Birmingham Midshires warning

kelvinwebb

After using my favourite money site (no not moneysupermarch!, this one! [oo I wonder if it is actually called that in France] ) I opted to open an account with Birmingham Midshires to stick my savings in as my Virgin ISA interest rate just fell off the edge of a cliff.

Ok I was a bit late in getting round to it but it has taken BM 1 MONTH(!) to open the account which means it has cost me more than £100 in lost interest to go with them! This has negated any benefit in the meagre 0.05% higher rate than the next firm down in the list.

So be warned before you condsider going with them.

Paperwork was slow coming from them, then they require a cheque (who uses cheques in these days of near instant transactions on internet banking?), trust me people, more hassle than it is worth *awaits replies of people who have 'always had no bother with BM' etc etc

EachPenny

kelvinwebb wrote: »

After using my favourite money site (no not moneysupermarch!, this one! [oo I wonder if it is actually called that in France] ) I opted to open an account with Birmingham Midshires to stick my savings in as my Virgin ISA interest rate just fell off the edge of a cliff.

Ok I was a bit late in getting round to it but it has taken BM 1 MONTH(!) to open the account which means it has cost me more than £100 in lost interest to go with them! This has negated any benefit in the meagre 0.05% higher rate than the next firm down in the list.

So be warned before you condsider going with them.

Paperwork was slow coming from them, then they require a cheque (who uses cheques in these days of near instant transactions on internet banking?), trust me people, more hassle than it is worth *awaits replies of people who have 'always had no bother with BM' etc etc

How have you 'lost' £100 interest?

The T&C's were fairly clear about the account opening process and the need to send a cheque to verify your identity. It was also clear that the cheque didn't have to be your one and only deposit into the account, a cheque for £1 would do just as well. Your £80+k could have been sitting in the next best savings account earning interest until the BM account was open, and once open and with full access you could just transfer the money across.

If you mean you've lost one month's worth of the 12 month 1.45% rate then it remains to be seen exactly when the clock starts ticking. And a lot of people have probably opened the account fully expecting 1.45% not to be the best interest rate around in 12 months's time, so the end date of the bonus is possibly academic.

At most you should only lose the 0.05% difference for one month, which I make to be somthing slightly over £3?

18cc

I have to agree the BM account opening procedure is dinasouric (if that's a word). When you consider you can open eg an Atom or Starling account in practically minutes...

I applied for a Halifax credit card - another slow institution. A month down the line I was still sending signed bits of paper back, and the postman was wheelbarrowing paper-printed T&Cs down the driveway.

System

Pay the minimum by cheque then FP in the remainder once the account is up and running.

martin177

Totally agree .
Opening a BM account these days is painful.
Applying online is ok ,but then after four letters in the post and a couple of phone calls it then transpired that I required a visit to a solicitors or doctors to get letter to verify my identity.
That was after previously being a member 4 years ago .


I gave up and went to Charter !

polymaff

martin177 wrote: »

Totally agree .
Opening a BM account these days is painful.
Applying online is ok ,but then after four letters in the post and a couple of phone calls it then transpired that I required a visit to a solicitors or doctors to get letter to verify my identity.

No local Lloyds Bank branch?

martin177

Yes
But they close at 4:30 each day... too early for people at work

elver_man

Dealing with BM is probably how it used to be back in the stone age, applied 6 Dec and still waiting for the paperwork to enable me to send a chq off. With Christmas fast approaching i am anticipating it will be over a month from application to account opening.


In this day and age its not only poor but a classic example of how some of the financial institutions treat customers.

colsten

elver_man wrote: »

In this day and age its not only poor but a classic example of how some of the financial institutions treat customers.

Only those customers who let themselves be treated like this. Which appears to be a fair number of people chasing a 0.05% advantage in interest rates.

PeacefulWaters

I think it's fairly obvious Lloyds Banking Group have totally neglected this "tactical brand" to invest in the online propositions of Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland.

It's not as if they've exactly chased savers in recent years.

polymaff

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

I think it's fairly obvious Lloyds Banking Group have totally neglected this "tactical brand" to invest in the online propositions of Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland.

It's not as if they've exactly chased savers in recent years.

BM has always been an odd organisation. We wouldn't be talking about them now, except for a recent rush of blood that saw them briefly offering 1.45% on £1. Now they're back to a far-more-BMish 0.2%

I managed to open one of the 1.45% versions. Typical BM - if you want to make a fast deposit you do an FPS transfer -

to an account at BM's local branch of Barclays Bank !