Atom Bank. Investor beware, they have your money & they keep it as long as possible.

Bigwheels1111

I’ve had 3 fixed rate savings products from Atom.
All matured on said day, interest and savings were in my bank on day of maturity by 06.00am.
Very happy with Atom.

Badboi

Another positive experience with Atom here too

london21

keithfm said:

In January I signed up for one of their six month bonds, choosing the option of interest paid monthly. Everything seemed OK, it was all done on one of their Apps. But there was no clear confirmation of whether it was end of term or monthly payment in any of their communications. In fact I received only two emails; registration and when the balance adding period had ended. The account information on the app is basic and limited. When the first month date arrived, no funds appeared. I went on the chat and was told it wasn’t monthly? They repeated it robotically. I got no where. I told them I wouldn’t have chosen end of term and went to them because that’s what they were offering. And I was VERY careful to choose that option on sign up. Because I wanted, needed & budgeted for the income monthly. I’ve logged a compliant. They offered a ‘hardship option’ which was to take money out but that erodes my capital & voids the interest. Clearly end of term suits them because they keep the interest. Seems like deliberately poor App information, communication & functionality. Investor beware with this company, they like keeping your money as long as possible.

contact them.

jaypers

For whatever reason it appears the OP is incredibly annoyed with something that has gone wrong for them. These things can happen with any Financial institution and the true test is how they deal with it. Sounds as though they have already given the option that he can take his money back, which I find reasonable. As it’s all online I find it unlikely that the right option was chosen but the wrong one went live as it’s all automated and you are asked to confirm. Many positive comments supporting Atom on here which is great to see as I am also one of the people who have been happy with them in the past. Wouldn’t hesitate to put money back with them as and when their interest rates are once again attractive to me. 

TheWoodler

I wouldn’t characterise the account information on the app as ‘basic and limited’. You have the full account history including projected interest at maturity in a really clear timeline, and all the associated documentation is in the vault and explained in jargon-free English.

The account selection and application process is very easy and clear and there is a process in setup to change where your interest is paid to if you wish. 

The onus was on the OP to check that the account had been set up as they wished during the funding window and to check the documents in the vault. Atom nags you daily about your funding window as a prompt to check in as well as fund the account, which I think is great, and the notifications point to your documentation and statements. So if OP has the monthly interest option but paid into the account, then there will be monthly statements.

If incorrect, OP had that window of time to correct it. If not, the minimum pay-in is £50 and they could have left that £50 in, contacted Atom for advice to go through the steps carefully, and opened another. 

I concur that it’s likely to be an incorrect selection of some sort by OP as the process is clear and transparent, not obfuscatory, and you have ample opportunity during the application and funding window to check. The only consolation for OP is that it’s a short term of only 6 months. 

Actually, Atom have gone back to being competitive in the very short term and 1 year fix market. There’s not much difference between the top of this band and top easy access at the moment, but I don’t want too much in EA and with an eye to potential rate drops in my current EA, I opened a new fix with Atom last month too. 

nbrewitt

This is not reflective of the experiences with Atom, they have always been efficient and transparent, looks like it may have been a misunderstanding on your part.

DjangoUnchained

going to be boring, but ive also had no problems with 3 atom fixed rate accounts, i have another 3 yet to mature so things can change.

PeskyBlunder

Another happy Atom customer here, but I would say that I could not find anywhere in the app whether any of my fixed rate accounts with them paid the interest monthly ot annually. I thought it might be in the opening statement that they provide but I could not see it.

refluxer

PeskyBlunder said:

Another happy Atom customer here, but I would say that I could not find anywhere in the app whether any of my fixed rate accounts with them paid the interest monthly ot annually. I thought it might be in the opening statement that they provide but I could not see it.

I've had a few fixed savers with Atom in recent years and if you select monthly interest, your opening statement will have a heading along the lines of "Your 9 month Fixed Saver (monthly interest) Opening Statement" so if yours doesn't state 'monthly interest', then you've presumably chosen annual interest.

In light of the OP's mistake, I guess it would be useful if Atom could also state in the opening statement when annual interest is chosen.

proudgecko

PeskyBlunder said:

Another happy Atom customer here, but I would say that I could not find anywhere in the app whether any of my fixed rate accounts with them paid the interest monthly ot annually. I thought it might be in the opening statement that they provide but I could not see it.

I can see in the app (IOS) whether interest is paid monthly or annually on my fixed rate account
Click on the account, select 'Interest preferences', and it says
"Your interest is currently paid into your <nominated account>"
 will be paid annually on the <anniversary of opening>"

In the same place I can change whether the interest is paid away or compounded

Another happy Atom customer