Halifax regular saver rate

John J said:
Thanks that's very interesting... their T&Cs are misleading then, it states (and I quote) "The bonus rate... will be paid... if but only if... all 12 monthly payments in the amounts set out in the application form have been made"
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Thanks for pointing this out, I will ring again this morning to confirm/clarify and post the outcome. As you highlight what I was informed contradicts the T&C's above
 
ClubMan said:
My Halifax regular saver account opened January 2007 is still saying 7% on their online banking!
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Same here (opened 08/07) still saying 7%, did not get any notification of rate change in e-mail, sms or post.

Also I have not seen yet the required advert in any newspaper informing me about a rate change, but maybe I overlooked it. Has anybody seen such advert?

So I wait until I see either an advert or get other notification and than I call them.
 
Clohass said:
Thanks for pointing this out, I will ring again this morning to confirm/clarify and post the outcome. As you highlight what I was informed contradicts the T&C's above
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Rang Halifax and spoke to a different Cust Serv Rep. He was adamant that once the monthly payment is between the min of €10 and €750 that you will still qualify for the bonus interest. I asked him could he e-mail or send this to me in writing and he said that he would send me out a letter today. I will post the contents when I receive it but it may be worthwhile for others to check today on this understanding also. My understanding from these 2 conversations remainsd that you can withdraw most of the amount in the account and reduce the monthly payment to €10 and still qualify for bonus interest on the anniversary.
 
2 minutes after my above post my halifax account shows 4% now, so I rang them and after 7 minutes of wait a person picked up and than hung up. After another 12 minutes of wait I spoke to a person who really sounded like he could use a break.

Anyhow he confirmed that you can change the contribution down to 10€ (or any amount between 10€ and 750/350 € depending on your T&C) ONCE a year without loosing your bonus rate.

He also advised that the change needs to be done at least 5 business days before the next direct debit date to be processed.

He than told me to withdraw the money if I like after the DD change as I'm only allowed 2 withdraws a year.


I read the T&C again and there is this:

2.5 The amount of your monthly lodgement is selected by you in the application form (subject to condition 2.3) and all monthly lodgements must be in this amount. You may change the amount of your monthly deposit once in each year.
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So I'll have to wait until Friday when my 500€ is taken, than once that is done I can withdraw all bar 10€ and move it to somewhere else.

I wonder how many people are calling them today!
 
DublinTexas said:
2 minutes after my above post my halifax account shows 4% now
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Yeah - mine too now. They must have updated the records overnight.
so I rang them and after 7 minutes of wait a person picked up and than hung up. After another 12 minutes of wait I spoke to a person who really sounded like he could use a break.
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Odd - I have always found them fine to deal with on the phone. No hanging around so far and always informative and helpful.
I wonder how many people are calling them today!
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One more soon...
 
From what I can gather my monthly saver 1 previously @ 5.5% is now at 3%,
and monthly saver 2 previously at 7% is now at 4% .Is this correct?
 
Corky said:
From what I can gather my monthly saver 1 previously @ 5.5% is now at 3%,
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If it was opened before 24/10/2006 then yes.
and monthly saver 2 previously at 7% is now at 4% .Is this correct?
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If it was opened between 24/10/2006 and 07/10/2007 then yes.

See [broken link removed].
 
ClubMan said:
Odd - I have always found them fine to deal with on the phone. No hanging around so far and always informative and helpful.
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Just called to inquire about closing my account with them and was on hold for less than a minute and the person at the other end was able to deal with my query no problem. To date I have had absolutely no problems with Halifax telephone banking/customer service. Pity about the regular saver rates though...
 
I have 3 regular saver accounts with Halifax, self, missus and joint with anniversaries in Dec, January and February so will close all three now and suffer small loss re bonus interest.
 
I'm in the same boat, except that the anniversary of all three was 10th February, so I'll lose out very little by closing them now. I'm certainly grateful for this thread!

However, I'm first getting Halifax to pre-populate and post me out application forms for three FlexiSaver (5.15%) accounts in the same names, into each of which I'll first have them transfer just under €10K while I set up a new home for the funds. That way, as existing customers, we won't have to go through all the AML hoops again.
 
I just got off the phone with halifax (straight through no problems). The person I talked to said the bonus rate which was due on the first anniverary of the account (March '08) has already been paid out due to the change in interest rate and by closing the account right now it would incur no loss of bonus interest etc.
 
Good advice Clubman. I rang back to see if I could confirm with another person and ended up getting the same person again. This time though they completely contradicted what they had said on the previous phone call .

To be safe I will close all accounts the week after the anniversary date.
 
I am wondering how this is going to work out for Halifax's profit.

Every single customer calling in or visiting a branch to lower his monthly payment to 10€ that's a lot of contacts.

Every single customer withdrawing the money saved so far now, that's a lot of money.

Every single customer from now only paying 10€ via direct debit, that is a lot of processing cost.

Or maybe they gamble on the fact that a lot of people don't know about the change or will just forget about taking action.

I mean I know about 10 people that did withdraw today alone, that's at lot of money Halifax needs to pay out today.

I am not saying that Halifax can not pay out, I'm simply saying that there will be a high demand on funds.
 
Good point DublinTexas.
Transactions processed by me alone today:

- Opened Flexi Saver (in branch)
- Opened Child Saver (by post - with cheque)
- Opened another Child Saver (by post - with cheque)
- Altered DD on monthly saver to €10 (in branch)
- Transferred 10K from monthly saver to flexi saver (in branch)
- Transferred out remainer of monthly saver balance down to minimum (by writing to Dundalk HQ)

All triggered by Halifax dropping their rate. (However, they're keeping most of the money in my case)

From a processing point of view let's hope, for their sake, everyone isn't doing this

Ahh... I love (rate) tarting myself about
 
3.6 In addition to interest, the bonus rate of interest will be paid on your account on each account opening anniversary if, but only if, the following conditions are met in that year:-
(a) no more than two withdrawals have been made in that year from your account;
(b) your account has not been closed in that year by you or us; and
(c) all twelve monthly payments in the amounts set out in the application form have been made by you to your account in that year.

3.7 If you satisfy the conditions above, we will pay the bonus rate of interest to each account on each account opening anniversary. The bonus rate of interest is calculated on the credit balance in your account at the end of each day during the year.


The first 2 conditions for closing the account are straight forward. But see the 3rd condition above, Does that mean if i reduce the 750 per month i pay down to the minimum of 10, that i will loose the bonus rate of interest?
 

2.5 of the T&C allows you ONCE to change the amount you want to save (both up and down):

2.5 The amount of your monthly lodgement is selected by you in the application form (subject to condition 2.3) and all monthly lodgements must be in this amount. You may change the amount of your monthly deposit once in each year.
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As long as you make all payment as orginaly agreed or changed ONCE a year your Bonus Rate will stay in effect.

That at least is the consensus from people who have spoken to Halifax today.
 


Good spot. Their terms and conditions are way over complicated.
 
Who offers the best regular savings account at the moment?

It is a pity Halifax has dropped rates.
 
I'm in the same position as many of you. The high rate of interest was only guaranteed untill 31st January 2008. My regular saver account reached its one year anniversary a few weeks ago so I think I'm best off withdrawing the whole lot and spreading it among the other high rate accounts, ensuring I don't exceed the high rate/low rate threshold. Am I entitled to close this regular savers account and withdraw the balance at no cost to me?



Does anyone know if this was complied with:



11. How will we tell you about any changes?
11.1 We will tell you about any changes we make under condition 3.1 and 10.1 to the interest rate which we pay on your credit balance or charge you on any overdraft, by putting a notice in at least three national daily papers and in our branches, or by writing to you.
 
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