Regular Saver Thread **New and Restarted**

Fingerbobs

Sadly my nearest branches of both Nottingham BS and Virgin are over an hour's drive away from me, in different directions. It's not worth the petrol cost to make a special trip to open them really. I only managed to get a Virgin account because I happened to be away on business in a town that had a branch.

arwain

schiff wrote: »

This makes having 7 Virgin RS's paying 3% a bit precious!

I opened my second with them today, very late to the party I know. Spoke to the Staff member and asked them if they thought these accounts would continue, with the merger about to go ahead later on this month. They said they had not hear anything, but there was a rumour going around that they might be getting rid of the pass books.

I asked if this went ahead would that mean these accounts might switch to on line rather than just branch, but they didn't know and said it was only something they had heard, and not something in an official communication.

arwain

surreysaver wrote: »

Same with me. My mortgage is 1.5%, so I won't put money into accounts where it is tied in unless they pay 2% or more, as I do go over the £1k threshold for paying tax on savings.

If you have kids or grand children there are several instant access accounts paying 2% available. The child can only earn £100 in interest tax free though. After that any interest is added to your interest as regards taxation.

xylophone

I must be one of the really lucky ones - my new FD RS started 15 Sept, my new HSBC RS on 19 July!

I'm in a similar position but my M&S matures at the end of this month...

waiting for the axe to fall.....:eek:

schiff

arwain wrote: »

I opened my second with them today, very late to the party I know. Spoke to the Staff member and asked them if they thought these accounts would continue, with the merger about to go ahead later on this month. They said they had not hear anything, but there was a rumour going around that they might be getting rid of the pass books.

Virgin have a very entrenched attitude to routines, which may end if they move to solely online accounts; unlikely I suppose as they would have no use for the stores and fancy lounges. I wonder what they have done with the 19 copies they have taken of my passport and driving licence, my file must be getting quite bulky now

Poor_Leno

The thing that irks me with Virgin is you don't even get any information about payment being received or anything...you quite literally have to do everything with the account in store unless you're happy just assuming that your £250 bank transfers every month have arrived there. In this day and age, I'd have thought it was customary that when a payment is received you at least get a text back/message or some kind of communication to say payment has been received. I suppose they need a reason to provide that red passbook and of course all those fancy lounges where you can enjoy free coffee. Personally, I'd just rather know more easily about information to do with my account than those little luxuries but I guess they're trying to be different/old school to get people into branches so it is what it is I guess - they probably wouldn't/couldn't offer the product in its current state (which lets face it is pretty attractive for what is an easy access account with no penalties) if it was more consumer 'friendly'

quirkydeptless

Poor_Leno wrote: »

The thing that irks me with Virgin is you don't even get any information about payment being received or anything...you quite literally have to do everything with the account in store

Whilst I was sipping tea in a Virgin cubicle opening another Regular Saver, I was told by the chap doing the paperwork that Virgin were still stuck on the system they inherited from Northern Rock and that they were looking forward to moving onto a more modern system after the merger :beer:

So I expect the Virgin anachronisms will not survive for long.

I wonder what I can do with all those empty passbook pages :think:

quirkydeptless

I'm a new customer with Coventry Building society, and when I logged in to check the balance on my regular saver, I got the following message...

surreysaver

arwain wrote: »

If you have kids or grand children there are several instant access accounts paying 2% available. The child can only earn £100 in interest tax free though. After that any interest is added to your interest as regards taxation.

I do consider taking advantage of my children in such a way to be taking the micky. I felt bad enough opening the Learner Earner last month, but as I went to Newport to open Monmouthshire's Regular Savers I couldn't resist popping in the Principality opposite!

Mee

The thing that irks me with Virgin is you don't even get any information about payment being received or anything...you quite literally have to do everything with the account in store

Originally posted by Poor Leno

Yes, confirmation of payment received would be good.
I just check the first payment is received and update my passbooks mostly when they launch a new issue.
Personally, I've enjoyed visiting the branch and getting to know the staff, and the sweets