The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

surreysaver

where_are_we said:

surreysaver said:

where_are_we said:

My Virgin Money RS Exclusive matures July31. My balance is about £3,138. Interest is paid quarterly. Their T&C`s state that interest is only payable on balances up to £3000 maximum. Is there any advantage to withdrawing £138 immediately? Or will all of the £3138 earn interest up to maturity ?

That's not what the T&Cs I downloaded say. Mine says

"If you save more than the maximum £250 limit each calendar month, we will accept the money, but you will not earn interest on any amount that exceeds the cumulative maximum monthly limit."

The amount over £3k is interest, not money you've saved.  Nowhere does it say it doesn't pay interest on a balance over £3k. It only says it doesn't pay interest on amounts over £250 per month that you have saved 

You say - "Nowhere does it say it doesn`t pay interest on a balance over £3K"
 From their T&C`s - " The maximum balance you can earn interest on at the end of the 12 month fixed term is £3,000"
Does the £138 interest already earned benefit from compounding up to the maturity date?
I will not be withdrawing my interest to get down to a maturity balance of £3,000 because it is unlikely whether this will give any benefit.
They quote a maturity value of £3,162.40 based on an initial deposit on the 1st of the month, so it will be interesting to see what my final payout will be.
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.

When is the end of the twelve month fixed term? The account matures on 31st July, yet the account doesn't last 12 months (unless you first paid into it on 1st August).
What you quote differs from what I've quoted. So which is correct?

mhoc

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 

surreysaver

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 

All the other be banks and building societies do, and Virgin have done in the past. Cannot see why it would be any different this time 

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.