Leeds BS Regular Saver saga

HardCoreProgrammer

On another note, I notice that their website now lists Issue 3 (bonus date at end of October rather than start of March) as available. Are we allowed to have an Issue 2 and an Issue 3 account at the same time?

patientperson

HardCoreProgrammer wrote: »

On another note, I notice that their website now lists Issue 3 (bonus date at end of October rather than start of March) as available. Are we allowed to have an Issue 2 and an Issue 3 account at the same time?

Yes .. I have both issues

bramval

I received the letter today as well.

My initial reaction is one of anger. These Building Societies never stop harping on about how much more customer oriented they are than the Banks but in a situation like mine they are no different at all.

My partner and I have been saving £50 a month in Issue 1 for about 11 years and have thus built up a decent balance which is now giving us a nice interest amount (when compared with other rates available) They have therefore decided now that they are paying all Issue 1 customers too much interest and are just arbitrarily closing our accounts. So much for loyalty. Yes we can start a new one but when I rang they talked about having to protect their sustainability. What they really are looking to protect are their directors' fat bonuses, I think

Milarky

My point (posted on the regular savers thread) is that their letter does not state the interest rate as a reason for wanting to move your balance, simply 'to streamline' their range of accounts. That being what they actually give as the reason, they could accommodate Issue 2 account holders by redesignating them to 'Iss 3' terms and conditions (£250 per month ongoing after 3rd March instead of £500) That's what they could offer customers based on the reasons given in their letter.

Now a threat to complain to the FOS on these grounds - assuming they refuse the request to convert your existing account from Iss2 to Iss 3 might shake them into action because (say) the man that wrote the poorly worded letter wont want to be dragged into defending himself to the FOS.

walk

Does anyone know how long Issue 2 has been opened? As one of there conditions is you can only save up to £20,000, so I am wondering if you had put in the maximum of £500 a month = £6,000 a year has the account been opened long to save the £20,000 maximum amount. It would have to be opened 3 years 4 months by March 2015 when they are forcing us to close the account. If not they would be breaching one of the their conditions?

alanq

If I read this correctly Issue 2 was around on 20 May 2010.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/7745223/Rate-alert-the-best-regular-savings-accounts.html

If the maximum balance includes interest earned it could take less than 3y 4m to exceed it.

ctdctd

I can't see any reference to a £20K max balance in the Leeds RS Issue2 T&C's

Are you thinking of the old YBS RS? I've still got that and it has a £20K limit.

bristolleedsfan

Milarky wrote: »

Now a threat to complain to the FOS on these grounds - assuming they refuse the request to convert your existing account from Iss2 to Iss 3 might shake them into action because (say) the man that wrote the poorly worded letter wont want to be dragged into defending himself to the FOS.

Plus if a significant number of Leeds B.S members follow that path it will cost Leeds B.S 550.00 a time.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/businesses/answers/funding_a5.html

Had Leeds B.S put a cap on maximum balance per account e.g 20000 and withdrawn Issue 2 a lot sooner than it did they probably wouldnt have been taking this course of action

I will complain that they arent merging Regular Saver 2 account balance into Regular Saver 3 account balance as part of the streamlining of accounts exercise thus leaving me worse of/disadvantaged by the change.

Wouldnt suprise me if Issue 3 becomes a closed Issue and gets superceded by a lower paying Issue 4.

MARTYM8`

someone wrote: »

I got my passbook out to see if I had issue 2 or 3. It says on the cover "Investment Passbook" Maybe its because it is a Building Society?

If you turn to page 3 it probably says call the investment hotline if you want up to the minute information on investment interest rates. Its just a Leeds thing - everyone else uses savings.

Technically its a share account giving you membership - so in a sense you are investing in the board and directors very nice salaries which get voted through annually without much question!

On the issue of debate the Mansfield also closed one of their regular savers - but they allowed people to keep the accumulated balances at the old rate of 3.1% which is still unchanged now. They also explained you could open a later issue regular saver as well in the letter. Very decent in fact. Leeds - while understanding their position - have been a little underhand in not even mentioning the issue 3 account in their communications.

TheCrips

The fact you can't move money across is in my opinion disgraceful.