Halifax Reward Current Account - pays you £5 per month.

rb10

hilltrekker wrote: »

Think very carefully first and find out about all the conditions. I visited my branch of HBOS today and discovered that if you dont go overdrawn, you will get £5 too.

Being overdrawn has no impact on whether or not you receive the £5 - you can be overdrawn for the whole month and still get the Reward.

BUT, if you do over draw... you pay £1 a day that you are overdrawn. It could cost you £365 a year.

If you were overdrawn for the whole year. But overdrafts are intended as a short-term form of borrowing (e.g. to tide you over until payday). If you need long-term borrowing, then a credit card or loan is far better, as the bank cannot just recall this at a moment's notice, as with an overdraft.

If you stay with their standard account they default you to after having a now defunct High Interest account, then you get a free overdraft.

No, you don't get a free overdraft on the Current Account. If you switch to the Ultimate Reward account, you pay £12.50 (but can get the £5 Reward), and get a £300 free overdraft.

Except, if you dont pay in £1000 per month, you dont get interest AND get the £1 a day charge when overdrawn!

This is why the letter you will have received will have recommended that you speak to Halifax to switch your account over. You can get £5 every single month, which is far more than you'd ever manage to receive on interest.

I intend finding another bank. Probably not Barclays then!

Other banks are likely to introduce a similar system in the near future, especially if the bank charges test case is found to be against the banks.

Just to add insult to injury, I complained about the 9% loan I have with HBOS. The retort was: that's a good rate, we charge 14% now - only if you have a good credit record, more if you dont.:mad:

All interest rates, on borrowing and on savings, have changed a lot in recent months. So it's not surprising that you'd no longer be able to get the rate that you are on now. Similarly, I am getting 5% on my savings for the next couple of weeks, but won't be able to from then on. It's just the way things have gone.