Birmingham Midshires 2% 1 Year fix

Former_MSE_Andrea

Thank you very much for flagging this up Bobblehat.

It's now a best buy in our Savings guide:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/#oneyearfixed

Bobblehat

Love the Bear Badge …. thanks … glad to help other Forumites and guests.

traineepensioner

18cc wrote: »

An alternative is Charter Savings Bank 90 day notice at 1.9%. A bit less interest but you can add to it as and when you want and get at your money in 90 days rather than a year. It's what I opted for at the moment.

Just had a quick look at this one and now I'm confused.

The blurb says that Charter savings can reduce the rate at any time for balances over £1000 and they only need to give 14 days notice. However, you need to give 95 days notice to withdraw your cash. Is this right?
https://www.chartersavingsbank.co.uk/Products/NoticeAccount

soulsaver

traineepensioner wrote: »

Just had a quick look at this one and now I'm confused.

The blurb says that Charter savings can reduce the rate at any time for balances over £1000 and they only need to give 14 days notice. However, you need to give 95 days notice to withdraw your cash. Is this right?
https://www.chartersavingsbank.co.uk/Products/NoticeAccount

Well - it does say notice rates are variable. If it were a 1.9% fix with 95 days notice I'd have a piece.. note it's fixed at below £1k balance... at 0.1%

Seems possibly a bit one sided..

Harvic

gt94sss2 wrote: »

Seems like a very slow account opening process if you're not an existing customer.

You have to post them a cheque for your opening deposit but they need to physically write to you first to tell you where to to send it even if you apply online..

Yeah... I last saw my cheque book in the 20th century. Quite frankly it doesn't look worth the hassle to go with BMS.

SallySunshine

Glad I saw this, I'd been trying to fill in their application form but it kept telling me there was an error in the Tax Residency page, and shut me out. Rang up and although I spoke to a lovely friendly advisor, the tick box wouldn't have it that I was in the U,.K. tax residency.
I had previously had an account with then but was de-registered when I closed it.
That made me unsure that my electronic verification might fail and so be asked to send i.d. in.
However even worse was reading here about having to send a cheque in, that was after printing and signing a form agreeing to terms and sending a cheque.
So thanks, but no thanks to that, might stick with Atom although annoyed their rate is down from a couple of weeks ago, then again might add another accounts to my Charter Family.
I did mention the outdated mode of B&M to their advisor and she agreed.

gt94sss2

gt94sss2 wrote: »

Seems like a very slow account opening process if you're not an existing customer.

You have to post them a cheque for your opening deposit but they need to physically write to you first to tell you where to to send it even if you apply online..

The accounts no longer available for new customers - we still haven't had the letter telling us where to send your cheque yet!

veryintrigued

gt94sss2 wrote: »

The accounts no longer available for new customers - we still haven't had the letter telling us where to send your cheque yet!

Us neither.

Not concerned at all. See the email you will have received for timescales.

londoninvestor

traineepensioner wrote: »

Just had a quick look at this one and now I'm confused.

The blurb says that Charter savings can reduce the rate at any time for balances over £1000 and they only need to give 14 days notice. However, you need to give 95 days notice to withdraw your cash. Is this right?
https://www.chartersavingsbank.co.uk/Products/NoticeAccount

They can cut the rate at 14 days' notice but if that happens, you are entitled to withdraw without notice or penalty.

Per their T&C (here, see page 12):

Charter_Savings_T&C wrote:

20.3 Subject to paragraph 20.4, in addition to being able to change interest rates and tiers on your Account in accordance with paragraphs 20.1 and 20.2, we may change them for any reason. If we are making a change in reliance on this paragraph 20.3, we will tell you this when we give you notice under paragraph 20.6.
...
20.7 If we decrease the interest rate relying on paragraph 20.3 or the amount of notice of the change we give you is less than 14 days plus the amount of notice you have to give us to make a withdrawal from or to close your Account then you will then be free to close your Account (without notice, loss of interest or additional charges) at any time within 30 days of the date we reasonably expect you will have received our notification to you of the change

veryintrigued

Looks as though the postal instructions on cheque deposit will take at least the ten advised days. Ten days is up tomorrow for us.

We've received the DD agreement letter but nothing else.