Tandem Bank is scrapping one of its most popular savings account features – the Autosavings tool – from next month as it continues to focus on its mission to become ‘the green bank’.
The bank introduced Autosavings in March 2019 to help people build better savings habits. It described it as the ‘ultimate tool to build positive savings habits, earn interest and absorb the costs associated with paying money into a Tandem account’.
However, from 11 January 2021 it will be turning off Autosavings and all savings rules will stop. This includes weekly deposits, round ups, top ups, safe to save and the in-app pay-in function.
Savings success stories
“Autosavings is one of our most popular features and we love seeing how it has helped consumers save and understand the value of money”
According to Tandem Bank, it was ‘a difficult decision’ to close Autosavings as it has loved hearing about the benefits the feature has brought customers over the years. But says the closure is essential as it ‘moves away from old technology and on to something faster, better and stronger’.
Ricky Knox, founder and CEO of Tandem Bank, told The Fintech Times: “At Tandem we are constantly evolving and no decision to close a product or service is taken lightly. Autosavings is one of our most popular features and we love seeing how it has helped consumers save and understand the value of money.
“We are in the process of a platform change and the current Autosavings product has to be stopped in order for this change to happen so that we can build back new and improved savings tools.”
Knox says that around half of its savings customers make use of Autosavings and a small handful of customers (less than one per cent) have requested to close their account following the announcement. The closure follows the axe of Tandem Bank credit cards in November as it wanted to ‘focus on savings’.
A greener focus
The ‘green agenda’ is the new focus of Tandem Bank. In August, it acquired green loans company Allium Lending Group. Following the acquisition, former Allium CEO Paul Noble became Tandem’s new chief commercial officer and is leading its green digital bank ambitions.
A recent survey commissioned by Tandem found that more than half the UK population has no idea what green finance is and how it contributes to the UK’s commitment to a zero-carbon economy by 2050.
Knox says: “The green agenda is something that we are focusing on now and to keep our mission of becoming the ‘green bank’ we have to ensure our products are in line with that mission. Since Tandem started we have always had the mission to become the ‘good bank’. With the environment and green finance becoming so high on our customers’ agenda, the best way we can be the ‘good bank’ is to also focus on becoming a ‘green bank’.
“Green finance is something that is hugely beneficial for customers and it is important to us that consumers know their options – green finance not only benefits you whereby you save money on your energy bills, or make green home improvements that save you money in the long term, but it is hugely important for our planet.”
Tandem said it is now working with its customers to get their feedback on how to best incorporate green into its financial services while still helping them reach their savings goals with new and improved tools.
It has already unveiled plans to launch a new Green Instant Saver in 2021 to help customers ‘save money and our planet at the same time’.
