Halifax Cutting Rates from 1/12/08

MM46

apt wrote: »

The Halifax rates have been updated on the website. Probably the worst of the worst:


Better news for savers - regular savers and children's regular savers still at 7% and 10% fixed respectively and one year ISA fixes at 5%, 5.5% for accounts over £30,000.

Thanks - I applied for a regular saver online Saturday evening hoping to get 7%. I phoned yesterday to ask whether the date was fixed from the date the account was opened or from the date the first standing order went in, and was told it was fixed from the date it was first funded. The adviser was helpful but did not know then whether that rate would be reduced or not and I should look on the website Monday. It seems that it will still be worth setting up my standing order.

obsessed_saver

"High" Interest Current Account reduced to 2.5%...

"Our High Interest Current Account pays 2.50% AER, that's much more interest than RBS and Clydesdale, on balances up to £2500. "

What a joke.

YorkshireBoy

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Hopefully your rate is showing as 5% in your online area? Mine's showing as N/A, but hopefully this will update overnight tonight?

It didn't...still showing as N/A. However, I rang them and the CSA said on 'their' system my account is showing as a Reward account with an interest rate of 5% fixed.

Looks like I'm OK?

bluebell_lily

alared wrote: »

The July reward that started as 5.8%,then was cut to 5.3% on the 1st November,is TODAY showing as 3.8%

Strange too, I think. A drop of 0.5% would have been October. But November, there was a 1.5% drop. So 0.5 + 1.5 = 2% drop, not 2.5%. Is this Halifax's way to "reward" customers?

YorkshireBoy

bluebell_lily wrote: »

Strange too, I think. A drop of 0.5% would have been October. But November, there was a 1.5% drop. So 0.5 + 1.5 = 2% drop, not 2.5%. Is this Halifax's way to "reward" customers?

Where do you get your 2.5% from?

bluebell_lily

I thought it was:

5.8% ---> 5.3% (0.5%)
5.3% ---> 3.8% (1.5%) = 2% total

Sorry YorkshireBoy, I was looking at other figures at the same time as this, and these numbers really confuse me!

caveman38

I opened a Web Saver Reward on recommendation from this post. I have deposited £50 which shows on the account and the link (blue) is active.
However the interest rate shows as NIL instead of the 5% I was expecting and has done since saturday. Any ideas?

10_66

jem16 wrote: »

My son and I opened one on Saturday. Both showed N/A on Saturday after being funded with £50. Both showed 5% on Sunday morning.

By the way they are both showing 5% this morning and my others have dropped to 3.8%

Mine's still showing N/A, so I rang them again today and explained the situation, and the Internet Banking chap I spoke to confirmed that the July one (now 3.80%) is definitely a Web Saver Reward, therefore invalidating the Web Saver Reward I opened on Sunday. I suggested that it would be helpful if they could actually call the flippin' product by it's proper name and he agreed that it's highly confusing and has been suggested to the powers that be on earlier occasions, but will forward the comments again.

cottager

10_66 wrote: »

I suggested that it would be helpful if they could actually call the flippin' product by it's proper name and he agreed that it's highly confusing and has been suggested to the powers that be on earlier occasions, but will forward the comments again.

My thoughts exactly in an earlier post

I think the confusion is because this is essentially a basic Web Saver Variable account but with an 'add-on', and for some reason they're using what seems to be the same online application portal as for the variables. But you arrive there through having chosen to open a Reward account, so in the system it registers as such with the add-on features and higher interest.

My Reward is still showing N/A for interest as well.
My guess is that in the summary at the top of the account details, which is normally only designed to take a figure, it would be much too long to state something like '5% subject to conditions' (i.e. make more than 4 withdrawals in a year, close it early etc).

So it remains N/A because until the year is up or you fall foul of the qualifying conditions in some other way, it's not known if you will earn the higher 5% rate or not.

That's my theory anyway, but you're right -- it is unnecessarily confusing.
Luckily I opted for REWARD as my own name for the new account, and it can be picked out fairly easily in the list of accounts.

jem16

cottager wrote: »

So it remains N/A because until the year is up or you fall foul of the qualifying conditions in some other way, it's not known if you will earn the higher 5% rate or not.

Mine already shows 5%. On your 5th withdrawal it would revert back to the standard variable websaver as you have broken the conditions.