Regular Savings Accounts Article Discussion

notalk

The BoI website with the hyphens - www.bank-of-ireland.co.uk is the one intended for customers in England, Wales and Scotland, and doesn't offer the Regular Savings account.

But the website without the hyphens, quoted by Long Term Lurker and myself - www.bankofireland.co.uk - is the Northern Ireland site which offers the 10% Regular Savers account. You don't have to live in Norn Iron to benefit from this account, which is why I've signed up to it.

I'm not sure why the BoI aren't advertising it in England, Wales and Scotland.

LongTermLurker

notalk wrote: »

The BoI website with the hyphens - www.bank-of-ireland.co.uk is the one intended for customers in England, Wales and Scotland, and doesn't offer the Regular Savings account.

But the website without the hyphens, quoted by Long Term Lurker and myself - www.bankofireland.co.uk - is the Northern Ireland site which offers the 10% Regular Savers account. You don't have to live in Norn Iron to benefit from this account, which is why I've signed up to it.

I'm not sure why the BoI aren't advertising it in England, Wales and Scotland.

I'd missed that point totally - why on earth should they have a localised website? We're all park of the United Kingdom. I suspect they've just registered the two domains and have interlinked them, rather than intending them to be localised.

Leads me to http://www.bank-of-ireland.co.uk/about/rates.html which makes no mention of the current accounts in the rates PDF.

Not sure whether the interest rates page I looked at had hyphens or not; basically, I followed notalk's link, went through the info and clicked a rates link. As you say Paul, there's no mention of rates for that lower Demand Deposit account either - not overly transparent. Still a potentially good account though.

Paul_Herring

LongTermLurker wrote: »

We're all park of the United Kingdom.

When did Ireland join the UK? (You're either thinking of Northern Ireland, or Europe )

Paul_Herring

OK, I went hunting on the 'local' site:

http://www.bankofireland.co.uk/bank-of-ireland-group/rates-and-fees/4/

There is no interest paid on credit balances unless you're on Clear Account - Level 3 (sounds like something from Scientology... ;/ It's the 'level' you're on if you pay in less than £500 per month) and even then it's a whopping 0.1%

So after paying in your £1000 'wages' to this bank, you need to get it moved sharpish out again.

langlauf

I have recently opened a Halifax Regular Saver account and was told that you couldn't open a Guaranteed Saver Reward account to bump up the 10% to 12% You can choose from other accounts to bump up the 10% to 12% such as the Guaranteed Saver account which pays 5%AER and not the 6.25%AER quoted in the Money Saving website article.
Please reply if you feel that I have been given the wrong info but if you look at the Halifax website I think you'll find that what I am saying is accurate.

sloughflint

langlauf wrote: »

I have recently opened a Halifax Regular Saver account and was told that you couldn't open a Guaranteed Saver Reward account to bump up the 10% to 12% You can choose from other accounts to bump up the 10% to 12% such as the Guaranteed Saver account which pays 5%AER and not the 6.25%AER quoted in the Money Saving website article.
Please reply if you feel that I have been given the wrong info but if you look at the Halifax website I think you'll find that what I am saying is accurate.

Incorrect.
The account is a qualifying account for the RS to boost to 12%.
The 'reward' account is merely a guaranteed saver which earns a greater rate if opened before 10th August, the withdrawals restrictions are followed and minimum balance maintained ( £2500 for the 6.25%,£5000 for the 12% on RS).
As long as no more than one withdrawal, the account will earn 6.25%

Kellm9

Hi,

I opened a Halifax regular saver account yesterday in branch.

From MSE I went armed with the account I needed to boost from 10% to 12%, namely the Guaranteed saver.

At my "interview" I successfully opened the Regular saver but when I said I wanted the Guaranteed saver to get the extra 2% they suggested an alternative paying a higher rate and allowing upto 4 withdrawls per year. It was the Bank Of Scotland Instant AccessSavings account. Now I queried this and they said it was definately acceptable as a qualifying nominated account and it pays 6.5%.

When I got home I was a little concerned that I might have been given wrong advice so I called the Halifax online savings number. They said the Bank Of Scotland account definately qualifies and gave me a reference for my records. I asked why it was not on the website and she said they can only put Halifax accounts on the Halifax website and ditto for BOS. However in branch they can swap and change since it is the same bank. Hope this makes sense and helps someone get a higher rate although it's getting late now.

Cheers Kellm9

YorkshireBoy

Kellm9 wrote: »

...she said they can only put Halifax accounts on the Halifax website and ditto for BOS.

Not strictly true. There are several Halifax accounts listed on the BoS personal banking website here...

http://www.bankofscotlandhalifax.co.uk/savings/savingsatglance.asp

...and on that site, the IASAR *is* listed as a qualifying account.

I'd be getting what they 'said' in writing though, just so you have something to help you chase the missing 2% next year, should you need to.

LongTermLurker

Paul_Herring wrote: »

When did Ireland join the UK? (You're either thinking of Northern Ireland, or Europe )

OP was talking of Northern Ireland wasn't he?

Great Britain = England, Scotland & Wales.
The "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" to give it it's full name was a later addition.

edit:

But the website without the hyphens, quoted by Long Term Lurker and myself - www.bankofireland.co.uk - is the Northern Ireland site

Yup, I was right! :j:T:cool:

edit 2 - and if it was Eire he was talking about, the domain would have a .ie suffix, not .co.uk (not always necessarily true, but I would expect banks to register in the intended country of business)

YorkshireBoy

I formed the impression that the hyphenated web address was for business customers only, not personal banking customers?