The Old Regular Savers Discussion Thread 28/12/24-29/1/26

thefrank

Section62 said:

francoghezzi said:

WillPS said:

francoghezzi said:

Section62 said:

francoghezzi said:

DARLINGTON

Five days without the possibility to access our money after the internal mistake on the amount of interests. Still no change this morning. It's starting to sound quite like a farce

The block was applied on the 2nd, today is the 5th.  Two of the days between were non-working days, although some staff might have been in on the Saturday.

As the problem seems to be with mid-term interest additions rather than maturity I imagine the number of customers who planned to withdraw money or close their accounts over the weekend must be relatively small.

As a small building society it doesn't seem unreasonable they might need a couple of working days at least to get a full idea of the scope of the problem and design a fix which doesn't create additional problems further down the line.  Rather than "farce" I think it was prudent of them to block people taking the money and running, and also take a reasonable time to make sure the fix doesn't make things worse.

I also imagine if anyone was in desperate need of the money in one of the affected accounts then a phone call to Darlington might enable a withdrawal of the money required, minus the overpaid interest.  And if the error has caused you financial distress then I suspect Darlington would give appropriate consideration to a complaint and a request for reimbursement of your costs.

A bit of patience might be needed, but at 9:14am on the second working day of the year it shouldn't be totally unexpected that Darlington are still working on a resolution.

You are right. Enjoy. Am happy to be the only one who will take the money and leave at the earliest possibility. I don't like thinking that my savings are in some sort of 'Disneyland' like building societies. They have more than a quid not balanced in their books, I don't want even think that they closed on Saturday and on Sunday and enjoyed time off with all the mess that is going on. If they did it, well, that is another reason to stay away for me

I think your expectations are unreasonable.

I know, but am happy to 'come' from a century when every job was taken seriously and from an epoch when if the books didn't balance people were asked to stay a bit longer and put them right. Trust me, it was a better world :-)

Tired and exhausted people don't perform well and make mistakes.  If that happened (and it generally wasn't my working experience) then it wasn't necessarily a 'better world'.  Dragging people in from their holiday to 'fix' a problem - which in the scheme of things is a triviality - would be poor management... and in my view if there were a reason to avoid a financial institution then one that panics and risks making the situation worse would the the one to avoid, rather than one which takes rapid action to stop bad becoming worse and then figures out a full fix when the right people are available. 

The so-called 'Disneyland' like building societies often offer good value savings accounts, typically more generous than the larger ones.  If we were talking about current accounts where loss of access can cause significant problems then it would be different, but not having access to a year-long regular saver account for a few days mid-term really doesn't seem to me like a good reason for avoiding doing business with them, although everyone is free to pick and choose what organisations they want to use.

As I said if at Darlington are happy to have a Sunday roast while being out of pocket for a few million pounds am totally happy for them and their ethic of work. That is not 'my' ethic that is clearly something out of the present world. As always happy to be part of a minority

clairec666

Honestly, how many of us have actually been inconvenienced by Darlington's error?

Slinky

I would think that the vast majority of Darlington RS customers don't have a clue that there's an issue. They will have sent their money across on 2nd January, and will do so again on 2nd February, and be none the wiser that there's been a problem. That's probably why they have taken the IMO sensible decision NOT to email their customers alerting them to the issue, that for the vast majority will not be the slightest problem, thereby averting wasted additional stress all round.

The message is on their website. Why email everyone, get people logging into check, potentially crashing their website, and leading to loads of pointless communications trying to find out what's going on?

Users of this thread are not your typical saver IMO. Most people won't be checking their balances as often as we do.

Section62

francoghezzi said:

As I said if at Darlington are happy to have a Sunday roast while being out of pocket for a few million pounds am totally happy for them and their ethic of work. That is not 'my' ethic that is clearly something out of the present world. As always happy to be part of a minority

If "a few million pounds" really had gone missing then you'd have a fair point.

But the money isn't missing.  Darlington knows where it is (in customer accounts) and it isn't going anywhere (they put restrictions in place).  They just need to work out the best way of moving it back out of customer accounts without causing additional problems.  And prior to doing so it is possible they might need a conversation with their regulators to make sure they are doing the right thing.

One of the roles I had in local government was civil emergency management.  Our working 'ethic' was "don't panic".  Much of our effort was put into stopping people racing round like headless chickens trying to fix stuff without thinking what they are doing.  As such I find it reassuring if Darlington staff enjoyed their normal Sunday relaxing at home, and came in to work today with clear heads and ready to start doing what needs to be done.  I'm certainly not going to criticise their work ethic.

With something like this getting it right is more important than doing it quickly.

Section62

clairec666 said:

Honestly, how many of us have actually been inconvenienced by Darlington's error?

Probably very few... other than those who hoped to be able to withdraw the overpayment of interest and get away with it.

mhoc

Question regarding Cambridge building society please

OH has his Cambridge Extra reward regular maturing later this month (and mine matures early Feb)- just checked and he has not had an email and no letter yet re maturity instructions so can anyone remember what the procedure is please? 
On their website the Extra reward at 6% fixed is still showing as available - will the rate drop by the time maturity comes around?

The reward regular at 5% fixed is still listed - assume that Cambridge will only allow one not both?

Tested a 13th payment but it bounced of course.

Thanks in advance 

Section62

mhoc said:

Question regarding Cambridge building society please

OH has his Cambridge Extra reward regular maturing later this month (and mine matures early Feb)- just checked and he has not had an email and no letter yet re maturity instructions so can anyone remember what the procedure is please? 
On their website the Extra reward at 6% fixed is still showing as available - will the rate drop by the time maturity comes around?

The reward regular at 5% fixed is still listed - assume that Cambridge will only allow one not both?

Tested a 13th payment but it bounced of course.

Thanks in advance 

Cambridge allow renewal of the maturing account into one of the currently available ones - AFAIK they might allow this when you get within a few days of the maturity date, even though the T&Cs say no withdrawals before maturity.

Only one RS account of any type per member.

happybagger

francoghezzi said:

This is not a technical issue, what happened will cause 'ground' to complain because that regular saver has been thought to allow withdrawals in any moments, plus it has nothing to do with the IT department. Funny that you mention Monmouthshire and few others that am happy not to have any connections with. Of any kind :-)

Ps. Thank you for your fantastic job on this thread

They haven't prevented "withdrawals", they have stated "no closure temporarily"
I am quite certain if you needed the cash, you could have asked and they would have sent you funds net of what they think was an overpayment. I can't confirm as I haven't asked for one (I assume if you yourself did need one, you would have asked by now)

I have not been inconvenienced. I have no need to complain or seek the modern-day compensation "gesture of goodwill". And as they are still paying me 6% on my deposits, I'll not be looking to withdraw my funds on a whim.

Each to their own.

gt94sss2

mhoc said:

Question regarding Cambridge building society please

OH has his Cambridge Extra reward regular maturing later this month (and mine matures early Feb)- just checked and he has not had an email and no letter yet re maturity instructions so can anyone remember what the procedure is please? 

The reward regular at 5% fixed is still listed - assume that Cambridge will only allow one not both?

Two weeks before the maturity date, the option to submit maturity options will appear in the app and you will also get an email.

You can only have one regular saver with Cambridge so can't hold both a Reward and Extra Reward at the same time.

s71hj

Saw 3 pages of new posts in 2 hours and thought some fantastic new RS must have been released, the Principality Green Shirt New Year Saver or some such.