Hinckley & Rugby Interest Rate Reduction.

35har1old

subjecttocontract said:

I was under the impression that the t&c's require H&R to provide a minimum of 14 days notice of interest rate changes. They posted my notification on 19th April, 2nd class......it only arrived today, 21st April. That's a day less than required so they haven't complied with the 14 day notice requirement.

Are you referring to the 30 day regular notice Saver?
If so the current interest pdf dated the 21st April is showing 4.75 % also states effective from updated from 2nd of March pdf

ForumUser7

35har1old said:

subjecttocontract said:

I was under the impression that the t&c's require H&R to provide a minimum of 14 days notice of interest rate changes. They posted my notification on 19th April, 2nd class......it only arrived today, 21st April. That's a day less than required so they haven't complied with the 14 day notice requirement.

Are you referring to the 30 day regular notice Saver?
If so the current interest pdf dated the 21st is showing 4.75 %

That's because the rate hasn't yet decreased - it is decreasing from 4th May, only 13 days after forumites began to receive letters due to the use of 2nd class rather than 1st class.

35har1old

ForumUser7 said:

35har1old said:

subjecttocontract said:

I was under the impression that the t&c's require H&R to provide a minimum of 14 days notice of interest rate changes. They posted my notification on 19th April, 2nd class......it only arrived today, 21st April. That's a day less than required so they haven't complied with the 14 day notice requirement.

Are you referring to the 30 day regular notice Saver?
If so the current interest pdf dated the 21st is showing 4.75 %

That's because the rate hasn't yet decreased - it is decreasing from 4th May, only 13 days after forumites began to receive letters due to the use of 2nd class rather than 1st class.

The letters where dated the 19th of April and the current pdf is dated the 21st and states effective from.
There was 50 days between these updated pdfs and yet the change of rates on 4th would only be 14 days later I have yet to receive my letter
What about clause 7.10.2 it would same to suggest 14 days plus notice period (or 30 days if longer than the notice period)

spider42

There have been a few mentions of the use of second class post not allowing sufficient time for the notice to be received within the 14 days. Under their Savings Account Terms and Conditions (condition 22.1), all notices sent by post (and rather bizarrely also any sent by email) are deemed to have been received 48 hours after sending. It doesn't matter when the letter is actually received by the saver.

22.1 You will be taken to have received any letter or e-mail or other personal notice 48 hours after we have sent it to you.

So it makes no difference as far as their conditions are concerned whether first class or second class was used. Letters sent on 19 April are deemed to have been received on 21 April. But that is still only 13 days, so they still haven't provided sufficient notice.

subjecttocontract

My expectation is that H&R will just ignore all of our letters of complaint and press on regardless with the interest rate reduction. The loss of one days notice won't make any difference to any of us, however, if any financial institution were to choose to ignore their own rules it would surely put their integrity in question.

fonesaver

Got the letter today. They can't even be bothered to state a reason for the rate reduction such as balancing the interest of savers and borrowers or market conditions etc.
Also the website still shows an illustration of the amount of interest you can earn over a year which is based on 4.75% which will now not apply.
Not very good customer relations I would suggest.
Would have been better to close the account for new applications and launch a replacement at a lower rate ...

dcs34

spider42 said:

There have been a few mentions of the use of second class post not allowing sufficient time for the notice to be received within the 14 days. Under their Savings Account Terms and Conditions (condition 22.1), all notices sent by post (and rather bizarrely also any sent by email) are deemed to have been received 48 hours after sending. It doesn't matter when the letter is actually received by the saver.

22.1 You will be taken to have received any letter or e-mail or other personal notice 48 hours after we have sent it to you.

So it makes no difference as far as their conditions are concerned whether first class or second class was used. Letters sent on 19 April are deemed to have been received on 21 April. But that is still only 13 days, so they still haven't provided sufficient notice.

So one could argue, as they have not provided the correct notice as per their own written terms, that the rate reduction is void and existing savers can expect to continue to receive 4.75%, and those that don't should raise formal complaints?

ForumUser7

dcs34 said:

spider42 said:

There have been a few mentions of the use of second class post not allowing sufficient time for the notice to be received within the 14 days. Under their Savings Account Terms and Conditions (condition 22.1), all notices sent by post (and rather bizarrely also any sent by email) are deemed to have been received 48 hours after sending. It doesn't matter when the letter is actually received by the saver.

22.1 You will be taken to have received any letter or e-mail or other personal notice 48 hours after we have sent it to you.

So it makes no difference as far as their conditions are concerned whether first class or second class was used. Letters sent on 19 April are deemed to have been received on 21 April. But that is still only 13 days, so they still haven't provided sufficient notice.

So one could argue, as they have not provided the correct notice as per their own written terms, that the rate reduction is void and existing savers can expect to continue to receive 4.75%, and those that don't should raise formal complaints?

Wouldn’t they just amend it to be 14 days after the 21st? I feel like if people are complaining to them (formal complaints, not just saying they are disappointed) that is a possible outcome, but if they cancelled the existing rate reduction plans, they’d probably still reduce it unfortunately, just in line with their terms this time.

35har1old

ForumUser7 said:

dcs34 said:

ForumUser7 said:

dcs34 said:

Let us know what they say please!

2 things:

1. Make sure you can get a higher return elsewhere - I too thought about closing my account out of frustration, but I realised it would then be getting 3.75%, so decided not to.
2. I imagine they'll request the passbook, and say it will either be by CHAPS or cheque. A nice thing for them to have done would be to offer to waive the CHAPS fee for those who wished to withdraw, but this would cost them a fair bit.

1. True, but I'm (happily) becoming a higher-rate tax payer this year, so the money would be better placed in an ISA than staying in the regular saver and having 40% off taken off
2. Possibly, in which case I'll ask them to send me a freepost envelope...

2. HRBS is one of the few providers I use that refuses to provide prepaid or freepost envelopes for withdrawals. They aught to do it for those affected by the rate increase out of decency, but idk if they will unfortunately

If you applied for a new account and asked them to post the application form out to you will they then include a prepaid envelope??

35har1old

ForumUser7 said:

dcs34 said:

ForumUser7 said:

Mine arrived today as well, also dated 19th April.

@subjecttocontract - If you decide to pursue them re giving only 13 days notice, let us know what they say please. I'm interested, as it feels like it must've been an oversight. If they'd posted 1st class, and it arrived today - they could blame it on the postal system I suppose, but they sent it out a day too late to arrive in time.

This is what I sent to them by Secure Message:

Dear H&R,

I understand from a letter received today (21/04/2023) that H&R will be reducing the rate of interest on this account. This is most unexpected and disappointing given rates are generally rising across the market following numerous BoE base rate increases, as well as continued inflation.

I understand the reduced rate of interest will apply from 4th May 2023. The terms say I would have 14 days notice before the new rate comes into effect. Allowing 14 days prior to 4th May 2023 means I would expect to receive the letter on 20th April 2023. This would not be realistically possible given the letter dated 19th April was sent by second class post and hence only arrived today, 21st April 2023. I therefore am also concerned that H&R sending a letter dated 19th April by second class stamp does not provide the required 14 day's notice period and that H&R would have been aware of this reasonable likelihood when it sent the letter.

In summary given the above disappointments I would therefore like to close the account immediately with full payment of interest on the current balance. Please can this be paid to my account (12345678, 12-34-56) which was used to make all prior deposits.

Let us know what they say please!

2 things:

1. Make sure you can get a higher return elsewhere - I too thought about closing my account out of frustration, but I realised it would then be getting 3.75%, so decided not to.
2. I imagine they'll request the passbook, and say it will either be by CHAPS or cheque. A nice thing for them to have done would be to offer to waive the CHAPS fee for those who wished to withdraw, but this would cost them a fair bit.

If you want a regular saver Principality current issue 4.5% x £250 Mth
or open a series of 1 yr fixes current for £500 Oak north