Nationwide Start To Save Account

YellowStarling

eskbanker said:

colsten said:

eskbanker said:

Playing devil's advocate, why should they ignore 'withdrawal of interest'?  

Because they ignore the addition of interest when establishing the monthly growth

Yes, but they control interest being added, so it's clearly defined, but as explained above, withdrawing an amount that happens to equate to the interest added isn't necessarily the same thing as 'withdrawing the interest'.  I do get the point that the terms are a bit one-sided though....

I see your point (and is why I added in my initial post that I am not sure how the withdrawal would be identifiable as one merely syphoning off the interest and distinguishable from a standard withdrawal) - on an absolute basis, the terms support interpreting the poster's February activity as £50 in + £3.39 out for a net balance growth of £46.61 (net, crucially, of interest too). 

In other words, the terms suggest that - if you plan on 'only' growing the monthly balance by the minimum £50 to qualify for the prize draw - you should then plan to ignore both annual interest payments and leave them in for the full 24 month duration of the account.  Incidentally, for this reason, had the interest been withdrawn in March, then the poster would still have been in April's draw given the net balance growth would have been £96.61 in March (and £50 in February).

As I think we all agree, the terms' ignoring of interest additions when the aggregate balance growth has otherwise met the minimum £50 seems a little severe, but OTOH it does protect the program from incorrectly awarding places in the draw for those that might otherwise use the interest addition as part of a top-up payment that month (e.g. adding £46.61 and not withdrawing £3.39 would have equated to the same end-Feb balance). 

I can see eskbanker's point here that you perhaps can't have it both ways, unless it was a convoluted calculation along the lines of:

(1) Has balance grown by at least £50 month-to-month
(2) If (1) = Yes, then do total deposits, excluding interest, equate to £50 or more
If either (1) or (2) = No, then the month does not counter towards prize draw qualification 

SpanishBlue

I have just received Nationwide's May newsletter.

Apparently, in February, over 300 members won £10,000 each.

I thought this was an error and you could only win £100, not £10,000.

But then for young Oscar to travel the world for a year, or put a deposit on a house it does sound like he must have won a lot more than £100.

SpanishBlue

Ah, that would explain it then, thanks.

Moneybear

After asking for an update a couple of times, Nationwide confirmed today the email was sent in error and I should receive an email to confirm my eligibility. Not sure how that helps when the draw has been and gone... 

anxiousnow

I realise that 1% is fairly good at the moment and I've had the account just over a year. Just can't work out what the rules are about withdrawing. After a year can I withdraw and start again or do I then lose out on the next prize draw? 

Also, annoyingly, when I opened the account I opened a joint one, whereas really, we each should have opened our own individual ones, doubling the chance of winning. Has anyone closed one (joint) in order to open another (individual)? 

JGB1955

'Won' £100 today on my £650 (13 month) investment - I'm not complaining!  Apparently there are another 2755 winners out there today as well.

wiseonesomeofthetime

And I'm not!

Purpleheart

I'm also a £100 winner, absolutely delighted.

RacingDriver

Nationwide have just announced an extra prize draw on 24 January 2022.

Richchad

I have only just heard about this Start to Save account from an email sent by NW.

I have only been a member for about 4 months when i opened their members ISA account plus had to open a saver account also for their £50 bonus.

So am I correct in thinking this is different to their month prize competition for just being a member?

I have just opened two of the Start to Save accounts, one in my name and one in OH name to double chance of any prize winnings.

However trying to set up a S/O from my bank to NW it doesn't recognise my new NW account number, have double check all details and still unrecognised... maybe too soon for systems to recognise my details??