Tandem 3% fixed rate saver

jt2020

chris112 said:

Are there any forum members who have been on the forum for over a year with a minimum of say 50 posts, that have transferred money into /out of this bank successfully?
It's of no confidence and if anything gives more doubt if new members and all members with less than 50 posts, give any form of reassurance about tandem

Just email and call the bank yourself, its as simple as that, then you don't need to rely on forum members with less than 50 posts.

intalex

I'm getting less and less confidence on this, way too many MSE newbies with positive posts towards this account (who are these people who managed to get ahead of experienced MSE eagles in the 3% first 100 queue?). Just 1 person with a few hundred posts confirming that it all seems to work. Clear grounds for waiting longer until we get some more numbers of experienced MSE members posting of successful deposits.

bowlhead99

intalex said:

I'm getting less and less confidence on this, way too many MSE newbies with positive posts towards this account (who are these people who managed to get ahead of experienced MSE eagles in the 3% first 100 queue?).

A week ago I was the first to respond on another thread - in posting that the experience reported by an 'MSE newbie' was not unexpected, given how the account was expected to work. See previous thread "Am I opening myself up to a scam?"(https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77632166#Comment_77632166). 

I have about twelve thousand posts, and experience of directing regulated financial services businesses. There is nothing in the previous thread or this thread that suggests that Tandem have a dodgy operation. I'm sure if you exercise appropriate diligence when making your deposit, you will probably be satisfied with your conclusion - as nothing has been posted on the various Tandem threads that sounds implausible.

Alternatively if you're paranoid and want to only seek validation from the experiences of anonymous forum users who happen to have 'more than 50 posts' *and* have an account with Tandem of the type that only launched recently *and* got in on the 3% offer within the first hundred people out of fifty million adults living in the UK, as your criteria for truthfulness and credibility - I don't meet all those criteria - you may conclude differently of course. 

squashed_pea

intalex said:

I'm getting less and less confidence on this, way too many MSE newbies with positive posts towards this account (who are these people who managed to get ahead of experienced MSE eagles in the 3% first 100 queue?). Just 1 person with a few hundred posts confirming that it all seems to work. Clear grounds for waiting longer until we get some more numbers of experienced MSE members posting of successful deposits.

Admittedly I am a newbie to this forum but not to MSE and the world of money. I check the website literally every other day.
I have been keeping a close eye on Savings accounts and when tandem was recommended as the top choice for a 1 year fixed saver looked at that option. The 3% offer came up as it was just good timing. Anyway I’m off to the David Icke website now to look at more conspiracy theories.

jt2020

intalex said:

I'm getting less and less confidence on this, way too many MSE newbies with positive posts towards this account (who are these people who managed to get ahead of experienced MSE eagles in the 3% first 100 queue?). Just 1 person with a few hundred posts confirming that it all seems to work. Clear grounds for waiting longer until we get some more numbers of experienced MSE members posting of successful deposits.

Have you considered contacting the bank by telephone or email and get the real facts. That way you can put your mind at rest and confirm what everyone else is saying is indeed true.

matty_art

So I got the 3% saver, I made the account and the app said I had 14 days to fund. 

While I’m awaiting the money to be transferred into my account to fund (we are now on day 5, I’m expecting in on Friday), I’ve just had the below email:

Thanks again for signing up to our beta waitlist. The response from our customers has been incredible and we’ve been overwhelmed with people taking full advantage of our Fixed Saver app and the interest rate behind it.
 

Unfortunately, however, this means that we have quickly reached the maximum amount we were able to accept in deposits and we have therefore closed any unfunded 3% AER Fixed Savers today.
 

As you are yet to fund your Fixed Saver, we have closed your account today and you will no longer be able to fund it. 

I have withdrawn the money from a fixed rate account which I now can’t pay back into, and so I’ve lost the interest rate on that one.

Basically they’ve stitched me up good and proper...

I’ll phone them tomorrow to complain, but it feels totally wrong that they can close an account that’s already been open when they’ve given me 14 days to fund it - that can’t be FCA compliant behaviour can it?

eskbanker

matty_art said:

I’ll phone them tomorrow to complain, but it feels totally wrong that they can close an account that’s already been open when they’ve given me 14 days to fund it - that can’t be FCA compliant behaviour can it?

All financial institutions have generic high-level responsibilities to 'treat customers fairly' so I'd argue that they've failed to do so here, but no harm in looking for more specific regulations and pushing for redress for quantifiable losses arising from their actions....

matty_art

eskbanker said:

matty_art said:

I’ll phone them tomorrow to complain, but it feels totally wrong that they can close an account that’s already been open when they’ve given me 14 days to fund it - that can’t be FCA compliant behaviour can it?

All financial institutions have generic high-level responsibilities to 'treat customers fairly' so I'd argue that they've failed to do so here, but no harm in looking for more specific regulations and pushing for redress for quantifiable losses arising from their actions....

Yeah I’ve actually just managed to open a 1.4% saver still, and therefore been able to screenshot the T&Cs.  Nothing in there at all about it from what I can see, link below to relevant bits.

https://imgur.com/a/fPHuuqE/


Given the 1.4% is still market leading, I don’t know where that puts me but I was planning to invest the full amount as I’ve just inherited a reasonable sum of money that I’d like to forget about for a little while until I’m through the grief etc, so that’s c£800 after tax for me I’ve missed out on.  I know I’m in a super privileged position to have such funds to invest at all, so I don’t want to complaint too much but it just doesn’t feel right, and really stressful too...

Paul_01

That’s not good. I too got the 3% and have already deposited half of the amount I intend to invest. Looks like it’s fortuitous for me that I did that. 

I’d be complaining and certainly mentioning the Ombudsman. 

intalex

I got the same email, but somehow I don't feel like I've missed out...