Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

Steve_xx

isasmurf wrote: »

You're reading 'one' as a noun. It could be read as a relative pronoun to avoid repetition. So instead of saying
... and hold Regular Saver for your own benefit. You can hold a Regular Saver by yourself or...

You avoid repeating Regular Saver by using 'one' to refer to it, as in
... and hold Regular Saver for your own benefit. You can hold one by yourself or...

It could be read as either a noun or relative pronoun, as you correctly say. But, in this case the meaning of either usage is the same, ie you can have one (singular) account.

EachPenny

I was reluctant to get back into this discussion, but since isasmurf has helpfully already made the pronoun point I was going to start with...

Steve_xx wrote: »

It could be read as either a noun or relative pronoun, as you correctly say. But, in this case the meaning of either usage is the same, ie you can have one (singular) account.

The reason the pronoun 'one' is used in the second sentence is that 'regular saver' in the first sentence is itself singular. If the first sentence had said 'regular savers' then an appropriate pronoun would be 'them'.

As in:
... and hold Regular Savers for your own benefit. You can hold them by yourself or...

Because the singular form is used in the first sentence it was grammatically necessary to use 'one' in the second sentence. People are now using this 'one' as proof of Ford's original intentions - i.e. that it's purpose is more than just correct use of grammar.

Take another look at the whole of the first sentence:
"You must be aged 16 or over to apply for and hold Regular Saver for your own benefit."
Notice something missing between 'hold' and 'Regular'?

And finally look at the whole of the first and second sentence, is the word 'account' mentioned at all? No.

So when Steve_xx says "It clearly says 'one' account." it doesn't. Because they are T&C's for a bank account you are expecting to see words, we are conditioned to look at Regular Saver account T&C's and see a restriction along the lines of 'one account per customer'. What I suspect has happened is people have looked at wording which closely resembles what they are looking for and then made an interpretation which is no more valid than the alternative, which is there is no limit on the number of accounts you can hold.

The clincher for me is whether anywhere in any of the documentation anyone has seen that you can only hold one regular saver. E.g. "This issue is limited to one per customer" or "You may only open one regular saver?" or even "You cannot apply for this account if you already hold one of the same issue". I cannot find a phrase like this anywhere... and believe me I've looked

JezR

I have little doubt that the intention was to restrict the number of accounts to one. This can be supported by comparison of the equivalent term in the Flexible Saver (where multiple accounts are explicitly promoted in the ad blurb) with those of the regular saver, where one is the only word inserted:

(Flexible Saver)
Who can apply
You must be aged 16 or over to apply for and hold Flexible Saver for your own benefit. You can hold Flexible Saver by yourself or jointly with one other person also aged 16 or over.
(Regular Saver)
Who can apply You must be aged 16 or over to apply for and hold Regular Saver for your own benefit. You can hold one by yourself or jointly with one other person, also aged 16 or over.

The failure here seems to be not having a systems block on multiple entries, and at least some phone agents who would have been extolling the virtues of multiple accounts continuing to do so where inappropriate.

Speculator

Lolly88 wrote: »

Grr no money in my account yet and I sent it this morning.

Still not received the money in my Regular Saver/Regular Isa. It was sent by FP late yesterday morning.

youngretired

Same here. I had to speak to them this morning as my account had been locked and they looked on the log to see if they could see my payment, will phone me later this morning to tell me what's happened.

EachPenny

JezR wrote: »

I have little doubt that the intention was to restrict the number of accounts to one. This can be supported by comparison of the equivalent term in the Flexible Saver (where multiple accounts are explicitly promoted in the ad blurb) with those of the regular saver, where one is the only word inserted:

What the intention was is a matter of debate, and there are at least two plausible answers. There are several mistakes in the wording of the T&C's and other documents which mean that arguments can be made either way.

For example in your quoted text (which I haven't checked)-

(Flexible Saver)
Who can apply
You must be aged 16 or over to apply for and hold Flexible Saver for your own benefit. You can hold Flexible Saver by yourself or jointly with one other person also aged 16 or over.

In both highlighted sections there is a missing word beteen 'hold' and 'Flexible'. 'Saver' is also used in the singular. You are correctly stating that Ford are quite happy for customers to have more than one Flexible Saver account, yet according to the quoted text an account singular can be held (using the same approach some are adopting to say only one regular saver can be held).

I.e. You are only allowed to hold one Flexible Saver. Is that what Ford intended? - the same rules of interpretation apply.

isasmurf

Speculator wrote: »

Still not received the money in my Regular Saver/Regular Isa. It was sent by FP late yesterday morning.

youngretired wrote: »

Same here. I had to speak to them this morning as my account had been locked and they looked on the log to see if they could see my payment, will phone me later this morning to tell me what's happened.

They have told me that due to sheer demand experienced yesterday, they have a backlog in the payments system. They are hoping to have caught up by the end of today and advise to check again after close of business.

ChaskhaChaia

isasmurf wrote: »

They have told me that due to sheer demand experienced yesterday, they have a backlog in the payments system. They are hoping to have caught up by the end of today and advise to check again after close of business.

I'm glad that it's not just me. Hopefully my money will appear soon! Does this mean that this will happen every month then as presumably everyone who opened and funded yesterday will be trying to fund next months payment on 22 June? Or will their systems be able to cope by then?!

EachPenny

isasmurf wrote: »

They have told me that due to sheer demand experienced yesterday, they have a backlog in the payments system. They are hoping to have caught up by the end of today and advise to check again after close of business.

ChaskhaChaia wrote: »

I'm glad that it's not just me. Hopefully my money will appear soon! Does this mean that this will happen every month then as presumably everyone who opened and funded yesterday will be trying to fund next months payment on 22 June? Or will their systems be able to cope by then?!

Internal transfers from the Flexible Saver account to the Regular Saver appear to happen more or less instantly during working hours.

The quickest way to get money into the Regular Saver in future appears to be sending money to a Flexible Saver the day before and then transferring it across on the day. As the Flexible Saver is still paying a reasonable amount of interest there is not much to lose from keeping funds on 'standby' - unless the money is coming from somewhere paying a much higher rate.

Has anyone who opened more than one Regular Saver actually had the account closed yet?

hgt

ChaskhaChaia wrote: »

I'm glad that it's not just me. Hopefully my money will appear soon! Does this mean that this will happen every month then as presumably everyone who opened and funded yesterday will be trying to fund next months payment on 22 June? Or will their systems be able to cope by then?!

I hope they will back-date our payments to 22nd, or else that might mean we have to change our SO dates for future months so we don't fall foul of the anniversary month.

It's a bit odd as Newcastle BS who use the same IT system (Ford's systems are provided by Newcastle BS) have a system whereby when you send a Faster Payment or SO you specify your account number (only) as the reference number. Whereas with Ford you seem to specify either your reference number or account number along with your surname... which seems to suggest to me that they will need a human to go through the payments received by their clearing bank (Barclays) in order to allocate payments to the correct account. I suspect they have underestimated the demand and some poor person is probably having to go through the payments one by one!