Major issue with Skipton interest payments on savings accounts... again

swy217

This isn't the first time with Skipton it seems, but my annual savings account with Skipton matured on the 6th April and no sign of the interest being added. No emails or communication from Skipton highlighting that there is an issue either which is really poor.

Contacted customer support and they have confirmed that there is a known issue preventing interest payments and they can offer no indication as to when it will be fixed. They say that interest will be back-dated so no customer will be out of pocket, however they are not able to offer compensation for affected customers despite clearly being in breach of the account T&Cs.

I have registered a complaint as I need to withdraw the savings (now with 0 interest added).

Just wanted to make people aware should they be in the same boat. Does anybody know if there is any compensation due to affected customers as a result?

Mark_d

It would be unusual to get compensation before an event has been concluded.

You will get your interest once the issue is resolved.  So how exactly have you been disadvantaged?

Barkin

FWIW...I had an account with them matured yesterday 8th, and the funds with interest were in my chosen account this morning as expected.

Kim_13

Interest was due on my Base Rate Tracker EA on the 5th and finally landed in my nominated account today. I assumed they must therefore initiate it as a BACS payment (funds land on the 3rd day) on the first working day following the due date where that isn't a working day, where having the interest paid away has been selected.

I hadn't had much in it until the rate dropped on my Member Bonus Saver, so I wasn't paying any attention to whether 1p here and there had been paid out on the right day.

swy217

Mark_d said:

It would be unusual to get compensation before an event has been concluded.

You will get your interest once the issue is resolved.  So how exactly have you been disadvantaged?

So far, only inconvenience rather than disadvantage, other than the marginal interest gains that I could be earning elsewhere, which would barely register to be fair. Depends on how long this goes on for.

swy217

Interest arrived in the savings account this morning, however was significantly less than it should be. Skipton have advised that the problem is fixed, however they have acknowledged that the interest payment I have received is not correct and that they will come back to me in 15 working days once they have investigated it. Hopefully sooner.

So I would suggest any Skipton savers to check that their interest is correct. 

Barkin

Barkin said:

FWIW...I had an account with them matured yesterday 8th, and the funds with interest were in my chosen account this morning as expected.

...and the interest added was correct.

intalex

I have a feeling Skipton do use BACS to credit interest such that they calculate interest using T-2 (working days) position and assuming no transactions up to T, and initiate the BACS to pay it promptly on T.

So if someone withdraws funds on T-1 (or after they have initiated the BACS on T-2, if there is still a window - I'm not sure), then their system would have a claw-back entry of some sort for the overpaid interest, which if memory serves me well could lead to a tiny mess on closure if there isn't sufficient accrued interest to offset the claw-back.

I wonder if this is a sign that they may be in the process of transitioning away from this mechanism to avoid the claw-back mess.

To me Skipton appear to strive for automation wherever possible, one of the things I like about them even if it's not always perfect. Wish they'd add an option to internally transfer funds between their ISAs without impacting allowances.

Skipton_Building_Society_Representative

We are aware of an error impacting a small number of accounts.Our Teams are working hard to resolve this, and all accounts will be updated. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. 

Miffed69

Interest due 17th March £1140.00. Despite 5 phone calls, 1 Complaint, still no money or explanation.  Bog standard letter saying they are sorry I am unhappy with the service provided.  I will leave you all to verbalize just how unhappy I currently am.   I completed my tax return last week with a comment that I was sorry Rachel from Accounts would have to borrow more money as I was unable to pay tax on something I had never received.  Hoping Skipton will get their finger out and I will receive my money in the current tax year   

bresbo

First off, I want to say I'm a great fan of mutualised building societies; I try to buy ISAs from them in preference to banks, even if the interest rate is a bit less. I even forgive them their sometimes less than polished administration. But for the past year or so, despite having friendly staff, Skipton BS has been in a class of its own for incompetence. I'm not writing this to warn off other people from using them. Rather, I hope someone in Skipton BS reads this and tells the management that it's time for them to really get a grip, or maybe hand the reins over to others to can do better.

In 2024 I switched two Skipton ISAs from compounded interest to monthly paid out to my nominated account. For one ISA it worked fine; for the other there was no monthly credit to my nominated account. Numerous phone calls later, they apologized and paid two months interest on he next payment date. The following month it happened again. More apologies another double payment on the next month. Apparently "the system" hadn't accepted the requested change (twice).

At the same time, when I requested the change to interest paid out monthly, I was reliably informed by Skipton staff that I would have to pay tax on the interest. I tried to explain to them that they were wrongly informed, pointed them to HM Gov websites, etc; but at least 3 call centre staff stuck to the same false information, and when I quizzed them, the same incoherent idea of what an ISA is, what "taxable" means, what a tax declaration is, and so on.

This year, two Skipton ISAs matured on 5 April. I had opened new ISAs with another provider and requested transfer of all funds on maturity. Coincidentally I had to call Skipton because the final monthly interest payment had not arrived. It seems they had had an IT issue around the 5th and 6th of April, and interest payments had got delayed. During that call I happened to notice the final sum in the maturing ISAs. If I hadn't noticed, then a few days later when the transfer to the new provider took place and I was notified by email that this was so, I would not have realized that the amount transferred was several hundred pounds short on both accounts!

It's now 10 days later, and Skipton BS have not once proactively contacted me to acknowledge the error, or to apologize, or to say when they would fix things, despite me contacting them several times. On the first call to notify them of the error, they couldn't/wouldn't  even send me an email to confirm that they were (illegally) holding onto my money. Service as bad as that is pretty hard to come by.