Halifax Guaranteed Saver Reward

apt · 2 November 2008 at 1:25AM

For savers who do not have the Egg 6.3% account the new Halifax Guaranteed Saver Reward is perhaps worth considering. It pays 6% fixed for 12 months and there are no limits on additional deposits during the year. However, it is not as flexible as the Egg offer was. There's a minimum balance of £2,500 and only four withdrawals are allowed. You also need to have a Halifax current account funded by £1000 per month. But the Halifax High Interest Current Acc pays 5.12% up to £2500 and has faster payments so is well-worth having anyway.

halight · 2 November 2008 at 8:10AM

Sound good thanks

gaol · 4 November 2008 at 6:08PM

My wife opened this yesterday and the rate showing up online is 4.5% (the standard saver rate) despite the fact that she has two funded eligible current accounts. Called the Halifax, but their savings call centre is utterly useless and just said it should be paid correctly.

Check your rate online if you have opened this since the 1st.

rb10 · 4 November 2008 at 11:02PM

gaol wrote: »

My wife opened this yesterday and the rate showing up online is 4.5% (the standard saver rate) despite the fact that she has two funded eligible current accounts. Called the Halifax, but their savings call centre is utterly useless and just said it should be paid correctly.

Check your rate online if you have opened this since the 1st.

As far as I am aware, the rate will always display as the standard GS rate, because at the moment, Halifax don't know that your wife will fund one of her current accounts by £1000 this month. If, for one month, she did not fund the current account, she would only receive the lower, variable rate in that month. So the interest will be recalculated at 6% once they know she's met that condition.

coops1_2 · 8 November 2008 at 5:11PM

I've also opened this for the 6% and it now shows as guaranteed saver with interest rate of 4.5%. I've phoned them and they tell me I have GS account though I know I opened the Guaranteed Saver Reward. They will further investigate and phone me back on monday.

If indeed the extra interest does kick in later it would be good to know. But the web site does say:

Great News - If you open and fund a new Halifax Guaranteed Saver account before 1 December 2008 and have a qualifying current account funded with £1,000 per month, your account will automatically be upgraded to a Halifax Guaranteed Saver Reward, where a higher rate of interest will apply until you make more than 4 withdrawals

But I'm a little disappointed and thinking of withdrawing the dosh and putting it in the Coventry's Poppy bond if its still available on Monday. In the Coventry on Thursday the manager said he thinks it will be available at least until remembrance day.

LongTermLurker · 8 November 2008 at 5:20PM

With the rapidly falling rates, even if you do have the Egg 6.3 account this is worth getting for diversity. I guess it could best be described as "semi instant access" in that you can get at your money as readily as you want, but not too often. The great thing is that you can add to it and so long as you start with, and keep, £2500 in it (and fund the current account) you will get what I'm sure will soon be a leading rate. I think this might be the place for my KE withdrawal...

I don't think the details have been posted yet but they can be found here

http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/guaranteedsaverreward.asp
http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/ImportantInfo/ImpInfo_HGSReward.asp

LongTermLurker · 8 November 2008 at 5:28PM

coops1 wrote: »

But the web site does say:

Great News - If you open and fund a new Halifax Guaranteed Saver account before 1 December 2008 and have a qualifying current account funded with £1,000 per month, your account will automatically be upgraded to a Halifax Guaranteed Saver Reward, where a higher rate of interest will apply until you make more than 4 withdrawals

But I'm a little disappointed and thinking of withdrawing the dosh and putting it in the Coventry's Poppy bond if its still available on Monday. In the Coventry on Thursday the manager said he thinks it will be available at least until remembrance day.

Don't want to be rude (as it's your first post) but why are people so distrusting of advertised rates? A number of people on these boards seem paranoid and think that banks advertise products with no intention of paying the going rate. A valid explanation has been given above.

Re the Coventry bond, there's a difference - the Coventry one presumably won't allow subsequent deposits and charges a 90-day interest penalty for every withdrawal; in contrast, the Halifax one allows you to add throughout the term, make 4 free withdrawals and every other withdrawal loses you 30 days' interest and force a rate-reduction. The Halifax one pays slightly lower interest and requires a higher committment as well. They're very different animals and you should choose the one that's most suitable for you.

coops1_2 · 8 November 2008 at 10:15PM

Many thanks for your reply and advice.

I am reasonably trusting of advertised rates (usually the voices tell me who to trust). However I also feel that it is reasonable to expect the account I opened to correspond slightly to the account I ended up with. It was reassuring to read the explanation given by rb10 but I would be further reassured if this advice had been given at the application stage or by the Halifax representatives I spoke to earlier today.

I look forward to their call on Monday.

hgt · 8 November 2008 at 10:43PM

I am also worried that the rate shows only 4.5% I have just transfered £1000 into my current account from my websaver to see if that will fool the system into thinking I've funded it for this month! Interest is calculated daily overnight at approx 3am so I'll check again in the morning to see what the rate shows.

hgt · 9 November 2008 at 5:19AM

Nope, paying in £1000 to my current account made no difference whatsoever to the rate shown on the Guaranteed Sever!

ashbourne · 9 November 2008 at 12:27PM

Am i right in thinking i can do the following on the Halifax guaranteed saver account:

- Open this account as a new saver and get the 6% fix for 12 months

- Deposit say £3000 initially.

- Obviously pay the £1000 every month for 12 months but if i wanted to i could put in alot more too?

- could i take out all or most of it in one withdrawal and at some point a long the line as long as i still deposit the £1000 every month and still not lose the 6%?

- or do i have to keep all those £1000 deposits in the account for the term?

Halifax Guaranteed Saver Reward

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