Principality merging accounts

Gers

This morning I received a secure message which said 'thanks for closing your account' (First Steps / Buyer issue 1) which I hadn't done. That sent me into the horrible realms of thinking that I'd been hacked and money stolen. No, PBS have decided that customers can't hold issue 1 and 2 and so have merged 1 into 2 which is now 5). Bear in mind that I opened issue 1 in October 2021 and issue 2 in July 2022.

Of course I phoned up immediately - lovely agent told me that I had been informed of this in advance, I insisted that I hadn't so she checked the system and confirmed that I hadn't been told. I've logged a complaint so the agent is off to do some more investigating and will phone me back later.

Just want to warn others in case they are in the same position.

Bridlington1

Gers said:

This morning I received a secure message which said 'thanks for closing your account' (First Steps / Buyer issue 1) which I hadn't done. That sent me into the horrible realms of thinking that I'd been hacked and money stolen. No, PBS have decided that customers can't hold issue 1 and 2 and so have merged 1 into 2 which is now 5). Bear in mind that I opened issue 1 in October 2021 and issue 2 in July 2022.

Of course I phoned up immediately - lovely agent told me that I had been informed of this in advance, I insisted that I hadn't so she checked the system and confirmed that I hadn't been told. I've logged a complaint so the agent is off to do some more investigating and will phone me back later.

Just want to warn others in case they are in the same position.

I just hope they don't start doing this with their Christmas regular savers. I've got 3 of them at 7%, I'd like to cling onto those for as long as possible.

exel1966

This was the mail sent out on the 28th Jan

Thanks for choosing us to save for your first home!

We’re just letting you know about an important change to your First Home Steps Online Accounts. You’ll automatically be switching to our First Home Steps Account Issue 5 on the 6 March 2025.

We’re making changes to the account features to bring you a savings account shaped by Member feedback. Here’s what’s new:

• save up to £50,000
• deposit up to £1,000 a month
• no fixed end date
  
  

What happens if you have multiple accounts?

If you have multiple savings accounts affected by this change, we'll combine them into a single First Home Steps Account Issue 5, using your oldest account number