How do you interpret "Interest is paid annually" for a savings account?

eskbanker

slinger2 said:

wmb194 said:

slinger2 said:

wmb194 said:

Ulrich said:

Yeah, exactly - it's January IF you read T&Cs but "at the glance" there's nothing about January so it's really misleading to my liking because it should be "first banking day in January", definitely not annually.

It's annually in January.

Surely it's annually FROM January.

Nope, once a year in January.

But if you open it in October, the first January is in no sense "annual" relative to October.

How many interest payments do you think you'd receive in the year between October and the following one?

Ulrich

masonic said:

Ulrich said:

masonic said:

Ulrich said:

Hi All, 

A quick question - if you're about to open a savings account like this one today and it says "Interest is paid annually" here, when would you expect it to be paid next time?

If I see that, without qualification, then I'd expect interest to be paid once every year. If they say "anniversary" then it would be at the end of each account year, otherwise it would be on a specific date each calendar year as specified elsewhere.

In general, the terms month, monthly, year, annually, etc refer to calendar months and years unless otherwise specified.

Well, it's definitely once a year.
The thing is no "anniversary" or a specific date given - that's what I find misleading.
I'd accept "annually on X of January" (or similar) or "the first working day of each (calendar) year" but that's not what they use.
And as you can see, a lot of people fall to that.

Well it is not really misleading, it is just vague. They state:

I think the information sheet should be made available prior to starting an application, so on that point I do think there is a problem.

Moneyfactscompare list this account as paying "yearly" rather than "anniversary", so the information is freely available from sources other than Ulster.

Agree, vague or incomplete is a better word.
And yes, the practice of not providing one with some key information before opening is a bit silly.
I always treat the institution as the most reliable source so expected to save myself from any additional research outside their website.

eskbanker said:

masonic said:

eskbanker said:

masonic said:

Ulrich said:

masonic said:

Ulrich said:

Hi All, 

A quick question - if you're about to open a savings account like this one today and it says "Interest is paid annually" here, when would you expect it to be paid next time?

If I see that, without qualification, then I'd expect interest to be paid once every year. If they say "anniversary" then it would be at the end of each account year, otherwise it would be on a specific date each calendar year as specified elsewhere.

In general, the terms month, monthly, year, annually, etc refer to calendar months and years unless otherwise specified.

Well, it's definitely once a year.
The thing is no "anniversary" or a specific date given - that's what I find misleading.
I'd accept "annually on X of January" (or similar) or "the first working day of each (calendar) year" but that's not what they use.
And as you can see, a lot of people fall to that.

Well it is not really misleading, it is just vague. They state:

I think the information sheet should be made available prior to starting an application, so on that point I do think there is a problem.

It's linked from the main product page, and specifies:

Loyalty Saver Information Sheet

An instant access savings account that pays interest annually on the first business day in January each year.

https://www.ulsterbank.co.uk/content/dam/Ulster/documents/ni-region/permanent/personal/savings/ubn-pers-savings-account-rates.pdf

Maybe I'm being blind, but I do not see that linked from the product information page. I only see:

Your Savings Account Terms (PDF, 342 KB), which is generic information from which I clipped the statement about the Information Sheet in my previous post.

FSCS Protecting Your Money (PDF, 3.7 MB)

View our guide to personal account fees and interest (PDF, 277 KB)

Yes, it's the last of those - the document isn't actually called 'information sheet' as such, but that's a page within it.

that's right - it's a another vaguely named thing on that webpage. should be one of the first.