What are we all doing about the Mon BS fiasco?

gravel_2

Their terms are vague enough to give them leeway. They talk once about calendar months and thrice about just "month" alone. It's open to interpretation whether the use of "month" indicates calendar month (which may support the creative interpretation of the Cult of the 13th Month) or simply a period of approx 30 days.

Hattie627

Most of the accounts affected will be coming up for maturity at the end of this month. I am slightly concerned that a small society such as MBS will become overwhelmed if there is a flood of individual complaints on the issue which has affected those of us who made a 13th payment in good faith, and that this will impede their efficiency in dealing with the maturity procedures later this month.I have decided not to make an individual complaint on the basis that Mon BS will be aware of the situation and, hopefully, will take more care next time. While inconvenienced slightly, my monetary loss has been minimal and compensation was never the issue here.

Kim_13

Glad that I was short of cash and so requested an internal transfer from the 7% version, so I received the message mentioned by others upthread and no money actually moved.

Probably a fair assumption that no Mon BS RS allows deposits of more than 12 x monthly deposit limit, then. Strange that they did not state a maximum on these as they did with the Coronation one, for example.

TheWoodler

I think it’s important to look at the Ts&Cs in their entirety. They may not specify a maximum pay-in, which I agree doesn’t have the attention to detail I would expect, but they *do* state it’s a 12-month product.

Therefore it is as reasonable for them to enforce 12 payments only as it is for the customer to argue that without a specified maximum pay-in, a 13th is allowed. It all comes down to calendar months or account months. 

masonic

TheWoodler said:

I think it’s important to look at the Ts&Cs in their entirety. They may not specify a maximum pay-in, which I agree doesn’t have the attention to detail I would expect, but they *do* state it’s a 12-month product.

Therefore it is as reasonable for them to enforce 12 payments only as it is for the customer to argue that without a specified maximum pay-in, a 13th is allowed. It all comes down to calendar months or account months.

If it were account months then the issue would have raised its head long before now, as many did not wait until the 'monthversary' of opening their account before making second and subsequent payments.

surreysaver

TheWoodler said:

I think it’s important to look at the Ts&Cs in their entirety. They may not specify a maximum pay-in, which I agree doesn’t have the attention to detail I would expect, but they *do* state it’s a 12-month product.

Therefore it is as reasonable for them to enforce 12 payments only as it is for the customer to argue that without a specified maximum pay-in, a 13th is allowed. It all comes down to calendar months or account months. 

Unless you open the account on the 1st of a month, a 12-month account will be spread over 13 months.

surreysaver

Hoenir said:

Transparent enough: 

Minimum / Maximum Regular Deposit: £0 minimum - £300 maximum per month.

Yes, and if you open a 12-month account on, say, 15th August, it will mature the following 14th August. Therefore spread over 13 months. 
So, if the account stipulates a maximum of £300pm, that means the most you can pay in is £3,900.  Whoever at Monmouthshire wrote the T&Cs either cannot count, cannot speak English, or both. Maybe there are subtle differences between Welsh and English that have caused them to become confused?

surreysaver

gravel_2 said:

Their terms are vague enough to give them leeway. They talk once about calendar months and thrice about just "month" alone. It's open to interpretation whether the use of "month" indicates calendar month (which may support the creative interpretation of the Cult of the 13th Month) or simply a period of approx 30 days.

The terms aren't vague, the terms are clear. It would simply seem that the terms don't say what Monmouthshire wanted them to say.

JamesRobinson48

The Mon BS have proved time and time again that they are bumbling amateurs when it comes to RS products. Just one more example: they repeatedly launch an RS with very generous rates, only to be taken by surprise when the demand proves beyond the capacity of their (manually intensive) application handling. But I've consistently generated good ££ interest income from the Mon, so I'm going to cut them some slack here. The last thing I want is for the Mon to revert to local postcode restrictions, to limit their best RS to branch callers only, or to cease offering fancy RS rates. All of which they have sometimes tried in the past.

AmityNeon

gravel_2 said:

Their terms are vague enough to give them leeway. They talk once about calendar months and thrice about just "month" alone. It's open to interpretation whether the use of "month" indicates calendar month (which may support the creative interpretation of the Cult of the 13th Month) or simply a period of approx 30 days.

The fact that calendar month is even mentioned just once makes it explicitly clear, clarifying any preceding ambiguity. It's common for T&Cs to be more precisely detailed than marketing material or summary boxes.

You can add to your savings every month, as many times as you like up to the maximum monthly deposit.
The maximum overall amount that can be paid into the account is £300 each calendar month.

For example, if you pay in £300 then take out £100, you can put that £100 back into the account if it is before the end of the month (or the 25th for electronic payments).
You can not pay money in for previous months.