Finance Choices
Intelligent Finance Savings Account
Intelligent Finance Savings Account
The Intelligent Finance Savings Account offers a great rate of interest applied to all balances of 4.75 AER (correct at time of writing). Your interest is calculated on the basis of daily balances allowing your funds to accumulate nicely throughout the month.
You get quick access to your money with funds transferred to your choice of bank account in a matter of days with no charges when you withdraw money or close your account. You are allowed an nnlimited number of withdrawals and can start saving today with as little as £1.
You can also use your savings to help reduce interest payments on your borrowings so if you have a mortgage the Intelligent Finance Savings Account will allow you to offset your interest payments against your mortgage.
Summary
Intelligent Finance offer a Direct Access Savings account which does exactly what is says on the tin. This Intelligent Finance Savings account gives you quick and easy access to your money as often as you want. A minimum deposit of £1 brings you?re a very competitive interest rate (4.75%). Intelligent Finance's Direct Access Savings Account gives you the flexibility to withdraw your money at any time with no penalties or charges. Intelligent Finance also offer the option of using your savings balance to offset your Intelligent Finance Mortgage, Credit Card or Loan, you could reduce the amount of interest you pay, and pay off your mortgage early.
Apply now
The Intelligent Finance Savings Account offers a great rate of interest applied to all balances of 4.75 AER (correct at time of writing). Your interest is calculated on the basis of daily balances allowing your funds to accumulate nicely throughout the month.
You get quick access to your money with funds transferred to your choice of bank account in a matter of days with no charges when you withdraw money or close your account. You are allowed an nnlimited number of withdrawals and can start saving today with as little as £1.
You can also use your savings to help reduce interest payments on your borrowings so if you have a mortgage the Intelligent Finance Savings Account will allow you to offset your interest payments against your mortgage.
Summary
Intelligent Finance offer a Direct Access Savings account which does exactly what is says on the tin. This Intelligent Finance Savings account gives you quick and easy access to your money as often as you want. A minimum deposit of £1 brings you?re a very competitive interest rate (4.75%). Intelligent Finance's Direct Access Savings Account gives you the flexibility to withdraw your money at any time with no penalties or charges. Intelligent Finance also offer the option of using your savings balance to offset your Intelligent Finance Mortgage, Credit Card or Loan, you could reduce the amount of interest you pay, and pay off your mortgage early.
Apply now
posted by Barbara Gordon at 11:59 AM
Intelligent Finance Savings Account
2 Comments:
After turning 18 and the bank I was currently with (beginning with N) wouldnt give me a debit card I decided to look else where. My Dad is quite money wise and told me to look in the newspapers for best current account and savings accounts rates. The best came up as Intelligent Finance - I didnt just judge on interest rates but on flexibility of accounts, when you could speak to people in the bank, and the ease of me moving money between accounts.
I have been with Intelligent Finance for nearly 3 years now and have had no problems what so ever. The disadvantage I listed about only paying in cheques by post is a small one for me as due to modern technology money can be transferred from other people via bank transfer via the internet.
Even though you have most dealings with your money online, you still have the option to receive paper statements and information. And the most important thing, you can pick up the phone and talk to someone 24/7.
The interest rates are very competitive not only on the current or savings accounts but also on loans and mortgages. You also have the option to offset your money in two different ways to save you the most money.
I have had 1 experience of being overdrawn for 10 days and my charge was nothing compared to the £25 I got charged just for a letter from the other bank beginning with N. (That wasnt including the interest - £25 just for the letter)
OK ... I started off being really quite pleased, and proud of my Intelligent Finance accounts. I had been a student, and we all know what students are like with money. This was my first "working now ... going straight" account, and I opened up the current account, credit card and savings account.
All was fine, until I had a reasonably large sum of money sent from the US. This was funds from a sale of stock in the company for which I work. Most of my work colleagues were receiving their money on the 4th working day after selling the shares in the US. Mine was taking nearer 10 working days.
I queried this with IF, and after much umming and arring, they admitted to me that they could not tell when funds wired to my account from the US would arrive. It wasn't the 3,000 mile journey that was the problem. They agreed that the funds were basically in the UK on the 3rd or 4th working day. But they said that all International funds went via the Bank of Scotland, and "that they couldn't tell when they would pass the money on."
Now if I was talking to a company that was completely seperate from the Bank of Scotland, then I could have understood this. But seeing as IF is part of the Halifax, and both the Halifax and the Bank Of Scotland are part of Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), I found this rather hard to palate.
So hard to palate, in fact, that I wrote them a steaming letter telling them that I was disgusted, and that I wanted compensation. They apologised, paid up, and I promptly changed my bank to First Direct, whom I knew could support the fast International transfers.
I kept the IF account open, but it is no longer my main account. I can't trust them with my money. In this electronic age, who wants to be kept waiting a week longer than is necessary for several thousand pounds!
I also had another problem with IF, involving a personal loan that I applied for, in 2001. I originally applied for £5,000, was accepted, then changed my mind, and decided to go for £11,000. They then accepted again, and told me they would sort out all of the changes.
I proceeded to put down a £250 deposit on a car, and waited about a week and a half for some money to arrive in my account. When it finally did arrive, it was the original £5,000. It took them another two days to get the actual £11,000 that I had asked for. It was made all the more embarrassing by the fact that the car salesman was continually chasing me for the money.
And finally - payment holidays! I requested a payment holiday in December 2003. I requested it in good time, and it was acknowledged. Unfortunately the money was still taken from my First Direct account. I got straight onto IF, and they apologised, and said they would send it back, but that it would take a few days. I had no choice but to wait.
So they sent the money back to my current account, and debited it again from the loan account ... and then credited it again to the loan account. So by this time, I had the loan money back in my current account, but the loan account appeared to have been paid that month.
A couple of months afterwards, I received a letter telling me that I hadn't paid the December payment. I explained the payment holiday, but this seemed to be totally ignored. Around six months after the original problem, I received an extremely threatening letter, to which I responded with an explaination of exactly what they had done, and sent my new compensation costs.
I'm pleased to say that a grovelling letter came back, with full payment of my costs, but you really just don't need this kind of service, do you? Perhaps I have just been unlucky, but one thing was for certain ... I was not trusting them with our mortgage!
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