Is it possible to close a Halifax ISA Saver Direct account?

crazyshady

My family are needing me to loan them some money which could be more than the amount im allowed to withdraw so i think the only way to lift that amount out would be to close the whole account down. The amount in the account isn't a whole lot more than what is needed and i will be getting the money back in a few weeks but im just looking for some advice. The money is needed for tomorrow but we just dont know the exact amount yet. If it is more than im allowed to withdraw then hopefully i can close it. And hey....there might even be better savings accounts out there for me and i can go elsewhere!

So does anyone know about this account? I went for this one knowing it wasn't one that required x amount to be paid in monthly so it was much easy for me to manage. I think £3,600 is the maximum i can take out yearly and the amount needed is a little bit less than that. What are my options and if it is possible to close down how would i get my money?

opinions4u

It's a telephone account. You can operate it online, but you can't close it online.

Ring them on 08456 26 36 46 if you wish to close or don't have online access to move money out of it.

They should be able to arrange closure by telephone and either transfer funds in to another Halifax account or send you a cheque.

I think £3,600 is the maximum i can take out yearly and the amount needed is a little bit less than that

That's the annual ISA limit for deposits.

crazyshady

Well i have my current account with them so putting it into that would be handy. Then again you can only lift £1,200 from a branch so i guess i'd need to do some kind of bank transfer. It might be that i dont need to close the account down at all but i thought i'd ask just incase as obviously tomorrow i wont have time to come online and ask!

McKneff

As far as i am aware there is nothing stopping you from taking out all your money at once and just leaving £1 in to keep the account open. I


why dont you ring them tonight. The call centres allways seem to be open.
Dont forget to get a generic number from saynoto0870 instead of ringing their expensive 0845 or 0870 number.

rb10

Either by phone or online, you can transfer as much as you like into your current account, so there's no need to close the account.

McKneff wrote: »

why dont you ring them tonight. The call centres allways seem to be open.
Dont forget to get a generic number from saynoto0870 instead of ringing their expensive 0845 or 0870 number.

Better still (unless you've got inclusive 01/02 minutes), go to http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/callback.asp (intended for new current account applications, but they always transfer me through to savings).

crazyshady

As it turns out the situation has changed and i dont need the money just yet so ive got until Friday. Are you all definately sure about this? The amount i need could be a bit more than the £3600 allowed. I also had a read about online and that to close the account i would need to put it in writing and that they would pay any interest due up until the point of closing. But as you guys said i can't close it over the phone so i wouldn't get any interest and obviously to put it in writing and waiting for them to reply could take weeks so i guess i have no other option but to move as much as possible and keep £1 in the account. It just means when i get the money back in a few weeks i'll just keep it in my current account.

Baldur

crazyshady wrote: »

The amount i need could be a bit more than the £3600 allowed.

Allowed by whom? There is no global restriction on the amount which you can withdraw from a Cash ISA, only on the amount which you can subscribe to a Cash ISA each tax year.

crazyshady

I was under the impression that the £3,600 was for both depositing and withdrawing ie. if i took £3,600 out i couldnt' pay anything back into it until next year. Or if i paid £3,000 into it then i could only take £600 out etc.

Baldur

crazyshady wrote: »

I was under the impression that the £3,600 was for both depositing and withdrawing ie. if i took £3,600 out i couldnt' pay anything back into it until next year. Or if i paid £3,000 into it then i could only take £600 out etc.

You can withdraw as much as you like, the £3,600 limit only relates to subscriptions per tax year.

If you had £40,000 in a Cash ISA, you could withdraw all of it - however you can only pay £3,600 (will actually be £5,100 as a resut of the Cash ISA allowance increase for the 2010-2011 tax year) into the account in each tax year.

opinions4u

crazyshady wrote: »

I also had a read about online and that to close the account i would need to put it in writing and that they would pay any interest due up until the point of closing.

You don't have to put it in writing.

Here's a link to the terms and conditions.

Page 6 explicitly states: "Withdrawals/Closure

• No notice required
• By telephoning 08457 26 36 46 to transfer funds to another account or to an account with another financial institution

• Cannot be done at branches or by cheque" - my apologies for saying they could issue a cheque, but a BACS transfer is better!

But as you guys said i can't close it over the phone ...

Where was that said?

Post 2:

Ring them on 08456 26 36 46 if you wish to close or don't have online access to move money out of it.
They should be able to arrange closure by telephone and either transfer funds in to another Halifax account or send you a cheque.

crazyshady

Ok well now i understand it and know what i need to do. I have heard (could be wrong) that the maximum amount of money you can take out of a branch is £1,200...is that true? Does that mean i can only lift that amount out per day or could i visit more than one branch in the same day and lift the money out?