Beehive Regular Saver - Unable To Close Account

boingy

flaneurs_lobster said:

boingy said:

The First Direct 7% one doesn't allow withdrawals but you can close it early and get the interest earned so far (and I think you could then open another one almost immediately!)

Sort of, you'll get interest earned at (currently) 2%.

• If you close your account before the end of the 12 month period, we'll only pay you interest at our standard Savings Account variable rate. You won’t be able to make partial withdrawals.

Well spotted. I missed that particular piece of sneakiness. It's not an issue for me because I always keep these things to full term but interesting nevertheless. The other oddball thing about that account is that you can only transfer money to it from the FD current account and ONLY by standing order. So feeding it is a two step process. SO to the current account and then SO from there to the savings. It's really odd to forbid manual transfers from the current to the savings. Why does it matter as long as you stay within the deposit limits?

allegro120

boingy said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

boingy said:

The First Direct 7% one doesn't allow withdrawals but you can close it early and get the interest earned so far (and I think you could then open another one almost immediately!)

Sort of, you'll get interest earned at (currently) 2%.

• If you close your account before the end of the 12 month period, we'll only pay you interest at our standard Savings Account variable rate. You won’t be able to make partial withdrawals.

Well spotted. I missed that particular piece of sneakiness. It's not an issue for me because I always keep these things to full term but interesting nevertheless. The other oddball thing about that account is that you can only transfer money to it from the FD current account and ONLY by standing order. So feeding it is a two step process. SO to the current account and then SO from there to the savings. It's really odd to forbid manual transfers from the current to the savings. Why does it matter as long as you stay within the deposit limits?

I wouldn't call it 'sneakiness', because it is clearly stated in t&c and you tick the box saying that you agree to it before they open your account .  It's the same as allowing closure with penalty which is not uncommon.

I don't know why they don't allow any other type of transfer, can only speculate that this feature could be there to encourage customers to actively use their current accounts (e.g. always have some money in the account).  After all, the purpose of RSs are not to make profit from them directly, but to attract/keep the customers.  That's why they pay higher rates and always have limits on how much you can deposit.