Halifax overdraft charges?

rb10

Wig wrote: »

Assume your bank will do the worst by you at any chance they get and you will be right 99 times out of a 100.

... or simply read your Terms and Conditions. Then you'll know exactly what penalties or rewards your bank will impose for anything that you do on your account.

Wig

rb10 wrote: »

... or simply read your Terms and Conditions. Then you'll know exactly what penalties or rewards your bank will impose for anything that you do on your account.

But my comment was not related to that, obviously they have penalties, and obviously you should know what they are.

But my comment was that if you assume that your bank will do the worst by you at any opportunity they get you will be right 99% or more of time. It's something that should be changed by legislation.

flyingjock1

Wig, when Halifax stopped offering the HICA (high interest current account) they put transferred everyone over to the standard bank account not just you. the qualification for the £5 reward fee on the reward current account (RCA) and the ultimate reward account (URCA) is that the account holder funds these accounts with £1000 or more per month. they couldnt assume that everyone has access to that amount of money on a regualr basis, so they couldnt put everyone over automatically over to the RCA or URCA. they did send a letter out to all the customers concered asking them to call in and discuss their requirements. after a 5 min call you would have had your rca if you didnt want to pay the £12.50 monthly fee for the URCA. Plus as the RCA has different fees and charges this would have to be explained before you changed the account over so its not as easy as you might think.

opinions4u

the qualification for the £5 reward fee on the reward current account (RCA) and the ultimate reward account (URCA) is that the account holder funds these accounts with £1000 or more per month. they couldnt assume that everyone has access to that amount of money on a regualr basis, so they couldnt put everyone over automatically over to the RCA or URCA

While the Reward account only pays the £5 if £1,000 is credited, at the time there was no requirement to fund the account with £1,000 - if you failed to do so, you just didn't get your fiver.

So they could, if they had wanted to, have moved all their HICA customers to Reward. Afterall, they managed it with Moneyback customers, didn't they?

I think the reinvention of the standard current account for HICA customers to go in to was a commercial decision, not a necessity.

rb10

flyingjock1 wrote: »

Wig, when Halifax stopped offering the HICA (high interest current account) they put transferred everyone over to the standard bank account not just you. the qualification for the £5 reward fee on the reward current account (RCA) and the ultimate reward account (URCA) is that the account holder funds these accounts with £1000 or more per month. they couldnt assume that everyone has access to that amount of money on a regualr basis, so they couldnt put everyone over automatically over to the RCA or URCA.

But if you'd had a HICA that you had been funding with over £1000 in previous months then it would have made sense to transfer you automatically to the Reward account ... but then that would have meant paying out a lot more fivers.

opinions4u wrote: »

While the Reward account only pays the £5 if £1,000 is credited, there is no requirement to fund the account with £1,000 - if you fail to do so, you just don't get your fiver.

There is, actually. This is a change with the new T&Cs - Special Condition (e) says

e) Reward Current Accounts opened after 6th December 2009 must be funded with at least £1,000 per calendar month.

But if you've always funded your HICA with £1000 per month it's a fair bet that you'll fund your Reward with £1000 per month.

blueberrypie

flyingjock1 wrote: »

Wig, when Halifax stopped offering the HICA (high interest current account) they put transferred everyone over to the standard bank account not just you.

But they did also send out a letter to HICA holders telling them of the changes to their accounts, and telling them about the Reward account, and even providing a phone number which allowed customers to change their HICA to a Reward account with one brief phone-call.

Some of us made the change-over just at the right time to benefit from both the interest and the fiver that month ;-)

Sucker_for_sweeties

blueberrypie wrote: »

But they did also send out a letter to HICA holders telling them of the changes to their accounts, and telling them about the Reward account, and even providing a phone number which allowed customers to change their HICA to a Reward account with one brief phone-call.

Some of us made the change-over just at the right time to benefit from both the interest and the fiver that month ;-)

I was delighted when I transfered(sp?) to reward at the but(t) end of nov....and still got the fiver on 1st Dec:j
I only hope I never have to use my OD again, it was a reliably comfy cushion.
I think I need to seriously start investigating worthwhile alternatives.:cool:

Been playing with the thought for months, but BOS must have done a real brainwashing job with me, even though I've always doom and gloomed the Halifax addition I've never moved, and there's surely something to be said positively about a 25+ year relationship

Wig

As has been pointed out, there was nothing to stop them having the "reward" account as their basic entry level account, if you pay a 1000 in you get a reward simples, but because banks never do what is best by you if they can avoid it, they did not do this.

Even now there is a special condition (e) as mentioned above, but there is no penalty or comeback if you do not manage a 1000 a month, and the same T&C still mention if you don't pay 1000 in, you simply won't get the reward.

flyingjock1 wrote:

Plus as the RCA has different fees and charges this would have to be explained before you changed the account over so its not as easy as you might think.

All the new current accounts had "different fees and charges" from the HICA it was as simple as the process they used to change everyone onto HCA, to have changed everyone to the RCA. They chose not to do it because to do so would have been in the best interests of their customers. And as I said banks never do that.

noh

Wig wrote: »

.................................
All the new current accounts had "different fees and charges" from the HICA it was as simple as the process they used to change everyone onto HCA, to have changed everyone to the RCA. They chose not to do it because to do so would have been in the best interests of their customers. And as I said banks never do that.

It would not have been as simple as changing every HICA to a Reward account becuse not everyone would be eligible. Specifically those who already had Reward accounts as to convert the HICA may have given them more than the number of Reward accounts allowed in the T+Cs.

I know some people have converted their HICA into a Reward giving them 4 Reward accounts so it shows their system isn't programmed to flag this up.

Wig

noh wrote: »

It would not have been as simple as changing every HICA to a Reward account becuse not everyone would be eligible. Specifically those who already had Reward accounts as to convert the HICA may have given them more than the number of Reward accounts allowed in the T+Cs.

I know some people have converted their HICA into a Reward giving them 4 Reward accounts so it shows their system isn't programmed to flag this up.

So you don't think it was possible to get either

A few software engineers to make sure this didn't happen by combining accounts if neccessary
or
Have the new HCA account created with exactly the same conditions as the RCA and call it PRCA (provisional RCA) either for everyone to have or just as you say for those who already have RCA accounts.

Instead of giving everyone automatic access to the new better account conditions they chose the best option for the bank, and the worst option for the customers, they chose to change everyone to an account that pays almost nothing.

I'm afraid you are simply wrong, they could have done this if they wanted to and it would have been no more difficult than what they did do which was to create the new rubbish HCA account and transfer everyone into it.

Other banks are the same, Lloyds for example creating the Classic plus account and not automatically giving it to existing customers, then allowing the classic plus to be less than attractive and offering a new account classic with vantage again without telling existing customers, and without automatically putting customers into it.