Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

vermania

veryintrigued said:

ctdctd said:

Notts BS

Letter today - Regular Saver issue 2 down to 0.05% + 0.5% bonus from 1st November.

I also got letters for Panthers and RS8.
Bad post day.
All three 0.65% on Nov 1st

Really disappointing that Nottingham BS did this, there isn't long to go on the Special Saver 8.
Their letter goes on about how we are valued customers and it has done the right thing to hold rates until now, but 2.5% to 0.55% is a pretty swingeing cut for an existing customer.
I quite liked them until today, I won't be seeing out the account to the February 2021 maturity.

veryintrigued

vermania said:

veryintrigued said:

ctdctd said:

Notts BS

Letter today - Regular Saver issue 2 down to 0.05% + 0.5% bonus from 1st November.

I also got letters for Panthers and RS8.
Bad post day.
All three 0.65% on Nov 1st

Really disappointing that Nottingham BS did this, there isn't long to go on the Special Saver 8.
Their letter goes on about how we are valued customers and it has done the right thing to hold rates until now, but 2.5% to 0.55% is a pretty swingeing cut for an existing customer.
I quite liked them until today, I won't be seeing out the account to the February 2021 maturity.

Notts BS
Historically Notts RS accounts have always been variable but they've never altered the rates much.

They've come in two varieties since I've been a member the last decade.

1) Ones which are made up of an interest rate / bonus and a limited amount (one or two) of withdrawals are permitted each year to still receive the bonus.

2) Ones which receive purely interest (they have no bonus element) and no withdrawals are allowed at all.

Special Saver 8 (and Panthers 2 which we also notification of reduction yesterday) is of the second variety so unless I've missed something you are not permitted to withdraw or close the account even though the rate has been reduced.

The Regular Saver two (again rate reduction notification received yesterday) is of the first variety.

schiff

I've quite admired the Nottingham, and Furness, for not following the Gadarene rush to tiny rates for as long as they have. But it's disappointing that closing the account is apparently not an option (I've not had my letter yet). I would obviously prefer my £4000 earning better rates than 0.55% for the four months. Incidentally the T&Cs state that you can miss as many payments as you wish so I'll be cancelling my SO.

liamcov

veryintrigued said:

ctdctd said:

Notts BS

Letter today - Regular Saver issue 2 down to 0.05% + 0.5% bonus from 1st November.

I also got letters for Panthers and RS8.
Bad post day.
All three 0.65% on Nov 1st

I've had all three of these letter too - not from the Seasonal Saver though (currently 2.5%) has anyone received information about this account?

Even though these accounts do not allow withdrawals (except the RS issue 2) the letters state 'if you're considering moving your money to another account, please contact us or visit one of our branches and we can help you discover more about our other savings products. If you do decide to close your account and move your money to another provider you can do so by visiting your branch, although we will be very sorry to see you go.'

So does this mean they are going to allow us to close the accounts down even though they still have 1-5 months left to run on them?

bubieyehyeh

schiff said:

I've quite admired the Nottingham, and Furness, for not following the Gadarene rush to tiny rates for as long as they have. But it's disappointing that closing the account is apparently not an option (I've not had my letter yet). I would obviously prefer my £4000 earning better rates than 0.55% for the four months. Incidentally the T&Cs state that you can miss as many payments as you wish so I'll be cancelling my SO.

While the letter is carefully worded I believe you can close the account early, based on the saving terms and conditions section 7.8
https://www.thenottingham.com/~/media/files/savings/forms and documents/savings-terms-march-19-lit3117.pdf?la=en

If we materially decrease an interest rate to your disadvantage, we will notify you in writing 14 days in advance of the change.

You will be given 30 days from the date of this notification to close or switch your account without notice or penalty.

We will define a decrease to an interest rate as ‘material’ if it reduces more than the Bank of England Base Rate

So I've emailed to ask if my assumption is correct, and if so what the early closure process is.

I assume NottBS are still stuck in the 20th century and withdrawl options are only cheque or CHAPS for a charge, or has covid change that.

colsten

KRBS

You normally have to visit a Branch to close a matured RS but they will now do an electronic transfer [to your linked account] over the phone. I am not sure what would happen if you didn't already have a linked account set up - mine has existed for years.

I didn't ask whether they would also open a new RS over the phone as I don't fancy their rate now. I presume they would.

schiff

veryintrigued said:

I've had all three of these letter too - not from the Seasonal Saver though (currently 2.5%) has anyone received information about this account?

It's hardly worth it for them, it matures in six weeks.

spider42

Be careful if closing the Nottingham Regular Saver 2. Although you are allowed two withdrawals per account year (which according to my notes runs on the year from 1 October to the following 30 September), no bonus is paid in the account year of closure. I got stung with this when I closed my Regular Saver 1.

However, I'm wondering if my information re the dates is incorrect. I've possibly copied and pasted it from Regular Saver 1, which paid interest and bonus on 30 September. But Regular Saver 2 pays interest on 30 June, so it would make more sense if the account year on this account runs to 30 June too. Can anybody please confirm?

Although the T&Cs say you can close without notice or penalty, I don't know whether losing a potential bonus would be interpreted as being a 'penalty' or not. They might still pay the bonus, but I suspect the computer will just automatically not pay it if the account is closed, so you might need to fight them for it.

It might be safer to withdraw most of the balance, leaving a nominal £10 (which I think is the minimum balance), and then close  it after the end of the account year (whenever that might be!).

veryintrigued

spider42 said:

Be careful if closing the Nottingham Regular Saver 2. Although you are allowed two withdrawals per account year (which according to my notes runs on the year from 1 October to the following 30 September), no bonus is paid in the account year of closure. I got stung with this when I closed my Regular Saver 1.

Notts BS RS2
 I'm not sure you're correct on this.

The RS 3 T&C are attached (ive mislaid the RS2 ones) and they do allow two withdrawals whilst still getting the bonus.

RS2 interest is paid at the end of June (see two pages ago on this thread where I've detailed some more interest dates for the Notts products.

This reflects the info in my personal spreadsheet. 

veryintrigued

liamcov said:

veryintrigued said:

ctdctd said:

Notts BS

Letter today - Regular Saver issue 2 down to 0.05% + 0.5% bonus from 1st November.

I also got letters for Panthers and RS8.
Bad post day.
All three 0.65% on Nov 1st

I've had all three of these letter too - not from the Seasonal Saver though (currently 2.5%) has anyone received information about this account?

Even though these accounts do not allow withdrawals (except the RS issue 2) the letters state 'if you're considering moving your money to another account, please contact us or visit one of our branches and we can help you discover more about our other savings products. If you do decide to close your account and move your money to another provider you can do so by visiting your branch, although we will be very sorry to see you go.'

So does this mean they are going to allow us to close the accounts down even though they still have 1-5 months left to run on them?

Notts RS reductions
Visited a branch this morning. A branch I normally avoid as they are hopeless (other Notts ones are superb).

True to form they didn't even know there were any reductions. Not even on the ones communicated three weeks ago.

Will revert to a more favoured branch next week.