The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

Chaykin

MonBS: I'm one of those that managed to open the 6% RS Issue 8 with the app no problem, and funded it in July & August without issues too. The only persistent hassle was a double SMS code in order to log-in.

Tried to open the (automatically updated) app this morning to open the new shiny 7%-er but all I get now is "We are undergoing system maintenance." straight away after opening the app.

clairec666

Kim_13 said:

It does seem a very bad move to have done a Skipton (and Dudley) in terms of the eligibility criteria being to have been a member since the day before the account launched. As they launched the open to all version first, it was only ever going to lead to a repeat in that Monmouthshire were overwhelmed with applications then, and all of those people will by default be eligible for the new 7% version (unless they gave up in the process of trying to open the 6% RS.) And unless savers have a lot of spare funds, many recently opened accounts will not now be seeing any use as they are ditched for the Exclusive version. 

I am unlikely to be able to fund the 6% account for a couple of months at least, now that the 7% account has come along. If they wanted to reward truly loyal customers they should have specified an earlier cut off date for membership, i.e. before the 6% account became available.
Oh well, shouldn't criticise as I'm getting a pretty good deal here!

BestSeagull

MonBS I was hoping they would switch the app back on before 9am to save a deluge of calls but looks like that's not going to happen!

CricketLady

To answer a few questions in this thread regarding Monmouthshire BS 7% at £1000 per month funding - I wrote everything down as I read it to save me future confusion...

I managed to open this last night after simply being patient, pressing to open the app every ten minutes or so while Mr Cricket and I watched some t.v. and eventually I was lucky and got the account number, sort code AND my own personal reference with also the instruction that the payee was my full name (as opposed to "Mon BS", as sometimes this can cause confusion.)

Funded it immediately as I've never had a problem with Monmouthshire, can't check if the cash is there yet as it has gone back to "undergoing system maintenance" but the fact that it let me log on and do everything I needed to do between all these messages last night (8pm?) indicates it is just an overload of the system, so simply keep trying.

It said that the maturity date would be 12 months from date of opening.  It gave a projected figure (if variable rate remained unchanged, obviously and £1000 paid in each month) of £12453.95 which would put to rest the fears of the £1000 being a typo.

It said the minimum payment was £0 indicating that months could be missed, and that it offered penalty free withdrawals.

I also looked to see whether I could still have this one as well as the 6% one I opened in July and I felt reassured that I could but I can't remember the exact wording, I could be wrong on that front but the accounts were both showing side by side in my app last night (wasn't expecting the £1000 in the 7% account to be showing until today.)  Oh - edited to add - it said that one issue of each regular saver was allowed, so Chaykin, as your post points out that the 6% July one was Issue 8, and this 7% seems to be Issue 1, I bet that's where I got that from.

Hope this helps xxx

Kim_13

clairec666 said:

Kim_13 said:

It does seem a very bad move to have done a Skipton (and Dudley) in terms of the eligibility criteria being to have been a member since the day before the account launched. As they launched the open to all version first, it was only ever going to lead to a repeat in that Monmouthshire were overwhelmed with applications then, and all of those people will by default be eligible for the new 7% version (unless they gave up in the process of trying to open the 6% RS.) And unless savers have a lot of spare funds, many recently opened accounts will not now be seeing any use as they are ditched for the Exclusive version. 

I am unlikely to be able to fund the 6% account for a couple of months at least, now that the 7% account has come along. If they wanted to reward truly loyal customers they should have specified an earlier cut off date for membership, i.e. before the 6% account became available.
Oh well, shouldn't criticise as I'm getting a pretty good deal here!

It could be argued that they would be able to hold the rate for longer if they had specified an earlier cut off, as the effect would be to make fewer people eligible for the account.

OrangeBlueGreen

Monmouthshire BS

"Due to a large volume of calls, you have been placed in a queue"

"You are caller number 5 in the queue"

OrangeBlueGreen

Spoke to MBS at 9am. They are aware of the issue but they don't know when it will be back up.

It's just a case of waiting though with the bank holiday on Monday I'm not expecting it to be sorted any time soon.

Kim_13

The 6% and 7% versions are allowed, as they are clearly different products and issues - one’s Exclusive and one isn’t. 

Having both the app version and the branch version is more of a grey area, and the term that I’d most expect to see amended. They made them both xxx Exclusive Regular Saver Issue 1, when they could have made the branch version Exclusive Issue 3 and simply specified that it could only be opened in branch as they did with the Coronation RS if they intended for customers to be able to hold both.

Stolas

I really wonder why Monmouth chose to offer this when they already knew the app had unresolved issues. If the deal ends before the app is fixed they’re not doing themselves any favours.

I have a lot of sympathy for their customer service team 😅 who have consistently been polite and helpful when I’ve needed to call them in the past.

mattojgb

Details of the MBS account are available on their website (and the branch version)

https://www.monbs.com/savings/app-exclusive-regular-saver/

Seems pretty clear you can have one of each of these alongside other Regular Saver accounts.

"Accounts are limited to 1 per customer, for individuals only. There is no limitation to having this Regular Saver alongside other Regular Saver accounts."