Savings Terms and Conditions

This page explains the general terms and conditions which apply to savings accounts with Scottish Building Society.

1 Introduction

1.1 These terms and conditions (referred to as the "Conditions") apply to all savings accounts with the Society, except where they are inconsistent with conditions specific to particular accounts (as described in the appropriate product leaflet) in which case those conditions will apply instead.

1.2 In the Conditions

  • "the Society", "we", "us" and "our" refer to Scottish Building Society;
  • "you" and "your" refer to holders of savings accounts; and
  • "account" includes any type of account in which you may have money invested.

2 Membership

2.1 If these Conditions apply to your account you will (except where the account is a deposit account) be a member of the Society and therefore our Rules will apply. However these Conditions, or any relevant special conditions for a particular account, will override the Rules in case of any inconsistency. A copy of the Rules is available on request from any office of the Society or by writing to Freepost RLYC-AAGE-YURH, Scottish Building Society, SBS House, 193 Dalry Road, Edinburgh EH11 2EF.

2.2 New investing members are subject to the Society's Charitable Assignation Scheme, which is explained more fully in Section 12.

3 Opening an account

3.1 You must provide us with your full name, current address and date of birth when you apply to open an account. If you are applying to open an Individual Savings Account (ISA), you must also provide your National Insurance number if you have one.

3.2 We are required by legislation to confirm your identity and address before we open an account for you and, by signing the application form, you acknowledge that we may make any enquiries we consider necessary to satisfy our legal obligations in this regard.

3.3 We may ask you to provide documentary evidence for this purpose, copies of which will be retained in accordance with regulatory requirements. We may also use a Credit Reference Agency to verify your details. A record of any such search will be retained but will not affect your ability to obtain credit.

3.4 The requirements of conditions 3.2 to 3.3 apply also to anyone for whom you are acting in operating the account and, if you are under 18 years of age, to your parent, legal guardian or other adult opening or operating the account for you.

4 Changing your mind

4.1 You may change your mind if you are unhappy about your choice of account by notifying us in writing within 14 days. We will then help you to switch to another of our accounts, or give you back your money together with any interest it has earned. We will ignore any notice period and any extra charges which might otherwise apply. Cheque receipts will not be repaid until the relevant clearance period has passed (see Section 10).

4.2 The 14 days starts from the day the account is opened, or (if later) the day you receive these terms and conditions and other information relating to your account.

4.3 Please note that the option to change your mind, and the rest of this section 4, does not apply to fixed rate accounts, unless specifically stated in the appropriate product leaflet.

5 Changes to personal details

5.1 You are responsible for advising us of any change to your address or to any of the other details we hold about you. All notifications must be in writing and must be signed by you.

5.2 You agree to produce evidence of any new name and/or address, if we ask to see it. You must also produce your passbook so that the change of details can be recorded on it as necessary.

6 Joint accounts

6.1 Unless otherwise stated in the appropriate product leaflet, savings accounts can normally be held by up to four people jointly.

6.2 For joint accounts, all terms and conditions (and legal rights and responsibilities) apply to all of you together and each of you on your own. This is known as 'joint and several liability'.

6.3 You may choose the order in which the names of account holders appear in our records by the way that names are listed on the application form.

6.4 The person whose name appears first in our records will be regarded as our member and will exercise any voting rights in respect of the account. That person's address will normally be taken as the address for any correspondence we send to you.

6.5 Where one joint holder dies, we will ask for suitable evidence of the death and will then treat the surviving holder(s) as entitled to the account (although this will not necessarily imply beneficial ownership in law).

6.6 You can decide whether withdrawals, closures, changes of address etc may be made on the strength of any one signature, all signatures or (where there are more than two joint holders) the number required to sign.

6.7 Any one joint holder can revoke any authority under condition 6.6 so that all future transactions require all joint holders to sign.

6.8 If we have reason to think that there is a dispute between joint holders, we reserve the right to require the signature of all joint holders, irrespective of any authority given under condition 6.6, until all joint holders confirm in writing that the dispute has been resolved.

6.9 If the relationship between joint holders ceases, you will need to request in writing that the account is to be closed or the name of a joint holder is to be removed from the account. Any such request must be in accordance with any authority given under condition 6.6.

7 Minimum and maximum account balances

7.1 The minimum and maximum amounts that can be held in any particular account are normally set out in the appropriate product leaflet. If no maximum is specifically stated, then the maximum per account is £250,000 where the account is in one name and £500,000 where the account is in joint names.

7.2 If the amount of money in the account falls below the minimum investment stated for that type of account, we reserve the right either to pay interest on the balance at the standard variable rate of interest which applies to the starting band of our Scotline instant access account or to close your account by sending a cheque to your registered address.

7.3 If we decide to close the account under condition 7.2, we will give you at least 30 days' notice before doing this. During the notice period, you may pay in more money to bring the balance up to the minimum, in which case we will allow the account to remain open.

7.4 The overall maximum holding by any one person in respect of all savings accounts with the Society is £1,000,000.

8 Interest

8.1 Interest is earned from the day after receipt of cash or cheque until the date of withdrawal. The amount of interest is calculated on the daily balance and is credited to your account or paid monthly or annually according to the terms of the account. If you require any further details regarding calculation of interest, please contact your branch.

8.2 We will tell you the interest rate that applies to your account when you open it. This information is available in our Interest Rates leaflet, on our website, by contacting our Head Office by telephone (0131 313 7700) or fax (0131 313 7711) or by asking at any of our offices.

8.3 Unless otherwise stated, all our interest rates are variable and may be changed at any time if we reasonably believe that the change is needed for any of the following reasons (which may relate to circumstances at the time of the change or those that are expected to apply in the near future):

  • to reflect market conditions (including interest rates payable by other institutions);
  • so that we can compete more effectively with other financial institutions;
  • to reflect changes in our costs or in the way that we administer accounts;
  • to maintain our financial strength for the benefit of all our customers;
  • to take account of changes in law, decisions of a regulator or Ombudsman, or any code of practice with which we intend to comply.

8.4 We will advise you of any changes to interest rates either by writing to you or by placing notices and leaflets in all our branches and local offices, by updating our website and by placing advertisements in at least two daily newspapers. Details of the newspapers currently used can be obtained from any of the Society's offices.

9 Withdrawals from your account

9.1 You may withdraw up to £1,000 in cash or £100,000 by cheque from any branch office without prior arrangement, subject to any specific conditions which apply to your account and to the Society's Rules. Different limits apply for withdrawals made at agency offices.

9.2 No withdrawal may be made unless you produce your passbook. You may also be asked to produce evidence of your identity and signature to make a withdrawal at an office other than the one where you opened your account.

9.3 We may refuse to allow a withdrawal:

  • if we are not satisfied that we have the proper written authority for the withdrawal, in accordance with the mandate you have given to us; or
  • against cheques which have not cleared (see Section 10).

9.4 We may restrict the amount which can be withdrawn from any account but will only do this if:

a) we reasonably believe that there may be fraudulent activity or other financial crime affecting the account; or

b) we are required to do so by any law, regulation or court order; or

c) there is a dispute (which we reasonably believe may be genuine) about the ownership of, or entitlement to, the money in the account; or

d) circumstances beyond our reasonable control prevent us from offering a normal service (such as in the event of terrorist threat, computer systems failure or strikes).

In the case of (d) above:

  • we will act proportionately to the circumstances in question;
  • we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the restrictions are lifted as soon as practical and to minimise the inconvenience to you;
  • we will take into account the interests of the Society's membership as a whole;
  • we will, if practical, give advance notice; and
  • we may consider exceptions to the restrictions if we are reasonably satisfied that substantial hardship would otherwise be caused.

9.5 If a withdrawal is made by a cheque in favour of someone other than you, we will not stop payment of the cheque unless we have clear evidence of fraud, or that the cheque has been lost, stolen or destroyed.

9.6 Where your account requires you to give notice of a withdrawal, you have 14 days after the end of the notice period in which to make the withdrawal without incurring the penalty which would otherwise apply under the terms of the account.

10 Clearance of cheques

10.1 You will not normally be allowed to withdraw against cheques paid in until they have cleared. The central clearing cycle for banks is normally three working days but, as the Society is not a direct member of the clearing system, cheques have to be cleared through the Society's own bankers.

10.2 Our normal practice is to allow withdrawals against a cheque on the sixth working day after it has been paid in, provided we have no reason to think that it has not cleared. After six working days you can normally be certain that the funds will not be reclaimed from your account as a result of the cheque having been returned unpaid (unless fraud is known or suspected). 'Working days' excludes weekends and bank holidays. For example: If you pay a cheque into your account on Monday, you will be able to draw against that cheque on Tuesday of the following week, and you can be certain that the cheque has cleared from close of business on that same Tuesday

10.3 Our own cheques are regarded as cleared immediately. This means that when you pay one of our cheques into your savings account, you can withdraw funds at once.

11 Taxation

11.1 Where required by legislation, we will pay interest to you (or credit it to your account) after deduction of income tax at the appropriate rate applicable at the date interest is paid. If you pay income tax at a higher rate, you will have to pay additional tax on the interest - to cover the difference between the tax deducted by us and the higher rate due.

11.2 If you are a non taxpayer but have already received interest with tax deducted, you may be entitled to reclaim this by making an application to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

11.3 If you are resident in the UK but do not pay income tax, you may be able to register for payment of interest gross (ie without deduction of tax). For further information, please refer to the HMRC website (www.hmrc.gov.uk). If you are eligible to receive interest gross, you should complete a registration form (R85) to satisfy the appropriate regulations. Copies of form R85 and the associated helpsheet are available from our branches and local offices and from local tax enquiry offices.

11.4 Investors who are "not ordinarily resident" for UK tax purposes should complete form R105 to receive interest gross. Form R105 is available from our branches and local offices.

11.5 If you have registered for gross payment of interest, please notify us in writing as soon as possible if you no longer qualify.

11.6 Please note that we are obliged to provide HM Revenue & Customs with details of interest paid to all investors each year.

12 Charitable Assignation

12.1 We require that, when you open a new savings account which confers membership rights, you agree to assign to the Charities Aid Foundation any windfall benefits to which you might become entitled on any conversion or takeover. This agreement lasts for the first five years of membership.

12.2 This requirement does not apply to you if you have been a saving member of the Society continuously since 31 January 2000 or you are a borrowing member of the Society.

12.3 The full text of the agreement is shown on the application card for any savings account which confers membership rights.

13 Charges

13.1 From time to time services are provided which incur a charge and details of these are contained in a separate leaflet and are also available on our website. With the exception of charges in respect of unpaid cheques, we will tell you about the charge before we provide the product or service.

13.2 We can introduce or make changes to charges if we reasonably believe that the change is needed for any of the following reasons (which may relate to circumstances at the time of the change or those that are expected to apply in the near future):

  • to reflect changes in our costs or in the way that we administer accounts;
  • to reflect market conditions (including charges made by other institutions);
  • so that we can compete more effectively with other financial institutions;
  • to maintain our financial strength for the benefit of all our customers;
  • to take account of changes in law, decisions of a regulator or Ombudsman, or any code of practice with which we intend to comply.

13.3 If we introduce or increase a charge, we will give you at least 30 days' notice before the new charge comes into effect.

14 Closing your account

14.1 You can close your account at any time, subject to any specific conditions which apply to your account and to normal administrative requirements.

14.2 Under the Society's Rules, we can close your account at any time without giving any reason but we will normally give you at least 30 days' notice.

14.3 In exceptional circumstances, such as suspected fraud, other criminal activity or threatening or abusive behaviour, we may close your account immediately.

14.4 If we close your account, we will pay interest at the current rate up to the date of closure.

14.5 If we close your account and make repayment in full to you, in person or by post, you will have no further right or interest and your membership of the Society will cease in respect of this account.

15 Financial Services Compensation Scheme

15.1 We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS can pay compensation to depositors if a building society is unable to meet its financial obligations. Most depositors - including most individuals and small businesses - are covered by the scheme.

15.2 In respect of deposits, an eligible depositor is entitled to claim up to £85,000. For joint accounts each account holder is treated as having a claim in respect of their share so, for a joint account held by two eligible depositors, the maximum amount that could be claimed would be £85,000 each (making a total of £170,000). The £85,000 limit relates to the combined amount in all the eligible depositor's accounts with the Society, including their share of any joint account, and not to each separate account.

15.3 For further information about the scheme (including the amounts covered and eligibility to claim) please click here, refer to the FSCS website www.fscs.org.uk or call the FSCS on 0800 678 1100.

16 Unclaimed Assets

16.1 We will participate in the Unclaimed Assets scheme put in place under the Dormant Bank & Building Society Accounts Act 2008.

16.2 Under the Act, any account where there has been no 'customer-initiated transaction' for at least 15 years may be closed and transferred to the scheme. The definition of 'customer- initiated transaction' includes paying money in, making a withdrawal, changing account details and other relevant contact with us.

16.3 Before closing any account you hold which meets the Act definition, we will make reasonable efforts to trace you.

16.4 If you subsequently contact us and provide suitable evidence of identity and entitlement to the account, we will reactivate your account (and reclaim the funds transferred to the scheme) and apply any interest which would have been earned whilst the account has been closed.

17 Law and Language

17.1 These Conditions and the operation of any accounts held with the Society are governed by the laws of Scotland and subject to the jurisdiction of the Scottish courts.

17.2 All communication between you and us will be in English unless we specifically agree otherwise.

18 Changing these Conditions

18.1 We can change these Conditions, and/or any specific terms and conditions applicable to your account, if we reasonably believe the change is needed for any of the following reasons (which may relate to circumstances at the time of the change or those that are expected to apply in the near future):

  • to reflect market conditions (including the terms on which similar accounts are offered by other institutions);
  • so that we can compete more effectively with other financial institutions;
  • to improve efficiency and/or reduce costs;
  • to reflect changes in the way that we administer accounts;
  • to correct any errors;
  • to make the terms clearer or fairer;
  • to provide you with extra benefits or services;
  • to take account of changes in law, decisions of a regulator or Ombudsman, or any code of practice with which we intend to comply;
  • for any other valid reason where we reasonably believe change is appropriate.

18.2 Any change which is not to your disadvantage may be made immediately and without prior notice. We will tell you about the change within 30 days, either by writing to you or by displaying notices and leaflets in all our branches and local offices, by updating our website and/or by placing advertisements in at least two daily newspapers. Details of the newspapers currently used can be obtained from any of the Society's offices.

18.3 If the change is to your disadvantage, we will write to you personally to give you at least 30 days' notice of the change. At any time up to 60 days after the notification, you may switch your account or close it without having to give any period of notice or pay additional charges.

18.4 This Section 18 does not apply to changes to interest rates or charges, which are dealt with in Sections 8 and 13 respectively.

 

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