Why you should not take nationwide mysaveonline

strawberrylane

I think you may have been given duff information regarding withdrawal timescales from mysave. The funds should be in your nominated account during the next working day. I think the advisor you spoke to must have been living in the past!

See here for info.........

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/limited_access/mysaveonlineplus/managingyouraccount.htm

It would be worth re-confirming with them.

Also, worth finding out the value limit for online withdrawals. It may be 10K. Worth checking.

innovate

I have had a MysafeOnlinePlus account for 2 years. Yes, the login is separate from my Nationwide login - - but so is my login to my Lloyds, Halifax, BM, Nottingham BS, and Santander accounts.

Since it's a while ago, I can't remember the exact details of the opening procedure - - but I reckon it was pain-free since I would remember if there had been any probs.

The switching after year 1 to a replacement MysaveOnlinePlus (to avoid drop in interest rate) was extremely painless - got a letter from Nationwide well in time, and I could request the switch online. Alternatively, I could have moved my money elsewhere, but the new MySaveOnlinePlus interest rate suited me just fine, therefore I stayed on.

I have made a number of additional deposits into the account, using the internal transfer from my Flexaccount, so it gets executed almost instantly.

Admittedly, I have not yet made any withdrawals but I am very relaxed that I could get my entire balance (in the high tens of Ks) out within a day if I wanted to. I can request closure if the account online, too, and the money will "normally arrive during the next working day" in my Flexaccount. Nationwide do remind customers "To avoid losing interest we recommend that you close your account at the start of your account month before any interest has been earned for that month. Your account month begins on the date that you initially funded your account, you can find out this date by logging in to the My Save Online Savings site and viewing ‘Account information’"

Given that the account only has only 1 free withdrawal (incl. account closure) per year, it's not an account from which I need to regularly withdraw money, so I am not concerned about frequent, or multiple, withdrawals. Anyone expecting frequent/multiple withdrawals should go for a totally different account to start with because you only get a miserable interest rate for a month once you get to a 2nd or subequent withdrawal.

Bottom line for me is that it's a sweet account if you probably don't need your money for a year, but you want to keep your options open in case you do need it, after all, e.g. for a house deposit.

grey_gym_sock

opening the account was a nuisance for me because i had to post them proofs of ID (this is not always required) - which was frustrating when i already had other nationwide accounts (though i realize this is because they've contracted out the administration of mysave) and there is a nationwide branch within walking distance - and they were picky about the address being written slightly differently.

other than that, it's worked smoothly, including closing the first mysave account and using the balance to open a new one.

the advice to close the account at the start of a month appears to be only necessary if you've already used your penalty-free withdrawal.