Hanley Economic Building Society BRANCH SAVER

happybagger

Bridlington1 said:

happybagger said:

I posted mine off despite being in the area (family visits) once every three weeks or so. I figured they'd make it NLA and I'd miss the chance.

I was right. Not had anything back yet.

Wasn't keen on the "Freepost HEBS" address though

I was, it meant I didn't have to pay for the stamp.

I'd happily have paid for a stamp with a real address if it meant it would have got there. Not sure it has. 14 working days and still not opened nor the cheque cashed.

Steve_xx

happybagger said:

Bridlington1 said:

happybagger said:

I posted mine off despite being in the area (family visits) once every three weeks or so. I figured they'd make it NLA and I'd miss the chance.

I was right. Not had anything back yet.

Wasn't keen on the "Freepost HEBS" address though

I was, it meant I didn't have to pay for the stamp.

I'd happily have paid for a stamp with a real address if it meant it would have got there. Not sure it has. 14 working days and still not opened nor the cheque cashed.

Yes, they are extremely slow. I think that as a small society that they've been deluged with account openings and thus barely able to cope. Now that this account is effectively closed, I expect that they will speed up the processing, simply because they'll have more time.
I note that faster payments into the account do happen pretty sharpish. So that's a plus. Withdrawals might be a trial!

Bridlington1

happybagger said:

Bridlington1 said:

happybagger said:

I posted mine off despite being in the area (family visits) once every three weeks or so. I figured they'd make it NLA and I'd miss the chance.

I was right. Not had anything back yet.

Wasn't keen on the "Freepost HEBS" address though

I was, it meant I didn't have to pay for the stamp.

I'd happily have paid for a stamp with a real address if it meant it would have got there. Not sure it has. 14 working days and still not opened nor the cheque cashed.

I don't think whether it's a freepost address or not makes any difference to the speed of delivery. If I'm not mistaken freepost just gets treated as first or second class post. Mine took about a fortnight to open and I posted the application form plus cheque the day it was launched so I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you.

As @Steve_xx points out they are probably overwhelmed. They are a small building society that all of a sudden has launched a very competitive savings account that was post/branch opening so they got swamped. When it comes to withdrawals I imagine they will be quicker since I can't imagine everyone will be withdrawing at once so they will be getting withdrawal requests at a much more manageable pace. It reminds me of Monmouthshire BS when they launched their Christmas regular saver at 5.5% back in November (but without the postal strike)

boingy

I'm picturing one very stressed person, probably underpaid, working frantically to try to get through the latest pile of applications before another lot arrives tomorrow. 

happybagger

They say they're accepting postal applications up to 8th June, so I guess anything after that will be rejected.

I personally reckon they had some counter person doing them when they hadn't got much else to do. (Festival Park is in a random place and never has many customers in my experience)

10_66

Has anyone here had any experience of postal withdrawals from this account yet, please?

fabsaver

Bemr said:

PloughmansLunch said:

It took maybe 8-9 working days to open. Passbook arrived in the post last week, my deposit cheque has been cashed and I have a temporary password, but I’m waiting for the letter with my user ID to arrive. I’m also waiting for a credit to another account as I accidentally over-funded it, and Hanley customer services said any payment that takes it over the maximum should be bounced back.

Like you I was waiting for my user ID in the post.  When it didn’t arrive after a week since account opening I called them and was told that despite being emailed a temporary password as part of the opening process you have to actually go on the website and register for online banking to get the user ID posted out

I followed your advice and registered on their website after my passbook arrived. However 9 days later my user ID hasn't arrived.

I note there is now a message on the online banking page of their website:

"Please note due to the success of our Branch Saver account; we are currently working to a 10 working day time frame from receiving your registration request to processing it."

That makes it 20 working days to have online access to this account, 10 working days for them to process the application and another 10 working days for them to process the online registration request.

PloughmansLunch

I was told that the online registration only allows you to view the balance so it’s not a great deal of use - you’d still need to manually request a withdrawal, and it probably won’t be particularly quick to do so. They are so busy dealing with Branch Saver enquiries that the some of the mortgage dept. has been drafted in to help out.

refluxer

I popped an application form and cheque for the minimum balance in the post on 2nd June (around the time they announced ithe account was being withdrawn) and received an email tonight confirming the account has been opened and another with the password for online banking, so that's pretty close to the 10 working days stated. Just need the welcome pack through the post now.

I wouldn't normally open a branch-based account but a couple of their branches are located not too far away in places I visit regularly so I decided the high rate made it worth opening and will use it as a place to stick some cash until other easy access rates catch up. Online access, while limited, will be useful for ensuring that any faster payments have reached the account.

PloughmansLunch

I’m on my 2nd manual request for user ID as nothing has yet arrived in the post since May, though this is only so I can check my balance. I’ve also phoned up 4 times since 5th June due to an accidental overpayment on my part. CS has confirmed it should be a faster payment back to my source account but I am still waiting for withdrawal/return of the surplus, so it’s a good job I don’t need the money for anything urgent. I think other more accessible accounts will be catching up to the favourable % very soon.