MSE News: Coventry BS launches market-leading ISA to rival top easy-access savings accounts

eskbanker

^ I started to write a line-by-line rebuttal of each paragraph of that but lost the will to live - it's quicker and just as accurate to say that none of it makes any sense whatsoever! Nothing personal but strawman arguments, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, misrepresentations, flawed logic leading to irrational conclusions, it's like reading the Daily Mail....

glider3560

Yawn. Maybe a separate thread discussing security would be best, keeping this thread for discussing the ISA product?

Rich2808

Reed_Richards wrote: »

There's a 60 day loss of interest penalty on withdrawal for the Leeds BS ISA. If you can put-up with that then you can get 1.55% from YBS.

And of course if a better product comes along you can transfer out of the Coventry isa immediately with no penalty.

The Leeds 1.51% product has a 60 day loss of interest applied on any sums withdrawn before the maturity date in May 2020 - you can't give 60 days notice and keep the interest and then withdraw. For a 0.01% difference - or £1 for every £10,000 invested - its probably not worth it.

If you want a 1 year fixed rate Oaknorth and Shawbrook banks are paying nearly 1.8%

dosh37

I recently applied for a new 'Easy Access ISA' on The Coventry BS website. So far it's been far from 'Easy'.

After a few days, I received the initial 5 page Welcome letter along with two leaflets:-
‘Welcome to your Easy Access ISA (Online)’ and ‘Easy Access ISA (Online) At a glance’.
The letter failed to mention that certain essential pieces of information are required before registration for Online Services can be carried out and that this information would be sent through the post separately.

I assumed I should be able to register for Online Services straight away.
My first attempt to login using my old registration details from an earlier (closed) account failed.
So I then tried to register from scratch using the new account number.
The process asked me for some letters from a password that I did not yet have.

I phoned Customer Services. I waited around 20 minutes during which time the same annoying jingle was played repeatedly. Eventually an adviser told me that an initial password would be sent in a separate letter. Why was this not mentioned in the first letter?

A couple of days later I received THREE separate letters from The Coventry: An ISA tax declaration, an online banking information letter and the initial Online Services password.

I attempted to register again using the initial password.
The system then asked to create a new password, which I did.
Then it displayed a ‘page unavailable’ error.
Another phone call to Customer Services. Another 20 minute wait listening the same annoying jingle. This time I was told that the problem was that the system had not yet issued a Web ID. I was told that the registration process had now triggered the creation of a Web ID and it would be sent in yet another letter though the post along with a grid card (no doubt in two separate letters). Why was this not mentioned earlier?

So I am now waiting for the next two pieces in the jigsaw.
It’s a bit like one of those early 1970’s computer adventure games. Who remembers ‘Colossal Cave’?

I have several different online savings accounts but I have never come across such a slow and frustrating setup process. The biggest problem is that you are not told what the process is in advance. You are not told what information is required, what triggers each stage of the process or that each piece of information will be sent in separate letters through the post.


The Coventry need to make their customer and account setup / registration process easier and simpler.

dimple_pie

Day 9 since my initial online application and I’ve received my fifth piece of post from them. It’s a Grid Card...I think I’m “only” missing a web i.d. now ? Yes, very slow and cumbersome process.

cosh25

dimple_pie wrote: »

Day 9 since my initial online application and I’ve received my fifth piece of post from them. It’s a Grid Card...I think I’m “only” missing a web i.d. now ? Yes, very slow and cumbersome process.

If you have your grid card and password you can go online and follow the 'find my web ID' amd you can get it straight away

dimple_pie

Thanks. Folowed the “Forgotten my web i.d.” Link and finally I can view my account. I had assumed I would be sent a web i.d.

glider3560

dimple_pie wrote: »

Thanks. Folowed the “Forgotten my web i.d.” Link and finally I can view my account. I had assumed I would be sent a web i.d.

You will get sent one eventually. I was sent mine twice, in two separate envelopes, on the same day.

Up to letter number 10 now.

Has anyone applied for a transfer in and had it processed yet? Applied on 9th March and it hasn't been processed yet. Letter said it would take 7 working days (which would be today).

cosh25

dimple_pie wrote: »

Day 9 since my initial online application and I’ve received my fifth piece of post from them. It’s a Grid Card...I think I’m “only” missing a web i.d. now ? Yes, very slow and cumbersome process.

glider3560 wrote: »

You will get sent one eventually. I was sent mine twice, in two separate envelopes, on the same day.

Up to letter number 10 now.

Has anyone applied for a transfer in and had it processed yet? Applied on 9th March and it hasn't been processed yet. Letter said it would take 7 working days (which would be today).

I applied on the 6th and requested to transfer my ISA from Tesco and it was done by Monday 11th - that was the quickest part of the whole process for me.

NandoDave

I'm surprised at the lack of comment on here relating to recent experiences of interest rate reductions across the board for cash isa's held with this BS (as I understand it they've very recently reduced rates to 1.15% on a host of accounts paying between 1.2% and 1.4% previously).

Based on this history it's reasonable to suspect that this is just a short term promotional rate to rake in some capital, and the rate will be reduced thereafter.