Savings account conditions
These conditions include both those parts of our General savings conditions which are relevant to your account and our Sainsbury's Bank Premier Saver individual account conditions. Where any of those individual account conditions is not consistent with our General savings conditions, our individual account conditions apply. These conditions explain how your account works, and you should therefore keep a copy in case you want to check the conditions that apply to your account.
Sainsbury's Bank Premier Saver
- Variable tiered interest rates, with a lower rate paid if your balance falls below £500.
- You must pay at least £500 into your account to open it. You can then pay more money in by standing order, at Sainsbury's checkouts using our SaveBack service, by transfer from another of your accounts or by post. (We will send you a card so that you can use our SaveBack service. This can only be used for paying into your account. It cannot be used in a cash dispenser.)
- Monthly interest paid on the last bank working day of the month.
- We will send you regular statements at least once a year.
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Sainsbury's Bank General savings conditions
1. Words with special meanings
In these conditions we have put the following words in bold type because they have a special meaning.
'Account' means your Sainsbury's Bank savings account.
'Bank working day' means any day which is not a Saturday, Sunday, 2nd January or English bank or public holiday.
'Telephone Banking Service' means our arrangement to accept instructions by telephone to carry out certain transactions or to obtain certain information.
'SaveBack' means our deposit service which allows you to use a debit card to pay money into an account while paying for your shopping at the checkout, at Sainsbury's Stores. This is only available to Instant Access Saver and Premier Saver accounts
2. How do you use your account?
2.1 We will tell you how much money you must pay into your account before you can use it.
2.2 You must be at least 18 and living in the UK to open an account. You can only use your account as a personal account. You must not use it as a club, charity, sole trader, company, partnership or other kind of business account.
2.3 If you pay a cheque into your account it must be in sterling and drawn on a bank in the United Kingdom.
2.4 We do not have to accept that anyone, apart from you, has any right to or interest in the money in your account (for example, if you are keeping some or all of the money in your account for someone else).
2.5 We will only accept instructions from you; or anyone who has a legal right to give us instructions (for example, your trustee if you are made bankrupt); or anyone you have authorised in writing (for example, someone who has a power of attorney for you) so long as we have accepted the written authority.
2.6 We do not accept instructions sent by fax.
2.7 You should check the statements we send you of your account and let us know as soon as you can if you think that any information seems to be wrong.
2.8 We may limit the amount you, or someone else, can pay into your account if we think this is necessary to run our business lawfully; make sure our financial regulator approves of the way we run our business; or take account of changes in market conditions.
2.9 We may limit the amount you can take out of your account in any month if we think this is necessary to run our business lawfully and in a way which our regulator approves of.
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3. If you pay money into your account, how long do you have to wait before we pay interest or you can take the money out?
3.1 The central cheque clearing cycle that operates between banks in England, Wales and Scotland is normally three bank working days. Depending how you pay a cheque into your account the following timescales will apply.
Cheques sent by post using a pay-in slip
- We will pay interest on the second bank working day after the day our processing team credit the cheque to your account.
- You will be able to take the money out on the fourth bank working day after the day our processing team credit the cheque to your account.
Transfer from other accounts
- If you pay money into your account by transferring it from another account, either with Sainsbury's Bank, or an account with another bank or building society we will pay interest on the bank working day the payment reaches your account.
- You will be able to take the money out on the bank working day the payment reaches your account.
SaveBack
- If you pay money into your account using SaveBack, we will pay interest on the bank working day the payment reaches your account.
- You can take the money out on the bank working day the payment reaches your account.
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3.2 Please do not post cash to us to pay into your account. If you do we will not be responsible either if we do not receive your cash payment or if there is any discrepancy between the amount you state on your pay-in slip or covering letter and the actual amount we receive.
3.3 If we get your cheque or other deposit on a non bank working day, we will deal with it as if we had got it on the next bank working day.
3.4 If you pay a cheque into your account and we let you take some or all of the amount of the cheque out of your account, that does not mean that the cheque has been fully 'cleared'. If the cheque is returned to us without it being paid, we may take the amount of the cheque (and any interest we have paid on it) out of your account.
3.5 If the money in your account is at least the minimum amount we set for paying interest, we will pay interest on your balance at the rate or rates we set. We will work out the interest daily. We will pay it into your account on the last bank working day of each month (for Premier Saver accounts.) Before we pay it, we will take off any interest which you owe us from your account being overdrawn (under condition 7).
4. When can we take money out of your account?
4.1 We can take money out of your account to cover:
- each withdrawal;
- each cheque and any other item which is paid in to your account but later returned to us unpaid;
- any interest which you have to pay us on any overdraft;
- any charge which you owe us on your account; and
- any loss or expense we suffer in connection with your account
We may do any of these if your account is in credit or overdrawn or if it goes overdrawn because of the amount that we take out of your account. We can also take money out of your account under condition 4.2, 4.3 or 4.4.
4.2 If your account is held in your sole name and any money is overdue for payment on any other account you have with us (whether it is in your sole name or jointly with someone else) we may take the money you owe us out of your account. We can do this without giving you notice.
4.3 If your account is held jointly and any money is overdue for payment on any other joint account you both have with us, we may take the money you owe us out of your account. We can do this without giving you notice.
4.4 If your account is held jointly and any money is overdue for payment on any other account either of you have with us, whether in your sole name or in joint names, we may take the money you owe us out of your account. We can do this without giving you notice.
4.5 If you want to withdraw more than £50,000 we may require you to tell us in writing.
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5. What happens if a cheque is out of date?
If you want to pay a cheque into your account, more than 6 months after the date shown on the cheque or after the 'expiry date' (if there is one shown on the cheque), you will have to ask the person who made it out to you to write a new cheque or re-date the old cheque and put their initials next to the change. If you give us an out-of-date cheque we may return it to you.
6. Telephone Banking Service
6.1 If you use the Telephone Banking Service, we will let you know what you can use the service for.
6.2 Before you use the Telephone Banking Service for the first time we will ask you to choose your password.
6.3 If your account is a joint account and more than one of you uses the Telephone Banking Service, you must each choose your own password.
6.4 When you use the Telephone Banking Service we will ask you to tell us characters from your password and other key data to identify you.
6.5 For administrative or security reasons, we can ask you to choose a new password before you use (or carry on using) the Telephone Banking Service.
6.6 Except when you need to tell us your password to use the Telephone Banking Service, you must take all reasonable steps to keep your password, other key data, and the fact that they are for use with your account secret.
6.7 You must not write your password on anything we give or send you about the Telephone Banking Service or your account or anything usually kept with them. If you do write your password down, you must disguise it so that no one will know that it is your password.
6.8 If you think that someone else knows your password, you must tell us as soon as you can by phoning the Telephone Banking Service on 0845 3055888. You must give us any help we think is necessary to try to find out who might have used your password.
6.9 We may give the police or any prosecuting authority (for example, the Crown Prosecution Service) any information we reasonably think relevant about the loss, theft or misuse of your password.
6.10 We can stop you (or someone else) using the Telephone Banking Service if we think that:
- someone else is trying to use the Telephone Banking Service for your account;
- the wrong password has been used for your account;
- you or someone else is using your account illegally;
- you are not keeping to the conditions of your account;
- your password might be used by someone else.
We will tell you as soon as possible if we decide to stop you using the Telephone Banking Service.
6.11 You will not be responsible for your password being used after you have reported to us that it is lost, stolen or might be used by someone else unless it is used by you or on your behalf, or you have been fraudulent or grossly negligent.
6.12 We may record telephone calls for security purposes. We may monitor telephone calls to improve service, and resolve enquiries and complaints.
6.13 We will normally deal with instructions to transfer money from your account using the Telephone Banking Service on the date of your call. Normally it will take a maximum of four bank working days for the money you transfer to reach your nominated bank or building society account.
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7 Overdrawn accounts
7.1 You must not allow your account to go overdrawn.
7.2 If we charge interest, make charges on your account or carry out a withdrawal or other transaction and this makes your account go overdrawn, this does not mean that we have agreed to allow you to have an overdraft.
7.3 If your account goes overdrawn we will charge you interest at the rate or rates we set. You must also immediately pay us the amount that you are overdrawn (and any charges) so you are no longer overdrawn.
7.4 We may change the rate of interest we charge on your overdraft (see conditions 10 and 11).
7.5 We will work out how much interest you owe us for each day your account is overdrawn. Each time we are due to pay interest into your account, we will take off any interest you owe us and pay the difference into your account. If you owe us more interest than we owe you, we may:
- carry forward the difference until the next time we pay interest into your account; or
- add the interest you owe to your overdraft (or take it off your credit balance).
7.6 If your account goes overdrawn, we may transfer some or all of the money you owe us on your account from any other account you have with us. If it is a joint account, we will only do this if the conditions on that account allow us to do so and there are enough cleared funds in that account. We can do this without giving you notice. We will not take the money from an account which, according to our records, you are holding on behalf of someone else, (for example, as trustee or executor).
7.7 If your account is closed, we will follow the steps in condition 7.5 to work out the interest you have to pay us. You will also have to pay any overdraft and charges which you owe us.
7.8 We may make charges in connection with any overdraft on your account under condition 8.1.
7.9 We may also make charges, change the amount we charge you, make new or different charges in connection with any overdraft on your account under condition 8.2, 8.3 or 8.4.
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8 Charges
8.1 We can make charges on your account and or for services or facilities we make available to you (including the Telephone Banking Service).
8.2 We can change the amounts we charge you, make new or different charges and change the way you have to pay charges, to reflect changes to the costs of providing your account or any services or facilities available on your account, including any changes caused by inflation.
8.3 We can also change the amounts we charge you, make new or different charges and change the way you have to pay charges for any other valid reason.
8.4 If you ask to use a special service (for example, you request a CHAPS payment) we will tell you the charge.
9 Closing your account
9.1 You may close your account at any time by giving us notice. You must giveback any cards you use with your account and pay us anything you owe on your account.
9.2 We may close your account by giving you reasonable written notice. Normally the notice will be at least 30 days. However, if there are exceptional circumstances, for example there is evidence of fraud, we can close your account immediately. We will tell you as soon as possible if we do this.
9.3 If we close your account under condition 9.2 we will return your money to you along with any interest we owe you on your account.
9.4 If we believe that we have lost touch with each other, for example if letters addressed to you are returned undelivered, and you have not paid money into or taken money out of your account for at least 12 months, then we can treat your account as inactive which means there will be no further activity on your account until we hear from you.
9.5 If we treat your account as inactive under condition 9.4 we will treat the account as active again (reactivate) if:
- you ask us to; or
- we think it is reasonable to re-activate it.
If we re-activate your account, we will make any money in the account available to you, together with any interest which the money would have earned if the account had not been treated as inactive. This interest will be taxable in the tax year in which it is paid even if it has been earned in an earlier tax year. This could affect your tax position.
9.6 If we close your account:
- we can still take the money out of your account under conditions 4.1 or 4.2, 4.3 or 4.4 to cover any withdrawal; and
- you will still have to pay back any overdraft, interest or charges which you owe us on your account.
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10 When can we change these conditions and the interest rates?
10.1 If it is reasonable to do so for any valid reason, we can make any reasonable change to these conditions or to the conditions which apply to any services or facilities available on your account.
10.2 If you belong to a category of customer who we reasonably think should receive special treatment, we may change these conditions or the ones which apply to any services or facilities on your account to make them more favourable to you.
10.3 Whenever condition 10.1 allows us to change any of the services or facilities available on your account we may suspend or withdraw those services or facilities instead.
10.4 We can change interest rates if it is reasonable to do so for any valid reason.
10.5 Changes to interest rates may apply immediately (also see condition 11).
11 How will we tell you about any changes?
11.1 We will tell you about any changes we make under condition 10.4 in the interest rate which we may pay on your credit balance or charge you on any overdraft by putting a notice in at least three national daily newspapers or by writing to you (by post or, with your agreement, by email). We will also put details on our web site at www.sainsburysbank.co.uk
11.2 If we change the conditions, or the conditions which apply to any services or facilities on your account, then we will notify you personally in writing (by post or, with your agreement, by email). If the change is either neutral or advantageous to you then we will give you reasonable notice in advance. If the change is disadvantageous, or if the Banking Code demands we do, we will notify you at least 30 days before we make the change.
11.3 If we change our conditions under condition 10.2 we will give notice if we are changing your terms (but we do not have to give you notice of the change if your terms will be staying the same).
11.4 If we increase any charge, make new or different charges or change the way you have to pay charges for standard account services we will give you at least 30 days notice in writing (by post or, with your agreement, by email).
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12 What conditions apply to notices about your account?
12.1 We will send all notices by post or, with your agreement, by email. We will send all written notices or letters and statements to the last postal address you gave us (or, where you have agreed we can contact you by email, at the last email address you gave us). We will treat them all as arriving 48 hours after we sent them. You must let us know straight away if you change your postal or email address. If you do not, you may have to pay our costs of finding you or your new address.
12.2 Unless these conditions say otherwise, any notices or other communications given under them will only be valid if they are in writing.
13 What happens if you cannot look after your finances any longer?
13.1 If we are satisfied that you cannot look after your finances any longer, we will allow your account to be closed by anyone who has authority from a court. We will not allow that person to run your account other than to close it unless the relevant court order permits or we have accepted a Power of Attorney which remains in place.
13.2 If it is reasonable (for example, if it is unlikely that a court order will affect your account), we may also allow your account to be closed by a person who:
- Appears to be responsible for looking after your financial affairs;
- Signs a declaration that he or she will only use the money in your account for your benefit; and
- Shows us a certificate from a doctor which confirms that you cannot look after your finances any longer.
13.3 If we allow someone else to close your account under condition 13.1 or 13.2, you may be legally responsible for anything they do.
14 When will we stop you taking money out of your account?
If we reasonably think your account is being used for illegal purposes, or if we find out that there is a disagreement about who owns the money in your account (including a disagreement between the account holders on a joint account), we may freeze your account. That means that you must not take any money out of your account, pay money in (unless we agree) or carry out any other transactions until we are satisfied that your account is not being used for illegal purposes or that the disagreement is settled.
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15 When can we tell someone else about your account?
We may give details of your account, or your name and address, to anyone else if:
- The law says we must;
- We have a public duty to do so;
- This is necessary to protect our interests; or
- You ask us to give the details to someone else or agree that we may give them to someone else (for example, by making an appropriate declaration as part of your application for your account).
16 Joint Accounts
16.1 If your account is a joint account, these conditions apply to both of you together and each of you separately. For example, if you owe us money on your account we can claim it back from either of you or both of you. Up to two people can apply for a Sainsbury's Bank savings account.
16.2 We may choose to accept the instructions or signatures of either of you. For example, either of you may make a withdrawal or close your account. If you have a joint account and you tell us that you only want us to accept instructions from both of you (and not just from one of you), both of you must first return any cards to us. We may then close your account and, if we choose, offer each of you the opportunity to open a new account in just your name. If you hold an account in trust for a child, the terms of the trust must allow the trustees to operate the account in this way.
16.3 We may send all information about your account to the address of the customer whose name appears first in our records of your account. However, if you have an Instant Access Saver account and you ask us to supply more than one card, we will supply one to each of you. You must not use a card which we supply to any other account holder.
16.4 If one of the account holders dies, we will only accept instructions from the other account holder.
17 What happens if you die?
If you die, and your account is not a joint account we will not allow any further withdrawals on your account and will only take instructions from your personal representative.
18. Miscellaneous
18.1 You agree that, in the event that your identity cannot be verified from the information provided by you, we may:
- Request confirmation of your identity from another bank or building society and/or
- Ask you for further information to verify your details.
18.2 Unless we agree otherwise, you must not transfer, charge or give as security to anyone else:
- Your account or any part of it; or
- Any of your rights under these conditions.
18.3 You must give us an example of your signature if we ask you to.
18.4 If we delay or choose not to enforce any term that forms part of these conditions, this will not affect our right to enforce it or the rest of those terms.
18.5 Each paragraph and subparagraph in these conditions is separate from the others. This means that if we cannot enforce any one paragraph or subparagraph in these conditions, this will not affect our right to enforce any other paragraph or subparagraph.
18.6 These conditions are part of the legal agreement between you and us for your account. This agreement is governed by English law. English is the language in which we will communicate with you.
18.7 We will not be responsible for any loss or expense which you suffer if we cannot carry out any withdrawal, payment into your account or other transaction on your account, or if we cannot provide any services or facilities because of strikes, power cuts, equipment not working or other causes beyond our reasonable control.
18.8 You authorise us to act on instructions given using the Telephone Banking Service to make transfers from your account to a nominated bank or building society account held in your name or to any other Sainsbury's Bank account held in your name.
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