Post Office Online Saver....here goes!!

claire07

I must have been lucky as I confess I was one of those who left it till the last minute to open this as I was wary after hearing all the negative reports but was running out of possible direct debits.

Like others I kept getting the "technical difficulties" message but eventually it went through and I've received confirmation it has been opened.

clivep

I was trying for a week in January to open a 3rd account and getting the "technical difficulties" message every time. In the end I phones them and they informed me that my account was blocked. They said this was due to a problem with the TSB DD on one of my 2 a/cs. I confirmed the details they held were correct (deposits had already been taken using this mandate!) and they unblocked the account.

I was then able to open a new Online Saver a/c online without error.

keiran

Quick update re opening 2nd PO account

For those who continue to get the "technical difficulties" page -

I telephoned them on 0800 169 7500 and spoke to a very helpful lady.

She took a few details and told me that they'd take £1 from the Issue 28 to create an Issue 29, which would then appear in my online account in a couple of days

Fingers crossed...

clivep

keiran wrote: »

Quick update re opening 2nd PO account

For those who continue to get the "technical difficulties" page -

I telephoned them on 0800 169 7500 and spoke to a very helpful lady.

She took a few details and told me that they'd take £1 from the Issue 28 to create an Issue 29, which would then appear in my online account in a couple of days

Fingers crossed...

Just heed a warning about what can result from a conversation with one of their "helpful ladies"...

When calling in early January and getting my a/c unblocked, none of my sole applications that fell foul of their "technical difficulties" showed up but she found the blocked joint one I had attempted and continued with the opening process. For this she was instructed to take £1 from one of my wife's issue 26 a/cs but not to close this a/c.

The new joint a/c didn't show up online and the £1 wasn't taken. However, the DD for her issue 26 a/c didn't get taken in January (losing the £5 TSB bonus) and it transpired the mandate had been cancelled.

The joint a/c finally got opened a month later and we also had a letter confirming the a/c closure for her issue 26 a/c. The a/c had not actually been closed though and they confirmed on the phone that the letter was a mistake and the a/c was not being closed. However, they had no explanation for why the DD had been cancelled.

Trying to get the TSB DD resurrected turned into a farce with the result of what their helpful staff did actually cancelling the mandates with the banks for all her PO Online Saver a/cs (although at the P.O. end they were still showing as the nominated a/cs with active regular deposits still in place!!!).

I would advise you to keep a very close eye on the status of your DDs at both the PO and bank ends following any call to them. I've moved the DDs for all our P.O. a/cs to the beginning of the month to allow them to be set up again if they fail to get taken.

youngretired

Spoke to the Post Office today because having the same technical error message and they have said that they are working on it and to try in 48hrs.

keiran

keiran wrote: »

Quick update re opening 2nd PO account

For those who continue to get the "technical difficulties" page -

I telephoned them on 0800 169 7500 and spoke to a very helpful lady.

She took a few details and told me that they'd take £1 from the Issue 28 to create an Issue 29, which would then appear in my online account in a couple of days

Fingers crossed...

Well today I got a phone call from Post Office Savings.

It seems that my multiple attempts over several days to open another account (where I got the "technical difficulties" page on clicking "submit" every time) had been received by them! ( though of course I would be completely unaware of this).

The lady confirmed that there was no limit on how many Issue 29, etc, one could open.
I elected for 3 only. She gave me the numbers and asked me to send cheques for the opening deposits, confirming that the new accounts would be added to my existing log-in details and that I could change the nominated current account for each one, without having to send in a cheque for the new current account

Fingers crossed

SeeMe

keiran wrote: »

The lady confirmed that there was no limit on how many Issue 29, etc, one could open.
and that I could change the nominated current account for each one, without having to send in a cheque for the new current account

Fingers crossed

So if you have 3 you can have a DD for 3 different nominated accounts, ie one for lloyds, bos,santander,

keiran

Yes! that's right

pafpcg

Here's my experience with using Post Office Savers to generate Direct Debits.

Now that my partner and I have each added Issue28 and Issue29 accounts, we have a handful of Saver accounts and the monthly process of taking direct debits has started. There have been no disasters or failures so far, but it's been arduous...

The web-site is slow (select an item on the web-page then wait a couple of seconds for it to refresh, then select an entry on a dropdown list and wait again, but NEVER try to anticipate it - you'll just have to restart to whole sequence again). The process of transferring funds is cumbersome (it demands digits from the security code number even for inter-account transfers).

But what I find most frustrating is the leisurely pace of the financial processes. It takes a day for a direct debit to appear in the account (and start to earn interest) but despite the FAQ saying DD funds will be available in three days, it's four days in practice. So a DD taken on a Monday will be credited on Tuesday and can be transferred out on Friday. The transfer-out will debit the account immediately but won't be actioned until the following business day. Effectively, it will be over a week before DD funds can be redeployed. Which starkly contrasts with the Tesco operation where a DD taken from an account will be credited within hours, can be transferred out immediately and credited to an external account all on the same day!

Sea_Shell

The whole process is more sluggish than a slug!!! That's for sure.