Savings: Frequently Asked Questions

You can contact us on 01732 441944 or email [email protected] or our postal address is:

The Charity Bank Limited,
Fosse House,
182 High Street,
Tonbridge,
Kent TN9 1BE

Please refer to our Additional Charges and Fees sheet, for details of any potential fees that may be associated with the operation of your account.

Charity Bank benefits from its own banking licence and is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Yes, your eligible deposits with Charity Bank are currently protected up to the £85,000 limit of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the UK’s deposit guarantee scheme. Any balances above £85,000 are not protected.

For joint accounts eligible deposits for each account holder are protected up the £85,000 FSCS limit (making a total of £170,000).

Deposits from large companies and small local authorities are covered by the FSCS deposit protection from 30 January 2017 up to the FSCS limit of £85,000.

Please refer to our Deposit Guarantee Scheme: Information Sheet

You can visit the FSCS website for more information and check whether your covered.

For Business, CTUA (Charities, Trusts and Unincorporated Associations) and Credit Union savers, please complete our Mandate Variation Form and return to our Tonbridge Office signed in accordance with the current mandate.

In the event of your death we will release funds once the certificate of probate is received, as instructed by your executors/solicitors. Please go to our Customer Support page for further guidance.

As per our terms and conditions, that you agree to when opening your account, you need to tell us if any of your details change.

You will need to advise us of these changes in writing signed in accordance with your mandate. We will then contact you should we need anything before we amend our records.

If your details are not kept up to date, it could affect way your account is operated, delay the ability to repay funds and leave us unable to advise you of possible changes regarding your account.

Should your account terms permit additional funds and subject to maximum account balances and/or annual ISA subscriptions, you can make further payment(s) from your nominated account by the following methods.

• Electronic payment: using your unique 8-digit Charity Bank account number (this was supplied to you once your account had been opened and our sort code: 60-83-16 (Charity Bank Agency Sort code for internal clearing).
• Cheque: a cheque drawn from your nominated account
• Regular payment by Direct Debit. Complete a mandate to allow Charity Bank to claim a regular payment on the 10^th of each month.

OR

• Regular payment by Standing Order. Set up a standing order from your nominated account bank/building society directly, to allow more control of your payments.

Once we confirm to you by email that your account is open, you will have 14-calendar days to fund it. During this window you can make one or multiple payments by any of these methods.

• Electronic payment from your nominated account.
• Cheque drawn from your nominated account.

OR

• Internal transfer of maturing funds or funds held in an existing Charity Bank account.

Once this period has ended, if your account hasn’t been funded at least to its minimum account balance, it will be closed, and confirmation will be issued to you. We will send you a reminder to fund your account after 7-days to ensure such cases are kept to a minimum.

We partner with NatWest as our clearing bank. From 3 May 2024 we were live on the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) service. You can read more about how it works and what this means to you on our dedicated CoP webpage. We continue to encourage you to please take due care and diligence when making payment by electronic transfer. Your confirmation of account opening email, will provide your unique 8-digit account to be used with our sort code: 60-83-16 and you are welcome to contact us by phone: 01732 441944 or email: [email protected] to double-check anything.

Please always quote your application reference number* and/or surname as a payment reference and ensure your bank correctly quotes the reference when they are making a payment on your behalf, otherwise it may be rejected and returned to you without interest. You’ll earn interest from the business day on which the payment was received.

*If you completed your account application online, you will have been given an application reference number.

When you open an account with us, we ask you to nominate another UK bank or building society account in your name or the name of your organisation for business accounts. This account is verified and validated either by an electronic search or by sight of a recent bank statement (dated within the last 6-months), we then refer to this account as your ‘nominated account’.

For the safety and security of your funds, Charity Bank will only pay funds to your nominated account. Also, payments into your account, including your initial deposit, will only be accepted from your nominated account.

To amend your nominated account, we shall require you to send a signed instruction, in accordance with your mandate, by post to our Tonbridge Office, confirming the details of the new UK bank or building society account that is to become your new nominated account. Once these details have been verified and validated, when shall make the amendment in our core system.

For withdrawals from an Easy Access account, please use the relevant Withdrawal/Notification Form for your account, which can be found under our Savings Accounts: Document Library and refer to the product additional terms for further guidance on withdrawal arrangements.

For other accounts that allow withdrawals subject to notice periods, requests to fully or partially withdraw funds must be made in writing in accordance with the product’s additional terms. However, you can instigate your notice period initially by phone or email and, provided your written instruction signed in line with your mandate is received to our Tonbridge Office before the end of the notice period, we will carry out your wishes. Any withdrawals will not be made if we are not in receipt of signed instruction at the end of any notice period. Charity Bank will only pay funds to your nominated account, that has been verified and details of which are held in our core system. It is your responsibility to inform us if you change your nominated account and provide evidence to enable us to verify it.

You will be provided with details of the relevant interest rate before you open your account. Your interest rate will also be confirmed in our welcome letter issued once the funding period has ended.

If you hold a managed rate (notice) account, where the bank can amend interest rates, we will notify you of changes to your accounts interest rate as follows:

• If we are changing the interest rate in a way that is to your advantage, we will inform you within 30 days of the change by either writing to you by letter or email, or publish it on our website: https://www.charitybank.org; or
• If we are changing the interest rate in a way that is to your disadvantage and your savings account has a balance less than £100, we will inform you within 30 days of the change by either writing to you by letter or email or publish it on our website: https://www.charitybank.org.
• If we are changing the interest rate in a way that is to your disadvantage and your savings account has a balance of £100 or more, we will inform you at least 14 days before the change by either writing to you by letter or email.
• If you’re not happy about a change to the interest rate which disadvantages you there’s a period of 30 days after we tell you about the change when you can close your account. If there are normally restrictions on your account you can switch it or close it without notice, charge or loss of interest.

We will not change interest rates on fixed rate accounts during their term.

Our CITR accounts track 3.25% below Bank of England base rate.

You can also view the current and historic interest rates for all our accounts on our website under the Savings Accounts: Document Library.

All interest rates received on your account will be shown on any statements issued for the period covered.

If you applied for a managed rate (notice) or base rate tracker (CITR) account, you have 14-calendar days following confirmation your account has been opened to advise us you have changed your mind. This is known as a cooling off period. You can advise us initially by phone or email, but this will need to be followed by an instruction in writing signed in line with your mandate which should be posted to our Tonbridge Office. We will then close your account without penalty or notice and pay any funds to your nominated account together with any interest that it may have earned.

If you opened a Cash ISA and effect these cancellation rights, any deposit(s) will not count towards your current ISA Tax year subscription.

If you applied for a fixed term account, there is no cooling off period.

For managed rate accounts statements are issued annually in April or May. Fixed rate account holders will receive a statement annually soon after the anniversary of account opening and at maturity or closure.

If you want to receive statements more frequently or at a specific time of the year, please contact us by phone: 01732 441944 or email: [email protected] or alternatively write to us to discuss your needs further.

A statement is also issued after each debit/credit to your account (if the terms of your account allow additional funds), please let us know if you do not wish to receive a statement after each transaction.

You can operate your account by post, email and telephone, with our friendly UK based Savings Team, who are always willing to support you. Currently we do not offer online services once your account is open.

Personal, Business, CTUA (Charities, Trusts, and Unincorporated Associations) and Credit Union savers can open an account by:

• Applying for any of our accounts easily online by clicking on ‘Apply Online’ on your chosen product page of our website. Once you have submitted your application online, you will receive an email from us with an Application Summary pdf (portable document format), to print, sign and return to us by post at our Tonbridge Office ; or

• Complete a postal application by downloading an application form from our website by clicking on ‘Apply By Post’ on your chosen product page or these can be found under our Savings Accounts: Document Library. Alternatively, you can contact us contact us by phone: 01732 441944 or by email: [email protected] to request that an application form is sent to you by post. Once completed forms should be returned to the Tonbridge Office.

We understand that challenging situations, whether temporary or permanent, can make it more difficult to apply for and maintain your account with us. Please refer to our Customer Support guidance or contact us by phone: 01732 441944 or by email: [email protected] should you need any support before completing your application.

Charity Bank’s mission is to serve communities in the United Kingdom by attracting deposits from UK residents or UK-based organisations and by lending to UK-based charities and other social sector organisations. Charity Bank does not accept deposits from non-UK residents or non-UK based organisations.