Information for Chelsea savers

This section provides you with general information about saving with us and explains our policies, practices and service matters.  Details about specific savings accounts can be obtained by calling 0845 744 6622.

Opening an account
About your account
Operating your account
Other useful information

Opening an Account

Existing customers

If you have an open account with us and we have already proved your identity, you do not normally need to show us documents to prove your identity. However, please make sure that your existing account number is written in the space provided on the application form.

Joint accounts (accounts opened by more than one person)
If you are considering opening a joint account, there are some questions you need to consider before going ahead, such as

• do you want to have authority to operate the account individually, or only together?
• what happens if there is a dispute or a breakdown in the relationship?
• what happens if one of the account holders dies or becomes bankrupt?
• are you liable for the actions of your co account holders?
• who will be entitled to vote and exercise rights of membership?

Operating the account
When you open a joint account, you can either operate the account on an either to sign basis or a both to sign basis. You will need to tell us on the application form how you would like the account to be operated. There are risks with operating the account on an either to sign basis as the person you hold the account with could withdraw all the funds from the account without your knowledge.

Disputes/breakdown in the relationship
If you decide to operate your account on an either to sign basis, this will mean that one of you will be able to withdraw the money in the account independently of the other(s).

If a dispute arises or there is a breakdown in a relationship with your co account holder and you need to change the way that the account is operated, you will need to tell us in writing. This notification will prevent every account holder, including the person who gave the notice, from withdrawing funds until all account holders agree. Please note however that this notification will not prevent any cheques guaranteed by a Chelsea card from being paid.

You can close the account at any time and transfer the joint account to a sole account (an account held by one person) if all account holders agree. This is particularly useful if your relationship with other account holders comes to an end. You should check the terms of your specific account to see whether notice or other restrictive access terms apply, as closure or transfer may incur a penalty or require prior notice.

Death/bankruptcy
If the account is a joint account, we will treat all funds in the account as being jointly owned by all account holders regardless of who actually paid the funds in.

As the funds are held on a joint basis, if one account holder dies, the funds will pass automatically to the survivor(s). The transfer of funds to the survivor happens automatically on death and does so independently of the deceased’s will. This may be a problem if you would like funds to pass to someone other than the other account holder(s).

We will place a freeze on the account if we are notified that one of the account holders has become bankrupt. This is because the funds in the account will then be controlled by the person appointed to administer the bankrupt account holder’s assets, and the non bankrupt account holder.

Liability
If we incur any debt or loss as a result of a breach of the terms of the account by any of the account holders, we will hold all account holders responsible. This means that we can take action against each of you, regardless of which account holder(s) actually caused the loss.

We do not allow overdrafts with Chelsea accounts. If withdrawals take the account into an unauthorised overdraft (for example, if you write cheques that are supported by a cheque guarantee card when you don’t have sufficient funds for the withdrawals) we will hold each of you responsible for reimbursing us for any loss we incur.

Membership
If the Chelsea account you open is a share account, you will become a member of Chelsea Building Society. However, if the share account is a joint account, only the person who is named first on the account will be the ‘representative joint shareholder’ and will alone be entitled to receive communications from us and exercise the rights of membership. Please consider this when completing the application form.

If you are worried about how the other account holder(s) can use the account, or about what happens if one of you dies, a joint account may not be the right type of account for you.

Transferring to another type of Chelsea savings account
We offer a wide range of savings accounts, and different types such as branch, postal or telephone based. If you would like to find out more about any of our savings options, please contact us.  

You can transfer from an existing Chelsea account to any of our currently available accounts immediately and without penalty, unless your account is:

• still on a fixed interest rate and you are not permitted to have immediate access, or
• subject to specific interest rate guarantees and notice or penalty restrictions still apply

Chelsea Building Society Charitable Foundation
Since 20 March 2000, new Chelsea members (savers only) have been required to assign any windfall conversion benefits that they may become entitled to, to the Chelsea Building Society Charitable Foundation. This agreement lasts for 5 years. If you want more information, please read our leaflet titled ‘Charitable Assignment, your questions answered’.

Interest
Depending on the type of savings account you open:

• interest may be paid annually or monthly
• your interest rate will be fixed or variable
• interest will be paid on a set date

You need to maintain a minimum balance with some of our accounts. This may mean that when the balance falls below the minimum, no interest will be earned. Please read the specific account literature or contact us for more information.

Interest rate changes
We will tell you about any changes to the interest rate paid on your account either:

• with notices displayed in branches, showing the new and old rate, and adverts in the press (these will normally appear in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph) or
• by writing to tell you about your new rate

If the rate on your account is guaranteed to track an external rate which we have no control over (such as the Bank of England Base Rate), we won’t tell you personally when the rate changes as your rate will change in line with any movement in the external rate.

If you don’t visit your nearest branch, you can find out about current interest rates by writing to us or calling us.

Statements/tax certificates
You will receive a statement/tax certificate for each account you hold in April every year, unless:

• you haven’t received interest during the relevant tax year
• your account is closed
• we have lost contact with you, or
• you have less than £100 in your account

We will only issue tax certificates for closed accounts if you ask us to.

Income tax
Provided we receive a valid R85 form, we may pay interest gross (without the deduction of tax) to non taxpayers. Please ask for HM Revenue and Customs R85 form at your local Chelsea branch. Without an R85, we will pay interest net (after deduction of the applicable rate of tax which is currently 20%). Some or all of this may be reclaimed from HM Revenue and Customs by lower rate taxpayers and non taxpayers.

If you have a joint account, we may pay all interest without tax deduction if each account holder has provided a valid R85. Please be aware that R85 forms cannot be transferred from one account to another. If you have a joint account with no more than two account holders, we may pay interest half net and half gross if only one saver is eligible to receive interest gross. Our savings literature and promotional material show illustrative rates on the assumption that tax is paid at the applicable rate.

If the amount of tax deducted from your interest is more than your tax liability (if any), you may make a claim to HM Revenue and Customs for repayment of this tax. If you pay income tax at the higher rate (currently 40%), you will have to pay additional tax on the interest to cover the difference between the tax deducted and the higher rate tax due.

Chelsea savers who do not normally live in the UK (for tax purposes) will receive interest after we have deducted tax. HM Revenue and Customs may return some or all of this tax to you. For more information on claims or issues relating to Income Tax please contact HM Revenue and Customs, Claims Branch (International Division), St Johns House, Merton Road, Bootle, Merseyside, L69 9BB.

ATMs
If an ATM card is available with your account, you can withdraw up to £200 per day from any LINK ATM in the UK.

We won’t charge you for using the ATM service. However, some banks and building societies may charge you when you use their machines. If there is a charge made, the ATM screen display will tell you before you use the service and the charge will be debited from your account afterwards.

Branch withdrawals
If you have a passbook and an instant access account, you can immediately withdraw up to £500 cash per day at a branch. We limit the amount that can be withdrawn by cash to ensure the safety of customers and staff. If you need to withdraw more than £500, you can withdraw up to £5,000 by cheque with your passbook. Larger sums can be withdrawn with a few days’ prior notice. All our cheques are crossed A/C Payee.

Charges
We don’t currently charge you for the routine running of your account. However, we do charge for specific services such as the requesting of duplicate statements, the stopping of cheques and the special presentation of funds. If we do decide to charge you for the running of your account, we will write to tell you. If you do request a specific service for which we charge, we will tell you about the charge before we carry out your request.

Central clearing cycle for cheques and cheque clearance periods
Banks operate a central cheque clearing cycle for themselves and their customers (customers includes other financial institutions). The purpose of this cheque clearing process is to collect the amount of the cheque from the drawer’s account (the drawer is the person or company who issued the cheque) or, to get a reason why the cheque is not paid.

At Chelsea, you will be able to withdraw against the proceeds of a cheque credited to your savings account on the sixth working day following the day of deposit, unless a shorter time period is stipulated on your account terms and conditions.

Whenever a cheque is paid to your account, you will start to earn interest on the second working day following the day of deposit.

You should remember that if you deposit a cheque to your account that the paying bank is unable to pay it will be returned unpaid and its value recovered from your account. It could be returned unpaid for a number of reasons eg the cheque was not signed or there are insufficient funds in the drawer’s account. A cheque deposit will not, unless you have acted fraudulently, be recovered from you without your permission after six working days following the day of deposit.

When we say ‘working day’ we mean any day apart from Saturdays, Sundays and bank or public holidays. ‘Cheques’ include personal cheques, bankers drafts, bankers orders, building society cheques, Bank of England cheques etc.

Collection and delivery of cheques
If you need to give notice that you want to withdraw funds, please provide your passbook (where issued) and detailed instructions. When this is received, the withdrawal or transfer will take place on the requested withdrawal date. You are then welcome to collect the cheque personally from the relevant branch (if your account can be operated at a branch), or it can be sent to you. If you do not collect the cheque personally, we will send it to you by first class post.

Direct Debits
If a Direct Debit service is available with your account, you will benefit from the Direct Debit Guarantee. If you would like more information about the guarantee, please ask a member of staff for a leaflet.

Notice/penalties
You can withdraw funds immediately from some Chelsea accounts. However, some require prior notice or a penalty (usually loss of interest). Please read the terms and conditions of your account for more information.

Overdrafts
We do not provide overdraft facilities with our accounts, so we will return any item if there are insufficient cleared funds to pay it. If this happens, we will not normally tell you.

Passbook and/or information not received by us
If you tell us that you would like to give prior notice to make a withdrawal or transfer, and we do not receive the passbook (where issued), or the instructions you have given us are incomplete, we will hold the request for up to 7 days after the requested withdrawal/transfer date. If we haven’t heard from you by that time, you will need to give notice again.

Withdrawals by post
If your account is operated by post only, or you would like to make a withdrawal by post for other reasons, please allow enough time for the appropriate department to receive your request.

Cheque payments into a Chelsea account
Please make sure that cheques are written clearly and are made payable to Chelsea Building Society followed by the account holder(s) name(s) and/or the number of the account that the funds are to be paid into. This will help to prevent fraud. Please also draw a line through any unused space on the cheque so unauthorised people can’t add extra numbers or names. If you send a cheque made payable only to Chelsea Building Society we may return your cheque (and application form if applicable) for your amendment. (See also ‘Sending cheques by post’ below.)

Post dated cheques
Please do not write, or pay in cheques detailing a future date. Post dated cheques may be paid by the financial institution they come from before the date specified, which could make the person who wrote the cheque overdrawn.

Sending cheques by post
If you send a cheque by post, please add the name of the person you are paying the cheque to, as well as some extra information. For example, if you are paying a cheque to a large organisation such as HM Revenue and Customs, write the name of the person that the payment refers to (if it is your payment to HM Revenue and Customs for tax owed, you should put your name) eg HM Revenue and Customs, Account – J Jones. If you are paying a cheque to a bank or building society always write the name of the account holder on the cheque eg XYX Bank, Account – B Brown. Please also draw a line through any unused space on the cheque so unauthorised people can’t add extra numbers or names. (See also ‘Cheque payments into a Chelsea account’ above.)

Terms and conditions
The terms and conditions that apply to specific accounts are detailed in the relevant account literature. If you have any questions or need any further information, please contact us. We can also give you a copy of the terms if you request it.

It is sometimes necessary to make changes to terms and conditions. If this happens, we will tell you by writing to you or:

• with notices displayed in branches and/or
• with adverts in the press (these will normally appear in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph)

If there are a lot of changes in any one year, we will also give or send you a copy of the new terms, or a summary of the changes.

What to do if you have a complaint
If you are dissatisfied with the service you have received, contact the branch or Head Office department involved and explain why you are dissatisfied.

We will always try to resolve your complaint immediately. However, if this isn’t possible, or if you ask us, we will acknowledge your complaint in writing. Full details of our Internal Complaints Procedure are available on request.

If we can’t resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you have the right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme
Chelsea Building Society participates in the Financial Services Compensation Scheme established under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Under the scheme, 100% of the first £35,000 is protected. Most savers are covered, including individuals and small firms. A small number of categories of shares and deposits are not covered. Although most shares and deposits are denominated in sterling, all other currencies are covered. Please contact us if you need more information.

The Banking Code
The Banking Code is a voluntary code which we fully endorse, and have adopted, which sets standards for banks and building societies to follow in their dealings with personal customers. Please ask for a Banking Code leaflet if you need more information.

Marketing
We would like to give you details (by telephone and post) of our mortgage, investment, insurance and other products and services which we think you might be interested in. We would also like to pass your details on to other selected organisations so that they can contact you with similar products and services that you might be interested in. If you do not wish to receive such promotional material, please indicate on your application form or tell us, either by telephone, in writing or by visiting one of our branches.

Confidentiality
All personal information that we hold about you will be treated as private and confidential. We will only disclose this information to third parties with your consent or in certain exceptional circumstances permitted by law.

Data Protection Act 1998
If you ask us in writing and pay the required fee, you are entitled to a copy of the information we hold about you. You are also entitled to ask us to amend any inaccurate details or, in some circumstances, to remove them. You have the right of access to the personal information held by Chelsea and the credit and fraud prevention agencies we use, and we will supply their names and addresses on request.

You can write to us at Chelsea Building Society, Thirlestaine Hall, Thirlestaine Road, Cheltenham, GL53 7AL or call us on 0845 744 6622.