ALERT Earl Shilton BS charge to make Faster Payments

Comprendiamo

Ref: esbs [sic] ... Earl Shilton Building Society

Finding a competitive Regular Saver on a comparison site, I checked out the product on the web site of the advertising building society. I found buried in their admin fees section mention of a £10.00 fee to make a Faster Payment.

Yes, £10 to access your money ... a new one on me. As I was to find out in a subsequent phone call to esbs, this charge does not even buy a same-day transfer. At the same time, the following concerns were raised: On just one withdrawal, the fee would decrease the advertised interest rate, could negate accrued interest earnings or even place the customer into negative equity territory, especially in our current low-interest rate environment. (In the context of a regular saver, with a low capped limit on monthly investment and, thus, return, fee deduction needs some consideration.) The absence of any reference to £10 withdrawal fee on the product page (a very, very, simple fix to add on to the bullet point, which states the permitted '2 withdrawals' a year attached to the saver). The failure of staff to be able to answer the simplest of questions on their own FP protocol, such as deadlines for instruction and, crucially, whether funds were debited from the account of the customer on the date of transfer or the day before. (For reference, The Coventry provided the exemplar for the first model of FP D+1 and the Yorkshire Building Society for the second.) Finally, the poor grasp of grammar displayed on some esbs web pages was less than a ringing endorsement.

Earl Shilton have since phoned back in response to some of the issues raised and, in this conversation, I discovered that they actually charge £30 for a same-day Faster Payment (CHAPS for over 250k transfers). They use the services of Nat West. My worry here is that perhaps a mutual is selling products with an attached charge way beyond the cost incurred, the actual cost levied by the generic bank contracted to process payments. (Here, their 'small size' was quoted as the rationale for their fees.) Building societies and UK banks do not charge for Faster Payments in all generality, so why would any potential customer expect esbs to be the stellar exception to the general-rule-of-thumb? My final salvo to this self-determined little player in the greater game is that fees may be set as esbs desires; but, if so, those charges should be crystal clear and firmly and very visibly attached to the products to which they apply. What do people feel?

I have never posted before ... so apologises in advance for any errors made. I would be interest to hear if anybody else had encountered similar in the UK from a mutual, with a seemingly socially responsible sales pitch.

eskbanker

If there was no way of avoiding a £10 dilution on the return from the account then I'd agree that this would warrant reasonably prominent coverage, but presumably they'll offer some (less convenient) methods of free withdrawals, e.g. cash or cheques?

Reaper

Odd if they really mean on ALL sizes of withdrawals. The charges on their web site seem aimed at larger sums of money which would have to use CHAPS which is fair enough. This is what it says:

Electronic Transfer of Funds
a) Same day branch or postal Faster Payment up to £250,000 = £30
b) Next day branch or postal Faster Payment up to £250,000 = £10
c) CHAPS Payment = £30
URL="https://www.esbs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AdministrationLeaflet_DL-OCT18_.pdf"]Source[/URL

AnotherJoe

Reaper wrote: »

Odd if they really mean on ALL sizes of withdrawals. The charges on their web site seem aimed at larger sums of money which would have to use CHAPS which is fair enough. This is what it says:

Electronic Transfer of Funds
a) Same day branch or postal Faster Payment up to £250,000 = £30
b) Next day branch or postal Faster Payment up to £250,000 = £10
c) CHAPS Payment = £30
URL="https://www.esbs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AdministrationLeaflet_DL-OCT18_.pdf"]Source[/URL

"up to" though includes, say, £1 as well as £250,000



And just wondering but whats the logic of "same day" postal payment? Which could take days to arrive? Or do they literally mean they'll charge you £30 to put a cheque in the post the same day?

glider3560

AnotherJoe wrote: »

"up to" though includes, say, £1 as well as £250,000



And just wondering but whats the logic of "same day" postal payment? Which could take days to arrive? Or do they literally mean they'll charge you £30 to put a cheque in the post the same day?

I think you make the request in writing by post, then they make the payment on the day it is received.

Comprendiamo

Thanks to you all guys ... I really appreciate your responses. The fact that we are asking these questions underlines the lack of clarity on esbs payment transfers. The regular saver is perhaps a classic in offering the benefit of two penalty free withdrawals and yet, at best, marginalising benefit via admin fees, especially as any return is predetermined by monthly investment limits. Yes, if you are local and available to get to the branch, you can withdraw via cash or cheque. But and it is a big BUT, there is daily withdrawal limit on both: ' the minimum cash or cheque withdrawal is £250' with a 'maximum of £500 per day' & 3K per week; but that requires 2 or 3 days notice. (So, best hope that you never need the funds pronto.) The maximum limit was buried so well on site that I had to phone esbs and wait a good 5 minutes before esbs could find it ... in the small print at the very bottom of the 'current interest rates' section after 'closed accounts,' although the esbs lady did acknowledge the difficulty and mentioned the FP charges upfront on this occasion. I think it might cost 50p - £1.00 max to process a Faster Payment. Anybody know for sure? Again, thanks to all ...

MARKRONSON

To apply for any of our savings accounts, please read the product details and then click on Download Application form.

Reaper

MARKRONSON wrote: »

To apply for any of our savings accounts, please read the product details and then click on Download Application form.

Er... what?