Halifax Reward has just matured - wrong interest!?

dllive

OK, Ive just spoken to Halifax. They got the maturity date wrong, and then were trying to make out that it was a variable rate. However, once we got through all that, she said what I was looking at was the interest paid at 5% per month NOT 5% of whatevers in the account at maturity rate. In other words, because I had been making multiple deposits over the year, the account was only paying 5% on the monthly amount NOT the amount at maturity. My fault really. Even so, the interest amount does look low. The lady was helpful and said that she would send me a sheet of paper with a month-by-month breakdown of what the interest per month was (thanks for the offer opinions4u).
Anyway, I hope this thread helps someone. All I can say (and its pretty obvious to me now), if you havnt breached their terms, then you will get 5% of the monthly amount, and they are happy to send out a breakdown of this if requested.

dllive

Although Im a little miffed, as now Ive missed out on the NS&I offer.

YorkshireBoy

dllive wrote: »

In other words, because I had been making multiple deposits over the year, the account was only paying 5% on the monthly amount NOT the amount at maturity. My fault really. Even so, the interest amount does look low.

So if I understand you correctly it was you who didn't understand how interest was calculated, rather than them paying you incorrectly?

For future reference you earn (accrue) interest based on the closing cleared balance each day at the rate of:

Closing balance x gross p.a. rate / 365

ie Closing balance x 0.05 / 365 (where 0.05 is the 5% rate expressed as a 'per unit' value)

At the end of the year they sum up all 365 days worth of interest accrued, and then tax it if you've not registered for gross interest.

In it's simplest terms, assume you deposit £10,000 when opening and then another £10,000 at the 3, 6 & 9 month points, your interest earned will be approximately as follows:

£10,000 x 0.05 / 365 x 92 = £126.02
£20,000 x 0.05 / 365 x 91 = £249.31
£30,000 x 0.05 / 365 x 91 = £373.97
£40,000 x 0.05 / 365 x 91 = £498.63
Total Interest....................£1,247.93

If you pay tax then multiply by 0.8 (to deduct 20% tax):

£1,247.93 x 0.8 = £998.34

dllive

Ive noticed that Halifax are are offering 3.5% fixed for a year, so Im probably just going to go for that rather than go to the hassle of switching banks to try and get an extra .2%.

musehead

Does anyone know if the Halifax Reward accounts always pay interest on maturity? I opened one on 20th November last year and was paid interest on 28th February this year. My rate changed from 6% to 0.5% three days ago, but i've not been credited any interest yet.

D1zzy

musehead wrote: »

Does anyone know if the Halifax Reward accounts always pay interest on maturity? I opened one on 20th November last year and was paid interest on 28th February this year. My rate changed from 6% to 0.5% three days ago, but i've not been credited any interest yet.

Mine matures in a week and I have received no iterest during its life

musehead

I've requested closure and am having the total transferred to my current account with interest Think I might go for the 3.5% one year fix.

alared

D1zzy wrote: »

Mine matures in a week and I have received no iterest during its life

Same here.

With regards moving some of it elsewhere,would it be better to move it to my current and deal with it from there (DAK the faster payment limit?)
Or set up a payment transfer from the variable rate websaver 0.2% from which it will become on maturity.

D1zzy

alared wrote: »

Same here.

With regards moving some of it elsewhere,would it be better to move it to my current and deal with it from there (DAK the faster payment limit?)
Or set up a payment transfer from the variable rate websaver 0.2% from which it will become on maturity.

Depend how much and to where you want to move.
You can move unlimited funds by BACS from a Websaver account. There are daily and Transaction limits on all other accounts. -see below from Halifax

In response to your query, I can confirm that an unlimited amount of funds can be transferred out of a Web Saver account through our Online Service. This is regardless of which organisation the destination account is held with.

All other Bank and Savings accounts held on our Online Service are limited as to the amount of funds that can be sent per transaction.

If a funds transfer is sent to another account with ourselves then each transaction can contain a maximum of £20 000, however more than one payment can be made to the same internal account per day.

The majority of internal payments are sent and received immediately, and once the funds have been received in the destination account then another payment of up to £20 000 then be made.

If a funds transfer is being made to an account with another organisation then up to £15 000 can be made per individual payment, however please be aware that only one payment can be made to an external mandate per day.


The Faster Payments System will currently not accept transfers higher than £1000, if you are looking to send a higher amount than this please be aware it will go through the normal BACS route which will take 3-4 working days.


On accounts with withdrawal limitations, Internal transfers will count as a withdrawal. If money leaves the account, regardless of its destination, then this is a withdrawal.

alared

My reward matured today and the interest has been added.
The interest rate is still showing online as 5% but I would imagine it`ll changed tomorrow to the variable rate without card which is a miserly .1% to .2% (depending how much you have in)