To clarify this Plum "switch after 3 months" but bonus interest is payed yearly.

iambenten

Arc_2 said:

Is my understanding of what the savings guide is suggesting correct that you could save with Plum for 3 months.
Monthly get the normal interest.
Transfer out & Switch elsewhere after 3 months.
Then 9 months later you would still be payed the bonus interest for those 3 months, even though you left Plum 9 months ago.

Is that correct?
(also confusing that the summary and main text list different interest rates.)

To be honest, having used Plum for the last year, my advice for most people would be to steer well clear. That is unless you are prepared to fully read their T+Cs, query the many contradictions and lack of clarity with Plum, and then very carefully jump through all their hoops (feels like carefully placed traps!). The account is overly complicated - in my view this is intentional.

The info email address they widely publicise is not even valid, so they can't even get basic communications right!

Its in their T+Cs but in my view does not stand out enough: the bonus is a big chunk of the interest but none will be paid unless you hold the account for at least the length of the bonus period - this effectively makes it a very uncompetitive account unless you keep it until the end of the bonus period. Its really a minimum term account without that being stated (unless you are happy getting a very low interest rate).

My account bonus was for 12 months. BUT its not 12 months since the date of opening that matters. Its not even 12 full calendar months. Its actually up to 13 full calendar months before you can get you bonus! You wont find that stated anywhere. So if you open on say 1st April and want to take your bonus and close, you have to wait until 1st June the following year. If you close before this then you will lose up to a months interest (this is always the case) and you will lose ALL of the bonus. Think this is confusing? Unclear? Unfair? You bet!

It looks like you will ALWAYS lose at least one month of interest on closure as the terms say that you can only claim interest AFTER its paid into the account which obviously can't happen after it has closed - this is in the withdrawal terms and the closure terms don't mention any of this! Does not seem fair or reasonable and I am hoping that it just an omission on their part.

If you look at their list of interest rates for just this one account you will see that in just 14 months there have been 17 different rates applied and continue to be so based on the account opening date. Then for each of these there are 4 further rates, e.g. if you transfer in, with various conditions, e.g. if you make 4 withdrawals per year.

There are a number of other areas of contention and lack of clarity, and there are errors on their website such as wrong interest rates, and wrong dates (dates which are not even feasible!)

I suspect that other accounts may have already gone this way and more will follow. It obviously suits finance business to have terms that catch customers out, especially if its not transparent, e.g. many would not even realise if the bonus had not been paid.

Its a shame MSE don't mention all this! I did email them about some of it a few months ago but they were dismissive.

sammy_zammy

I think Plum’s pretty handy for a quick direct debit when switching bank accounts to qualify for a bonus, but that’s about as far as I’d go…

Kennygwoodthe1st

To reinforce what iambenton has said above, yes, whenever you leave , you lose interest.
If you transfer out before any bonus is added to your account, you lose that.

If you transfer out even one day before monthly interest is added (at the end of the following month) you , at that point lose the preceding months interest ( that you would have got the next day) and forgo any uncredited daily calculated interest in the month that you transfer out.

Their T&C's wording is appalling and and, in my opinion, purposely open to interpretation.
The lack of clear examples to cover most eventualities doesn't help

I've have had a painful, long, email exchange with Plum trying to establish the best date for me to transfer out so as not to lose a 12 month bonus and forgo as little interest as possible, and even though I was given answers to my specific questions, what I was told, hasn't happened for my cash isa account.
Specifically, I was told that :-

"About the bonus and March interest crediting:-

1: - March 2025's interest will be credited on the last business day of April 2025
- Your 12-month bonus will be credited along with your 12th month's interest

Regarding transfer timing and maintaining your benefits:
If you transfer out before receiving your bonus payment, you would indeed lose both the accumulated bonus and the interest for the month of transfer. This applies even if maintaining a £100 balance. The bonus is only credited after completing the full bonus period.To avoid losing any benefits, I recommend:

1. Wait until after the bonus and March interest are credited (end of April 2025)

2. Then initiate your transfer with your new provider  "


My 12 month bonus was not credited to my account at the end of April. 

With hindsight, there are two contradictory statements there (BOLD) presumably because they didn't want to say which precise month the bonus was going to be credited.

I've been told I have to wait until the last working day of May to receive the 12 months bonus in my account.
All they do is apologise for the misleading information.

My advice?
Steer well clear.
Thanks for reading.

masonic

I think you need to make a formal complaint if you are not paid April's interest and the full bonus after requesting a transfer out any time from today.

The interest may not be paid until 31st May, but it must be paid. They have worked examples on their website illustrating that another transfer request should be made in June to sweep up the April interest and bonus.

Kennygwoodthe1st

masonic said:

I think you need to make a formal complaint if you are not paid April's interest and the full bonus after requesting a transfer out any time from today.

The interest may not be paid until 31st May, but it must be paid. They have worked examples on their website illustrating that another transfer request should be made in June to sweep up the April interest and bonus.

Thanks for your comments Masonic.
I've copied and pasted the relevant section and asked them to let me know why it doesn't apply to me.

"Transfer Cash ISA out of Plum

Updated today

What Happens to Your Interest?

Base Interest: If you transfer your Cash ISA at any point during the month, you’ll forfeit the base interest for the current month. However, interest from previous months will still be credited to your account.

Bonus Interest: If you transfer your Cash ISA during your bonus period, you’ll forfeit the bonus interest you’ve accrued. If you wait and transfer after the bonus period ends, you’ll still get the bonus that has already been earned.  "

They've already passed my comments and displeasure on to their complaints department. I've told them I'll be getting in touch with the FOS, but the whole process is drawn out and extremely clunky, ie the FOS say you are supposed to wait for a response for up to 8 weeks from the business that you have an issue with before involving them.

I'm not expecting any sense from Plum, their default response is to stall and push back.

masonic

I suspect if the complaint is seen by someone competent within the organisation, then they will immediately back down. If not, then you can look forward to some compensation for distress and inconvenience, plus simple interest at 8% on the amount owed from the date it should have been paid, if the FOS get to review the case. Which is probably better than the return you'd get if Plum abided by its own T&Cs.

Kennygwoodthe1st

masonic said:

I think you need to make a formal complaint if you are not paid April's interest and the full bonus after requesting a transfer out any time from today.

The interest may not be paid until 31st May, but it must be paid. They have worked examples on their website illustrating that another transfer request should be made in June to sweep up the April interest and bonus.

I finally received an email stating that this was the route to follow, ie make a first transfer out now and then arrange a 2nd transfer out for the bonus after it is credited to my account on the 30th May. Or transfer it all out in one go on the 30th. i can't influence the transfer date , so it's mostly likely that i'll end up with the two transfer scenario.

masonic

Good to see on this occasion they gave you information that is consistent with their own T&C.

If you tried to transfer out on 30th May, then that would mean missing the opportunity to earn interest on the balance for the full month of May. So it makes no sense to do this when you could have the transfer complete in a week or two and the balance earning interest elsewhere.

Kennygwoodthe1st

masonic said:

Good to see on this occasion they gave you information that is consistent with their own T&C.

If you tried to transfer out on 30th May, then that would mean missing the opportunity to earn interest on the balance for the full month of May. So it makes no sense to do this when you could have the transfer complete in a week or two and the balance earning interest elsewhere.

yes, I forgot they only pay interest for a complete month, I've been so focussed on the bonus payment. Cheers.

Rlw1204

Pleased to see I am not alone in this fight with Plum. I also submitted a formal complaint about the bonus interest trap (see the thread in this forum section last month).

Today my complaint received an official response which Plum partially upheld my grievance and offered me £60 compensation.

I have yet to sit and read the full 6 page reply but in line with their own T&C's, did a partial transfer out 2 weeks ago (after completing the full 12 month term), leaving >£100 in place so as to keep the account open and receive the bonus interest on 31st May. I will transfer out the remaining amount at a later date. 

I have saved all the original promotional material with the original bonus payment terms and sent it to the Ombudsman. I encourage everyone to get a complaint in to Plum and hopefully some compensation for all this avoidable headache.