The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

Expotter

km1500 said:

BOE says interest rate rise next month could be higher than expected. 2.75% could look poor ...


https://news.sky.com/story/interest-rate-rise-could-be-higher-than-expected-next-month-bank-of-england-chief-suggests-12721123

That sounds like it'll be at least a 0.75% increase to base rate, I guess even 1% must be on the cards now. 

Chickereeeee

soulsaver said:

Thanks @FindingBBob            
For those finding the size a viewing challenge,
Dear Ed

As a valued customer we wanted to let you know about our upcoming rate increases:

• On Tuesday 18th October we will be increasing the rates on our Fixed Saver 1, 2 and 5 year products to 4.3%, 4.5% and 4.55% respectively.
• On Wednesday 19th October our Flexible Saver rate will then be increasing to 2.5%. This rate will initially be exclusive to existing customers, so you won’t see Flexible Saver on sale to new customers from this date.
• In addition, we will be increasing our Flexible Cash ISA to 1.90% on that day for both new and existing customers.

As always, we hope these increases will help you reach your savings goals.

Best wishes,

Ford Money Team

Interesting tactic -  if you haven't got it, maybe grab it and shove £1 in to keep options open?  Flexible Saver pre-application checklist | Ford Money

Thanks. Signed up on Friday, transferred a £1, and got the the 2.5% message straight away.

jimroy

Bobblehat said:

andyhicks88 said:

Just got a letter with one half of the online banking set up details for the Santander....trouble is it's "letter 2 of 2" and completes the info I "should have already received in Letter 1"....

Let's hope they just sent the letters out of order and I get it early next week otherwise we aren't off to a great start....

I got both of mine the same day .... kind of negates the reason for sending them in two letters!

Further, as an existing customer I already have a perfectly good customer ID and didn't need the new one issued when I opened the eSaver. Quick phone call to Santander CS sorted it out and they offered to delete the new ID as the only advantage was that it added Telephone banking, which I don't do. I have noticed over the years with Santander that they always seem to do things "differently" to other Banks .... Hey Ho!

I got both letters in the post today. I only had to use the temp customer id and five digit passcode without the other info. Changed to a more memorable five digit passcode and setup a secure password. Logged in successfully. Got email notification that I'd successfully registered for online, mobile and telephone banking. Then I tried to log in to mobile banking using the new passcode which was rejected and I was locked out of my account after two unsuccessful attempts. I then tried to log back in online and my details weren't recognised. Waited on the phone to get through to technical support for 40 mins to reset my account as instructed via mobile and I have to have another set of details sent out in the post. I don't think I'll bother now.

refluxer

Looking at the Ford Money Flexible Saver, it states the current interest rates (pre-next week's rise) are...

1.95% Gross/AER Annual (variable)
1.93% Gross/AER Monthly (variable)

I get that the gross and AER rate are the same for the annual option but, as the AER figure for monthly interest takes compounding into account (when monthly interest is paid into the account), I don't understand how the gross and AER figures can be the same.

Can anyone explain or is it just badly written ? Should it be 1.95% AER for both options ? Many banks seem to pay the same AER for monthly or annual interest options these days.

amateur_house

ranciduk said:

Got a text from shawbrook saying EA now 2%

Still 1.81 on website though 

It seems to depend what issue you have. I got a text to say mine has gone up to 2%, for issue 29. The 1.81% account on the website is issue 31.

andyhicks88

Increases in the base rate haven't necessarily translated to savings rates though, apart from the big move by Santander and Cynergy this past week generally no matter what the size of the increase most banks have responded by only putting rates up a little it more.  The top 2.75% rate is an outlier, we are seeing most other places only just about poke their head above 2%, if they even get that far. Al Rayan, who is usually top of the table, hasn't even been able to respond to it. I'm not expecting 2.75% to look poor after the next boe increase, i think it will still be up there with the highest. 

Eco_Miser

refluxer said:

Looking at the Ford Money Flexible Saver, it states the current interest rates (pre-next week's rise) are...

1.95% Gross/AER Annual (variable)
1.93% Gross/AER Monthly (variable)

I get that the gross and AER rate are the same for the annual option but, as the AER figure for monthly interest takes compounding into account (when monthly interest is paid into the account), I don't understand how the gross and AER figures can be the same.

Can anyone explain or is it just badly written ? Should it be 1.95% AER for both options ? Many banks seem to pay the same AER for monthly or annual interest options these days.

Badly written. We've just come out of a long period where the rates were so low the annual and monthly AERs rounded to the same figure, and Ford's publicist has forgotten to change the template.

Silverbullet036

Just spotted this

SonOfPearl

Silverbullet036 said:

Just spotted this

Thanks. £10k minimum and closure allowed after both withdrawals have been used. 

PlatinumChaos

I just received a call from Al Rayan bank, asking me to answer security questions in relation to a transfer I initiated on Friday. Okay, so I did try to transfer some money from my AR account to my current account (so that I can put it into my Cynergy account), but receiving a call from my bank out of the blue and expecting me to divulge personal information and the answers to all my security questions is definitely not the kind of behaviour I'd expect from a bank. I terminated the call and am now in the process of calling their customer support to try and sort it out. Am I being overly twitchy?