Regular Savings Accounts: The Best Currently Available List!

OceanSound

Bridlington1 said:

OceanSound said:

Bridlington1 said:

TheBanker said:

Bridlington1 said:

Like @ForumUser7 I just did a transfer of £200 from my Santander account. From what I can see there is no term saying you have to fund the account by standing order, all it says is that you can make payments by standing order.

I think it's a bit ambiguous because the KFD says:

Deposits
There is no minimum monthly deposit. You can save up to a maximum of £200 each month for 12 months by standing order from your Santander current account. Maximum balance you can have in the account at the end of the 12 months is £2,400.
You can make any number of payments via standing order and you don’t have to make a deposit every month. The amount can vary each month, provided the monthly limit isn’t exceeded.
Your month is calculated by the date that you open your Regular eSaver, e.g. you open the Regular eSaver on the 16th of a month, your month will run from 16th of one month to the 15th of the next month.
To make the most of your regular eSaver, you’ll need to set up your standing order to start within the first calendar month after opening. Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.
If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account, if you deposit more than £200 in any month or if you hold more than one Regular eSaver account, Santander reserves the right to revert your account into an Everyday Saver. 

The bold text is their emphasis, not mine.

So it seems to be saying you have to use a Standing Order, but the final paragraph implies you don't (only that the funds have to come from a Santander current account). The second paragraph confuses things further by saying you don't have to make a deposit each month and you can vary the amount - whilst it is possible to amend a Standing Order each month, this isn't how Standing Orders are normally used.

A further complication comes from the point about weekend processing. If you have a Standing Order which happens to fall on a non-working day, you could accidentally fall foul of the £200 monthly limit by depositing £400 in one month (a rolled over standing order from the end of the previous month, plus the current month's standing order) - are they expecting customers to monitor their standing order date closely enough to avoid this happening? 

In practice I think you'll be fine but it's not 100% clear cut. 

Point taken, perhaps I am being guilty of wishful thinking here. I shall be passing a branch later today anyway so I'll see what they have to say regarding standing orders.

Good luck with that. Chances are that you may come across a jobsworth staff memeber that'll just say 'No' (these staff always tend to start any sentence with a 'No''), it HAS TO be funded by standing order OR he/she/they will say it dosen't have to be. Then if your account gets changed to an Everyday Saver account for not paying by SO, you'd have to convince Santander complaints that you did speak to Staff member John on such and such a date at in the morning/afternoon/evening. Then staff member john would need to corroborate this. As I say 'Good luck with that'.

I've never come across a jobsworth at my local Santander branch and they've always been pretty helpful so I shall still pop in given that I'll be passing the branch today anyway.

OceanSound said:

TheBanker said:

OceanSound said:

TheBanker said:

OceanSound said:

TheBanker said:

Bridlington1 said:

Like @ForumUser7 I just did a transfer of £200 from my Santander account. From what I can see there is no term saying you have to fund the account by standing order, all it says is that you can make payments by standing order.

I think it's a bit ambiguous because the KFD says:

Deposits
There is no minimum monthly deposit. You can save up to a maximum of £200 each month for 12 months by standing order from your Santander current account. Maximum balance you can have in the account at the end of the 12 months is £2,400.
You can make any number of payments via standing order and you don’t have to make a deposit every month. The amount can vary each month, provided the monthly limit isn’t exceeded.
Your month is calculated by the date that you open your Regular eSaver, e.g. you open the Regular eSaver on the 16th of a month, your month will run from 16th of one month to the 15th of the next month.
To make the most of your regular eSaver, you’ll need to set up your standing order to start within the first calendar month after opening. Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.
If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account, if you deposit more than £200 in any month or if you hold more than one Regular eSaver account, Santander reserves the right to revert your account into an Everyday Saver. 

The bold text is their emphasis, not mine.

So it seems to be saying you have to use a Standing Order, but the final paragraph implies you don't (only that the funds have to come from a Santander current account). The second paragraph confuses things further by saying you don't have to make a deposit each month and you can vary the amount - whilst it is possible to amend a Standing Order each month, this isn't how Standing Orders are normally used.

A further complication comes from the point about weekend processing. If you have a Standing Order which happens to fall on a non-working day, you could accidentally fall foul of the £200 monthly limit by depositing £400 in one month (a rolled over standing order from the end of the previous month, plus the current month's standing order) - are they expecting customers to monitor their standing order date closely enough to avoid this happening? 

In practice I think you'll be fine but it's not 100% clear cut. 

Santander ought to warn customers about this roll over standing orders.

Of course for those of us who are aware of the caveat,  it's easily avoidable by starting the standing order (SO) at the beginning of the month right up to the middle of the month (or even around 20th of each month should be fine - as there is no risk of any SO rolling over to the next month).

BTW, Santander website says this: 

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

How it works

 * You’re a UK resident aged 16 or over

* You don't already have a Regular eSaver

* You have a Santander current account, excluding 1|2|3 Mini In Trust

* Fund the account with a standing order from a Santander current account

* If you don’t fund the account from your Santander current account or if you deposit more than £200 in any month, Santander reserve the right to change your account into an Everyday Saver

Notice the last part does not say 'If you don't fund the account from your Santander Current Account, by standing order, or if you deposit more than ......Santander reserve the right to change your account into an Everyday Saver'. 

So, funding the RS by SO isn't a requirement. 

It's similar wording to the KFD I quoted above. As I said, I think it's ambiguous. The last but one point says you have to fund the account with a standing order, but the 'punishment' for breaking the rules doesn't refer to standing orders, only that the money has to come from a Santander current account and not be more than £200 per month.

As I said I think people would be fine in practice, but if Santander did decide to convert an account to an Everyday Saver because the deposits weren't made by Standing Order, I'm not convinced FOS would uphold a complaint. Look at the Co-op refer a friend thread in the Banking section. The Co-op's terms are ambiguous, but the FOS are siding with the bank.

Seems you posted while i was editing my previous post.

FOS always shout from the roof top that they deal with cases on a case-by-case basis. FOS 'siding with the bank' as you put it may be indicative of underlying issues at FOS. 

However, if they were to handle cases on a case-by-case basis (using fairness to decide - as this is how they decide on cases - it's not legal proof) the Co-op terms being ambiguous but the FOS siding with the bank is no indication that they would do so in Santander's case.

FOS would need to look at what it says on the website, on the terms and conditions, the KFD etc and then decide. We wouldn't be able to prejudge that because FOS behaved in such a manner with Co-op they would repeat that behaviour. This is of course assuming that FOS operate in shipshape manner.

I am not trying to prejudge how FOS would decide a complaint. To get to that stage, (i) Santander would have actually tried to enforce the 'Standing Order' condition, and (ii) Santander's own complaints team would have to reject any complaint. Then FOS would have to consider all the facts and reach a decision. My reference to the Co-op was simply to highlight that FOS do not automatically side with the customer - I did not mean to imply they would reach the same decision in a complaint about Santander. 

Personally I would take the easy option and set up a Standing Order, then there's no ambiguity. NB - you could set up the standing order as an annual one, I think, then change the details each month. So it works like a manual payment but they'd see it as a Standing Order. 

What is the point of doing this? apart from change the amount. You don't want to bring the date forward, as it will fall foul of the only £200 in any month term/condition.

What do you think @10_66 was reminding us of?

OceanSound said:

To be honest, due to the ambiguity (lack of peace of mind - ironic because terms and conditions would otherwise bring us peace of mind), harsh terms and conditions, and pretty ordinary (or less than ordinary) support, not to mention blocking of funds (going into current account) like there's no tomorrow, I'd stay well clear of the Santader Regular e-Saver.

With respect I think that's may be a tad extreme. We know from the Ts&Cs that you can fund the account by SO so if you wanted to play it safe then could you not just deposit by SO each month? If Santander blocks accounts that much, then why not just open an account solely for the 5% regular saver and never use it for anything else?

I too prefer not to faff about with SOs but if given the choice between funding a 5% regular saver by SO and not having the account at all I'd pick the former (as is evidenced by my HSBC regular saver).

"I've never come across a jobsworth at my local Santander branch and they've always been pretty helpful so I shall still pop in given that I'll be passing the branch today anyway." - 

Past performance is no indication of future performance. Staff may join, get a transfer etc. etc. BTW, you're really living the dream. A local bank branch that you can 'pop in to'. Most of us have to travel for miles. But I get it!, it's a great advert to having a local branch nearby to confirm something in a hurry.
Also, a little bird told me that although local bank branches are on the wane, food banks are very much on the rise. More food banks than McDonald's!

"What do you think @10_66 was reminding us of?"

..and the answer to my question 'What is the point of doing this? apart from change the amount.'? Let me think..answer a question with another question.

" If Santander blocks accounts that much, then why not just open an account solely for the 5% regular saver and never use it for anything else?"

Note that I said 'blocking of funds (going in to current account)' not 'blocks accounts'. I think there is a difference. The latter is more extreme.

Why not open an account solely for the 5% regular saver and never use it for anything else? Well, I told you many reasons why not. Opening it solely for the 5% regular saver and never use for anything else doesn't override all those reasons. Anyway, when it comes to funding the RS (by manual payment via santander Current account or via SO linked to Santander Current Account), I would need to transfer funds to the Santander current account from another external account. Santander is notorious for blocking funds arriving from external accounts. I've read reports that forumites have experienced santander blocking payments arriving from YouGov. Chances are my payments are going to be from an own account elsewhere, but I can't be sure Santander won't block. Until I am sure and I see some improvements on the other considerations, it's a thumbs down for Santander I'm afraid. How else can I put this...'Santander you ARE the weakest link. Good Bye!' or 'For those reasons I'm out...'

Band7

Existing Santander customers: if for any reason you still have an old, unmatured, Santander RS hanging about, you can request it to be closed via Chat. Don't chose the "RS upgrade option" as this doesn't seem to work. Just ask for the RS to be closed, tell them where to pay any outstanding interest to, and what your address is. The old RS will disappear overnight, and you can then open and fund the 5% one within minutes.

t1redmonkey

Band7 said:

Existing Santander customers: if for any reason you still have an old, unmatured, Santander RS hanging about, you can request it to be closed via Chat. Don't chose the "RS upgrade option" as this doesn't seem to work. Just ask for the RS to be closed, tell them where to pay any outstanding interest to, and what your address is. The old RS will disappear overnight, and you can then open and fund the 5% one within minutes.

Good to know.  I called them a couple of hours ago and asked for my old one to be closed, apparently can take up to two working days to disappear though.

Band7

t1redmonkey said:

Band7 said:

Existing Santander customers: if for any reason you still have an old, unmatured, Santander RS hanging about, you can request it to be closed via Chat. Don't chose the "RS upgrade option" as this doesn't seem to work. Just ask for the RS to be closed, tell them where to pay any outstanding interest to, and what your address is. The old RS will disappear overnight, and you can then open and fund the 5% one within minutes.

Good to know.  I called them a couple of hours ago and asked for my old one to be closed, apparently can take up to two working days to disappear though.

They do quote two working days but it seems to be just an overnight thing. I requested mine to be closed via chat around 9pm last night and was told I need to wait two working days before I can apply for the 5% one. Well, the old one had gone this morning, and my 5% one is now open and funded  . I'd say check tomorrow morning, there's a good chance you can open the new one then.

RG2015

OceanSound said:

Santander ought to warn customers about this roll over standing orders.

Of course for those of us who are aware of the caveat,  it's easily avoidable by starting the standing order (SO) at the beginning of the month right up to the middle of the month (or even around 20th of each month should be fine - as there is no risk of any SO rolling over to the next month).

BTW, Santander website says this: 

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

I don't think setting the SO date in the middle of the month would make any difference to rolling over to the next month.

"The month" is not a calendar month but the personal month based on the account opening date. For example 16th May to 15th June. 

quirkydeptless

Band7 said:

Existing Santander customers: if for any reason you still have an old, unmatured, Santander RS hanging about, you can request it to be closed via Chat. Don't chose the "RS upgrade option" as this doesn't seem to work. Just ask for the RS to be closed, tell them where to pay any outstanding interest to, and what your address is. The old RS will disappear overnight, and you can then open and fund the 5% one within minutes.

I'm a bit sloppy about closing unused accounts unless there is an easy 'close account' option online. I still had an old 3.2% one lying around with £0 in it, and so when I applied for a new one it said something like 'lucky you, you already have one' 

So I used the mobile bot chat option with 'Regular eSaver Upgrade' as my reason for closure. A human appeared straight away on the chat and said 'Fab, I'll get that closed for you'. Or was it a human? Who can tell with AI nowadays?

Also said to allow 2 working days for the full closure, but I will check tomorrow to see if I can open a new one.

OceanSound

RG2015 said:

OceanSound said:

Santander ought to warn customers about this roll over standing orders.

Of course for those of us who are aware of the caveat,  it's easily avoidable by starting the standing order (SO) at the beginning of the month right up to the middle of the month (or even around 20th of each month should be fine - as there is no risk of any SO rolling over to the next month).

BTW, Santander website says this: 

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

I don't think setting the SO date in the middle of the month would make any difference to rolling over to the next month.

"The month" is not a calendar month but the personal month based on the account opening date. For example 16th May to 15th June. 

Key facts document set-out so the customer is destined to fall foul at some point. Great.

Also, it states ' ...if this [standing order payment date] is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.'. 

Irrelevant. As calendar month doesn't come in to play. I must've been looking at that earlier. 

Bridlington1

OceanSound said:

RG2015 said:

OceanSound said:

Santander ought to warn customers about this roll over standing orders.

Of course for those of us who are aware of the caveat,  it's easily avoidable by starting the standing order (SO) at the beginning of the month right up to the middle of the month (or even around 20th of each month should be fine - as there is no risk of any SO rolling over to the next month).

BTW, Santander website says this: 

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

I don't think setting the SO date in the middle of the month would make any difference to rolling over to the next month.

"The month" is not a calendar month but the personal month based on the account opening date. For example 16th May to 15th June. 

Key facts document set-out so the customer is destined to fall foul at some point. Great.

Also, it states ' ...if this [standing order payment date] is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.'. 

Irrelevant. As calendar month doesn't come in to play. I must've been looking at that earlier. 

I think it's quite clear. The summary box says this:

Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.

When it refers to "last day of the month" it refers to account month and not calendar month. So say you had opened the account yesterday (16/5/23), the account month would run from 16th-15th. Say you set up a SO due to go out on 15th July 2023 (Saturday), since 15/7/23 isn't a working day, the payment will be made the following working day (17th July), which would be in the following account month. 

ForumUser7

Chorley RS 30.04.2024 from 3.75%-> 4% effective 25th May, among others ~ https://www.chorleybs.co.uk/savings-rate-increase/

OceanSound

Bridlington1 said:

OceanSound said:

RG2015 said:

OceanSound said:

Santander ought to warn customers about this roll over standing orders.

Of course for those of us who are aware of the caveat,  it's easily avoidable by starting the standing order (SO) at the beginning of the month right up to the middle of the month (or even around 20th of each month should be fine - as there is no risk of any SO rolling over to the next month).

BTW, Santander website says this: 

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/savings/regular-esaver

I don't think setting the SO date in the middle of the month would make any difference to rolling over to the next month.

"The month" is not a calendar month but the personal month based on the account opening date. For example 16th May to 15th June. 

Key facts document set-out so the customer is destined to fall foul at some point. Great.

Also, it states ' ...if this [standing order payment date] is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.'. 

Irrelevant. As calendar month doesn't come in to play. I must've been looking at that earlier. 

I think it's quite clear. The summary box says this:

Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.

When it refers to "last day of the month" it refers to account month and not calendar month. So say you had opened the account yesterday (16/5/23), the account month would run from 16th-15th. Say you set up a SO due to go out on 15th July 2023 (Saturday), since 15/7/23 isn't a working day, the payment will be made the following working day (17th July), which would be in the following account month. 

note:

To make the most of your regular eSaver, you’ll need to set up your standing order to start within the first calendar month after opening. Standing orders are only processed Monday to Friday. If your standing order falls on a weekend or bank holiday your payment will be made on the next working day, if this is the last day of the month your payment won’t reach us until the following month.

There is no mention of an 'account month' here. Who normally talks in 'account months' anyway. If they want to refer to an 'account month' they would need to state it specifically (especially since the previous sentence states calendar month - and there is no reason for the account holder to assume that Santander has now started talking about 'account months'). Suffice to say, Santander key facts document clear as mud.

You've chosen not to respond to customer risking falling foul to the key facts document terms/conditions at some point after opening account comment I made earlier.