Savings with Halifax

HallamLad

My grandad is a bit worried about his savings at the moment, what with the further interest cut.

He's got his savings with the Halifax. £40k in a scheme called St.Andrews Charity. £30k in ISA's.

Anyone got any ideas where he could move these to get the best rate possible? I know it's not a lot of detail, anymore details you need I'll try find out for you.

JimLad

The 30k is easy to deal with, just move it to the highest paying ISA.

Cant find any info about a st andrews charity scheme, does the interest get given to charity or something?

cloudstrife_2

You will probably not find anything on the internet with regards to the St. Andrews product, these products are normally dealt with by a Personal Financial Adviser in branch. I would personally book an appointment with the PFA to have a look at it for you and like I say to all customers you are under no obligation to do anything, if you don't like what they offer you just say thanks but no thanks, they should also be able sort out a closure of the St. Andrews product if its not the best place (not 100% certain on this as I say these products are only dealt with by PFAs).

With regards to the ISA, definatly look now, the Passbook based ISAs currently start off at 0.15%, with another rate cut possible on 1st Feb. In comparision a 1 year Fixed ISA is offering 3.30% and I have moved a few customers to this who have already paid their full £3600 allowance and are not planning any withdrawals in the next year.

Cloud

anselld

Make sure the St. Andrews product is properly protected, FSCS or whatever.

cloudstrife_2

What about my money in accounts in other Bank of Scotland plc divisions?
£50,000 is the maximum compensation you could get for all of your money held in bank accounts or savings accounts with Bank of Scotland plc. These include accounts held in the following trading names and divisions:
Halifax
Bank of Scotland
Birmingham Midshires
Intelligent Finance
St James's Place Bank
St James's Place Private Bank
AA
Saga
Are my investment products protected by the FSCS?
As well as protection for bank accounts and savings the scheme also provides protection in the event an FSA authorised company cannot meet claims made against it in relation to investment and long-term insurance products .
The actual level of compensation a client would receive will depend on the basis of their claim. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme will consider each claim individually at the time it is made. FSCS can only pay compensation for financial loss and there are limits to the amounts of compensation the FSCS can pay. Maximum FSCS compensation limits are per person (per provider firm and per category of claim):
Investments category – Open-Ended Investment Company (OEIC)
The limit for investment business is £48,000 per person (100% of the first £30,000 and 90% of the next £20,000) for business conducted on or after 28th August 1988. This includes products such as OEICs – Stocks and shares ISAs, Collective Investment Plan (CIP) and Child Trust Fund (CTF).
Long-term insurance category
• The limit for Long-term insurance (e.g. pensions and life assurance) is as follows: 100% of the first £2,000 of a claim is covered in full, plus 90% of the remainder of the claim.
• There is no upper limit to the amount that may be claimed. Personal Investment Plan, Guaranteed Investment Plan, Guaranteed Growth Bond, Investment Bond and Halifax Bonus Bond, Stakeholder Pension, Flexible Protection Plan all fall under the long-term insurance category as they are life assurance products and not classed as Investments under the scheme rules.
For Investment and Long-term insurances claims, customers would be covered per person, per separately authorised institution so can make multiple claims for products held – one per category per each FSA authorised institution which is a member of the scheme i.e. Halifax Life Limited, St Andrew's Life Assurance plc, Clerical Medical Investment Group Limited, HBOS Investment Fund Managers Limited or Clerical Medical Investment Fund Managers Ltd.

Taken from the Halifax website, hope it helps!

Cloud