Halifax Guaranteed Saver Reward

strawberrylane

I opened the Reward account yesterday, funded it immediately with £2500 and I already have a high interest current account that is funded with at least 1K per month, so I believe I qualify for the Reward account.

My interest rate is currently showing as "N/A" online.

Having read the terms and conditions for this account I still have 2 questions...

1. The t&c's discuss withdrawals by cash and cheque. Are online withdrawals also possible? (I presume they are, but no mention in t&c's). There is a "Transfer" option online for this account, so I assume online transfers out of this account are possible. Any-one know for sure?

2. If I do get the 6% "Reward" rate, and keep at least £2500 in the account and continue to fund my current account with 1K per month, what happens if I close this Reward account after, say, 6 months? Will I be credited with interest at the 6% rate for the 6 months that I had the account open, or will they say that as I didn't have £2500 in the account for the 12 month Reward period, I will only be credited with the (lower) non-Reward rate of interest?

Thanks in advance.

Milarky

strawberrylane wrote: »

1. The t&c's discuss withdrawals by cash and cheque. Are online withdrawals also possible? (I presume they are, but no mention in t&c's). There is a "Transfer" option online for this account, so I assume online transfers out of this account are possible. Any-one know for sure?

Not sure. But why would Halifax restrict withdrawals in any way besides ATM card and OTC cash?

2. If I do get the 6% "Reward" rate, and keep at least £2500 in the account and continue to fund my current account with 1K per month, what happens if I close this Reward account after, say, 6 months? Will I be credited with interest at the 6% rate for the 6 months that I had the account open, or will they say that as I didn't have £2500 in the account for the 12 month Reward period, I will only be credited with the (lower) non-Reward rate of interest?

Halifax says closure of the account counts as a withdrawal. Thus there should be no interest penalty for doing what you say and closing the account early.

wwmac

Hi guys,
I'm new to this forum so please, treat me gently :j
I've got a question though... can I use £1000, I suppose to pay into a qualifying current account every month, to top the GSR with new deposits? or those deposits need to be funded in addition to required £1000 payable to current a/c?
In other words - can I add min of £1000 worth of deposits to GSR through qualifying current a/c every month and all the conditions required to get "Reward" at the end of the term will be met? :think:

apt

Yes, you could send £1000 via faster payments to the current account and then transfer it straight away to the guaranteed saver reward.

LongTermLurker

apt wrote: »

Yes, you could send £1000 via faster payments to the current account and then transfer it straight away to the guaranteed saver reward.

there's general advice that you should leave money in the feeder account - in this case the current account - overnight to ensure it registers.

hgt

I work for said bank - Though don't ask my why the interest rate shows wrong as I don't deal with that side of things (my account still shows 4.5% too). Though I have seen a communication saying that staff will always see the lowest rate (the Guaranteed saver rate - currently 4.5%) on the system, so preumably this is what customers will see online too. Though I agree it would be at least nice to be informed that you have qualified for the Guaranteed Saver Reward rate, I suspect they may send a letter by post as that's what tends to happen.

Yes I'd say it's a good idea to leave the £1000 in your current account at least overnight before transfering it on becuase everything happens overnight (well 3am actually) and this is when all calculations are done.

That also explains why the rate will show as 'N/A' when you first open the Guaranteed Saver account, this is normal and it will update overnight.

Icesaver

hgt wrote: »

I work for said bank - Though don't ask my why the interest rate shows wrong as I don't deal with that side of things (my account still shows 4.5% too). Though I have seen a communication saying that staff will always see the lowest rate (the Guaranteed saver rate - currently 4.5%) on the system, so preumably this is what customers will see online too. Though I agree it would be at least nice to be informed that you have qualified for the Guaranteed Saver Reward rate, I suspect they may send a letter by post as that's what tends to happen.

Yes I'd say it's a good idea to leave the £1000 in your current account at least overnight before transfering it on becuase everything happens overnight (well 3am actually) and this is when all calculations are done.

That also explains why the rate will show as 'N/A' when you first open the Guaranteed Saver account, this is normal and it will update overnight.

I applied for one of these Accounts last week, my letter says 'Halifax Guaranteed Saver' no mention of being upgraded to reward or any mention of interest rate. Just account details and reminder to fund the account ASAP

lipidicman

Just a warning. With my monthly saver (not the reg saver, the monthly saver) the bonus was only payable on anniversary. This may or may not be the same, but worth considering. It does look like 4.5% with a 1.5% bonus

Now the questions. I would like to open online but my savings are elsewhere and will take at least four days to arrive, I would like to get this open online ASAP. Does the online application require an immediate deposit or could I do it today then get a cheque issues tomorrow in town or arrange a transfer or the like?

Also I assume the usual websaver to current account transfer will count as a £1k deposit

LongTermLurker

lipidicman wrote: »

Just a warning. With my monthly saver (not the reg saver, the monthly saver) the bonus was only payable on anniversary. This may or may not be the same, but worth considering. It does look like 4.5% with a 1.5% bonus

That's also correct for this one - all interest is added at the end of the year (it doesn't add interest monthly)

lipidicman wrote: »

Now the questions. I would like to open online but my savings are elsewhere and will take at least four days to arrive, I would like to get this open online ASAP. Does the online application require an immediate deposit or could I do it today then get a cheque issues tomorrow in town or arrange a transfer or the like?

Yes, you have the option to fund via an internal transfer or pay later by cheque or BACS - you will be given your account number and sort code at the end and can just transfer it straight from your external account.

lipidicman wrote: »

Also I assume the usual websaver to current account transfer will count as a £1k deposit

Not sure if the monthly funding needs to be external - I can't see them liking you shuffling a grand backward and forwards between their accounts every month :rolleyes:

lipidicman

Thank you!

The 'grand shuffle' is what I have always done to qualify for the high interest current account. Not that different from getting paid, then forking out for a ll your bills a day or so later like a lot of people do!

Right, so I can open this now and transfer via bacs in a few days. It will take four to get the money out of my savings account to a non-halifax current account and then four days to arrive in the new account. Is there a cutoff do you know?