Educating the Halifax

camelopardis

After watching last years "top rated" Intelligent Finance cash ISA dwindle down the charts, I put on my rate tart hat and dragged Mrs Camelopardis down to the Halifax.

Once in the door, I was pounced upon by a "welcome team".
"How can we help?", they beamed.

"We'd like to transfer our ISA's into your Saver Direct account please"

"Certainly", they said, and produced a man in shiny suit who whisked us away into a private room.

After explaining to Shiny Suit that we wished to transfer our ISAs, he started printing out various forms.

"There", he said, "just sign here"

I read the form and pointed out to him that it said "I have not contributed to any other ISA in this tax year"

"Oh, we've contributed to our IF ISAs this year", I told him "but thats OK, because we're transferring, not opening a new one"

Shiny Suit smiled fondly at us, and proceeded to impart his wisdom upon us two poor fools that had stumbled through his door.

"I'm afraid you can't transfer your ISAs if you've contributed to them this year" he warbled, "but come back in April, and you can transfer it then"

I stared at him blankly, then quietly proceeded to teach him about ISAs.

"No, I'm sure you can't do that" he muttered, his confidence rapidly waning, then he scuttled off to check with his colleagues.

Five minutes later, he was back, tail between his legs. The forms were completed, and I now have my fingers crossed that they will complete the transfer without further ado.

A little prior knowledge can go a long way.

surfcat

I remember going into to Halifax to get my IF ISA moved to Halifax. I took in all the info I had about IF, which included account number, "jar number", "plan number" but no sort code. It took the halifax bloke ages to work out how he could transfer without a sort code, despite it being the same company!!

Got there in the end.

It's funny how this particular online bank which was set up to save money now has ended up with lower rates than normal walk-in banks.

camelopardis

surfcat wrote:

It's funny how this particular online bank which was set up to save money now has ended up with lower rates than normal walk-in banks.

I asked the chap about this, but he seemed more interested in trying to flog me a Halifax current account. He could not understand the concept of my wanting to stay with First Direct when they offered such a low interest rate. Obviously he wasnt aware that there are still punters out there that (in certain circumstances) value customer service over headline rates.

deemy2004

Halifax branch staff are thick... do the sensible thing and go to Derbyshire BBS, at least they understand their products.

lipidicman

deemy2004 wrote:

Halifax branch staff are thick... do the sensible thing and go to Derbyshire BBS, at least they understand their products.

I see you haven't adopted Santa's charitable attitude to go with the outfit!

Sometimes I think Deemy and I must be with the same branch, based on our shared experiences, but sadly for the Halifax the problem seems to be nationwide!

pardal51

Hi guys,

Had the same problem this morning at a Halifax branch. The lady didn't know how to transfer ISAs and kept browsing bank's literature to find out. She even rang CS. In the end took info from providers I was transfering ISAs from and opened a Saver ISA. I was emphatic that what I wanted was Saver Direct @ 5%. She said: "just open this one to transfer the others than we switch to Saver Direct. TBH I wasn't 100% convinced of what she was doing, but hopefully will sort everything out when receive the papers by post.

Can't believe the sort of experience/training these people have...

Chadsman

Halifax staff need a little extra help :rolleyes: :snow_laug

surfcat

lipidicman wrote:

I think Deemy and I must be with the same branch, based on our shared experiences, but sadly for the Halifax the problem seems to be nationwide!

A truly awful pun.

odannyboy

The Halifax !!! it took them 6 weeks to transfer my first direct ISA to a there own one.

But worse then that, I was given another customers full account details when initially applying for the ISA. I only discovered this When phoning to ask how the transfer was going and the girl on the end of the phone was amazed, asking; ''did I know this women ??? how had I got these details ??? ''

Luckily all was resolved, but can't help wondering how safe my details are.

PokerPortal

When this thread just started I wanted to reply to defend the Halifax, as I had a pleasant experience when I transferred my HSBC ISA to the Halifax ISA Saver Direct on 25 November. It is now 9 January and I haven't heard a thing apart from HSBC telling me that my ISA account was closed on 12 December. I am going in tomorrow, armed with my paperwork.

Deemy

PokerPortal wrote:

When this thread just started I wanted to reply to defend the Halifax, as I had a pleasant experience when I transferred my HSBC ISA to the Halifax ISA Saver Direct on 25 November. It is now 9 January and I haven't heard a thing apart from HSBC telling me that my ISA account was closed on 12 December. I am going in tomorrow, armed with my paperwork.

You will soon experience how wonderful the branch staff are

Utterly useless - I bet you a fiver, they will tell you to call their telephone banking