HBoS Secret High Interest Savings Account?

abarthman

I've got my current account and all my savings with the HBoS.

I put £3,000 into my Halifax ISA Saver at the start of each year and I pay £250/month into a 7% interest Halifax Regular Saver account.

I received a phone call from someone from a nearby HBoS branch the other night. I haven't opened any accounts at the branch in question and only used the branch once very recently to deposit a cheque into my current account.

I was about to tell the caller that I wasn't interested in what he was selling, when he advised me that he had been reviewing my accounts and said that he could get me a better rate of interest on my Regular Saver account. I reminded him that I was getting a very respectable 7%, but he said he could get me another 4-5%. That's 11-12% interest by my reckoning!

I asked him if I could look at the details of this account online, but he said that I've have to make an appointment at the branch to sort it out with their savings officer.

I've made the appointment for tomorrow, but, if it transpires that I've taken time of work and that they can't give me 11-12% interest on a savings account, there will be hell to pay for wasting my time and misleading me. I've got the caller's name and will be quoting him.

How can they possibly offer me 11-12% interest on a regular savings account?

Robert_Sterling

I will wait with baited breath to hear what they have to say after your branch visit.
What you have reported that they said is extraordinary.
I think it must be an equity investment of some kind.

gizmoleeds

Perhaps he means a 4-5% larger return - eg. if you get £1,000 interest, then his account would give £1,040-1,050

cheerfulcat

How can they possibly offer me 11-12% interest on a regular savings account?

It could be linked to an equity-based investment. The bait is a one year fixed rate savings account with a very high rate of interest - the hook is a shoddy bank or insurance company product ( frequently a with-profits bond ).

abarthman

After spending fifteen minutes trying to get parked (their car park was full of punters from the pub next door!) and fifty minutes having my financial needs analysed, it turns out that they want me to invest in a stocks and shares mini ISA instead of my regular saver!

Now why didn't they just say that when they phoned?

tomstickland

Oh well, interesting story anyway.

Stonk

Did you make them pay hell, as promised?

abarthman

Stonk wrote:

Did you make them pay hell, as promised?

Not really. I was too weary for hostility by the time he'd finished his lengthy and well-rehearsed spiel.

And he was such a nice, friendly bloke!