Hanley Economic Building Society BRANCH SAVER

darren72

Just looking to close my account as the interest rate is no longer as competitive and in calling them found that it isn't a straightforward process.

They inform me that if I am to close it by post I need to get an ID document certified (at a cost) when sending my request.  Alternatively I can send the document by e-mail (insecure) along with a selfie holding the document.

They then went onto say, as my balance is over £10,000 I would need to pay a CHAPS fee of £25 as for whatever reason they 'cannot' send a faster payment for more than £10,000.  The only other option is for them to send a cheque, but goodness knows how long that will take and the loss of interest between it being issued to it finally arriving with me.

I asked if I could make multiple withdrawals of £10,000 to avoid the CHAPS fee, but they said they only allow one withdraw per calendar month on that account.

Has anyone been through this same process and know of any workaround ?

Thanks in advance

fonesaver

darren72 said:

Just looking to close my account as the interest rate is no longer as competitive and in calling them found that it isn't a straightforward process.

They inform me that if I am to close it by post I need to get an ID document certified (at a cost) when sending my request.  Alternatively I can send the document by e-mail (insecure) along with a selfie holding the document.

They then went onto say, as my balance is over £10,000 I would need to pay a CHAPS fee of £25 as for whatever reason they 'cannot' send a faster payment for more than £10,000.  The only other option is for them to send a cheque, but goodness knows how long that will take and the loss of interest between it being issued to it finally arriving with me.

I asked if I could make multiple withdrawals of £10,000 to avoid the CHAPS fee, but they said they only allow one withdraw per calendar month on that account.

Has anyone been through this same process and know of any workaround ?

Thanks in advance

I haven't made a withdrawal yet but the advised workround is to open their easy access account, then transfer to this account (i.e. a sum above 10k).You can then withdraw £10k daily from this account via bank transfer.

darren72

fonesaver said:

I haven't made a withdrawal yet but the advised workround is to open their easy access account, then transfer to this account (i.e. a sum above 10k).You can then withdraw £10k daily from this account via bank transfer.

Thank you - I assume this transfer can then be done via the online system, but the transfer from the Branch Saver to the Easy Access account has to be done by post ?

fonesaver

darren72 said:

fonesaver said:

I haven't made a withdrawal yet but the advised workround is to open their easy access account, then transfer to this account (i.e. a sum above 10k).You can then withdraw £10k daily from this account via bank transfer.

Thank you - I assume this transfer can then be done via the online system, but the transfer from the Branch Saver to the Easy Access account has to be done by post ?

That's my understanding 

Bridlington1

darren72 said:

fonesaver said:

I haven't made a withdrawal yet but the advised workround is to open their easy access account, then transfer to this account (i.e. a sum above 10k).You can then withdraw £10k daily from this account via bank transfer.

Thank you - I assume this transfer can then be done via the online system, but the transfer from the Branch Saver to the Easy Access account has to be done by post ?

I did this about a year and a half back. Opened an EA account then sent the passbook to close the account (though you could do a withdrawal) asking for funds to be sent to the EA account. I then did a £10k faster payment each day from the account till the EA account was down to the min balance.

One thing to note though is it's best to do the FPs from the EA account very early, otherwise they'll be debited from the account that day but not arrive in the nominated account till the next working day, also IIRC funds arrived in my nominated account fairly late in the day.

One advantage worth noting about the EA account though is it does allow 1p debit card deposits, which may be useful for some reward accounts/switching offers.

darren72

Bridlington1 said:

I did this about a year and a half back. Opened an EA account then sent the passbook to close the account (though you could do a withdrawal) asking for funds to be sent to the EA account. I then did a £10k faster payment each day from the account till the EA account was down to the min balance.

One thing to note though is it's best to do the FPs from the EA account very early, otherwise they'll be debited from the account that day but not arrive in the nominated account till the next working day, also IIRC funds arrived in my nominated account fairly late in the day.

One advantage worth noting about the EA account though is it does allow 1p debit card deposits, which may be useful for some reward accounts/switching offers.

Thank you for the confirmation.  I've gone ahead and applied and the account shows in my online account.

However, the confirmation e-mail from them states - "From the date you fund this account there will be a 10 day stop on any withdrawals.". Did you experience this also?

Bridlington1

darren72 said:

Bridlington1 said:

I did this about a year and a half back. Opened an EA account then sent the passbook to close the account (though you could do a withdrawal) asking for funds to be sent to the EA account. I then did a £10k faster payment each day from the account till the EA account was down to the min balance.

One thing to note though is it's best to do the FPs from the EA account very early, otherwise they'll be debited from the account that day but not arrive in the nominated account till the next working day, also IIRC funds arrived in my nominated account fairly late in the day.

One advantage worth noting about the EA account though is it does allow 1p debit card deposits, which may be useful for some reward accounts/switching offers.

Thank you for the confirmation.  I've gone ahead and applied and the account shows in my online account.

However, the confirmation e-mail from them states - "From the date you fund this account there will be a 10 day stop on any withdrawals.". Did you experience this also?

I can't remember to be honest, in my case I opened the EA account a fair bit before I made a withdrawal from the account so it made no difference whether or not there was a 10 day block on withdrawals.

One thing I'll also add whilst I remember is that they have a freepost address (FREEPOST HEBS) which I used to close my account.

If getting proof of postage I've found it's not uncommon for post office staff to not know how to do proof of postage on freepost addresses though so make sure that you do not let them write a town on the envelope no matter how much they insist on doing this, on the couple of occasions they've done this the letter has got lost in the post, never to be seen again. At one point I'd sent a cheque to Coventry BS and they wrote ``Coventry" on the envelope and it never arrived so I ended up with just over £1k not earning interest for over a month whilst I waited for the cheque to arrive and then had to get it reissued.

gwapenut

It's just possible this rule is for new external money only. Skipton say much the same, but I've been able to withdraw the same day as an internal ISA transfer to a brand new Skipton ISA.

refluxer

Following the recent base rate decrease, the Branch Saver account will be dropping to 4.25% on 1st June.

I think that'll be my cue to finally close this account as I managed to secure a boosted Chase Saver recently which will pay more than this one until November, without the obvious restrictions of a branch/post-only account which is limited to 1 withdrawal a month.

As the minimum balance for the Branch Saver is £1000, I was considering opening an Instant Access savings account and sticking £1 in to maintain membership but, judging by the interest rates currently on offer for their other savings accounts, I think the chances of opening another account there any time soon are slim to none, unfortunately.

Bridlington1

refluxer said:

Following the recent base rate decrease, the Branch Saver account will be dropping to 4.25% on 1st June.

I think that'll be my cue to finally close this account as I managed to secure a boosted Chase Saver recently which will pay more than this one until November, without the obvious restrictions of a branch/post-only account which is limited to 1 withdrawal a month.

As the minimum balance for the Branch Saver is £1000, I was considering opening an Instant Access savings account and sticking £1 in to maintain membership but, judging by the interest rates currently on offer for their other savings accounts, I think the chances of opening another account there any time soon are slim to none, unfortunately.

I closed my Branch Saver around the time they announced it was becoming a closed issue.

I kept hold of an easy access account with them as you never know quite when they'll come up with an account worth having. I didn't expect their Branch Saver or their Online RS, both of which were quite competitive when they were launched.

Additionally their accounts allow deposits by debit card online and allow you to withdraw funds deposited by debit card quite easily.

Whilst I haven't tested this facility myself, they seem to allow deposits by direct debit so it could be a useful one to have in the future, especially as Scottish Widows have sent me a couple of letters in the last year to tell me about how I could be getting better savings rates elsewhere so I wouldn't be too surprised if Scottish Widows decided to go the same way as Birmingham Midshires with regards to their savings accounts.