Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

AndyTh_2

cricidmuslibale said:

Just a word of warning for anyone trying to both open a Nationwide Start to Save Issue 2 - presently paying 5% variable annual interest with maximum monthly deposits of £50 - and fund it on the same day! If you already have a current account or an instant access savings account with Nationwide then you will be able to do this with no problems whatsoever via their Internet Bank. If, however, like me you intend on funding your new Start to Save Issue 2 from a nominated account which is e.g. a current account not provided by Nationwide, please do not be at all surprised if you're unable to do so until at least 2 days after opening the Start to Save account!

I made what I hope was an understandable mistake today of trying to fund my new Start to Save Issue 2 from my nominated account, an HSBC current account, c.30 minutes after opening the former, in order to maximise interest. HSBC simply would not recognise this new Nationwide savings account as belonging to me, either online (after multiple attempts) or by phone, despite me doing my very best to try to persuade them otherwise. So I then contacted a Nationwide online assistant (via their Internet Bank chat feature) who confirmed that a newly opened Start to Save Issue 2 will very likely not be acknowledged by an external (to Nationwide) nominated account until an unspecified few days after account opening. Thus, if you want to maximise interest earned on a newly opened Start to Save Issue 2 by funding it on the day of account opening, you have to fund it with an internal transfer from a Nationwide current account or instant access savings account!

or a current account from a bank/BS that doesn't restrict transfers if Confirmation of Payee isn't yet set up

liamcov

Not the right word but I'm 'glad' it isn't just me dealing with Monmouthshire delays.

trickydicky14

liamcov said:

Not the right word but I'm 'glad' it isn't just me dealing with Monmouthshire delays.

Tomorrow will be 3 weeks since I submitted my application, to date, nothing.

Velvet_Monkey

AmityNeon said:
Have you not encountered such clauses before in general banking terms and conditions?

Certainly. And I have also lost not insignificant sums due to the financial institutions concerned then 'interpreting' them in what I would deem to be an 'unfair' manner. As you have pointed out I have also raised a complaint with the FO several years ago now and they are still dealing with it! I have also tried to complain about the FOs non-performance (as you are supposed to be able to do), but it seems I'm not allowed to. Hence my caution now when I now see such clauses. What you are all saying is how I would expect things to work - its just that recent experience has taught me its not always the case.

Velvet_Monkey

dcs34 said:

This means you would earn the expected rate of interest up to that point of closure.

Thanks. I already queried this potential scenario with FD prior to my first post, and suggested that surely interest to date would be protected, but was told what I posted. To be fair she did seem a little apologetic and agreed with me that it seemed unfair, but ultimately I have the choice whether or not to invest with the information made available. Maybe she's 'only' a call-handler and got it wrong? Anyway, I've weighed up what I think the risks/benefits are and decided to invest - I do hope I don't regret it!

AmityNeon

Velvet_Monkey said:

AmityNeon said:
Have you not encountered such clauses before in general banking terms and conditions?

Certainly. And I have also lost not insignificant sums due to the financial institutions concerned then 'interpreting' them in what I would deem to be an 'unfair' manner. As you have pointed out I have also raised a complaint with the FO several years ago now and they are still dealing with it! I have also tried to complain about the FOs non-performance (as you are supposed to be able to do), but it seems I'm not allowed to. Hence my caution now when I now see such clauses. What you are all saying is how I would expect things to work - its just that recent experience has taught me its not always the case.

Then it's best if you do not open any fixed-rate accounts, including Regular Savers. At the very least, all the major banking groups include such standard clauses in their general terms and conditions.

dcs34

Velvet_Monkey said:

dcs34 said:

This means you would earn the expected rate of interest up to that point of closure.

Thanks. I already queried this potential scenario with FD prior to my first post, and suggested that surely interest to date would be protected, but was told what I posted. To be fair she did seem a little apologetic and agreed with me that it seemed unfair, but ultimately I have the choice whether or not to invest with the information made available. Maybe she's 'only' a call-handler and got it wrong? Anyway, I've weighed up what I think the risks/benefits are and decided to invest - I do hope I don't regret it!

I suspect she didn't quite understand the scenario you'd described, whereby FD have lowered the rate due to some new regulation (enabling penalty-free early closures) rather than you just deciding to close the account early one day (where, correctly, you would earn the lower rate). 

This will never come to pass as FD are quite clear this is a fixed rate account - "once your account is opened the rate will remain fixed". If it ever did happen then there would probably be bigger issues within the UK banking industry to be worried about than a few % of interest earnings!

Band7

Velvet_Monkey said:

 And I have also lost not insignificant sums due to the financial institutions concerned then 'interpreting' them in what I would deem to be an 'unfair' manner. 

Sounds you have been rather unfortunate in your dealings with financial institutions. You can rest assured, though, that there is no known Regular Saver account where the provider defaulted on the terms and conditions in force when the accounts were taken out. 

Velvet_Monkey said:

  Anyway, I've weighed up what I think the risks/benefits are and decided to invest - I do hope I don't regret it!

It's important to distinguish between savings and investments, as they have entirely different T&Cs, and entirely different risk levels. Regular Savers are, as the name implies, savings accounts, not investments. Your capital in a savings account is secure, and the interest rate is pre-determined on fixed rate accounts. Though very occasionally a savings provider has offered higher than originally offered rates for fixed rate accounts, never lower. The FD RS is a good example for this - every existing account holder will automatically benefit from the 7% rate from December 1st.

AmityNeon

dcs34 said:

Velvet_Monkey said:

dcs34 said:

This means you would earn the expected rate of interest up to that point of closure.

Thanks. I already queried this potential scenario with FD prior to my first post, and suggested that surely interest to date would be protected, but was told what I posted. To be fair she did seem a little apologetic and agreed with me that it seemed unfair, but ultimately I have the choice whether or not to invest with the information made available. Maybe she's 'only' a call-handler and got it wrong? Anyway, I've weighed up what I think the risks/benefits are and decided to invest - I do hope I don't regret it!

I suspect she didn't quite understand the scenario you'd described, whereby FD have lowered the rate due to some new regulation (enabling penalty-free early closures) rather than you just deciding to close the account early one day (where, correctly, you would earn the lower rate).

This will never come to pass as FD are quite clear this is a fixed rate account - "once your account is opened the rate will remain fixed". If it ever did happen then there would probably be bigger issues within the UK banking industry to be worried about than a few % of interest earnings!

I doubt any call handler is sufficiently versed in financial legalities to provide a definitive answer, but apparently it has come to pass in some form, hence the caution exercised by Velvet_Monkey, much like how most of us would act if we felt indignant (irrespective of justification). Regardless, such clauses are standard in the general terms and conditions of (probably) every regulated institution, and if issues have arisen, they obviously weren't big enough to warrant any negative publicity to effect industry changes.

Rich2808

trickydicky14 said:

liamcov said:

Not the right word but I'm 'glad' it isn't just me dealing with Monmouthshire delays.

Tomorrow will be 3 weeks since I submitted my application, to date, nothing.

Could be worse - you could be working for them processing these hundreds perhaps thousands of applications for the same account. I wonder if the manager at HQ who came up with the idea to launch this nationally - and not restrict it to locals only and perhaps existing members - will get any Christmas cards from his colleagues?!