The Top Regular Savers Discussion Thread

Bigwheels1111

Re Santander, I’m trying to keep my head down under their radar.

I don’t have a current account with them, only two old easy access accounts from when they had the best rates.

It let me open the 8% reg saver though.

Only time will tell.

JB50MSE

Like many, I prefer RSs with the fewest possible account requirements. However, for an 8% (variable) RS, I am prepared to comply with Santander's T&Cs, which were clarified to me verbally when I opened my new Santander Everyday current account and my Santander Regular Saver accounts by telephone, last week. I could see both accounts open online within a few minutes.

My guess is that Santander know well that lots of people try alternative routes to max their RSs, and they want to entice people to have and use a Santander current account. I've already had a Santander switch bonus and I don't need a new current account but I can always close this Santander current account after a year or so, unless Santander have another enticing offer. It does seem that more and more banks and building socs are making enticing offers to existing customers, and some only to longer term existing customers.

The T&Cs say, "You can have this account if you have a Santander current account (but not a 1I2I3 Mini account held in Trust), whether in your sole name or joint names." So if you have a joint Santander current account, both you and the other joint account holder can have sole Santander RS, one each.

The Santander staff member told me verbally that all payments into the RS must come from a Santander current account, although confusingly the T&Cs say can, not must, "You can transfer money into the account from your Santander current account. You can make any number of payments into the account, up to the maximum monthly deposit amount."

And more about payments, quoting from the Santander T&Cs, "No minimum monthly deposit. You don’t have to pay money into the account each month or pay in the same amount. A ‘month’ is calculated by the date that you open your account. For example if you open the account on the 16th of a month, your month will run from 16th of one month to the 15th of the next month."

So to keep things simple, I've set up SOs to pay into my Santander RS on the "monthiversary" of its opening, from my new free and very simple Santander Everyday current account, which I will feed from elsewhere a couple of days before the "monthiversary."

You might get away with payments in from other accounts but, personally, I don't want to risk the potential hassle of Santander closing my RS. I wonder how long it will remain at 8% but it seems to me currently worth keeping if it's >6% AER.

KneadtheDough

RBS / Natwest / Ulster & Bucks Regular Saver issues

And now, after stupidly trying to send my second payment to Bucks, RBS has decided to suspend ALL my online banking. It seems holding the payment for 72+ hours wasn't enough for them. I honestly don't have the energy right now to go through another 1-hour call like last time. Anyone else had this suspension nonsense?

nottsphil

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059417#Comment_82059417

That's outrageous, and needs its own thread (in the Banking sub-forum).

Bridlington1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059417#Comment_82059417

I must confess, this is one of the reasons why I took the £50 and ran, I didn't want to push them into an account freeze as I'll be needing to empty my NatWest/RBS RSs at any point for the property purchase so now is not the time for me to deal with this on top.

I'd agree with @nottsphil though, for the account freeze itself I would say a separate thread is warranted for this matter as it could be a lengthy one.

dcs34

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059533#Comment_82059533

Couple of things to add on this topic for anyone else going through similar issues:

• I've raised a complaint with my Premier Banking Manager at NatWest and pointed out that this is affecting several customers across NW/RBS/UB (and by the sounds of it, many far more onerously than me!) - if enough people do the same this might encourage a proper "fix" by NW/RBS/UB rather than ad-hoc "will my payments go through" uncertainty/inconsistent handling by the Fraud Team call center etc.

• I've had a response from Buckinghamshire BS to my message to them pointing out these issues:

As Head of Savings, I really value hearing about customer experiences. I regularly review feedback, including comments on forums such as MSE, to identify themes and opportunities to improve our products and processes. We know a small number of customers have had similar experiences, and we’ve been looking into this carefully.

As you know, payment checks and fraud controls are managed by the sending bank and are therefore outside our direct control. That said, I’ll share the feedback we’ve received with our contacts at NatWest Group so they’re aware of the issues some customers have experienced. While we can’t influence their fraud processes directly, I hope this helps them look into the matter further where appropriate.

flaneurs_lobster

@dcs34 good feedback, thanks for taking the time.

snow62

I also had Natwest fraud team contact me last Sunday re Buckinghamshire RS. 10 minute conversation then initial payment went through after that. However, utterly fed up with it all, so I've now changed connected account to Santander. Will give it a couple more days and then try to send July payment through.

ForumUser7

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059587#Comment_82059587

Guys, if you ever needed evidence that these companies do check the forums, here it is. Loopholes posted may eventually get closed! 😂

kaMelo

I'm clearly in the minority here as payments to Bucks BS from my RBS account have gone through okay without any hint of a fraud intervention from RBS.

I don't know if that's down to it being RBS rather than NatWest/Ulster, or maybe my long history of making lots of payments to different institutions for regular savers around the beginning of the month, or something else. At least it shows there is not an automatic block for everyone within the NatWest group.