Northern Rock,new account.

Steve_xx

Beate wrote: »

I was just telling some friends that I am considering opening a bond with Northern Rock and they looked at me with this totally horrified look on their faces, saying "Don't invest in Northern Rock, they are going under!" Erm, well first of all at least the first £35,000 are 100% guaranteed by the government, aren't they, and secondly I know they are going through a troubled time, but this bond allows withdrawal of money at any time, so where is the danger? Am I missing something or are my friends just scaremongerers?

Actually, Northern Rock deposits are protected 100% at the moment. In reality that means that it is arguably the safest UK bank in which to deposit your savings at the moment.

worrypants

slouighflint
op clealry stated monthly interest into a nominated bank account so my figure is in fact correct:D

the rate of 6.9% does not apply to monthly interest
its 6.70% for monthly interest

Greycrow

molly-mandy
I've emailed them for confirmation of what they mean.[/quote]

Let us know what they reply, please.

sloughflint

worrypants wrote: »

slouighflint
so my figure is in fact correct:D

I disagree with you. Your figure would only be correct for the first month to be precise.
Please don't think I'm trying to score one up on you. It's such a negligible amount but I want to be clear as many people do not understand aer.
The aer for monthly and annual is the same ie 6.9% ( according to the table on the website) so SteveXX was perfectly correct in what he said ie £37.95 gross over the 12 month period.
Your figure would be valid for month one and then be slightly out for following months due to the compounding of the monthly interest paid to date.
£37.95 -12*3.07= £1.11

molly_mandy_2

Greycrow wrote: »

molly-mandy
I've emailed them for confirmation of what they mean.

Let us know what they reply, please.[/quote]


Here is a copy of their reply.

"Thank you for your email.
If you transfer half of your silver savings account to the new fixed rate access bond. You would not receive the bonus on the amount transferred.
I hope this resolves your inquiry.
Yours sincerely,"

I wanted them to be specific. This still doesn't make it clear if I will receive the bonus up to the day I transfer or lose it altogether.

Giving up now. Will simply wait for my bonus to arrive in my account and then look around for whatever is on offer. They will probably do issue 2 if this one has gone.

Steve_xx

molly_mandy wrote: »

Let us know what they reply, please.

Here is a copy of their reply.

"Thank you for your email.
If you transfer half of your silver savings account to the new fixed rate access bond. You would not receive the bonus on the amount transferred.
I hope this resolves your inquiry.
Yours sincerely,"

I wanted them to be specific. This still doesn't make it clear if I will receive the bonus up to the day I transfer or lose it altogether.

Giving up now. Will simply wait for my bonus to arrive in my account and then look around for whatever is on offer. They will probably do issue 2 if this one has gone.[/quote]

As I read it, their terms for payment of the bonus does not specify that you have to keep your cash in the account for any specific length of time. It merely says that the account has to be open from 1 December to March 2008. It says bonus will be calculated daily. Therefore, you should receive the additional bonus until the date on which you shift funds to the fixed rate product.

It is ambiguous, like so many things these days, not enough thought goes into what is written and the possible interpretation.

charlieboycat

Steve_xx wrote: »

It is ambiguous, like so many things these days, not enough thought goes into what is written and the possible interpretation.

Hear hear - I couldn't agree more. In my experience particularly prevalent with application forms issued by Government departments, agencies and quangos.

Getting back on topic, my interpretation of the various bits of text on NR's website is that:

- the bonus only applies to accounts that were open on 1 Jan (and remain open on 1 Mar).

- the bonus for each a/c that was open on 1 Jan is calculated on the daily balance in that a/c. Transfer money out and the amount transferred no longer earns bonus in that a/c.

- you "may" lose the future bonus that you could otherwise have earned on the amount transferred (eg. if the transfer was to an a/c that wasn't open on 1 Jan), but you wouldn't lose that future bonus if the transfer was to another NR a/c that was also open on 1 Jan.

- a 6.9% bond a/c couldn't have been open on 1 Jan, so on a transfer to such an a/c you "will" lose the future bonus that you could otherwise have earned on the amount transferred.

Steve_xx

charlieboycat wrote: »

- the bonus only applies to accounts that were open on 1 Jan (and remain open on 1 Mar).

- the bonus for each a/c that was open on 1 Jan is calculated on the daily balance in that a/c. Transfer money out and the amount transferred no longer earns bonus in that a/c.

- you "may" lose the future bonus that you could otherwise have earned on the amount transferred (eg. if the transfer was to an a/c that wasn't open on 1 Jan), but you wouldn't lose that future bonus if the transfer was to another NR a/c that was also open on 1 Jan.

- a 6.9% bond a/c couldn't have been open on 1 Jan, so on a transfer to such an a/c you "will" lose the future bonus that you could otherwise have earned on the amount transferred.

No, no, you're slightly wrong there. The bonus applies to accounts that were open on 1 December 2007, not 1 January 2008. But it only applies to the balances between 1 Jan and 1 March 2008.

Quote from NR site
"If you transfer money from an existing Northern Rock account you may not be eligible for your loyalty bonus of 0.50% gross."

This means that if you don't keep the money in you NR account between 1 Jan and 1st March then you will not qualify for the bonus. For example, if you had £500 in your NR account on 1 Jan and you moved £300 out today, then you would not get the 0.5% bonus for the days between 1 Jan and 27 Jan. On the other hand if you had £500 in the account on 1 Jan and you added more money to the account between 1 Jan and 1 March then you would get the 0.5% bonus on the balance each day.

Your comment on the 6.9% bond should read that it couldn't have been open on December 1st 2007 because it was not available then. Therefore the 0.5% bonus cannot be applied to this bond.

roddydogs

Surely youd be daft to transfer out of a Silver Saver as your getting 6.99% int until 1/4/08. Best thing it to open with a small amount and see what the situation is at 1/4/08, or have i got it wrong?. Then again, if its withdrawn, you cant then add more money

Optimist

roddydogs wrote: »

Surely youd be daft to transfer out of a Silver Saver as your getting 6.99% int until 1/4/08.

Where do you get that? I thought the Silver Saver was variable therefore if interest rates go down so does the Silver Saver rates