bypass the security questions. I have received nothing so far.

After stating the reason for my call, I was told that at the generic call centre number I rang, they wouldn't be able to perform such requests and I would need to speak to my local branch and put me through.

The person at my local branch asked me how much was in the account and for how long and confirmed that the interest didn't look right. They gave me an option to come into the branch or get a ring back and I took the telephone back option. Probably would have been best to go in but I'd prefer to not have to traipse there when I can provide them the details over the phone. Should they not call me back I will go in.

EDIT: The post has just arrived and with it the telephone security code letter.

KI2000

I hadn't received a phone call so I rang them up. Guy says he left a message on my voicemail but I don't have any. Anyway, he said he's looked at it and my interest is roughly right, though there is a slight adjustment (think it would take it to the £200 mark). He has passed it to the department that deals with this and will ring me on monday afternoon after they have gone through the calculations. The guy has a couple of things to discuss with head office too concerning the number of interest payments (one for all, or one for bulk deposits and another for the monthly amounts). He said he'd have the breakdown of it so at least I can see where the interest is missing.

EDIT: Thinking about it, maybe the rep was saying the following (as it combines the points he made): £5000 lump sum for a year alone gives £200 at 4% (5% before tax), so my initial interest would be £200 and then I'd get a secondary interest amount to cover the monthly deposits (should then be £66). So, he might be saying the 172 should be slightly more at 200 and then they'd be the additional interest to come. I don't think this is right as the second payment should have arrived now as my statement records that I've put in three further montly amounts since.
Thing is, this shows with just the initial deposit alone, I haven't received the required interest and i've put in a further £3600 since.

beefturnmail

Sounds to me you are being told a load of nonsense... Interest is interest. Why should there be one lot of interest and a secondary set of interest? Remember they are a bank. They should be able to answer a simple and reasonable request, like how is your interest calculated, without you having to jump through a load of hoops with sms secutiry codes and branch visits! This is exactly what I mean about being given the runaround. Keep a note of all this and make sure you get compensation for your time wasted