Is Flagstone IM trustworthy?

masonic

eskbanker said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

eskbanker said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

masonic said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

Every new savings account ive opened give this kind of issue.

Chase, Atom, Tandem.

Only one that did not was Al Ryan, opened and funded all without issue.

Al Rayan doesn't support CoP yet, though, does it? I opened their issue 3 everyday saver account recently and had to bypass my bank's warning as usual when sending my £1 test transfer.

It's been at least a couple of years since any payment I've made has required a security call, so it appears I have trained my sending bank to my usual pattern of transactions when shifting money between savings accounts offered by the smaller players in the market.

I dont know for sure, but my main bank is First Direct.

They have been a pain with every other account I have opened.

All except Al Ryen.

No fraud checks or hold ups.

Chase 3 fraud checks on 4 payments

Atom, Tandem, Marcus and Raisin all fraud checks.

Fraud checks aren't 'this kind of issue' in terms of what OP described, which related to a name check ("they can't find an account in my name") and hence the more relevant discussion about CoP rather than the different issue of payments being withheld for fraud checks....

Had the same issue with Raisin as I said above, call the bank and say make the payment.

They will ask the name of payee, which should have been provided by Flagstone.

Yes, sounds like that one may be a relevant example, especially if OP banks with First Direct and actually wasn't able to proceed with an online transfer because of not being able to pass a CoP check.  My point was that all those other payments you referred to encountered a different issue....

I can confirm that, like most banks, First Direct do allow you to proceed with a transfer online if unable to confirm the name on the receiving account. I've set up 4 such new payees in the past month without any issue at all after clicking through the warnings. Any fraud checks would come later, after the instruction is accepted. I've only experienced this on one occasion where I received a call and was able to get the payment released after confirming it was to another account in my name.

RL11

The payee name you need to enter is "Flagstone Group LTD" - not your own name. You need to say it's a business account too. Standard sort code and account number should have been provided too but I won't mention in case there is a security issue. It's the reference that they have given you that makes the money transfer to your own account so make sure you get that right.

I've just signed up and went through with account confirmation no problem and my test £1 arrived almost immediately.

I am however a bit unsure about going ahead with them as their own website talks about a minimum £50k and has no mention of £10k being enough. Also it seems to charge interest and platform fees - more than enough to wipe out any interest gains. I would like MSE to explain how Flagstone works for small savers in more detail as it doesn't seem to be designed for small investors at all

chiller15

I have created an account with them but not yet transferred any funds. Reading these comments is making me doubt whether it's a good idea. Has anyone actually used this offer, the one linked via MSE with no fees attached? Specifically with a relatively small amount, like £10k-£20k?

RL11

I received the following response from Flagstone:

"If you apply to open an account with us direct, through our website for example, there is an annual management charge that will start from 0.25% but can go down to 0.15% depending on the amount in your Flagstone account. There is also a one-off administration fee for funds over £250,000, this is £500.00. The minimum amount to be able to open this account is £50,000.

I have checked your account with us and can confirm this has come through one of our partnerships, with Money Saving Expert. On this service, there is no fee for using the platform, Flagstone receives a share of interest, paid to us by the Bank that you select to deposit with. The share of interest is a portion of the interest accrued in the account, but it does not impact the rate you have selected, the interest rates you see are what you will receive. The minimum amount to be able to open this account is £10,000."