The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

Bridlington1

With Santander I'm taking the approach of the account lets me pay in £200 per account month, so I'll put £200 in per account month. If it's still around at the end of the month I may refresh the account so that the account month falls on a more convenient day, but that's a matter of personal preference.

I'll leave it up to others what they choose to do though.

Hattie627

I would be interested to know if any reader on here (most of us are experienced RS savers) has ever had a Santander RS downgraded unilaterally by Santander due to breach of the timing rules of a deposit. Anyone?

I stupidly funded mine with £200 on 1st July, having deposited the first payment of £200 in late June. Genuine error. Pondering whether to withdraw the latest deposit but that will probably not reverse the original sin.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82058157#Comment_82058157

It could be argued that by allowing you to earn 8% for longer, rather than downgrading the account immediately you are in breach, Santander would be doing you a favour. There's no detriment to you if they did allow the account to continue running (and accepting additional deposits) for some time, vs a prompt/immediate downgrading of the account.

Conversely, your breach of the T&C's would cost Santander an accumulating amount of extra interest for as long as the excess funds remain in the account (after all, opening near the end of the month and depositing on the first of the next month is a deliberate tactic some of us use to maximise interest on calendar-month accounts). The third, fourth, fifth etc payments would also be 'early' if you continue make them on the 1st, even though you'd not be paying in more than the 'month'ly limit.

To be clear, I'm not saying Santander will downgrade your account, just that if they do (in accordance with the T&C's) then you wouldn't be in a strong position to object.

It's not like I can undo it, can I?

I don't know if it would work, but withdrawing the excess £200 and waiting until the monthiversary before adding it again might show that you realised your error and took steps to avoid gaining extra interest in breach of the T&C's.

Speculator

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82058194#Comment_82058194

wrote this last year.

I opened a Santander Monthly saver on 14/8/24 and made my first deposit on 19/8/24.

Then I paid in another £200 in error on the 2/9/24. The £200 was not automatically returned as an overpayment.

I then paid £200 by S/o on the first working day of each month until I reached £2400 on 1/7/25. Yesterday I received £68.48 in interest as expected.

RosieRooBear

Santander 8% R/S

Opened on 23rd June, accidentally paid in an additional £200 on 1st July, I realised my mistake early evening on the same day and withdrew it. I did briefly think about leaving it in there and see what would happen, but with an 8% R/S I’d rather stick to the t&c’s then chance it.

clairec666

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82058081#Comment_82058081

I agree. It's possibly a bit like Principality, where it took human intervention to identify accounts which were in breach of the T&Cs, you could get away with it for a while but when you did get caught you could hardly argue with them.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82058235#Comment_82058235

Similarly, I wouldn't risk it on an 8% account.

intalex

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82058203#Comment_82058203

It could be argued that by allowing you to earn 8% for longer, rather than downgrading the account immediately you are in breach, Santander would be doing you a favour.

That's assuming they won't downgrade retroactively from day 1… anyway, I'll keep doing what I set out to do and will report on here what happens…

Chaykin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82058206#Comment_82058206

For a minute I thought maybe Santander's RS works similarly to HSBC's RS where you can put money in earlier in the month than the "monthiversary" but it will not gain the advertised percentage interest until the "monthiversary".

But if you say interest was as expected then I'm willing to "risk it for a biscuit". I just transferred another £200 to my Santander RS after opening it and funding it with the first £200 on 24/06/2026. Going forward will fund it on the 1st of each month. Will also report here of any developments.

fabsaver

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82057634#Comment_82057634

I wouldn't be so keen to accept their decision. Yes they have the right to delay payments and make the checks they feel are necessary to prevent fraud. However in your case they stated they were "certain this is a scam".

This was clearly the wrong conclusion and you could argue that they failed to do the most basic of checks before arriving at this conclusion. Their poorly trained fraud team demonstrated a lack of understanding of how savings accounts work.

It's not hard to verify that it is a genuine building society, authorised and regulated by the FCA.

The sort code and account number you were using appears in several places in the FAQ on the Buckinghamshire website. https://www.bucksbs.co.uk/faqs/

Kim_13

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82058157#Comment_82058157

You can't undo it, but you can avoid making it a repeated and persistent breaching of the terms. It would be unreasonable to punish after one mistake, but arguably not if it becomes a pattern (although some/all Loughborough and Furness accounts will downgrade an account for a single missed payment.)

With that said, while you would have to accept them downgrading the account if that is what they do - it's not like you can force them to reinstate it - it would be your perogative to file a complaint about that fact on the basis that choosing only to enforce the terms after a prolonged period is unreasonable. Or to reopen the account if still available and follow the terms to the letter, since you wouldn't have a Regular Saver at that point (though there is a small chance Santander could block you from opening further accounts or decide that they will no longer offer you banking services.)