Transfering from BirmMid to Halifax/BOS account

Rollinghome

I want to transfer a couple of maturing fixed rate accounts from Birmingham Midshires to a Bank of Scotland IASA account (which allows additions and pays 6% fixed). Both are part of HBOS.

At the moment the BM 'linked account' is my Natwest current but would prefer to avoid transfering from BM to Natwest then on to BOS with the double loss of interest.

Two problems. The website says the linked account must allow direct debits, which the BOS account doesn't. Obviously I won't be paying money into BM so don't need DD. Speaking to them earlier they seem to agree that it *should* be ok if the system accepts the BOS account number.

Second problem, they told me it would still take up to four days to transfer from BM to BOS - even though they're both part of HBOS. That sounds totally batty but does anyone have any experience to comfirm this?

sabretoothtigger

That is quite possible, lloyds and halifax are in theory part of the same bank but hold seperate licenses and computer systems I guess.
Lots of these banks are so massive they are only related on a balance sheet, not proper integration

you'd think they would at least do faster payments but your best bet is to transfer on a monday so you dont lose interest over a weekend

Rollinghome

Would excuse them if they hadn't integrated Lloyds with HBOS yet but not for internal transfers within HBOS. Natwest do faster payments to BOS but only to 10K so need to do some sums...

rb10

Rollinghome wrote: »

Natwest do faster payments to BOS but only to 10K so need to do some sums...

Immediate Faster Payments, where you ask for the money to be sent straight away, are limited to £10k per payment. However, there are a couple of alternatives:

1) Send multiple payments in a day - I don't know if Natwest limit the overall number that you are allowed to make; or

2) Once the FP system is fully up and running, you will be able to do standing orders of up to £100k. So, if Natwest have got there yet, you could set up a standing order for the following day, then cancel it as soon as it's gone out. The problem here is that you won't know if it's gone by FP until it's too late and the payment has left!

3) CHAPS (~£20)

4) Open a Halifax current account - only takes a few minutes online - and change your linked account with BM to that one. A transfer from a Halifax current account to a BOS IASAR is instant. (They'll also give you £5 for doing it that way ... as it'll be the Reward account).

Rollinghome

Thanks RB. The bit that seems unavoidable and I find bizarre is that I can't do a simple transfer from one pocket of HBOS to another without losing it for up to four days in no man's land.

BM (aka SAGA) are a seriously wacky outfit. They also insist when opening an account that you send them a cheque for the full initial investment which they then sit on for weeks before it's presented or the account is opened. The way round it (which they don't make known) is to ignore them and just send £1 to open the account then BACS the rest in as soon as you get the account number. They seem to have a mission to make life as complicated as possible.

Afaik, the Natwest limit is for £10K per day but I'll look at the options for future reference.

steveksullivan

Rollinghome wrote: »

I want to transfer a couple of maturing fixed rate accounts from Birmingham Midshires to a Bank of Scotland IASA account (which allows additions and pays 6% fixed). Both are part of HBOS.

At the moment the BM 'linked account' is my Natwest current but would prefer to avoid transfering from BM to Natwest then on to BOS with the double loss of interest.

Two problems. The website says the linked account must allow direct debits, which the BOS account doesn't. Obviously I won't be paying money into BM so don't need DD. Speaking to them earlier they seem to agree that it *should* be ok if the system accepts the BOS account number.

Second problem, they told me it would still take up to four days to transfer from BM to BOS - even though they're both part of HBOS. That sounds totally batty but does anyone have any experience to comfirm this?

Hi Rolling...


Where have you found info on this account? All the best buy tables say best fixed rate is 4.3% .... is this some kind of investment related account or a simple fixed rate?.... grateful for a link to info if you have one.

Cheers

rb10

steveksullivan wrote: »

Where have you found info on this account? All the best buy tables say best fixed rate is 4.3% .... is this some kind of investment related account or a simple fixed rate?.... grateful for a link to info if you have one.

It was just a simple fixed rate, allowing additional deposits and a limited number of withdrawals - very similar to the Halifax Guaranteed Saver Reward accounts. It's no longer available to new customers at the moment though.

Rollinghome

steveksullivan wrote: »

Hi Rolling...


Where have you found info on this account? All the best buy tables say best fixed rate is 4.3% .... is this some kind of investment related account or a simple fixed rate?.... grateful for a link to info if you have one.

Cheers

Was pulled as RB says - just after I opened mine in Dec, left it as late as possible.

Useful thing about it was that you could open it with the minimum amount waiting to receive funds as existing fixed rate accounts matured. I'll be moving the balance from the BM fixed rate there, which has been paying 6.88%, to get 6% to the end of the year. After that the various other fixed rate accounts I've got mature too so it might get a little tricky in simple savings accounts if rates are still low. May need to look elsewhere.

Fixed rate accounts that allow withdrawals and additions are a useful one way bet if you can find them.