Coventry Building Society has launched a Loyalty Regular Saver for existing customers, offering a rate of 6.75%.
The Loyalty Regular Saver (2) account pays a variable 6.75% AER/gross per annum, and is available to eligible members who have been with the society since at least 1 January 2023.
This includes anybody who has been named on, or linked to (e.g. attorney, registered contact, etc.), a savings or mortgage product with either Coventry, ITL or Godiva continuously since that date.
However, you can only hold one Loyalty Regular Saver product at any time, which means if you’re already signed up to the Coventry’s Loyalty Regular Saver launched in November paying 7%, you won’t be able to get this one too.
Likewise, it’s a maximum of one per person at any one time, so if you’re named on a joint Loyalty Regular Saver, you can’t also hold a sole one.
However, if you’re an adult linked to a child’s account, for example you’re the registered contact for a Coventry junior ISA, then the parent/named guardian is eligible to open the Regular Saver.
It can be opened online, in branch, over the phone or by post, though it can only be managed via phone and online. You can, however, make deposits in branch.
Savers can deposit between £1 and £250 per month for 12 months (including joint accounts) and this can be from both internal and external transfers, standing orders, cash or cheque.
If the maximum £250 is saved every month, after a year (based on the unchanged rate and zero withdrawals), savers would have a total amount standing at £3,109.43 – that’s over £100 in interest.
But the account can be accessed during the 12 months, though withdrawals are subject to a charge equal to 30 days’ interest on the amount taken out.
After 12 months, the account matures into an Easy Access Saver (7) – a variable rate account that allows unlimited withdrawals and currently pays a rate of 3.1%.
If you don’t qualify for the mutual’s latest offering, its Regular Saver (6) account is open to all new and existing customers in branch, online, by post or over the phone, paying a rate of 5%. You can deposit up to £500 per month with no monthly minimum. Plus, you don’t need a linked account to qualify.
How good is this latest offering from Coventry?
For the two million Coventry members, this is a decent offering, though the rate is down on its previous issue when it stood at 7%. If you’ve got this earlier edition, you can’t also bag this one.
If you’re now in a position to open the latest issue, then by rate alone, this isn’t market-leading, as the likes of Gatehouse Bank, The Co-operative Bank and First Direct all pay 7%, though Gatehouse offers an expected profit rate under Islamic banking Sharia principles.
According to Savings Champion, savers in Gatehouse and Co-op can tuck away up to £300 per month, but with Gatehouse, there’s no access to your cash during the period.
Meanwhile, Co-op and First Direct do allow access to your cash, but the product is only available to respective current account holders.
Elsewhere, Coventry does pip Nationwide’s 6.5% AER on its Flex Regular Saver Issue 3 – again only available to current account customers.
Jonathan Wilson, senior savings propositions manager at Coventry Building Society, said: “As a member-owned organisation, we don’t have shareholders to pay. And our loyalty accounts offering exclusive rates to our two million members are a way of rewarding those who choose to keep saving with us.
“We think our new Loyalty Regular Saver (2) will be popular with our long-standing members as it offers great value for those wanting to get into a savings habit.
“And we’ve tried to be as flexible as we can to cater for our members who want to build up their savings in different ways. Some may want to save every week, for others it may be once a month, and some might want to take a break from saving from time to time. We’ve kept the minimum balance at just £1 and there’s no limit on the number of times savers can put money in over the year, as long as it doesn’t exceed £250 in a month.”
