Loughborough Building Society Experiences?

ForumUser7

Hi,

What have people’s experiences been with Loughborough Building Society please? Their Regular Saver Issue 1 is one I am keeping an eye on, as it is an open ended one, and it used to be quite competitive.

That said, I’m quite concerned as I couldn’t find any form of customer online savings platform (despite them having an online mortgages platform). Is this right please, or have I missed something here?

Thanks very much, and Merry Christmas!

ForumUser7

johnmoney05

I found their interest always slow to respond to the market. So I close three of their accounts posted on 5 Dec (1 class), today, still heard nothing from them!!!

ForumUser7

johnmoney05 said:

I found their interest always slow to respond to the market. So I close three of their accounts posted on 5 Dec (1 class), today, still heard nothing from them!!!

@johnmoney05

That’s a very big delay! Hopefully you hear something from them early next month!

Do you have access to an online platform with them please, or is this not something they offer?

*EDIT* Maybe contact them once they are reopen - it is possible that they've received it, actioned it, and sent a cheque and postal confirmation to you, but it is delayed on the way back. You may have already done this, but if not, it may give you an idea of how much longer you may need to wait.

Wheres_My_Cashback

No online facility, always very poor in increasing rates in the past 2 years. Stopped using them back in the summer, seem to have had a shift away from the RS market and they're a long way from being competitive.

An RS at 2.5% is way behind the curve, whether open ended or not.

ForumUser7

Wheres_My_Cashback said:

No online facility, always very poor in increasing rates in the past 2 years. Stopped using them back in the summer, seem to have had a shift away from the RS market and they're a long way from being competitive.

An RS at 2.5% is way behind the curve, whether open ended or not.

No online facility really is poor. That's probably them out the window for me then... Unless I was to open an account with a minimum balance to have membership in case they released any members only products - that said, it seems unlikely they would be competitive

Bridlington1

I don't mind them too much. I sent off an application form to open the regular saver back in September and I had the passbook within a week. 5 weeks later I withdrew all but £10 due to Santander launching a limited edition esaver. The advantage with this regular saver is that there's no minimum monthly deposit so you can just leave it with a £10 balance until they put the rate back up again. 

Having said that their failure to keep up with interest rates is a major drawback. The account has been stuck at 2.5% for months now and doesn't show signs of budging anytime soon. I'll keep hold of it just in case it shoots up though, like the SRBS regular saver recently did.

Personally the lack of online access doesn't bother me too much, though it would be handy, particularly  with the current postal strikes.

@johnmoney05 I wouldn't blame Loughborough on this occasion. I sent an application form to Darlington BS on 30th November and they haven't even received it yet, let alone had time to send me a reply. Most of my post is running 2-3 weeks late so on this timescale even if they replied as soon as they received your letter you could easily be looking at 4-6 weeks (so Jan 2nd-16th) before you will receive your reply, if not longer. I'd personally blame the CWU for calling a postal strike in the first place.

Bridlington1

I suppose if you're looking for open-ended regular savers that may become competitive, there's always Buckinghamshire BS's regular saver (currently at 3%). This one has online access with no missed payment penalties. I've recently opened this one myself just in case, though haven't received my passbook yet due to the postal strikes.

Edit:
I've now received my passbook.

ForumUser7

Bridlington1 said:

I suppose if you're looking for open-ended regular savers that may become competitive, there's always Buckinghamshire BS's regular saver (currently at 3%). This one has online access with no missed payment penalties. I've recently opened this one myself just in case, though haven't received my passbook yet due to the postal strikes.

Thank you @Bridlington1 - that one looks much better!