Nottingham Building society - Beehive Money

Primrose

Have an Online account with thme. Just had a letter announcing their new Beeline account to which they,'re moving all online savings later in the year. Savers will still be members of the building Society but lose their member rewards and they,re not increasing interest rates as a result of the recent B of E rate increase.

Once your account has been moved to Beehive money savers will no longer be able to access their original e savings account. We are being given no option as to whether we want to move or not

I,m wondering if there,s something else they're not telling us about this transition of their online savings business or do I just have a cynical mind ? Are they allowed to get a third party to manage this side of their bua8ness without telling customers?

When this happens savers will have to register with Beehive Money and won,t be able to access their savings until they do.

AnotherJoe

I,m wondering if there's something else they're not telling us about this transition of their online savings business or do I just have a cynical mind ?

I think you have a cynical mind. Are they never allowed to change things? Must they always keep old systems around indefinitely? Because thats the implication of the alternative, giving people a choice, some will inevitably, even if its a much better deal, stay with the old one which means addition cost running two systems.

Are they allowed to get a third party to manage this side of their business without telling customers?

No idea. Depends do you mean by "manage" for a start? Its quite possible they no longer have their own IT anyway, and thats been outsourced, and those outsourcer companies may use contractors themselves
Heck even "your own IT" doesnt mean much, does that mean their own computer systems in their own premises? Or leased IT in their own premises? Or leased IT in leased premises? Or cloud based systems? Run by their own staff/ another company/outsourced?

Or do you mean they had the whole thing lock stock and barrel to another company, "Acme Savings Products for building societies", running a branded version of the system (eg it may be other building socs have the exact same software but branded for each building soc). That would cut costs. And does that supplier have their own IT, etc etc.
And they may already have some or none of the above in the esaver and be moving to some or none of the above in the beehive



Perm any 20 from 50.

veryintrigued

The current Notts.online services are terribleb for signing in and withdrawing - hence this has got to be a big step forward.

I reckon we can expect some online offerings from the Notts via this Beehive offshoot.

https://www.beehivemoney.co.uk

Ed-1

veryintrigued wrote: »

The current Notts.online services are terribleb for signing in and withdrawing - hence this has got to be a big step forward.

I reckon we can expect some online offerings from the Notts via this Beehive offshoot.

https://www.beehivemoney.co.uk

Lifetime ISA is due to be available online after an initial branch offering. Presumably they expect this to attract a lot of new customers and need to get their IT in order.

Primrose

Our online account is only a few months old and we haven,t yet had to add or withdraw money but it does appear a rather cumbersome system so anything which simplifies movement of money whilst increasing security is to be welcomed. I just wondered whether perhaps they were outsourcing this part of their business.

As a passing comment about savings accounts generally I'm bitterly disappointed that financial institutions have been so slow to offer their hard pressed savers any relief and improvement in interest rates after the recent interest rate hike while so rapidly increasing their mortgage rates. Every time they do this I think they ratchet up the disillusion people have about financial institutions . Their fine words about listening to their "valued customers" butter no parsnips" with me !

ValiantSon

Primrose wrote: »

As a passing comment about savings accounts generally I'm bitterly disappointed that financial institutions have been so slow to offer their hard pressed savers any relief and improvement in interest rates after the recent interest rate hike while so rapidly increasing their mortgage rates. Every time they do this I think they ratchet up the disillusion people have about financial institutions . Their fine words about listening to their "valued customers" butter no parsnips" with me !

There is no intrinsic link between the BoE base rate and retail savings rates. The latter are set in the context of the market and the individual bank or building society's need to attract depositors. The former are set to control inflation. It is a complete myth - perpetuated by lazy tabloid journalism - that there is a link between the two.

Mortgage interest rates are often linked to the base rate as a specific condition/feature of the mortgage - trackers - so it is entirely correct for those mortgages to be increased (and they are reduced too when the base rate is reduced). SVRs are also often increased, but this reflects some of the increased cost to the lender, and, importantly, no one is tied in to a mortgage deal on an SVR, so they can switch to a cheaper deal. Indeed, there is rarely a good reason for ever remaining on a mortgage on the SVR.

Primrose wrote: »

Are they allowed to get a third party to manage this side of their bua8ness without telling customers?

They have told you, as you yourself note in the opening paragraph of your first post:

Primrose wrote: »

Just had a letter announcing their new Beeline account to which they,'re moving all online savings later in the year.

Yes, they are entitled to change their systems and they are informing you of this change. You are free to take your business elsewhere if you don't like the change.

Intolerant_Goth

I too received the letter from Nottingham BS about moving existing online savings acct to the new Beehive Money.

As ValiantSon said the Nottingham are informing you via this letter. The changes do not come into effect until "Later on in the year".

"Beehive Money is the trading name for online savings offered by the Nottingham Building Society."

"You will still be a member of The Nottingham...."

On the website it says "Although Beehive Money is a new brand, it’s part of The Nottingham Group that also owns the Nottingham Building Society, Harrison Murray Estate Agency and Nottingham Mortgage Service (NMS). So, while our brand and website is new – your money is safe with a financial service group with 170 years’ of experience."

I don't think there's anything to be concerned over - certainly doesn't imply they are transferring their online business to a company outside of the Nottingham group.

I also cannot see, in the letter, any reference to your comment

and they,re not increasing interest rates as a result of the B of E rate increase.

Only see reference in letter that "Your online savings account and the interest rate you earn will not be changing as a result of this transfer." Which is better than when YBS transferred my Norwich & Peterborough BS online accounts to their own systems. Rate was reduced from 1.5% to 0.85% and the YBS online system doesn't allow you to setup a transfer with a future date or as a FP. Both facilities which were available with the N&PBS online system. After the transition I moved a hefty amount out to a better rate with a different BS.

If you are unhappy with the upcoming changes then they do give you the options of closing your existing acct and have your funds transferred into your nominated acct; or, "....we can open a postal account in your name and transfer the money in your Beehive Money account into your new postal account (in which case your Member Rewards will be restored)" So you have been offered choices.....

d63

the trouble with the beehive business is that they are going to use these wretched One Time Passcode things in order to do, well, anything. grr!
and ok, I guess most people nowadays have smartphone and mobiles and such, but there must surely still be an awful lot of old fogeys like me out there who don't have one.
and ok, although they say you can switch to a postal account instead, but frankly thats even more unusable if one cannot get out and about on ones own.
oh well, never mind! plenty of other online accounts still out there with better interest rates on offer (currently 1.25% on my now withdrawn esaver i8) . . .

veryintrigued

d63 wrote: »

the trouble with the beehive business is that they are going to use these wretched One Time Passcode things in order to do, well, anything. grr!
and ok, I guess most people nowadays have smartphone and mobiles and such, but there must surely still be an awful lot of old fogeys like me out there who don't have one.
and ok, although they say you can switch to a postal account instead, but frankly thats even more unusable if one cannot get out and about on ones own.
oh well, never mind! plenty of other online accounts still out there with better interest rates on offer (currently 1.25% on my now withdrawn esaver i8) . . .

All you need is a mobile phone.

The 'old fogey' is a poor excuse for not having even the most basic ones of these.

IanManc

veryintrigued wrote: »

All you need is a mobile phone.

The 'old fogey' is a poor excuse for not having even the most basic ones of these.

No one needs to have an "excuse" for not having a mobile phone, basic or not.

They're not compulsory.

veryintrigued

IanManc wrote: »

No one needs to have an "excuse" for not having a mobile phone, basic or not.

They're not compulsory.

It seems they are for this (and many more) accounts!

Using age as the reason for not having a phone is bonkers - it's a choice. Which means not having access to this type of account.

It reads to me that the poster has made that choice to not have even the simplest of phones and then making age as the 'excuse' for not having said phone - this is obviously something you're in agreement with.