Santander ESaver Limited Edition Fluctuating Interest Rates?

Leodogger

We have a Santander ESAver Limited Edition Account and we have noticed that even though our balance has not increased for the last 3 or 4 months, the amount of interest paid monthly is fluctuating, but not upwards as one might expect as the balance increases slightly each month with the interest payment added, but downwards by as much as £8 or £9 per month on a balance of £37k !    Can anyone explain why this is happening or even if it should be happening at all ?

refluxer

The fact that there were only 28 days in February presumably affected one of your recent interest payments. I guess mistakes are possible, although you would imagine this to be rare with a bank or building society's automated systems.

Try sticking your figures into this online calculator and see if the figures tally for any one month with what you've actually been given (note that the dates in this calculator are inclusive)

https://gatehouselaw.co.uk/tools/simple-interest-calculator/

£37k for 28 days (eg. 15th Feb to 14th March) at 2.75% works out at £78.05, for example.

dealyboy

Hi @Leodogger ...

Sorry, no easy way to say this ... it's not because of the varying days in the month, where interest is accumulated daily and paid monthly ?

grumbler

Shorter months, especially Feb? You have to post the exact figures and dates when the interest is credited if you want an explanation.

Leodogger

refluxer said:

The fact that there were only 28 days in February presumably affected one of your recent interest payments. I guess mistakes are possible, although you would imagine this to be rare with a bank or building society's automated systems.

Try sticking your figures into this online calculator and see if the figures tally for any one month with what you've actually been given (note that the dates in this calculator are inclusive)

https://gatehouselaw.co.uk/tools/simple-interest-calculator/

£37k for 28 days (eg. 15th Feb to 14th March) at 2.75% works out at £78.05, for example.

I take what you say about calculating the interest on a daily basis allowing for 28 days in February.

Tried that calculation, based on my balance on 18/12/2023 of £37,109.79, interest paid on 18/1/2023 was £85.73!    I got the interest payable to £86.67.   On 18/1/2023 on a balance of £37,195.52, the interest paid on 18/2/2023 was £85.93.   I got the interest payable to £86.87.   Then on a balance of £37,281.45 on 18/2/2023 I was paid £77.79 on 18/3/2023, I calculated it to be £78.64.    Am I missing something or am my calculations wrong ?

AmityNeon

Leodogger said:

refluxer said:

The fact that there were only 28 days in February presumably affected one of your recent interest payments. I guess mistakes are possible, although you would imagine this to be rare with a bank or building society's automated systems.

Try sticking your figures into this online calculator and see if the figures tally for any one month with what you've actually been given (note that the dates in this calculator are inclusive)

https://gatehouselaw.co.uk/tools/simple-interest-calculator/

£37k for 28 days (eg. 15th Feb to 14th March) at 2.75% works out at £78.05, for example.

I take what you say about calculating the interest on a daily basis allowing for 28 days in February.

Tried that calculation, based on my balance on 18/12/2023 of £37,109.79, interest paid on 18/1/2023 was £85.73!    I got the interest payable to £86.67.   On 18/1/2023 on a balance of £37,195.52, the interest paid on 18/2/2023 was £85.93.   I got the interest payable to £86.87.   Then on a balance of £37,281.45 on 18/2/2023 I was paid £77.79 on 18/3/2023, I calculated it to be £78.64.    Am I missing something or am my calculations wrong ?

Monthly interest is 2.72% gross, not 2.75%. It's correct to the penny.

Leodogger

AmityNeon said:

Leodogger said:

refluxer said:

The fact that there were only 28 days in February presumably affected one of your recent interest payments. I guess mistakes are possible, although you would imagine this to be rare with a bank or building society's automated systems.

Try sticking your figures into this online calculator and see if the figures tally for any one month with what you've actually been given (note that the dates in this calculator are inclusive)

https://gatehouselaw.co.uk/tools/simple-interest-calculator/

£37k for 28 days (eg. 15th Feb to 14th March) at 2.75% works out at £78.05, for example.

I take what you say about calculating the interest on a daily basis allowing for 28 days in February.

Tried that calculation, based on my balance on 18/12/2023 of £37,109.79, interest paid on 18/1/2023 was £85.73!    I got the interest payable to £86.67.   On 18/1/2023 on a balance of £37,195.52, the interest paid on 18/2/2023 was £85.93.   I got the interest payable to £86.87.   Then on a balance of £37,281.45 on 18/2/2023 I was paid £77.79 on 18/3/2023, I calculated it to be £78.64.    Am I missing something or am my calculations wrong ?

Monthly interest is 2.72% gross, not 2.75%. It's correct to the penny.

I thought it was 2.75%, so THAT's where I was going wrong !    Thanks.   Is there any better interest rate accounts around as I know some have increased since we took this one out?

rjmachin

I have recently switched from the Santander ESaver to the Chip Instant Access (by ClearBank) at 3.4%

refluxer

Oops - I completely overlooked that the eSaver is 2.72% gross when calculating monthly interest, so sorry about that !

As previously mentioned, Chip are paying 3.4% or (if you want a slightly more conventional savings account and are happy with app-only banking) then Zopa at 3.21% are a good option, especially with their 'notice pot' system which allows you to lock money away at slightly higher rates for varying amounts of time without the hassle of creating separate accounts.

Cynergy are paying slight more than Zopa, but note that Cynergy have a habit of releasing a new issue when increasing interest rates on their easy access account which forces you to continually have to open new issues and move money around which I couldn't be bothered with, personally. Zopa apply rate increases to existing accounts, as do Tandem, Ford Money and Atom (Atom have lagged behind a little though rate-wise and are therefore overdue a boost to their current rate).

Wheres_My_Cashback

Leodogger said:

AmityNeon said:

Leodogger said:

refluxer said:

The fact that there were only 28 days in February presumably affected one of your recent interest payments. I guess mistakes are possible, although you would imagine this to be rare with a bank or building society's automated systems.

Try sticking your figures into this online calculator and see if the figures tally for any one month with what you've actually been given (note that the dates in this calculator are inclusive)

https://gatehouselaw.co.uk/tools/simple-interest-calculator/

£37k for 28 days (eg. 15th Feb to 14th March) at 2.75% works out at £78.05, for example.

I take what you say about calculating the interest on a daily basis allowing for 28 days in February.

Tried that calculation, based on my balance on 18/12/2023 of £37,109.79, interest paid on 18/1/2023 was £85.73!    I got the interest payable to £86.67.   On 18/1/2023 on a balance of £37,195.52, the interest paid on 18/2/2023 was £85.93.   I got the interest payable to £86.87.   Then on a balance of £37,281.45 on 18/2/2023 I was paid £77.79 on 18/3/2023, I calculated it to be £78.64.    Am I missing something or am my calculations wrong ?

Monthly interest is 2.72% gross, not 2.75%. It's correct to the penny.

I thought it was 2.75%, so THAT's where I was going wrong !    Thanks.   Is there any better interest rate accounts around as I know some have increased since we took this one out?

There are absolutely loads just check out the top easy access thread or Moneyfacts.  Really you should be aiming for 3.25% minimum.

Leodogger

Wheres_My_Cashback said:

Leodogger said:

AmityNeon said:

Leodogger said:

refluxer said:

The fact that there were only 28 days in February presumably affected one of your recent interest payments. I guess mistakes are possible, although you would imagine this to be rare with a bank or building society's automated systems.

Try sticking your figures into this online calculator and see if the figures tally for any one month with what you've actually been given (note that the dates in this calculator are inclusive)

https://gatehouselaw.co.uk/tools/simple-interest-calculator/

£37k for 28 days (eg. 15th Feb to 14th March) at 2.75% works out at £78.05, for example.

I take what you say about calculating the interest on a daily basis allowing for 28 days in February.

Tried that calculation, based on my balance on 18/12/2023 of £37,109.79, interest paid on 18/1/2023 was £85.73!    I got the interest payable to £86.67.   On 18/1/2023 on a balance of £37,195.52, the interest paid on 18/2/2023 was £85.93.   I got the interest payable to £86.87.   Then on a balance of £37,281.45 on 18/2/2023 I was paid £77.79 on 18/3/2023, I calculated it to be £78.64.    Am I missing something or am my calculations wrong ?

Monthly interest is 2.72% gross, not 2.75%. It's correct to the penny.

I thought it was 2.75%, so THAT's where I was going wrong !    Thanks.   Is there any better interest rate accounts around as I know some have increased since we took this one out?

There are absolutely loads just check out the top easy access thread or Moneyfacts.  Really you should be aiming for 3.25% minimum.

I will take a look !