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Steve_xx

newsaverr wrote: »

I'm new to this. looking to put some money away for a couple of years and keep some handy. I've been looking around all the websites - lovemoney, thisismoney, MSE etc. I've seen Islamic Bank of Britain 4% for 2 year bond and Santander 3.2% for instant access. also seen 4% from Sant for an ISA. anyone know of any others or reasons why noto to go for them? also wondering why Islamic Bank not on MSE site - Lovemoney and the others love 'em. A bit worried about the Santander accounts - heard their service is bad. HELP!

The Islamic bank offer the same protection as any other UK bank, so it should be fine. However, the Islamic bank offering is in the form of a bond, so you can't get at it until the term is ended, as it were.

Santander are not brilliant at customer service. Other banks in the UK are similarly poor. But with a simple account, there ought to be no problem administering it anyway.

newsaverr

Thanks. Think I got put off by the Forum dedicated to Santander'a bad service. Can't say I've seen any other bank so heavily slated. heard good stuff about Islamic bank as well. Don't mind cash being locked for two years. Need to keep it that way :-) Will probably go for that one and look at other alternatives to Santander just to be on the safe side

Steve_xx

newsaverr wrote: »

Thanks. Think I got put off by the Forum dedicated to Santander'a bad service. Can't say I've seen any other bank so heavily slated. heard good stuff about Islamic bank as well. Don't mind cash being locked for two years. Need to keep it that way :-) Will probably go for that one and look at other alternatives to Santander just to be on the safe side

well now, if you are not planning to touch it for 2 years then you ought to consider Santander's 2 year fixed ISA paying 4%, assuming you haven't already used this years ISA allowance? That way you will get to keep all of the interest without deduction of tax.

newsaverr

Never thought of that - good idea. BUT Just not liking the idea of Sntander. Problems in Spain, Spanish bank, locked for 2 years....Islamic Bank is British so a bit of safety there I reckon?

Steve_xx

newsaverr wrote: »

Never thought of that - good idea. BUT Just not liking the idea of Sntander. Problems in Spain, Spanish bank, locked for 2 years....Islamic Bank is British so a bit of safety there I reckon?

Wait a minute. Be assured that your cash is no safer with the Islamic bank than it would be with Santander. I would not let Santanders customer service issues prevent me from taking this short term ISA at 4%.

I-LOV-MONEY

I have had e-Saver accounts with Santander and as everything is done online I have never had a problem. I transfer the money direct to my bank account and it is there instantly.

Steve_xx

I-LOV-MONEY wrote: »

I have had e-Saver accounts with Santander and as everything is done online I have never had a problem. I transfer the money direct to my bank account and it is there instantly.

Yes this is so. But having eSaver accounts with Santander is a bit of a nightmare. when you log on they all simply say "eSaver", whether it's issue 1,2,3,5 or 5. That is very frustrating for the customer and it is extremely difficult to ascertain the current rate of interest on each of these. why do they do this? They do it to confuse as there cannot be any other reason for them to do it.

Mr._H_2

Steve_xx wrote: »

Yes this is so. But having eSaver accounts with Santander is a bit of a nightmare. when you log on they all simply say "eSaver"

It's true that when you log on, the landing page lists accounts simply as "eSaver". But finding out exactly which you've got is not hard or a "nightmare". Click on an account to view transactions and near the top is a box that in my case reads: "The detailed product name for this account is ESAVER (ISSUE 5) MONTHLY"

There is also a facility to rename an account to whatever you want for the front-page listing. You could therefore rename accounts to "issue x" if you need to see straight away on the landing page which account is which.

Steve_xx

Mr._H wrote: »

It's true that when you log on, the landing page lists accounts simply as "eSaver". But finding out exactly which you've got is not hard or a "nightmare". Click on an account to view transactions and near the top is a box that in my case reads: "The detailed product name for this account is ESAVER (ISSUE 5) MONTHLY"

There is also a facility to rename an account to whatever you want for the front-page listing. You could therefore rename accounts to "issue x" if you need to see straight away on the landing page which account is which.

Yes you are right. But it is a nightmare because it takes some finding.

I didn't know that you could rename an account. That's much better as far as I'm concerned.

Perhaps you also know of an easy way to find the current interest rate for a given account too?

Mr._H_2

Steve_xx wrote: »

Yes you are right. But it is a nightmare because it takes some finding.

I never had a problem finding it, in fact I didn't have to "find" it as such, I just always knew it was there because I saw it the first day I had the account. I even remember thinking "how helpful of them to put the name of the account in such an obvious place".

Steve_xx wrote: »

Perhaps you also know of an easy way to find the current interest rate for a given account too?

Finding the interest rate is significantly more involved and could be much easier if they just put it next to the account name in your online area. However, Santander don't seem any different from most other providers in this regard. You can look up interest rates here: http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?appID=abbey.internet.Abbeycom&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1237891697979&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateG