The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

Aidanmc

Gers said:

Bridlington1 said:

I've still ended up with well over 100 accounts though, quite a large minority are regular savers.

HMRC agent told me earlier this year that I had 70 accounts. I then closed nine and have subsequently opened another nine. Like above, I keep one YBS account with only £1.00 to ensure membership. 

On Friday I closed my Nationwide RS3 a month early and then was able to open their RS6, still at 6.50% though now variable. 

My Coventry First Home Saver matures later this week but I was able to open a new one despite the T&Cs saying that only one can be held. I transferred across for the first deposit.

On a different note - I've had great customer service from a very patient and helpful agent at Suffolk Building Society when I got myself in knots between their online and branch RSs. 

Just wondering why a HMRC agent told you that. Were you having a HMRC inspection or something?

Gers

Aidanmc said:

Gers said:

Bridlington1 said:

I've still ended up with well over 100 accounts though, quite a large minority are regular savers.

HMRC agent told me earlier this year that I had 70 accounts. I then closed nine and have subsequently opened another nine. Like above, I keep one YBS account with only £1.00 to ensure membership. 

On Friday I closed my Nationwide RS3 a month early and then was able to open their RS6, still at 6.50% though now variable. 

My Coventry First Home Saver matures later this week but I was able to open a new one despite the T&Cs saying that only one can be held. I transferred across for the first deposit.

On a different note - I've had great customer service from a very patient and helpful agent at Suffolk Building Society when I got myself in knots between their online and branch RSs. 

Just wondering why a HMRC agent told you that. Were you having a HMRC inspection or something?

No - I rang HMRC to talk about my tax coding and unpaid tax on savings interest. All very pleasant actually.

exel1966

Aidanmc said:

Gers said:

Bridlington1 said:

I've still ended up with well over 100 accounts though, quite a large minority are regular savers.

HMRC agent told me earlier this year that I had 70 accounts. I then closed nine and have subsequently opened another nine. Like above, I keep one YBS account with only £1.00 to ensure membership. 

On Friday I closed my Nationwide RS3 a month early and then was able to open their RS6, still at 6.50% though now variable. 

My Coventry First Home Saver matures later this week but I was able to open a new one despite the T&Cs saying that only one can be held. I transferred across for the first deposit.

On a different note - I've had great customer service from a very patient and helpful agent at Suffolk Building Society when I got myself in knots between their online and branch RSs. 

Just wondering why a HMRC agent told you that. Were you having a HMRC inspection or something?

It's good to speak to HMRC occasionally if you have multiple reg savers. Tax codes are not only based on actual interest earnt, but also estimated interest which they take from previous years so it's good to update them on estimates and closed accounts so you don't initially overpay. If you don't it will eventually balance out on its own however that can take a couple of years.

OrangeBlueGreen

I wonder how long we’ll have to wait to get our closing Virgin interest if their systems were down on Friday and of course the 10% will have attracted a lot of customers in the first place so I imagine the queue to be very long. 

They really should update their systems so customers can close accounts themselves, it is 2025. The zero balance thing may make sense internally, but it’s not customer friendly at all and nonsensical. Though now Nationwide has bought them, they won’t care. Hopefully Nationwide will soon merge everything into their own systems, getting rid of double profiles and the mess that was never ironed out when they merged the 2 old Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks. 

I don’t mind Virgin as a bank and their products, but it does feels that behind the scenes it’s very old school like a telephone exchange with cables and connections between a multitude of systems that do not make for a good customer experience.

Edit: Really they should just have it so that final interest is paid when a regular saver matures and it would save customers from having to do all of this.

ColdIron

OrangeBlueGreen said:

They really should update their systems so customers can close accounts themselves, it is 2025.

You can do this already in online banking if you have 2FA enabled

Choose 'More' at the top, then 'Close Account' and follow the instructions

Section62

OrangeBlueGreen said:

...Though now Nationwide has bought them, they won’t care. Hopefully Nationwide will soon merge everything into their own systems, getting rid of double profiles and the mess that was never ironed out when they merged the 2 old Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks. 

This won't be happening soon.  Virgin is operating as a separate wholly-owned subsidiary with its own banking licence.  That needs to be changed before individual's profiles are merged - assuming Nationwide does this, rather than keeping VM as a (renamed) separate entity.

Nationwide's own systems also have their own issues and archaic aspects - such as use of a card reader for some app functions, and not being able to pay cheques in by app.  Supposedly Nationwide are developing an entirely new banking platform... but there seems to be little information about how this is progressing.  It sounded ambitious.

If I were a betting person, I'd put money on the new Nationwide platform (when it eventually arrives) being first launched on the VM side of the business, with some (then all) VM customers being migrated onto it as guinea pigs.  If the new platform turns into a TSB-style disaster then it would be better PR-wise for that to happen with the brand which is due to vanish, rather than the core Nationwide brand.  Also, my personal feeling is the VM systems are in greater need of replacing than the Nationwide ones... although that might not be the Nationwide way of thinking.

gt94sss2

ColdIron said:

OrangeBlueGreen said:

They really should update their systems so customers can close accounts themselves, it is 2025.

You can do this already in online banking if you have 2FA enabled

Choose 'More' at the top, then 'Close Account' and follow the instructions

That just leads you to https://uk.virginmoney.com/vmforms/current-accounts/account-closure-request/ where you have to enter all your details and the account closure is actually a manual process by VM - all the customer is doing is submitting a request.

As a sidenote, I don't recall the maturity of any other regular saver generating so many posts!

pedrodelgado

Question. Would it be more beneficial to open say 4 regular savers from different providers and put the maximum allowed in each one for say the first couple of months then a nominal amount to keep them open for the remaining months, thus having a bigger overall sum for 11 or 12 months than you would have had if opening one and saving monthly into that? Any thoughts?

pedrodelgado

badger09 said:

Skipton 
Thanks for the heads up on Skipton’s slow processing of incoming SOs early hours on 1st. I intended to set up SO from BoS from 1Sept but will fund by FP or debit card instead. 

Skipton are slow and totally ignore weekends lol.

apt

pedrodelgado said:

badger09 said:

Skipton 
Thanks for the heads up on Skipton’s slow processing of incoming SOs early hours on 1st. I intended to set up SO from BoS from 1Sept but will fund by FP or debit card instead. 

Skipton are slow and totally ignore weekends lol.

They tend to be quicker during working hours