Goodbye Intelligent Finance

TheBanker

adindas said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Don't think IF are part of CASS so can't be used for switch bonuses.

Katiehound said:

well, on their website it directs you to the CASS service- so a tad ambiguous

https://www.if.com/help-and-guidance/switch-your-intelligent-finance-account.html

No, they are not part of CASS according to this:

https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk/banks-building-societies/

I am not quite sure if they are using a different name in the register.

But as a general rule we do not just believe a self proclaiming statement coming from the institution own website, especially for a lesser known institution.

Given they have been closed for new business for a while, they probably wouldn't want to promote being part of CASS given nobody would be able to switch in. LBG want people to use their Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland brands. 

It is even plausible that they've set up a CASS process for IF specifically to help customers transfer out. 

SupaSava2000

My (CASS) switch from IF to RBS is in progress 

Nifty_Thrifty_Fifty

_wishful_thinker said:

Nifty_Thrifty_Fifty said:

I suspect many people, like us, switched their current account to Intelligent Finance when they got a mortgage, as they offered a mortgage product which is offset against your current account balance.  It's saved us thousands over the years.  So if they're now closing current accounts,  everyone with an offset mortgage will lose the offset and have to pay the full monthly mortgage interest.  I wonder if that's the motivation for closing their current accounts.  Perhaps Petar could ask them how many of their current account customers have an offset mortgage!  

I think it is worth saying that savings accounts offset against mortgages too. I've yet to be notified, but the MSE article says savings and mortgage accounts are unaffected. Over the years I've used several savings jars for different pots which offset my mortgage, and hope this will continue. It's not possible to open any type of account now, but it would be ridiculous to remove a method to offset your offset mortage, unless maybe they will allow new savings accounts for that purpose. I think Petar needs to do a venn diagram  

As you suspected _wishful_thinker, I've now been told by Intelligent Finance that I can continue to offset my mortgage by opening a new savings account with them and transferring my current account funds into the new savings account.  I've never had a savings jar with them and, like you, didn't think you could open one now.  Whilst it's not ideal, at least it's a way of continuing to allow us to benefit from an offset and to dip into offset funds to 'finance' large items of expenditure (e.g a new car) when needed.   (Need to check whether they have any restrictions on withdrawals from IF savings accounts as well, I guess.)

Nifty_Thrifty_Fifty

cudofnorth said:

I'm with you Nifty_Thrifty_Fifty. I was using mortgage / current account offsetting, so I suspect this will force me to pay off the mortgage, as I have been stalling to avoid the paperwork and solicitor fees, but there's no point moving what's now quite a small mortgage when i have the funds to pay it off. 

I've now been told by Intelligent Finance that I can continue to offset my mortgage by opening a new savings account with them and transferring my current account funds into the new savings account.  So there's still an offset possibility at least.

If you do decide to pay off your mortgage, I'm not aware that there's much paperwork or any solicitors fees.   Correct me if I'm wrong someone, but once the mortgage account balance is zero, doesn't the bank just confirm the mortgage is paid off and remove the charge on property at the land registry?  I think you can check whether the charge has been removed (online?) at the land registry.  One thing that might be of concern is any early repayment fee.  Hopefully not, but worth check the original paperwork or calling IF on that one.  Let us know if you find any!

Peter999_2

Nifty_Thrifty_Fifty said:

I've now been told by Intelligent Finance that I can continue to offset my mortgage by opening a new savings account with them and transferring my current account funds into the new savings account.  So there's still an offset possibility at least.

If you do decide to pay off your mortgage, I'm not aware that there's much paperwork or any solicitors fees.   Correct me if I'm wrong someone, but once the mortgage account balance is zero, doesn't the bank just confirm the mortgage is paid off and remove the charge on property at the land registry?  I think you can check whether the charge has been removed (online?) at the land registry.  One thing that might be of concern is any early repayment fee.  Hopefully not, but worth check the original paperwork or calling IF on that one.  Let us know if you find any!

I used to have a Santander offset mortgage.   When I got it down to zero they wrote to say I could either close the mortgage (and pay a £400 early redemption fee) or keep it open and in effect borrow money for it.

This was in 2009 and it was linked to the base rate which plummeted.   I ended up taking £80,000 out of it and put it in a AA bond (7.5%).   It was making me about £200 a month profit, they were good days, haha.

cudofnorth

Nifty_Thrifty_Fifty said:

cudofnorth said:

I'm with you Nifty_Thrifty_Fifty. I was using mortgage / current account offsetting, so I suspect this will force me to pay off the mortgage, as I have been stalling to avoid the paperwork and solicitor fees, but there's no point moving what's now quite a small mortgage when i have the funds to pay it off. 

I've now been told by Intelligent Finance that I can continue to offset my mortgage by opening a new savings account with them and transferring my current account funds into the new savings account.  So there's still an offset possibility at least.

If you do decide to pay off your mortgage, I'm not aware that there's much paperwork or any solicitors fees.   Correct me if I'm wrong someone, but once the mortgage account balance is zero, doesn't the bank just confirm the mortgage is paid off and remove the charge on property at the land registry?  I think you can check whether the charge has been removed (online?) at the land registry.  One thing that might be of concern is any early repayment fee.  Hopefully not, but worth check the original paperwork or calling IF on that one.  Let us know if you find any!

Thanks for the info, I have sent IF a secure message. If there's an early repayment fee, I will opt for the savings account and they can incur the costs of having an account open that makes them no money.

TheBanker

cudofnorth said:

Nifty_Thrifty_Fifty said:

cudofnorth said:

I'm with you Nifty_Thrifty_Fifty. I was using mortgage / current account offsetting, so I suspect this will force me to pay off the mortgage, as I have been stalling to avoid the paperwork and solicitor fees, but there's no point moving what's now quite a small mortgage when i have the funds to pay it off. 

I've now been told by Intelligent Finance that I can continue to offset my mortgage by opening a new savings account with them and transferring my current account funds into the new savings account.  So there's still an offset possibility at least.

If you do decide to pay off your mortgage, I'm not aware that there's much paperwork or any solicitors fees.   Correct me if I'm wrong someone, but once the mortgage account balance is zero, doesn't the bank just confirm the mortgage is paid off and remove the charge on property at the land registry?  I think you can check whether the charge has been removed (online?) at the land registry.  One thing that might be of concern is any early repayment fee.  Hopefully not, but worth check the original paperwork or calling IF on that one.  Let us know if you find any!

Thanks for the info, I have sent IF a secure message. If there's an early repayment fee, I will opt for the savings account and they can incur the costs of having an account open that makes them no money.

If there's an ERC, you should ask them to waive it because they have materially changed the way the mortgage works to your disadvantage. 

Whether it's worth moving depends on how much your outstanding balance is and how available rates compare. 

_wishful_thinker

Nifty_Thrifty_Fifty said:

As you suspected _wishful_thinker, I've now been told by Intelligent Finance that I can continue to offset my mortgage by opening a new savings account with them and transferring my current account funds into the new savings account.  I've never had a savings jar with them and, like you, didn't think you could open one now.  Whilst it's not ideal, at least it's a way of continuing to allow us to benefit from an offset and to dip into offset funds to 'finance' large items of expenditure (e.g a new car) when needed.   (Need to check whether they have any restrictions on withdrawals from IF savings accounts as well, I guess.)

Oh cool, thx for finding out. We used IF as our main acount for about 15 years but it became painful. I always transferred cash from savings to my current account before sending onwards, but have only noticed recently the savings jars have their own sort codes and account numbers, who knows how long that has been there. But I have tested paying money straight into savings from outside and made an external payment from savings fine, so it looks like it will be ok. Paying in is immediate, out is a day.

CBmum

Hi there,

Like others on here, we've been with IF for a long time and saved thousands with their offset mortgage. We still have a plan with multiple accounts; two individual current accounts and a joint current account, three linked savings accounts, then a few other savings accounts that we use for joint savings and specific projects (back in the day, you could open as many savings accounts in the plan as you wanted, so we did!). One of the savings accounts had a great interest rate when it first opened, although that has long gone.

What I have loved about IF, aside from the mortgage offset, was the ability to see them all on the same platform and move money instantly between every one of these accounts, not just between an individual current account and its linked savings account - also the automatic sweep of funds from savings to linked current accounts if those go overdrawn.

Against that, if we pay money out of IF, firstly it won't take any instructions for a non-banking day, and secondly the payment normally takes a full banking day to process. Contrast this with an unrelated Nationwide account I have, where a payment leaves that account and arrives with the payee almost instantly, on any day of the week. Perhaps that is completely the norm now, I don't have anything else to compare with.

My question is, can anyone recommend an alternative bank where we can set up, as a minimum, three current and three linked savings accounts, and have the same "instant transfer" experience between all of them? MSE's wonderful website doesn't really seem to deal with the "joint funds" aspect of current account banking, but it is vital to the way my husband and I manage our joint and personal finances. Ideally, also, I'd be able to log in once and see both my and the joint accounts in one place, although I appreciate that may be asking for the moon.

I'd be interested to know the experiences from other IF "couple" users!
Many thanks

EarthBoy

CBmum said:

What I have loved about IF, aside from the mortgage offset, was the ability to see them all on the same platform and move money instantly between every one of these accounts, not just between an individual current account and its linked savings account - also the automatic sweep of funds from savings to linked current accounts if those go overdrawn.

Most savings accounts don't require you to link them to a specific current account, and if they are with the same bank you can see all your accounts in the bank's app.  Not many do the automatic sweep, though.

My question is, can anyone recommend an alternative bank where we can set up, as a minimum, three current and three linked savings accounts, and have the same "instant transfer" experience between all of them? 

Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Nationwide, Santander, and probably HSBC, NatWest and RBS too.  Nearly all banks will let you have several current accounts and several savings accounts, and you can transfer between them all instantly.