Has anyone heard of "Flagstone"? Looks like a 1.28% CSB rate but...

TycheMax

hi, my wife found what appears to be a 1.28% rate from Chater savings bank on Moneysupermarket but it's via a platform called "Flagstone" (seems legit from their website as far as i can tell) but its right at the bottom of their savings page www.moneysupermarket.com/savings/ after blurb about scams.  Seems like a good rate so why isn't it on the main page? does it mean theres a hidden catch or should i go for it? thanks.

Albermarle

They are a savings platform - just google them .
The idea is that you put your money with them and they have lots of arrangements with savings institutions .
So when a better rate comes up they can transfer it and you do not have to keep switching providers , registering as new client etc . 
However there is a management fee and a minimum amount of £50K .
Otherwise go to Charters website direct and see what is on offer .

Thrugelmir

Charter Savings Bank offer a number of fixed rate options.

https://www.chartersavingsbank.co.uk/Products/FixedRateBond

eskbanker

Hmmm, MSE has had plenty of grief about its use of affinity links but the Flagstone stuff at MSM is labelled as an ad and is accompanied by:

Full disclosure: MoneySuperMarket Group is a minority investor in Flagstone IM

That's not to say there's anything inherently wrong with it but it does seem a bit dubious to mingle editorial content with advertising of associated companies....

Daliah

Flagstone are like Raisin and HL Active Savings, acting as a middleman service between savers and saving account providers. From what I have seen, Flagstone's rates are usually the lowest of the three. For example, the 1 year rate your wife found via Flagstone would be 1.33% via Raisin - the same as if you went directly to Charter Savings Bank.

There are times when you get better deals through these middleman services, e.g. when they offer a bonus to new customers. Like Raisin do at present for deposits of >£9,999.99. Most of the time you do get better rates by going directly. There's an easy rates summary on https://moneyfacts.co.uk/savings-accounts/

Malthusian

eskbanker said:

Hmmm, MSE has had plenty of grief about its use of affinity links but the Flagstone stuff at MSM is labelled as an ad and is accompanied by:

Full disclosure: MoneySuperMarket Group is a minority investor in Flagstone IM

That's not to say there's anything inherently wrong with it but it does seem a bit dubious to mingle editorial content with advertising of associated companies....

MoneySuperMarket has always been a comparison site that runs on commission, it's never made any pretence to offer independent journalism to my knowledge, unlike its subsidiary MoneySavingExpert.

I don't see how a section that begins "Ad" on a page of ads could be mistaken for editorial content.

eskbanker

Malthusian said:

I don't see how a section that begins "Ad" on a page of ads could be mistaken for editorial content.

OP didn't seem to have picked up on the fact that it was an ad, and for me (admittedly using an ad blocker) it appears as the only ad on the page, in exactly the same typeface as everything else on a page otherwise full of editorial content....

Rollinghome

From their fixed rate savings page you could be led to believe that the best 1yr rate is 1%, rather than the ~1.4% or so that is available.

On the "Stocks and Shares ISAs" page following an editorial, they list the likes of Hargreaves Lansdown and Shepherd's Friendly (1.5% annual management charge, 3% initial charge), but of course no mention of low cost providers such as Iweb and Vanguard.

I assume much of the site is the same. The business plan seems to be to scrape a profit from the ill-informed.  If all users understand that, and try to get their information from non-biased sources wherever possible, there wouldn't be a problem, but I suspect many don't.

maxsteam

"Charter Savings Bank is a trading name of Charter Court Financial Services Limited"

Hmmm. I am wondering if it is even a bank. This is something that I will watch from a safe distance.

wmb194

maxsteam said:

"Charter Savings Bank is a trading name of Charter Court Financial Services Limited"

Hmmm. I am wondering if it is even a bank. This is something that I will watch from a safe distance.

It's owned by OneSavings Bank so yes and deposits with it are covered by the FSCS.

Daliah

maxsteam said:

"Charter Savings Bank is a trading name of Charter Court Financial Services Limited"

Hmmm. I am wondering if it is even a bank. This is something that I will watch from a safe distance.

They are currently not a bank like e.g. Halifax is, in that they are not offering current accounts, overdrafts, loans, credit cards and mortgages. They only offer various savings accounts but they are FCA authorised with limitations - see https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=001b000000NMRUpAAP. Most importantly, they are fully FSCS protected, so deposits up to £85K are perfectly safe with them

As always, you have to be careful about clones, though