Nationwide regular saver paying 5%

Kath_Mccann

Very disappointing how you can now only do this account online so internet banking is required.
Went to open another account last week after current one maturity & was informed now unable to do in branch only thought internet banking.
Do not wish to do internet banking so now cannot get their excellent 5% rate.

ValiantSon

Is there a particular reason that you cannot use internet banking? If not then I'd suggest you are cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Alexland

We have been using Nationwide online banking for around 15 years and its always been very good. All the money is recorded in computers anyway even if you bank in branch.

fun4everyone

I am the other way around and accounts that can only be opened in branch are the ones that wind me up!

As others have basically said/hinted at you should probably reconsider your aversion to internet banking for this account. It is a good one.

bowlhead99

Kath_Mccann wrote: »

Very disappointing how you can now only do this account online so internet banking is required.
Went to open another account last week after current one maturity & was informed now unable to do in branch only thought internet banking.
Do not wish to do internet banking so now cannot get their excellent 5% rate.

Having it run online only, so that you don't need to make them spend their time and effort messing around with paper forms and cash deposits, is how they can afford to still offer the highest rate in the country for a regular saver from a financial institution with so many members.

msallen

I believe they also now only offer nasty plastic biros for customers' use in branch rather than inkpots for me to dip my quill in.

Alexland

msallen wrote: »

I believe they also now only offer nasty plastic biros for customers' use in branch rather than inkpots for me to dip my quill in.

Still I miss the thud of a dusty ledger....

18cc

If you don't like the idea of 'internet banking' as in logging on via a desktop, and if you have a smartphone, you could consider using their app...

aj23_2

I don't blame you for not wanting to use internet banking as a result of being 'forced' to in order to get the rate. It benefits the bank, not you, as it's you who has to open and administrate it, and less for them to do. And don't let anyone put you down for not wanting to do it.

I just checked their website and it says that if you are having trouble opening it, they will do it in branch for you. It's worth trying again.

There are other banks who offer linked regular savers at 5%. There are some building societies who offer a decent rate with higher monthly pay ins and longer terms of account base, say up to two years (Yorkshire BS, N+P BS) or open ended (Nottingham BS). If you live in Kent, theirs in 3% on £500 a month.

aj23_2

bowlhead99 wrote: »

Having it run online only, so that you don't need to make them spend their time and effort messing around with paper forms and cash deposits, is how they can afford to still offer the highest rate in the country for a regular saver from a financial institution with so many members.

With assets of £220 billion, I think they can afford it anyway. Especially with what their boards and directors earn.

"make them spend their time and effort messing around with paper forms and cash deposits" - You mean, doing their job, what they are paid to do.

bowlhead99

aj23 wrote: »

With assets of £220 billion, I think they can afford it anyway.

Most people understand that those gross assets are supported by liabilities - loans from other financial institutions and deposits from members.

The idea that just because they have millions of members causing the overall numbers to be large, they can "afford it" is a nonsense. Imagine you deposited £10,000 in a savings account with them. Then you come back the next week and there's only £9900.

"What on earth has happened?", you ask the bank, sounding distressed. "Ah, well, our old policy was to take good care of all our billions of pounds of assets including members' deposits. But then we read on MSE that aj23 thought we could afford to pay more interest on certain accounts, because there was billions. So we spent some of the billions on paying extra interest to people with certain branch-based accounts, as a loss-leader. aj23 didn't say we couldn't use *their* money to pay out the extra interest, they just saw we had a large total amount of assets so assumed we'd get it from somewhere. And we did. We used up some of the billions of assets. So, now we can't pay you back £10000, only £9900, because £100 went to the 'pay extra interest on branch based RS accounts' fund.

"make them spend their time and effort messing around with paper forms and cash deposits" - You mean, doing their job, what they are paid to do.

As you know, they are paid by taking a margin between the income (what they earn on lending) and what they pay out in operating costs and interest on deposits and long term funding.

So they are paid £x. If "what they pay out in operating costs" goes up from what it could have been because people have a conscientious objection to using the efficient online system to operate the savings accounts, then in order to preserve £x they are going to have to increase their income by putting borrowing costs up for homeowners or by reducing the rates paid on deposits.

You might prefer them to cut some other operating costs to be able to spend more money paying interest to the person who doesn't like computers, but even if the Board salaries were reduced from market rate to zero you would not get much spare cash per member.