The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

Section62

mhoc said:

ThePirates said:

More of a concern is whether Virgin Money will still be offering a competitive Regular Saver Exclusive product which we can open once this one matures.

They don't currently...

I seem to think Virgin regular saver matures into an easy access which we can then close - or at least leave a minimal amount it (£1 £10 ???) Just wondering are Virgin really going to be complacent enough to see thousands of accounts close and everyone take their £3k plus balances out at the start of August - without having any sort of regular saver to replace it .....
But with Nationwide taking them over maybe they just dont want to start new products 

The regular saver was an aberration in the offerings of Virgin Money after CYBG took over.  There were suggestions (I think quite plausible) the account was only offered to position VM more attractively for potential buyers.  The more recent RS offering was much less generous.

A new RS account offering won't make much of a dent in the cash outflow of old accounts being closed.  I'd think if that were a problem they would be more likely to offer a decent fixed rate product instead.

clairec666

mhoc said:

ThePirates said:

More of a concern is whether Virgin Money will still be offering a competitive Regular Saver Exclusive product which we can open once this one matures.

They don't currently...

I seem to think Virgin regular saver matures into an easy access which we can then close - or at least leave a minimal amount it (£1 £10 ???) Just wondering are Virgin really going to be complacent enough to see thousands of accounts close and everyone take their £3k plus balances out at the start of August - without having any sort of regular saver to replace it .....
But with Nationwide taking them over maybe they just dont want to start new products 

As the 10% regular saver was only on offer for a short time, everyone's accounts are going to mature at a similar time, and a lot of people will take their money elsewhere. Even if there was a new regular saver on offer, people are only going to be able to re-invest £250 out of the £3000+ in the matured account. I'm no expert in how to run a bank, but I can see that offering a headline-grabbing high interest rate for a short period of time is going to boost their coffers for a while but there will be a big drop-off in a year's time. I can only assume that it is a small percentage of the total money that they hold so will not have much of an impact.

surreysaver

clairec666 said:

mhoc said:

ThePirates said:

More of a concern is whether Virgin Money will still be offering a competitive Regular Saver Exclusive product which we can open once this one matures.

They don't currently...

I seem to think Virgin regular saver matures into an easy access which we can then close - or at least leave a minimal amount it (£1 £10 ???) Just wondering are Virgin really going to be complacent enough to see thousands of accounts close and everyone take their £3k plus balances out at the start of August - without having any sort of regular saver to replace it .....
But with Nationwide taking them over maybe they just dont want to start new products 

As the 10% regular saver was only on offer for a short time, everyone's accounts are going to mature at a similar time, and a lot of people will take their money elsewhere. Even if there was a new regular saver on offer, people are only going to be able to re-invest £250 out of the £3000+ in the matured account. I'm no expert in how to run a bank, but I can see that offering a headline-grabbing high interest rate for a short period of time is going to boost their coffers for a while but there will be a big drop-off in a year's time. I can only assume that it is a small percentage of the total money that they hold so will not have much of an impact.

All the accounts will mature on July 31st, as that is the maturity date of the account 

masonic

It was said that Nationwide bought the brand to diversify its offering. It hardly seems worthwhile to continue products that compete with its own offerings. It was a very expensive way to draw in money.

clairec666

surreysaver said:

All the accounts will mature on July 31st, as that is the maturity date of the account 

Ah. I didn't know that because I must have been napping when that account was on offer and missed out on an amazing interest rate. Not at all bitter, obviously 

Bobblehat

masonic said:

It was said that Nationwide bought the brand to diversify its offering. It hardly seems worthwhile to continue products that compete with its own offerings. It was a very expensive way to draw in money.

Good point, but if not compete, what if Virgin offered a replacement RS that was very similar to Nationwide's own RS or indeed similar to other Banks/BSs RS current offerings? I'd welcome that in the maturity options! With all us RS collectors out here, it might not really be competing, more like ... "Why not have both"!

Anyhow, not long to wait for the maturity options email/letter.

apt

masonic said:

It was said that Nationwide bought the brand to diversify its offering. It hardly seems worthwhile to continue products that compete with its own offerings. It was a very expensive way to draw in money.

You had to have or switch a current account. The 10% RS was a net cost of under £100 which is relatively cheap compared to most switching offers. Virgin Money have already had a 6.5% RS under the new owner so there might be something similar coming up.

masonic

Bobblehat said:

masonic said:

It was said that Nationwide bought the brand to diversify its offering. It hardly seems worthwhile to continue products that compete with its own offerings. It was a very expensive way to draw in money.

Good point, but if not compete, what if Virgin offered a replacement RS that was very similar to Nationwide's own RS or indeed similar to other Banks/BSs RS current offerings? I'd welcome that in the maturity options! With all us RS collectors out here, it might not really be competing, more like ... "Why not have both"!
Anyhow, not long to wait for the maturity options email/letter.

If Nationwide wanted to offer a new RS, I'd think it would be better for them to do it under their own brand. I wouldn't be surprised to see the savings part of Virgin Money gradually wound down. But we'll see.

Section62

apt said:

masonic said:

It was said that Nationwide bought the brand to diversify its offering. It hardly seems worthwhile to continue products that compete with its own offerings. It was a very expensive way to draw in money.

You had to have or switch a current account. The 10% RS was a net cost of under £100 which is relatively cheap compared to most switching offers. Virgin Money have already had a 6.5% RS under the new owner so there might be something similar coming up.

Though a good proportion of those opening the RS account are unlikely to have needed to switch, having qualified via an existing current account.

Section62

masonic said:

It was said that Nationwide bought the brand to diversify its offering. It hardly seems worthwhile to continue products that compete with its own offerings. It was a very expensive way to draw in money.

Or worse, to have VM products which outclass the Nationwide equivalents by a country mile.

There's probably a reason why the more recent VM RS offering was a modest 6.5%.