The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

ColdIron

Don't feed them

GalacticaActual

NS&I variable interest rates are changing from the 29th December 2021:

https://www.nsandi.com/interest-rates

Section62

Because the following information might be useful to others....

Deleted_User said:

Tesco Bank can Twatter as much as they like but, just as all other social media sites such as Facebonk, Instagrump WhatsUp, etc, they are simply platforms for gossip which I don't always take seriously. A bank will place formal announcements on their official website and not through unreliable social media channels. Until Tesco Bank place a notice on their official website, I'll take this gossip with a pinch of salt.

Deleted_User said:

I have accounts with numerous other banks and financial institutions. Whenever there are significant updates they will send me (along with all their other online customers) an appropriate update by email/text message or refer to their official website etc. Yes, from time to time I may even be sent email directly from CEO. Any fake can easily set up a Twatter, Facebonk, Instagrump account to start spreading fake news and at the same time help increase the fortune of billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg. Social media is just a way of engaging in informal chat, being entertained exchanging stories & jokes.

I will only rely on official certified mechanisms to provide me reliable financial information.

...The idea that all social media is just 'gossip' is wrong.

Businesses and governments now use SM as an 'official' means of communication.  If the information is posted by an 'official' account then it is as good as any other "official certified mechanism" (whatever one of those is)

I took a complaint to the FOS which hinged on a comment that had been made on SM.  The adjudicator agreed that the financial institution involved couldn't use that SM channel to post 'official' information, then claim it wasn't a communication with a customer.  The FI then accepted the proposed resolution.

FYI, I've taken a screenshot of the Tesco tweet, and wouldn't hesitate to point this out to them if my IS rate doesn't increase to 0.84% on 11th January.

eskbanker

https://www.tescobank.com/help/social-media-house-rules/

• We can't be held responsible for views expressed on our social channels other than our own

[...]

...we take full responsibility for the content we post on these sites...

Yorkshire_Pud

I received a letter from Tesco bank after opening the 0.69% IS online, no longer need to return a signature and account up and running, except as per usual in my experience the ‘move money’ facility is missing until I phone them and request it. I was informed this should have been done automatically, sorry and she would email the team to correct this omission. Except that’s also what I had to do last time when I opened the 0.59% IS.

Happily the move money facility has been added now.

I asked about any increase in interest rates with the BOE base rate rise but was told they have had no notification of such a rise. Also that a rise in the BOE base rate doesn’t apply to Scotland? Who set their own rates!? And Tesco bank is in Scotland.

That aside the new 0.49% interest rate on the latest IS if it receives the 0.15% uplift on 11th January as rumoured, or as mooted by a Tesco bank employee as evidenced earlier in this thread, would take this new IS to 0.64% after 11th January.

And the preceding 0.69% IS will be 0.84% IF the rate increase is applied to it. But what if it isn’t and Tesco bank say we will apply the rate increase to the newest IS only so the 0.69% IS remains at 0.69% and the new IS raises to 0.64% and Tesco bank say see you are all winners because the 0.69% rate is still better than the new IS rate of 0.64%.

Conjecture on my part but banks do have a way of screwing their savers if they get the chance.

Let’s hope Tesco bank do the honourable thing and increase all IS rates (if they increase any).

ColdIron

Yorkshire_Pud said:

And the preceding 0.69% IS will be 0.84% IF the rate increase is applied to it. But what if it isn’t and Tesco bank say we will apply the rate increase to the newest IS only

The Tesco Internet Saver has (since 2008) always been a mixture of a fixed bonus on top or what they call their Standard Interest Rate, it's baked into the product. All changes to the Standard Rate have always been applied to all of the issues of the Internet Saver and I would imagine it would be a major change to the package in IT terms to change the way it works

Now while anything can happen to anything, some are more likely than others and I think you can sleep safely without worrying about  this one

Section62

Yorkshire_Pud said:

I asked about any increase in interest rates with the BOE base rate rise but was told they have had no notification of such a rise. Also that a rise in the BOE base rate doesn’t apply to Scotland? Who set their own rates!? And Tesco bank is in Scotland.

That's a corker. Presumably the CSA you spoke with doesn't follow MSE/the company line?

(From 2020/current accounts)

What does Tesco Bank say?

A Tesco Bank spokesperson said: "During March 2020, the Bank of England decreased the base rate from 0.75% to its lowest-ever level of 0.10%.

"Given this significant change to the base rate, we've reviewed our personal current account interest rate of 1% and made the decision to reduce this to 0%."

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/07/tesco-bank-to-scrap-current-account-interest/

eskbanker

Unless I've missed some sort of notification, Tesco Bank, like most institutions, makes no commitment to adjust (non-tracker) variable rates upwards or downwards following base rate changes, so they're under no obligation to do so, but obviously retain the right to.  The above removal of current account interest, while citing a base rate change, can be seen with hindsight as an early signal of Tesco's departure from that market.

Several years old but https://yourcommunity.tescobank.com/threads/6093-Bank-of-England-Base-Rate-Change is an example of a change they chose not to pass on (for savings or mortgages):

We have not made any changes to our Standard Variable Rate for mortgages or Standard Interest Rate (Variable) for savings following today’s decision by the Bank of England. Should we make any changes to our Standard Variable Rate for mortgages or Standard Interest Rate (Variable) for savings we will inform our customers.

Customers who hold a Bank of England Base Rate tracker mortgage with us will automatically see their interest rate increase.

Section62

eskbanker said:

Unless I've missed some sort of notification, Tesco Bank, like most institutions, makes no commitment to adjust (non-tracker) variable rates upwards or downwards following base rate changes, so they're under no obligation to do so, but obviously retain the right to.  The above removal of current account interest, while citing a base rate change, can be seen with hindsight as an early signal of Tesco's departure from that market.

True. But my comment/reaction is to the idea that Tesco Bank being in Scotland has any relevance to the commercial decisions they make with regard to interest rates (relative to the BoE base rate).

The initial part of the response "no notification of such a rise" is quite likely correct - the rest appears to be an example of someone trying to be helpful, but making it up on the hoof.

pearl123

Deleted_User said:

pearl123 said:

Tesco Bank Twitter "The Bank of England has increased its base rate. We’ll pass the full increase to Internet Saver, Cash ISA, and Instant Access Saver accounts, and Round Up on Clubcard Pay+. Our standard underlying rate will increase from 0.10% to 0.25% (Gross/AER, Variable) on 11 January 2022."

Tesco Bank can Twatter as much as they like but, just as all other social media sites such as Facebonk, Instagrump WhatsUp, etc, they are simply platforms for gossip which I don't always take seriously. A bank will place formal announcements on their official website and not through unreliable social media channels. Until Tesco Bank place a notice on their official website, I'll take this gossip with a pinch of salt.

My quote came direct from "Tesco Bank Official Twitter site". https://twitter.com/tescobankhelp?lang=en
It certainly won't be inaccurate.