Kent Reliance Changes - should I open new ISA

rallycurve

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82074978#Comment_82074978

This is interesting! I also complained about this and they only offered me a small compensation amount saying:

We are unable to waive any applicable loss of interest or early access charges where these
would otherwise apply under the account terms and conditions.

It is currently with the Financial Obudsman to decide whether this is acceptable/legal

Area88

Can I ask how much they offered you? I did ask for compensation as well but they didn’t offer me anything.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82075119#Comment_82075119

Is the ability to continue to deposit during the term a published product feature within the account Ts & Cs, or is it something that just happened to work previously?

rallycurve

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82075217#Comment_82075217

They gave me £30 compensation. But that amount is nowhere near what I'd have to pay should I decide to reject the changes and transfer out my ISA early (over £700)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82075415#Comment_82075415

Yes, it is in the terms and conditions:

Transfer of additional ISA funds from other providers must be received within 30 days of your account being opened.Once your account is open and you have made your opening deposit, you can make unlimited additional deposits subject to HMRC limits. Additional deposits can be made by cash (only available at our branches), cheque or bank transfer. We do not accept deposits by debit card into your account.

Yet they insist they aren't changing the terms and conditions by removing this facility...

soulsaver

Is there anything in the terms that allows them to vary anything, for any reason, maybe with notice?

If not, seems to me like a complaint is warranted.

I also have a KR 3 year fix and opened it purely for this functionality in case rates dropped.

However I found better options. What rate are you looking to add to?

rallycurve

I don't think there is any clause allowing them to change the terms and conditions even with notice. They have given notice but wouldn't you need to agree to those anyway? I wouldn't have agreed to a product that can change their terms and conditions unilaterally.

My rate might not be the best to add funds right now but I don't want to keep my money fixed in this account if I can't add any more funds. Due to this facility, I was happy to have a lower rate in case rates dropped, but if removed there is no point. They should allow you to move out as this is clearly a detrimental change

DRS1

Their Savings Account Conditions from July 2025 (which may well not apply to the accounts you are talking about has a Condition 16 allowing changes which says

16.1 We can change our Agreement:
• to take account of any changes in law, regulatory requirements, industry guidance or codes of practice;
• to take account of a decision by a court, ombudsman, regulator or similar body;
• to provide for the introduction of new or improved systems, methods of operation, services or facilities;
• to fix any errors, inaccuracies or ambiguities we may discover;
• to make it clearer or more favourable to you;
• to take account of any reorganisation we may conduct within the group of companies we’re a member of, or to transfer our rights and obligations under this Agreement to another company in our group, or
• to respond to a change in the costs we incur in delivering our products and services to our customers.

16.2 We may also change the Agreement for any other reason, unless your Account is for a fixed term.
16.3 We may convert your Account to another account in our range if we have a valid reason (for example, if you are no longer eligible for the Account or we decide to no longer offer that particular type of account), and your Account is not for a fixed period.
16.4 The table below sets out how far in advance we will tell you about any change, how we will contact you about the change and whether you can close your Account if you don’t like the change. If there is a change to the Payment Service Agreement we will always tell you about the change two months in advance by email, a message on your statement, or in any other way that will be sent to you individually but whether you may close your Account (without notice, loss of interest or additional charges) as a result of the change will depend on whether it is to your disadvantage and whether it is a change made in accordance with Condition 16.2.
16.5 We may also add or change the look and functionality of the Online Services without changing the Agreement, but if such a change does mean there is a change to the Agreement we will make that change in accordance with this Condition 16.

I have highlighted bits which may be relevant. Notably the general power to make changes for any reason does not seem to apply to fixed term accounts. But maybe the bit about new systems would allow the change even for fixed term accounts.

And as I say these may not be the right conditions anyway.

SnowMan

No legal training or expertise on this but Kent Reliance will be subject to consumer law and in particular the Consumer Rights Act 2015 including the provisions relating to unfair contract term and examples set out in schedule 2.

If Kent Reliance are going to unilaterally change a significant term and condition during the term of a fixed rate account (in this case as I understand an explicit term that further deposits are allowed mid-term with no specific caveats only general conditions on when they can change terms generally) then they need to do this for a valid reason or at least offer penalty free exit. Changing computer systems is unlikely to be considered valid under the law in my view. If say a new law had come in saying that further deposits wouldn't be allowed into an existing fixed rate ISAs that would be a 'valid' reason.

The fact that the term is an unusual one isn't really relevant but it does mean there aren't really precedents.

Whether the Financial Ombudsman Service would judge a term unfair that a legal expert would consider unfair is another matter. They might more likely judge that as the terms in relation to the original deposit are being honoured, and the change is an innocent one in that the change of systems does stop them accepting new deposits into the fixed account, then Kent Reliance are treating the customer fairly, and it's not for them to judge if a change is unfair under the law.