Sainsburys Bank

justwantwhatsright

Beware if you have a Sainsbury's Defined Access saver Account. I opened an account on the 7th June 2023 at a rate of 3.76% variable rate, making sure I had enaough money in the account to obtain this rate and havent made any withdrawals. I happened to notice on the website today (28.6.23) Sainsburys have now amended their rate to 4.01%. Being my account is variable, I expected it to show 4.01% on my account, but NO, it was still at 3.76%. I phoned Sainsbury's and was told to get the new rate, I need to close my existing account and transfer the funds to a new one. I would have to go through the whole process again of opening a new account, and then I can transfer the funds across to get the new rate. I had to do it while the Customer Services guy was on ther phone as he needed to transfer the balance plus any interest earned to date. That was so time consuming, but worse is the fact that Sainsbury's don't amend the existing variable rate account or tell you their rate has changed, even though its supposed to be a variable account. I bet if they put the rate down, my account would have dropped. BEWARE!!! Its a good rate but you need to keep checking the rate you are receiving against what they are offering now. Even their Customer Services agreed its a bit of a scam.

eskbanker

Sainsburys are far from alone in not automatically applying increased rates, but that doesn't make it an admirable policy (or a scam tbh) - it's discussed fairly regularly on here, including last week:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6454536/sainsburys-bank-frustrations

refluxer

Yes - this gets mentioned quite often.

Eg. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6366964/sainsburys-never-ending-defined-access-saver-accounts

The rate on this particular account can usually be beaten by the best easy access accounts elsewhere, many of which don't have withdrawal restrictions.

Doctor_Who

refluxer said:

Yes - this gets mentioned quite often.

Eg. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6366964/sainsburys-never-ending-defined-access-saver-accounts

The rate on this particular account can usually be beaten by the best easy access accounts elsewhere, many of which don't have withdrawal restrictions.

They also often apply any interest rate increase to your original account, negating the need to open a new account.....simples!