Skipton Members Regular Saver - maturity experience

pochisoldi

My Members Regular Saver (RS) has just matured and after seeing/commenting on previous threads about the experience with maturing Nationwide Flex Regular savers, I thought I'd share my experience.

The account matured on Jan 26th. I already had an easy saver account (strategically opened some time ago anticipating the next members RS issue).

I gave maturity instructions ahead of time to transfer the whole balance+interest to the Skipton easy saver.

On maturity day, the money stayed where it was.

On the next day in the wee early hours, the balance+interest was moved to the easy saver and the old RS account closed.

During the day I transferred all but £251 from the easy saver to my current account. (£1 minimum balance on the easy saver, plus £250 for the new RS)

I was then able to open a new RS, fund it by transfer from the easy saver AND setup a standing order (with confirmation of payee) straight away. The new RS has the same maturity day/month as the last one.

This compares well against Nationwide, where you can't open a replacement regular saver until a clear day has elapsed (even when online banking says it's reverted to a "easy access whatever account" , and some other providers who can't provide confirmation of payee until the day after the account is opened.

PochiSoldi

fistfulofsteel

Is there any advantage to opening an easy saver, given that you're not using it now? I was planning to let my MRS mature into whatever the default option is and then open a new one as soon as it's possible to do so.

pochisoldi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81858000#Comment_81858000

Short/TL;DR answer:

Dunno, it works for me, and it worked for Skipton this time around. It might not have been needed

Longer/full fat answer:

The easy saver account (actually "Easy Access Saver") was opened just over two years ago as it appeared that new issues of Skipton's Members Regular saver appeared every January. Within a month I was proved right and it got me in the door.

My policy now is to retain an easy access account (or equivalent) with each provider I use. The account is kept with a nominal amount/minimum balance so that I can jump on any decent "existing members only" accounts, when a regular saver matures without a decent replacement.

Using an easy saver means you can keep back the first month's deposit for the new account, and be certain of being able to make that deposit on the day of opening. Making that payment from another institution will sometimes fail the "confirmation of payee" check on the day of opening. Yes it's only a day's interest, but if you're opening the account on a Friday, it turns into 3 days, plus it becomes another task. (Not an issue with Skipton, but I'm looking at you TSB and Nationwide)

Where I haven't already had an easy access account, I've let the regular saver roll over into an easy access account, pulled the wedge and left the nominal amount in - "negative" effort required, you just don't close the account.