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NatWest Reduce Savings Interest Rates
Posted on: 9th August 2020 9:28pm
Interest rates awarded to savings account holders are to be further reduced by NatWest later this month. These altered rates are set to come into effect on the on August 18th. This comes after earlier reductions on certain account types back in April. NatWest justified its decision by saying the rates were reduced upon reviewing both its own rates and those of its competitors. This being said, back in March NatWest abstained from cutting rates on savings accounts after the Bank of England not for the first time cut the base rate.
The Savings Builder account introduced by NatWest two years ago in 2018. Initially this account offered a rate of 1.5% on sums worth less than £10,000, and 0.2% on those exceeding this. Although already slashing the 1.5% rate on accounts worth less than £10,000 in April 2020 to a mere 1%, this new round of cuts will reduce the rate again to 0.75%. This puts the rate to be reduced to half of what it stood at in 2018. The same occurring to those with over £10,000 in their account. The rate on accounts holding over £10,000 will see a reduction on interest to 0.01%.
Those with a NatWest Individual Savings Account should also expect to see reductions on their interest rates. Currently the interest rates on NatWest’s cash ISA’s stand at 0.01% on accounts holding up to £49,999, and for those holding more than £50,000 the rate is 0.25%. After the 18th of August the 0.25% rate shall be reduced to just 0.1%. The new rate will mean an individual with £100,000 in their ISA can expect to only expect to earn £100 interest annually.
Premium saver accounts will undergo less reductions to their various rates however they’re not all entirely unaffected in this fresh round of cuts. Although the 0.01% rate on balances between £1 to £24,999, and £25,000 to £49,999 is remaining the same, premium saver accounts with between £50,000 and £1m will have interest reduced from 0.35% to 0.2%. Despite this, accounts exceeding £1m which currently earn 0.01% interest will continue to do so and remain unaltered.
This must come as a shock to many loyal NatWest customers given both the now meagre amount of interest their accounts will earn, as well as the fact this is the second round of interest rate cuts by the bank this year. The question must of course now be what is next for NatWest, will we see further cuts or will they instead eventually rejuvenate them as the economy begins the stabilise post Covid-19? One thing will certainly be clear however, many individuals who have their savings effected by these cuts by NatWest will be far from delighted by this decision.
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Sky Broadband Buddy Falls Short
Posted on: 4th June 2019 6:13pm
Sky have been pushing their new parental control service called Sky Broadband Buddy, however, it has fallen short of customer expectations and received poor reviews.
Customers believe this service should be bundled with their existing package however reports seem to indicate that Sky requires customers to sign up for an extended contract and purchase a product called Broadband boost. Some customers believe the service should be bundled with their existing service instead of being part of a Sky Broadband Boost paid service.
The Buddy service went live on 17th May 2019 and is priced at £2.50 for existing and new customers. This is an introductory offer and service is set to rise to £5.00 per month after the initial 18-month contract -
Wonga Forced to Write Off Millions.
Posted on: 5th October 2014 7:36pm
Wonga's new chief executive, Andy Haste, has been forced to write off millions by the FCA (the new City Regulator, Financial Conduct Authority). This was brought about by a ruling from the FCA this week that the company should not have lent money to people who could never afford to pay it back. Andy Haste accepted that his company should have been more vigilant with their credit checking procedures.
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Nationwide Profits Through The Roof in Housing Surge
Posted on: 18th August 2014 6:08pm
High street building society Nationwide has witnessed profits rising substantially in the months from April to June 2014. Profits have more than doubled in this period. This equates to £263m which is an increase of 117% for the same time last year. Statutory profit was up 141%, to £253m in the quarter. This is apparently despite lending to homebuyers reducing by one third. This in turn is a result partly, of more stringent regulations on granting mortgages.
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eBay Site Crashes Again!
Posted on: 14th August 2014 4:36pm
For the tenth time this year eBay's website crashed. The popular online auctioneer was unable to trade for most of last Tuesday. This was not great timing as eBay have now announced that some costs to sellers will be increased. This announcement merely added fuel to fire for unhappy traders who claimed to have lost business due to the crash.
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How safe is your Barclays ISA?
Posted on: 7th August 2014 6:48pm
As of this November Barclays are moving customers who have ISAs to an alternative Instant Cash ISA which gives a worse rate of interest. This is due to them removing 11 of their cash ISA products, which are now unavailable to new customers. The change will impact on 1.6 million customers leaving them with a worse rate. Only 740,000 will remain unaltered or on an improved rate.
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Warmer Weather Hits British Gas Profits.
Posted on: 1st August 2014 6:50pm
British Gas domestic supply operating profits have fallen following a previous price increase in 2013. Customers rushed to turn off their heating thermostats as a result of the warmer weather in an effort to save money on energy bills. This in turn resulted in British Gas profits plunging by 26% brining their profit down by £265 million in the first six months of 2014, from 2013.
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eBay Urges Users to Change Passwords after Hack
Posted on: 22nd May 2014 9:37am
eBay are asking customers to change passwords after their systems were compromised. To date there is no evidence of illegal or suspicious activity on members accounts however it said that password changes are best practice to increase security for its users. eBay engineers are currently rolling out a feature that asks customers to change their passwords when they log in to their account. This feature should go live worldwide on 22nd May 2014.
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SSE Announces Pre-tax Profit of £1.55bn
Posted on: 21st May 2014 9:56pm
SSE has reported a rise in profits of 9.6% to £1.55bn. SSE, amongst other members of the big six energy companies have come under fire in recent years for increasing gas and electricity tariffs. SSE is the UK's second largest energy supplier with over 9.6 million customers who will no doubt be infuriated by this latest profit report. The only winners are of course SSE's shareholders who have benefited from a 3% rise in dividends.
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New Banking Standards Review Council
Posted on: 20th May 2014 12:12pm
A new Banking Standards Review Council is set to launch which will oversee the behaviour and competence of the industry. Sir Richard Lambert who is acting as interim chairman has set out the BSRC proposal. The body will be funded by the banking industry and early adopters include HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Nationwide, RBS, Standard Charter and Santander.