Sainsbury Bank ISA rate better for new customers

thrifty_pete

I opened a Sainsburys Bank ISA (variable rate) in April at 0.95%. They seem to be offering 1.22% now but obviously I won't benefit from this. I tried waiting on their phone line for 20 minutes but gave up. Has anyone asked to be upgraded, or must I open a new ISA and transfer the funds? Marcus make this a bit easier by having an opt-in bonus.
Weird that it takes 20 minutes on the phone when micro banks like DF Capital manage to get calls answered much quicker. 

refluxer

If you're going to go to the trouble of switching, wouldn't it make more sense to switch to a bank who do apply rate increases rather than release new issues, to save yourself hassle in the future ?

I used to have a number of different conventional savings accounts and ISAs with Sainsburys but shut/transferred the last one a few years ago because they're not as competitive as they used to be.

Rich2808

They are both instant access - so why can't you open the new account and transfer in.

You can of course get up to 1.35% for an instant access isa now - albeit with limits on the number of withdrawals to get the higher rate in some cases.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa/

Chloe_G

I used to message them and then they used to match the rate on my ISA.  

thrifty_pete

refluxer said:

If you're going to go to the trouble of switching, wouldn't it make more sense to switch to a bank who do apply rate increases rather than release new issues, to save yourself hassle in the future ?

I used to have an account with Sainsburys when they first started up (that must be 25 years ago!) but I didn't realise they had fallen so far in service. 
Answering a simple customer query within 24 hours would be a fairly reasonably baseline for service - worse than Punjab National Bank were! 

refluxer

thrifty_pete said:

refluxer said:

If you're going to go to the trouble of switching, wouldn't it make more sense to switch to a bank who do apply rate increases rather than release new issues, to save yourself hassle in the future ?

I used to have an account with Sainsburys when they first started up (that must be 25 years ago!) but I didn't realise they had fallen so far in service. 
Answering a simple customer query within 24 hours would be a fairly reasonably baseline for service - worse than Punjab National Bank were! 

I just checked an old statement and the (now closed) Sainsburys Instant Access savings account I opened in 1998 paid 6.5% !

In terms of current competitiveness though, I notice that their (non-ISA) Defined Access Saver has recently made an appearance on the MSE Easy Access top table and, to be fair, their Easy Access Cash ISA @1.22% (for £500+) isn't too far off the current market-leading rates.

Is your current Sainsburys ISA a 'Variable Rate Cash ISA' ? If so, the current version doesn't seem to have an issue number attached to it so are you sure the new rate won't apply to your account ? Have you logged in to your Sainsburys online banking account and checked that your original 0.95% rate hasn't increased ? Banks have to tell you when rates reduce but many won't notify you when rates increase.

Yes, taking a day to answer a PM isn't great but that sort of timeframe for a response (1 to 2 days) isn't unusual for many banks and building societies at the moment, to be fair.

dali21

I sent CS a message last Friday asking to move to the new rate.  At the time, it said the response time was five working days.

I agree with the OP, it's easier to apply as a new customer and transfer in rather than move to the new rate as an existing customer.

thrifty_pete

refluxer said:

Is your current Sainsburys ISA a 'Variable Rate Cash ISA' ? If so, the current version doesn't seem to have an issue number attached to it so are you sure the new rate won't apply to your account ? Have you logged in to your Sainsburys online banking account and checked that your original 0.95% rate hasn't increased ? Banks have to tell you when rates reduce but many won't notify you when rates increase.

Yes, taking a day to answer a PM isn't great but that sort of timeframe for a response (1 to 2 days) isn't unusual for many banks and building societies at the moment, to be fair.

The rate is still 0.95% - this is what is published on their website too. I'm just puzzled as to why the end of June appears to be a crisis period for them. All my other financial services firms are keeping up - even the ones which are probably just a couple of blokes in a shed with a banking licence! 

Arthurian

I noticed the difference (0.95% - 1.22%) a few days ago and luckily got through to customer services by phone fairly rapidly.  They were most kind and said they put in a request for my ISA to be transferred to the new rate.

It hasn't been transferred yet, but I expect it will.

thrifty_pete

Call waiting times are just over an hour tonight. Hopefully customers will move and reduce the load on the call centres. They will take 6 working days to increase my interest rate to 1.22% which is what new customers are being offered.
Marcus just lets you opt-in to higher rates, much more efficient for customer and bank.

Chloe_G

My mother checked her ISA a couple of days ago.  She had messaged them in mid April asking them to raise the rate on her ISA to their current offering which was then 0.95% and they sent a message saying they would increase it and it will take 5 working days.  She logged in to ask them to raise it to 1.22% and it is still showing as 0.35%.  This message shows on the message trail so she sent another message asking for their promised rate rise to be applied and backdated to April.  They have answered saying they will raise the rate to 1.22% but ignored the query about the failure to raise her rate.

So the moral is, check and don't believe they are going to do what they say!