Intellignt Finance Letter

roddydogs

They obviously dont want my custom, isaver reduced to 0.70% & advised to go to TSB? whats the game.

bowlhead99

It's now over five years since they last offered any new current accounts or mortgages. They haven't offered savings products to new customers for over a year. The homepage and savings site say they don't offer new accounts. You must have noticed this even if you haven't read the press. They are not trying to build their savings business.

IF is owned by Bank of Scotland plc which is a group containing Halifax and Birmingham Midshires etc and in turn is part of Lloyds group. As they explain in their T&Cs, your underlying cash on their different IF branded accounts may be with other entities in the wider group. TSB was also part of that group until they floated last month; Lloyds had committed to sell off a certain number of its branches and customers in different parts of the country.

Given they don't want your custom or anybody else's custom and have suggested TSB (who give you 5% on a current account - which is substantially more than both the IF isaver rate of 0.7% now and whatever the isaver was previously), why not just take the advice?

roddydogs

bowlhead99 wrote: »

It's now over five years since they last offered any new current accounts or mortgages. They haven't offered savings products to new customers for over a year. The homepage and savings site say they don't offer new accounts. You must have noticed this even if you haven't read the press. They are not trying to build their savings business.

IF is owned by Bank of Scotland plc which is a group containing Halifax and Birmingham Midshires etc and in turn is part of Lloyds group. As they explain in their T&Cs, your underlying cash on their different IF branded accounts may be with other entities in the wider group. TSB was also part of that group until they floated last month; Lloyds had committed to sell off a certain number of its branches and customers in different parts of the country.

Given they don't want your custom or anybody else's custom and have suggested TSB (who give you 5% on a current account - which is substantially more than both the IF isaver rate of 0.7% now and whatever the isaver was previously), why not just take the advice?

But the 5% is only on £2,000, & I dont keep anything in my C/A just enough to pay any monthly bills etc. So it wouldnt be worth it.
Never had any problem with IF, & I just use the I.Saver to "Park" a few thousand that I might need instantly to transfer to my C/A. Real savings are elsewhere. Think ID rather have £100/£125 switching bonus than 5%.

bowlhead99

Well, if the £2000 limit is a problem because you have a lot more than that, there are a myriad of other banks offering current accounts with substantial interest rates, and some of them have significantly higher limits (Santander pays on first £20k)

But as you mention the isaver is only going to be parking a "few thousand", you'd find that 5% on the first two thousand of it via TSB (£100 a year) is going to be a much larger amount of interest than 0.7% on even £10k (£70 a year). So it would be worth it, surely.

If you did have higher balances and didn't want too many banks, TSB are offering 0.75% on their easy saver which is not great but higher than IF in any case. You could flip that into a TSB current account and back to your main bank quite easily online if you needed it for bills.

premierfella

Just to highlight one reason why IF still have customers, the existing savings accounts are useful to meet direct debit requirements on current accounts elsewhere given that they allow transfers of only 1p.

I certainly wouldn't be parking a few thousand there, but as much as Lloyds/HBOS are trying to push customers away, they will have a core savings customer base for that reason alone.

jimjames

roddydogs wrote: »

But the 5% is only on £2,000, & I dont keep anything in my C/A just enough to pay any monthly bills etc. So it wouldnt be worth it.
Never had any problem with IF, & I just use the I.Saver to "Park" a few thousand that I might need instantly to transfer to my C/A. Real savings are elsewhere. Think ID rather have £100/£125 switching bonus than 5%.

Not quite sure what your plan is but you don't have to switch to tsb and can open 2 accounts so £4000. Full current account facilities so you can transfer money instantly. I can't see any reason why you wouldn't want more interest if it's available.

PeacefulWaters

They are committed to winding down the IF business as part of the agreement with the EU that hived off TSB as a new bank.

Don't expect things to get any better for customers.