Maturing first direct regular saver disappeared from FD account list

intalex

masonic said:

The money was not in the easy access on Saturday night. It wasn't there on Sunday morning. It appeared at some point in the afternoon as I spotted it and moved it to Chase in time to earn interest there on Sunday. My calculations support that the interest earned on Saturday night while it was still disappeared in the RS was at 7% (interest is correct to the penny based on it accruing at 1/365th of 7% per day - even though this is a 366 day account year). If it had earned interest at the easy access 2% rate on the last day, I'd have been 49p short.

I'm left wondering if FD would automatically pay 7% for any "extra" days they may have taken to make the maturity proceeds available, so here's 2 questions about this:
(i) was the Saturday (rather than the Sunday) the correct maturity date, i.e. RS start date plus 1 year minus 1 day?
(ii) when the funds appeared on Sunday afternoon, were they dated the Saturday or Sunday?

Edit> I've just re-read the maturity letter from FD and it seems that my own maturity date is today 14th despite the RS having been started on 15th May last year and the standing order also set up for 15th each month. My guess is they've set it up on their systems as a 365-day product rather than a calendar year. Been on to the app chat team and had my maturity proceeds transferred to my current account - total interest £135.61 apparently credited this morning in the RS (confirmed by FD agent, I can't see the RS in any way).

masonic

jameseonline said:

masonic said:

katejo said:

intalex said:

I have one maturing on Wednesday but at some point today it disappeared from my app and I have just finished applying for my next one. Already have the easy access saver, but will probably get in touch via app chat on Wednesday morning to manually transfer maturity proceeds into my current account. I had hoped this year things will be more automated, but I guess it's still not a priority.

I have one maturing on May 19th. I have had a letter and several messages about it but it is still in the Regular saver and shows on the app. 

It usually disappears a day or two before maturity. It is good to catch this window of opportunity to apply for the next one as early as possible.

The regular saver does disappear & never comes back, it gets converted to a 2% Savings Account or if you already have a 2% Savings Account the money just gets transferred to that.

In past years, this hasn't been true. It has come back after disappearing for a day. I don't think it did that last year and definitely didn't this year.

masonic

intalex said:

masonic said:

The money was not in the easy access on Saturday night. It wasn't there on Sunday morning. It appeared at some point in the afternoon as I spotted it and moved it to Chase in time to earn interest there on Sunday. My calculations support that the interest earned on Saturday night while it was still disappeared in the RS was at 7% (interest is correct to the penny based on it accruing at 1/365th of 7% per day - even though this is a 366 day account year). If it had earned interest at the easy access 2% rate on the last day, I'd have been 49p short.

I'm left wondering if FD would automatically pay 7% for any "extra" days they may have taken to make the maturity proceeds available, so here's 2 questions about this:
(i) was the Saturday (rather than the Sunday) the correct maturity date, i.e. RS start date plus 1 year minus 1 day?
(ii) when the funds appeared on Sunday afternoon, were they dated the Saturday or Sunday?

Presumably it is part of the manual maturity process to calculate interest to the actual closure date. Saturday was the correct maturity date based on a 365 day year (like you I thought it was going to be the next day due to the leap year). Had I asked them to manually mature it on Saturday itself, I don't think they'd have credited interest for that day. Interest has always been paid for each full day the account is held. The funds credited on Sunday were dated Sunday and included interest for Saturday at 7%.

Question back to you is have they paid interest inclusive of today? I.e. will you be able to earn interest on the same money in two different places today?

intalex

masonic said:

Question back to you is have they paid interest inclusive of today? I.e. will you be able to earn interest on the same money in two different places today?

I haven't actually done the math so I'm not 100% sure, but the example on their product page showed £136.50 and I expected slightly less due to 15th falling on weekends in some months, and that at least some of the daily interest (especially closer to maturity) may have been computed using a 366 denominator rather than a 365 denominator.

I've generally thought that maturity dates for the RS are fixed and automated on their systems and interest is automatically credited into the (invisible) RS on the morning of this fixed maturity date, so I'm not entirely convinced that interest can vary +/- one or two days based on when they might manually trigger something. In my mind, the only manual aspect is to then transfer the funds, and for that I find it hard to imagine that they would automatically accrue or pay the same 7% interest until they complete the transfer, my guess is they just backdate the transfer to the same fixed maturity date and so for those extra days they take they'd be paying the 2% interest. This is why I intercepted on  the maturity date and have the maturity proceeds transferred to my current account, so I can redirect them to a 5+% interest account right away.

masonic

intalex said:

masonic said:

Question back to you is have they paid interest inclusive of today? I.e. will you be able to earn interest on the same money in two different places today?

I haven't actually done the math so I'm not 100% sure, but the example on their product page showed £136.50 and I expected slightly less due to 15th falling on weekends in some months, and that at least some of the daily interest (especially closer to maturity) may have been computed using a 366 denominator rather than a 365 denominator.

I've generally thought that maturity dates for the RS are fixed and automated on their systems and interest is automatically credited into the (invisible) RS on the morning of this fixed maturity date, so I'm not entirely convinced that interest can vary +/- one or two days based on when they might manually trigger something. In my mind, the only manual aspect is to then transfer the funds, and for that I find it hard to imagine that they would automatically accrue or pay the same 7% interest until they complete the transfer, my guess is they just backdate the transfer to the same fixed maturity date and so for those extra days they take they'd be paying the 2% interest. This is why I intercepted on  the maturity date and have the maturity proceeds transferred to my current account, so I can redirect them to a 5+% interest account right away.

The FAQ on the website is very clear that while the RS goes through the up to 5 working day maturity process, the money continues to earn interest. There is no caveat to suggest that this would be at a different rate, so any customer who didn't get 7% interest until closure would have grounds for complaint. I've never experienced receiving a lower rate of interest myself and always check. Given that Bigwheels was able to get his interest topped up to £136.50 without a good reason, I don't think there would be any push-back should a request need to be made.

Short-circuiting the maturity process can therefore only reduce the number of days you are entitled to interest at 7% on the maximum balance vs 5+% elsewhere. So it is better to roll the dice and hope for a delay in my view. That is unless you get an extra day of interest for the day you phone up and can therefore earn interest at a total of 7%+5+% on that particular day.

I thought I'd be on for a couple of extra days for sure with mine falling on a Saturday, but lo and behold someone was processing accounts on the Sunday afternoon, and I think I saw someone in the RS thread mention their new account was set up on a weekend.

intalex

masonic said:

Short-circuiting the maturity process can therefore only reduce the number of days you are entitled to interest at 7% on the maximum balance vs 5+% elsewhere.

As manual as FD appear to be with some of their tasks, I still think the maturity step is automated on a fixed date and interest is paid into the RS promptly on that date, so if they take an extra day or two to transfer funds into the 2% account, I can't imagine they go back and add some top-up interest at 7% or re-compute the earlier paid interest, before moving the funds across. The best they would do is to backdate the transfer to the same maturity date on which the interest at 7% for the year was paid.

In your case, have you checked that you've received 7% for more than 365 days total, like for a 2-day delay did they actually pay interest equaling 367 days at 7%? Does the amount ever exceed £136.50? And is this automatically reflected in the transferred funds without any discussion or complaint?

dealyboy

@intalex said:

masonic said:

Short-circuiting the maturity process can therefore only reduce the number of days you are entitled to interest at 7% on the maximum balance vs 5+% elsewhere.

As manual as FD appear to be with some of their tasks, I still think the maturity step is automated on a fixed date and interest is paid into the RS promptly on that date, so if they take an extra day or two to transfer funds into the 2% account, I can't imagine they go back and add some top-up interest at 7% or re-compute the earlier paid interest, before moving the funds across. The best they would do is to backdate the transfer to the same maturity date on which the interest at 7% for the year was paid.

In your case, have you checked that you've received 7% for more than 365 days total, like for a 2-day delay did they actually pay interest equaling 367 days at 7%? Does the amount ever exceed £136.50? And is this automatically reflected in the transferred funds without any discussion or complaint?

I received £137.05 interest for 367 days into my 1st Account (on request) plus an extra 50p..ish in the 'Savings Account' on maturity completion, two or three days later.

jameseonline

masonic said:

jameseonline said:

masonic said:

katejo said:

intalex said:

I have one maturing on Wednesday but at some point today it disappeared from my app and I have just finished applying for my next one. Already have the easy access saver, but will probably get in touch via app chat on Wednesday morning to manually transfer maturity proceeds into my current account. I had hoped this year things will be more automated, but I guess it's still not a priority.

I have one maturing on May 19th. I have had a letter and several messages about it but it is still in the Regular saver and shows on the app. 

It usually disappears a day or two before maturity. It is good to catch this window of opportunity to apply for the next one as early as possible.

The regular saver does disappear & never comes back, it gets converted to a 2% Savings Account or if you already have a 2% Savings Account the money just gets transferred to that.

In past years, this hasn't been true. It has come back after disappearing for a day. I don't think it did that last year and definitely didn't this year.

It's been true for me this year 

jameseonline

What I'm confused about is the app is giving me mixed messages, I've had the payout for my regular saver yet app is telling me it's maturing & it's also telling me it's matured 🤷

masonic

jameseonline said:

What I'm confused about is the app is giving me mixed messages, I've had the payout for my regular saver yet app is telling me it's maturing & it's also telling me it's matured 🤷

Yes I had that and ignored it. I assume they program that to show for ~5 days either side of maturity to be on the safe side.