The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

david72

@schiff Yes, I have not "dared" to try to open any new accounts with YBS since they introduced this dubious new third-party personal-data-slurping identity verification "service", for fear of triggering it (who are they, where would they be storing this sensitive data, what (else) would they be doing with it, and can we actually trust them to be secure and trustworthy - trust works both ways?) - admittedly this is rather sadly made easier to (not) do as YBS don't really offer any particularly competitive accounts at present, compared to a couple of years ago(!). 

It was annoying enough in the slightly further past when I had to visit a branch with documentation (on more than one occasion for several new accounts!), but this ridiculous over-zealousness will literally be the death of them: new and existing members/owners will find it less hassle and less confrontational to do without this aggressive attitude (Yorkshire folk are supposed to be friendly, what went wrong here?) and instead put new savings elsewhere. Sadly, financial institutions often too easily forget that reputations built up over decades and even centuries can be lost in an instant due to foolish decisions.

Kim_13

I used to open accounts speculatively but since YBS have gone down the further checks/Mitek route I have only opened those that I knew I would make decent/full use of - the £50 Regular eSaver. It would take a direct replacement or another Loyalty RS at 7% to make me bother at the moment.

drphila

Kim_13 said:

Aidanmc said:

I will be needing to withdraw from some of my lower paying Regular savers in order to fund higher interest ones for the next month or two, until some current ones mature.

Starting with 5% ones, Santander, Penrith, Darlington, Melton RS5.

Think its better to withdraw rather that close them.

I believe the Coventry Loyalty RS has penalty for withdrawal, so will leave that for now and not fund it.

I’d also start with the ones that have the shortest term remaining (as it’s presumably less likely that you would need to replace the funds and thus be bothered that you were limited to whatever the monthly allowance is.)

Melton would be the penultimate, as an open ended account. Coventry does have an interest penalty yes (but keep an eye out for any rate reduction that could be used to obtain a penalty free withdrawal.)

Maybe still be possible to close without penalty now as a result of the last rate reduction according to the wording of the notification email (" If you decide to close your account because of this rate change, you can do so without notice, charge, or loss of interest within 30 days of the effective date") though the General Savings T&C say 30 days from the notification date.

Bridlington1

Aidanmc said:

Kim_13 said:

Aidanmc said:

Thanks all for the helpful info.

Regarding Penrith and Darlington if i close the RS's and they are the only accounts i hold there, will i still be able to keep my login details?

As you mentioned others maturing in a couple of months, surely you could keep Penrith open anyway. If it’s a fifth withdrawal that triggers closure, just use 1 withdrawal per month to fund other RS in the meantime and you won’t get to 5 before other monies become available. Only £1 is required to keep it open. 

Darlington allow 2 withdrawals without closing the account, if you have the 12 month account. Also minimum £1 to keep it open.

Yeah, will leave them open then with min balance. Only opened them few months ago anyway.

I've kept a limited access eSaver open with Penrith BS for membership purposes. I did this in part because AFAIK the NLA Penrith BS Regular Saver 300 (branch/post only) only allows postal withdrawals by cheque and internal transfer so as a workaround whenever I wish to make withdrawals from this account I request a transfer to the limited access eSaver and make a faster payment from there.

Bigwheels1111

david72 said:

@schiff Yes, I have not "dared" to try to open any new accounts with YBS since they introduced this dubious new third-party personal-data-slurping identity verification "service", for fear of triggering it (who are they, where would they be storing this sensitive data, what (else) would they be doing with it, and can we actually trust them to be secure and trustworthy - trust works both ways?) - admittedly this is rather sadly made easier to (not) do as YBS don't really offer any particularly competitive accounts at present, compared to a couple of years ago(!). 

It was annoying enough in the slightly further past when I had to visit a branch with documentation (on more than one occasion for several new accounts!), but this ridiculous over-zealousness will literally be the death of them: new and existing members/owners will find it less hassle and less confrontational to do without this aggressive attitude (Yorkshire folk are supposed to be friendly, what went wrong here?) and instead put new savings elsewhere. Sadly, financial institutions often too easily forget that reputations built up over decades and even centuries can be lost in an instant due to foolish decisions.

I tried to open a new account with YBS last year just after moving, they had my new address on all 7 accounts I had with them.

They wanted me to use the third party verification service.

I did not have any id they wanted, Licence with DVLA, No bills, no council tax etc.

I just gave up.

On the 01/01/26 my fixed term ISA matures & that will be the end of our dealings.

I have 19 Reg savers with 15 banks & building societies, none have needed this much info.

jameseonline

I've just checked my Market Harborough Regular Saver account and I'm wondering why they added £6.27 interest on the 30th November last year, do they do more than 1 interest payment a year then or did they mess up somewhere or is that when they usually do interest payments or what?.

I 1st funded it £250 on 30th September then £250 on 1st October, then £250 1st November then that interest came in.

If anyone could help that would be great.

subjecttocontract

I just checked the YBS website and I don't see any accounts that I could describe as competitive..

WillPS

jameseonline said:

I've just checked my Market Harborough Regular Saver account and I'm wondering why they added £6.27 interest on the 30th November last year, do they do more than 1 interest payment a year then or did they mess up somewhere or is that when they usually do interest payments or what?.

I 1st funded it £250 on 30th September then £250 on 1st October, then £250 1st November then that interest came in.

If anyone could help that would be great.

The account has a fixed term ending November 30th, 2025 - so they made an interest payment on November 30th 2024 so they're not paying more than 12 months of interest at once.

The approach with this varies from provider to provider. Some will start a 12 month term from account opening or initial deposit (and so interest is payable only upon maturity/closure). Others will pay interest on the last/first working day of every year, as well as closure/maturity. Others do another arbitrary date.

Nottingham BS are in the same boat as MHBS - setting an interim interest payment exactly 12 months before maturity.

chris_the_bee

jameseonline said:

I've just checked my Market Harborough Regular Saver account and I'm wondering why they added £6.27 interest on the 30th November last year, do they do more than 1 interest payment a year then or did they mess up somewhere or is that when they usually do interest payments or what?.

I 1st funded it £250 on 30th September then £250 on 1st October, then £250 1st November then that interest came in.

If anyone could help that would be great.

Market Harborough Regular Saver
The title of the account is "Fixed term regular saver (30/11/2025)" Interest is paid on 30th November. Therefore 30-11-2024 and also  30-11-2025 at maturity.

Hattie627

jameseonline said:

I've just checked my Market Harborough Regular Saver account and I'm wondering why they added £6.27 interest on the 30th November last year, do they do more than 1 interest payment a year then or did they mess up somewhere or is that when they usually do interest payments or what?.

I 1st funded it £250 on 30th September then £250 on 1st October, then £250 1st November then that interest came in.

If anyone could help that would be great.

The account terms state that interest is "available" on 30th November 2024 and 30th November 2025 (maturity). I funded on 27th Sep 2024, 1st October 2024 and 1st November 2024 (£250 each time) and the account was credited with £6.39 interest on 30th November 2024.