The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

FIREmenow

pecunianonolet said:

gwapenut said:

Virgin Money are slashing rates on their defined access e-saver (21) from 5.11% to 4.76% in a couple of weeks' time.

This bait-and-stitch-up behaviour disgusts me as the account was only launched a couple of months ago and the base rate has not changed.

Since depositing house equity 6 months ago, I've started to learn who the honourable players are. Stafford BS are OK but have outdated account management. Cynergy, Kent Reliance, Family have been excellent at maintaining rates. Santander were OK, we got a good 6 months out of their account. Chorley haven't been great, but havn't been the worst offenders.

Same for Virgin Defined Access E-Saver issue 19 going from 5.12% to 4.76% on 31st May.

All down - issue 20 going from 5.07 to 4.76.

ThePirates

It appears you can become an existing customer (have a log in) if you open an alternative account - their EA account paying 2.00% for example, to get access to the above, similar to the Ulster Bank work around.

Ulster Bank work around?

flaneurs_lobster

ThePirates said:

It appears you can become an existing customer (have a log in) if you open an alternative account - their EA account paying 2.00% for example, to get access to the above, similar to the Ulster Bank work around.

Ulster Bank work around?

Opening an Ulster Bank current account solely to get access to their 5.2% EA account.

gravel_2

Don't expect to open Ulster overnight. It's a pretty old school process. For me between applying for current account and receiving necessary info to open a savings account was 6 days. My OH applied for the current account same day as I did and has yet to receive customer number, online access code, card or PIN. All she received was the paper application by post which was to be returned freepost.

pokemaster

soulsaver said:

Bridlington1 said:

@soulsaver
Paragon Bank Double Access Savings Account Issue 7 5.05% (10/05) £1k min now only available to existing customers.

It appears you can become an existing customer (have a log in) if you open an alternative account - their EA account paying 2.00% for example, to get access to the above, similar to the Ulster Bank work around.

Easy Access Savings Account | Paragon Bank
I can't test this as I'm an existing Paragon customer, but it looks feasible if you're keen. 

Can confirm this works 

FIREmenow

pokemaster said:

soulsaver said:

Bridlington1 said:

@soulsaver
Paragon Bank Double Access Savings Account Issue 7 5.05% (10/05) £1k min now only available to existing customers.

It appears you can become an existing customer (have a log in) if you open an alternative account - their EA account paying 2.00% for example, to get access to the above, similar to the Ulster Bank work around.

Easy Access Savings Account | Paragon Bank
I can't test this as I'm an existing Paragon customer, but it looks feasible if you're keen. 

Can confirm this works 

Me too, all done in about 20 mins (and on a Saturday).

callum9999

gwapenut said:

Virgin Money are slashing rates on their defined access e-saver (21) from 5.11% to 4.76% in a couple of weeks' time.

This bait-and-stitch-up behaviour disgusts me as the account was only launched a couple of months ago and the base rate has not changed.

Since depositing house equity 6 months ago, I've started to learn who the honourable players are. Stafford BS are OK but have outdated account management. Cynergy, Kent Reliance, Family have been excellent at maintaining rates. Santander were OK, we got a good 6 months out of their account. Chorley haven't been great, but havn't been the worst offenders.

I've explained countless times on here that the rates are based on what the provider can get for lending out the money and not the BOE rate. Obviously the two are quite closely linked but they are not the same.

If Virgin can't get enough margin between the savings rate and the rate they get for lending (minus admin etc), or they have more money than they can lend out at those rates, they're naturally going to drop the savings rate. That's the entire point of having a variable rate - if you don't like it (which is completely understandable) then you should get a fixed rate product. 

gwapenut

callum9999 said:

gwapenut said:

Virgin Money are slashing rates on their defined access e-saver (21) from 5.11% to 4.76% in a couple of weeks' time.

This bait-and-stitch-up behaviour disgusts me as the account was only launched a couple of months ago and the base rate has not changed.

Since depositing house equity 6 months ago, I've started to learn who the honourable players are. Stafford BS are OK but have outdated account management. Cynergy, Kent Reliance, Family have been excellent at maintaining rates. Santander were OK, we got a good 6 months out of their account. Chorley haven't been great, but havn't been the worst offenders.

I've explained countless times on here that the rates are based on what the provider can get for lending out the money and not the BOE rate. Obviously the two are quite closely linked but they are not the same.

If Virgin can't get enough margin between the savings rate and the rate they get for lending (minus admin etc), or they have more money than they can lend out at those rates, they're naturally going to drop the savings rate. That's the entire point of having a variable rate - if you don't like it (which is completely understandable) then you should get a fixed rate product. 

No matter how many countless times you've explained it, it's not all about that though. A quick glance at behaviours and legacy interest rates for different institutions will tell you that some are just itching to hoick you in and then slash the rate soon after, and others make at least half an effort to not waste people's time. Some of this can be deduced from T&Cs. As an example, Santander decided months earlier than Virgin that they did not need all this extra money sloshing around, but their account has only just had its rate slashed a fortnight before.

Account providers using issue numbers should be perfectly capable of honouring a rate or at the very least keeping it within, say, 0.25% of its original rate for a few months to save unnecessary churn and time wasting. Even Chorley whose legacy rates are generally poor have only trimmed rates by 0.2% at a time, every 3 months.

There's no need for me to fix a rate when there are plenty of other providers, not called Virgin, who offer rate stability for 6+ months at a time.

ircE

gwapenut said:

There's no need for me to fix a rate when there are plenty of other providers, not called Virgin, who offer rate stability for 6+ months at a time.

To which Virgin Money might say "There's no need for you to save with us"...

thor

Start expecting the following from banks and building societies - saving rates to be reduced by more than BOE cuts and saving rates to be cut even if BOE rates don't go down as Virgin Money have just demonstrated. They'll probably cut again once the BOE rate does reduce.