Finances 1st Quarter Review

bowlhead99

Cotta wrote: »

Probably a stupid question but is the Nationwide rate guaranteed for a period of time? Also is £500 the limit each month?

The product limit is for £500pm for one year and whether or not the t&c allow it, it's extremely unlikely they would mess with that and p1ss all the customers off. Half the customers with the account will be having their account closed in the next six months anyway (i.e. you could guess that about half the people in the product are at least six months into their year) so it would be easier just to drop the limit for new accounts being opened.

The 5% is officially a variable rate and not guaranteed to be fixed for the term. However, it has been at that level for a good while. Their big mainstream rivals in the "high interest regular saver" game are First Direct and M&S. Nationwide's unique selling point is the highest amount per month (at the £500) together with instant access as much as you like to get your money out and having lots of high street branches. So potentially they could drop the rate a little and it would still be attractive. But they want it to be seen as a perk for having one of their qualifying "flex" range of accounts. So I'd speculate that they will keep the rate as long as their rivals are paying as much as they are.

It's not a guarantee but you have nothing to lose really; if it dropped to 4% you could withdraw it at no penalty, but it would still be worth keeping anyway because from your financial position you are better with a few grand in such an account earning 4%, than dumping those few grand into a mortgage to save only slightly more than 4% in mortgage interest and not being able to pull out all back out of the mortgage in an emergency.

Cotta

Just setup a standing order with Nationwide for £350 pm for their regular saver at 5%, this figure will of course rise when I am more comfortable with it.

Cotta

I setup the regular saver in branch with Nationwide at 5% last week, today I got a letter out confirming the account had been setup but at a rate of 2% - what has went wrong?

ColdIron

Did you ask for the Flexclusive Regular Saver and not the Regular Saver? Are you eligible for the Flexclusive Regular Saver? The Regular Saver only pays 2%

Cotta

ColdIron wrote: »

Did you ask for the Flexclusive Regular Saver and not the Regular Saver? Are you eligible for the Flexclusive Regular Saver? The Regular Saver only pays 2%

What eligibility is required for the Flexclusive Regular Saver?

bowlhead99

Cotta wrote: »

What eligibility is required for the Flexclusive Regular Saver?

Unsurprisingly this information is available on the product page on the website being http://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/savings/flexclusive-regular-saver/features-and-benefits

To open this account:

You need to be 18 or over and a main current account customer with us. This means you must either:

• Hold a FlexOne account and be aged 18 or over, or hold a FlexAccount and:

- have been paying in £750+ a month for the last 3 months (excluding transfers from any Nationwide account held by you or anyone else); or

- completed an account switch to us (from a non-Nationwide account) using our Current Account Switch Team in the last 4 months;

or

• Hold a FlexStudent account and have paid in £1,500 in 2 or more transactions in the last 12 months.

or

• Hold a FlexDirect or FlexPlus account.

You can open this account with a minimum of £1 up to a maximum of £500.

Please note: You can only be the first named account holder of one Regular Saver or Flexclusive Regular Saver account at any one time, which can be held in sole or joint names.