Shawbrook Bank 6m fixed rate bond

[bluedonkey]

I'm about to take out a six month bond with Shawbrook Bank, paying 2% AER. This will be a substantial sum for me, though below the £85,000 compensation limit. I don't want to tie up for more than 6m.

Shopping around for savings interest rates isn't something I have done much in the past but I'm happy to go ahead with this 6m deposit. BUT before I do, any comments?

Thanks.

[didds]

so when you take your money out, is that the Shawbrook Redemption ?

[Pendrainllwyn]

Although Shawbrook is unlisted their financial statements are available on their website. At first glance they appear to be doing well. If I needed some income over 6 months I would consider it but before I invested a "substantial sum" my inclination would be to see what other options there were and consider spreading it around several bond providers. Could you afford to lose it all?

so when you take your money out, is that the Shawbrook Redemption ?

Shawbrook claim they are unecumbered by legacy infrastructure so providing an option to withdraw your money by lifting stones under an old oak tree is rather quaint.

Pendrainllwyn

[fisher]

I have used Shawbrook in the past and they were fine. In fact, they seemed very efficient. They are covered by the FSCS which guarantees your money up to 85K as I understand it.

[bluedonkey]

Although Shawbrook is unlisted their financial statements are available on their website. At first glance they appear to be doing well. If I needed some income over 6 months I would consider it but before I invested a "substantial sum" my inclination would be to see what other options there were and consider spreading it around several bond providers. Could you afford to lose it all?

so when you take your money out, is that the Shawbrook Redemption ?

Shawbrook claim they are unecumbered by legacy infrastructure so providing an option to withdraw your money by lifting stones under an old oak tree is rather quaint.

Pendrainllwyn

I believe that I wouldn't "lose it all" as I will be under the £85k compensation limit.

[DeepSporran]

My experience, if it helps :

I have used Shawbrook for fixed term accounts in the past without problems and still had a valid web userid.

I have successfully opened the 6 month account under discussion this week and made a couple of deposits into it from my nominated external current account

Each deposit was confirmed by a text to my mobile within a couple of hours, followed by an email that evening by which time I could see online that the account balance had been updated.

[mc2fool]

I'm about to take out a six month bond with Shawbrook Bank, paying 2% AER. This will be a substantial sum for me, though below the £85,000 compensation limit. I don't want to tie up for more than 6m.

Shopping around for savings interest rates isn't something I have done much in the past but I'm happy to go ahead with this 6m deposit. BUT before I do, any comments?

I've been using Shawbrook for almost 5 years now, for a variety of instant access and 1 year fixed rate accounts, although at the moment I have them in "dormant" mode, meaning that all my savings are spread elsewhere and there's just £1 in them just to keep an account with them open (makes opening further accounts a tad less typing as an existing customer).

I'd agree with fisher that they're fine, seem efficient, and would say they just work -- after all, pretty much all we want from savings banks is that they do as expected with no faff or surprises, and Shawbrook certainly qualify there in my experience -- but I'll go a little further than that in that they'll do something that I've asked a lot of banks to do and, so far, have only had Shawbrook reply in the positive.

I'm sure were all familiar with the situation where ABC Bank issues, say, Easy Access Account Issue 12 earning, say, 1%pa. So you open that and bung some money in it, then a few months later they issue Easy Access Account Issue 13 earning 1.2%pa, but issue 12 stays at 1%.

Well whenever that's happened I've tried asking, can you please upgrade my issue 12 to an issue 13 account, and pretty much all say, no, I have to open a new issue 13 a/c and transfer the funds from and close the issue 12, yada yada.

All except Shawbrook who say sure and just do it, and it is an upgrade, not just them doing an open-transfer-close for me; the issue number on the account changes, as does the interest rate, but everything else stays the same: it keeps the same sort code and account number, the statements are continuous, the tax certificate covers all interest, etc. (I'm sure someone will popup and say they'd prefer the open-transfer-close; well I don't and there still is that option for that that do!).

Ok, that's maybe not directly relevant for the 6 month 2% bond (which looks interesting, I'll check it out), but it is a positive story about their customer service.

The only small negative, one which we're all becoming increasingly used to, is that they do require a customer number + password + OTP to your mobile for every login.

[dealtn]

Just be aware that if FSCS protection is an important driver for you in decision making about a location for savings, that not all "bonds" receive that protection. It isn't unheard of for you to be a "creditor", and treated as such in any potential bankruptcy, and not a "depositor" as a bond holder at a financial institution.

It doesn't look to be the case here though.

[raybarrow]

Hi,

Well whenever that's happened I've tried asking, can you please upgrade my issue 12 to an issue 13 account, and pretty much all say, no, I have to open a new issue 13 a/c and transfer the funds from and close the issue 12, yada yada.

All except Shawbrook who say sure and just do it, and it is an upgrade,

OakNorth will upgrade to a 'better' issue. Just email them, job done.

I use Shawbrook, never had a problem.

Ray.