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Nationwide to axe 5% regular savings account on Friday
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Have closed existing Reg Saver, but 'it' won't let me open a new one "yet" Will try again tomorrow. Also opended a new Flex Direct £2500/5% jobbie. Forgot I didn't already have one. (Why are all these a/cs so closely named.. Flex... ) confusing
im so glad I found this thread....
ive closed my reg. saver( hopefully open a new one tomorrow)
how many flex directs are we allowed to have I have flex plus account with way too much in as I think the 5% is only on the first £2,500 isn't it.....0 -
Deleted_User wrote: »I am puzzled why Nationwide gave enough notice of the withdrawal of the 5% Regular Saver to allow existing accounts to be closed and replaced with new ones. They surely must have been alive to this trick. As far as I understand they could just have withdrawn the account to new applications without giving notice.
I think on this board we have a skewed view of how many people are really willing to put in the effort to exploit these accounts. There are maybe double figures of people on this thread doing it but not triple figures. I doubt there are tens of thousands of others out there messing around with this independently.
Lots of people who hold the account won't have heard about the change (I only did because I visit this board daily).
Of those that hear, some will just accept it because they know theirs isn't due to mature this week and aren't aware that they are allowed to close early and reopen as many RS are genuinely fixed.
Of those that know, some might not know that you will still get the 5% interest to date if you close (I wasn't aware until reading this thread).
Some might know that but have other reasons not to (for me, both tax reasons and because I do actually want access to that money in January next year so I wasn't planning to renew when mine matures in December and an April 2020 maturity is too late).
Some will just not be bothered or will mean to but not get around to it in time.
The small group on here who have worked out what they can do to maximise benefits and actually do it is awesome but very limited.
So I think Nationwide would be fully aware that a small number of people might close and renew now, but that's a price they're willing to pay. I am sure they are making a point of it in branch with customers telling them that there's this great account but closing soon so open now now now... The rush they can generate will be a bigger upside to them than a handful of people on here managing to get the higher rate until the last possible day.0 -
gingercordial wrote: »Lots of people who hold the account won't have heard about the change (I only did because I visit this board daily).
.
Same here
Bit disappointed in the NW SavingsWatch service though
While I accept the wording doesn't say that they will tell you about a product being discontinued rather than amended, it does diminish the usefulness of it
Being registered for SavingsWatch means that if we change your savings rate, up or down, we'll let you know by SMS or email - you choose how. And if we launch a new savings account we'll tell you, only by email.0 -
I_am_spartacus wrote: »Hi Guys,
I've just jumped ship from my current regular savings account, intending to start a new one before the 5/4/19.
A quick heads up, and not wishing to teach my grannie to suck eggs, but don't forget to cancel any standing orders linked to the cancelled account!
Or instead of cancelling, just amend it for the new account.0 -
gingercordial wrote: »I am sure they are making a point of it in branch with customers telling them that there's this great account but closing soon so open now now now...
I doubt that.
I had a phone chat about the FlexAccount, swapping from my FlexDirect, when it still had its free annual travel insurance.
When I actually applied 2 days later, the offer had expired.
I complained, saying surely this impending decision had been already known internally, but I hadn't been advised to apply quickly, could I however have the offer anyway.
No, but on a goodwill basis they did offer me the cost of separate single trip insurance I took out for 3 weeks later.
(Later I missed the chance to get a year of 5% again on switching back to FlexDirect, as I'd never left it, but that's a separate point.)0 -
If I close it now. Is it still possible to open it again on Friday ?
thx0 -
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"The estimated balance after 12 months based on 12 monthly deposits of £250 with an interest rate of 5.00% AER/ gross p.a. (variable) would be £3,081.25."
3000 + 2.7% = £3081.
If the account only paid 2.7% AER, the maximum interest you could earn in it is £43.70. Presumably you would then say it only pays 1.46%, which in turn would pay a max of £23.67, and so on...........
The only way you can make up to £81.25 in this account is because its AER is 5%. This max sum ignores that you are also able to make some extra interest if you dripfeed from an interest-bearing account. For example, if you dripfeed from a 1.5% AER account, you can make an extra £21 in interest from £3,000, i.e. a total of £102ish.
What would be correct to say is "if you had a full £3,000, for a full 12 months, in an account that pays 2.7% AER, you will have earned £81 interest". What you would, clearly, not be able to do in this case is earn any additional interest in another account as your money must stay committed to the 2.7% account.
I don't want to encourage your "the rate isn't the rate" thinking but the maximum return on £3,000 after 12 months would be ~3.4% if you dripfed £250/mth from a 1.5% AER account into a 5% AER account.
This is really not how it works. But if it did, you'd get something like £975 in interest. That would be massively more than the headline rate, I am sure you will agree!I realise it is 5% of £250 then 5% of £500 and so on which is why over the full term it averages out at less than the headline rate.0
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