When the Savings Plan option was implemented, I also jumped on the bandwagon soon afterwards and set one up to add money on a monthly basis to the cash account of my ISA. It was set up to run on the 1st of every month, with the first direct debit payment running on the 1st of July 2023.
Was surprised to notice this morning that no money has left my bank account and nothing paid into my ISA cash account. Logging onto my account, I now see that the Savings Plan status shows as OFF.
I cannot recall if there were a time limit or payment count, but pretty sure Itâs supposed to be running indefinite until I manually cancel it. Obviously, I have not cancelled anything; not on the IE platform, nor on my bank account. I have sufficient funds in my bank account, so itâs not like the direct debit bounced due to insufficient funds. To the best of my recollection, I have not had any prompts to either cancel or to continue with payments. So really baffled as to what happened here.
Anyone else have the same issue, or is it a âjust meâ problem?
Itâs not really such a big deal, but sure as heck is annoying.
My Savings Plan was connected to HSBC - they have stopped supporting Open Banking months ago. I now transfer via standing order which was nice ânâ easy to set up.
Yup, looks like thatâs the case looking at your first link, although I have not received an email notification from IE (yet). Iâm with Nationwide and all the previous transactions were labelled as âInvestEngine UK via TrueLayerâ
Now I know whatâs going on, I will make a manual topup payment now and then set up a standing order in Nationwide for the first of the month starting 1st April.
Iâm with HSBC - apparently they donât support Savings Plans at all - whatever the frequency. Iâve set up a standing order instead - works like clockwork.
Might be worth checking your Spam folder to see if this email got misdirected⌠and then add the sender address as a contact so it doesnât happen again.
Nope, nothing there All other emails from IE come through so would be weird if it got flagged. The fact this happened to more than just me suggests nothing was sent me thinks.
Youâre one of the chosen ones! I have just gone back and checked and nothing about VRPâs Have done a manual standing order now so hopefully all is fine now.
I dont delete any mail. I just checked again and nothing was sent to me especially during the timestamp @Pinch listed above.
I assume they sent it based on what bank it was and maybe they skipped Nationwide (in my case)
Either way, the mystery has been solved and I have set up a Standing Order from Nationwide, so all is good.
IEâs execution of communicating this issue is sub-par though. Just hiding it in the FAQ pages where it is not easily noticed is not how I would have done so. Only after @Pinch pointed me in that direction with a link did I find out.
If a number of people in this thread have not received any emails about their savings plans having been / going to be stopped at all - probably best to contact IE CS directly with the relevant details about which account / portfolio it is about.
What isnât clear from the linked article in my first reply is when IE knew that these savings plans would no longer be supported⌠âA number of banks have recently informed usâŚâ is not exactly giving any concrete timeframes now, is it?
Thanks for reaching out. Weâve recently had to stop VRP (Variable Recurring Payments) for several banks, and communications regarding this change were sent out yesterday (Monday, 3rd March). It sounds like this may be the reason why your Savings Plan status has changed to âOFFâ and why the expected payment did not go through.
To get things back on track, you may wish to set up a Direct Debit instead. You can read more about this here.
If youâd like any assistance with this or have any further questions, please drop an email to support@investengine.com
The difference between direct debits and standing orders are that with a SO you are in control of it and you manage it. You set the payment amount, frequency and the duration.
Theoretically with a direct debit the external company can take whatever they want whenever they want out of your bank account. They are in control, and if they screw up and do a double charge as example you might be out of cash until they reverse it.
That is why I personally prefer standing orders over direct debit. I want to be in charge of what leaves my bank account and when. Yes, I do have direct debits; example gas and electric, TV Licence etc.
Just making an opinionated point here but the bottom line is, if you have a standing order set up you are golden. Personal choice really.
apply to you?
