The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

PRAISETHESUN

Hattie627 said:

Monmouthshire BS  Exclusive RS Issue 2: reducing to 5.20% (from 5.65%) on 14 March. A whopping 0.45% drop. Source: email just received

Thought MonsBS was supposed to give 30 days notice of a rate drop, rather than 14 days? 

Hattie627

PRAISETHESUN said:

Hattie627 said:

Monmouthshire BS  Exclusive RS Issue 2: reducing to 5.20% (from 5.65%) on 14 March. A whopping 0.45% drop. Source: email just received

Thought MonsBS was supposed to give 30 days notice of a rate drop, rather than 14 days? 

Think they changed it fairly recently to 14 days. But don't quote me on that!

flaneurs_lobster

PRAISETHESUN said:

Hattie627 said:

Monmouthshire BS  Exclusive RS Issue 2: reducing to 5.20% (from 5.65%) on 14 March. A whopping 0.45% drop. Source: email just received

Thought MonsBS was supposed to give 30 days notice of a rate drop, rather than 14 days? 

Did they not give notice of their intention to reduce the notice period to 2 weeks some time ago (IYSWIM)?

I don't keep that level of detail in my one spreadsheet row.

Bridlington1

dcs34 said:

Speculator said:

I assume the Monmouthshire Ex reg allow closures without penalties. I am going to use the money to help fund our 4 x 6.17% regulars.

Mon Exclusive Reg Saver Issue 2

In my notes I have "Matures @ 12M, cannot withdraw but can close early, cannot make up missed payments"

I was under the impression you could close the account early if they announced a cut to their rate due to the general Ts&C's.

I've not got the details to hand as I'm not at home and have very patchy WiFi but can double check this evening.

WillPS

For this MonBS account - withdrawal only possible with account closure - which is a branch visit with passbook or a letter + passbook in the post (remember this whenever someone tells you the passbook can be discarded in future!!).

There was a mention in the terms that withdrawal would be permitted if the rate dropped - ISTR somebody enquired the last time there was a rate drop and they were told they would need to close the account.

In my instance I'm not sure it's worth the stamp to get the £50s back. 

Kim_13

 Speculator said:

received same email from Monmouthshire. 

Lucky I only got £850 in the account. Still might close it before the next big drop.

EXCLUSIVE REGULAR SAVER - ISSUE 2

Old Rate (%) 5.65  New Rate (%)  5.20

Looks like Monmouthshire are doing a 0.45% drop across the board, as my EA (ex Christmas Regular kept for membership purposes) is also dropping from 2.25 to 1.80%.

Disappointing given it is a) more than the cut and b) it looks like the BoE will have to go up again anyway or hold at worst.

Closure was definitely in the account specific terms, the debate had been around whether a partial withdrawal and keeping the account open in view of a rate drop would be possible.

WillPS

From the (generic) regular saver terms:

If we lower the interest rate, we’ll let you know 30 days before the change happens, using letter, email, or

whichever method you advised is best for you. If you’re not happy about the change, you can close your

account or move the money to another one. If you do this within the 30 days, you won’t have to pay any

charges or lose any interest. We’ll assume you’re happy with the change unless you tell us otherwise.

It also says:

If a withdrawal reduces the balance to less than the minimum balance, we may close your account

following 30 days notice.

My read on the above is that you should be able to make a withdrawal without closing the account so long as you leave £50 in there. I don't know anyone who has successfully managed this, but if someone wants to force the point I'd love to know how they get on.

Early closure is certainly possible at any time by presenting passbook in branch or agency or sending it off by post with written instructions.

Edited to add: 'move the money to another one' could mean transferring money only to another MonBS account I suppose, but given they have easy access options available this is certainly an option for the determined.

jim1999

Mon

I closed my MonBS account without going in branch or sending the passbook, the drop to 5.65% killed its value for me.

"Thank you for your online transaction request via "Transfers & Withdrawals". As you have requested the full balance of the account, we confirm that the account has been fully closed and all the funds, including interest due on closure, sent to your nominated bank."

WillPS

jim1999 said:

Mon

I closed my MonBS account without going in branch or sending the passbook, the drop to 5.65% killed its value for me.

"Thank you for your online transaction request via "Transfers & Withdrawals". As you have requested the full balance of the account, we confirm that the account has been fully closed and all the funds, including interest due on closure, sent to your nominated bank."

Thanks very much for this. My wife and I have just done this.

Now I'm a bit annoyed that I was advised I had to fork out for a stamp when I wished to close last year's...

Bridlington1

Usual drill:

Leeds BS Regular Saver (Issue 61) at 4.8% NLA

Replaced by Issue 62 at the same rate with a new maturity date of 1/3/2027

Archived thread and the first page of this thread have been updated to reflect this.