Halifax Reward accounts.

kdband

I've just been nosing around the web-site and spotted the page about Halifax Reward account paying £5/month providing you pay in salary of £14,700, it's got me thinking about whether it's time to switch bank accounts.

Currently my wife and I both work and earn over this amount. At the moment, both our salaries are paid into the same RBS joint account, from which all of our regular outgoings are taken. We also each have our own separate RBS accounts and have a regular payment set up to move some spending money from the joint account into each of our own accounts shortly after our salaries have been paid in.

It's occured to me that we could close our RBS single accounts and instead each open a Halifax reward account to have our salaries paid into. We could then schedule a regular payment to move the bulk of our earnings back into the RBS joint account almost as soon as they've been paid in, just leaving the kind of amounts that we've been paying into our own accounts up until now . This way we retain the joint account as the account from which we pay our bills and regular spending, we still have our own separate accounts from which we can treat ourselves, but we also have the bonus of £5/month each free.

Can anyone see any drawbacks in this arrangement that I might not have considered?

Baldur

Many of us have Halifax Reward accounts that are basically only used for the £5 per month - there's no requirement to pay in your salary, you simply have to pay in £1,000 per month, which can be paid in and transferred back out in seconds via online banking and Faster Payments.

miss_missy

hi
i cant see any probs and you get £10 a month that way
but have i missed something i thought the halifax reward only required 1000 a month to be deposited in it to get the £5 i didnt think you had to pay in your salary, have they changed the terms??

karenlyth25

Hi!

Only thing you should consider is the time it takes to move money around and making sure your money hits your joint account before your bills come out.

I have my own account and a joint account with the Halifax but the joint account doesn't have £1000 a month hitting the account so I transfer the balance for 1 day and back into my account again, that way I still qualify for the money.

I dont think it matters where the £1000 comes from as long as £1000 hits the account in a month....but someone might come along a correct me.

You could also try the Alliance and Leicester offer which gives £100 sign up bonus.

K

Mikeyorks

Can anyone see any drawbacks in this arrangement that I might not have considered?

Yes - you're making it more complex than needed. You don't have to pay salary into the Reward account to attract the £5 monthly. You simply have to credit the account with £1k each month. And you can do that by making a transfer from an existing account ..... and then immediately transferring out again. The money doesn't have to stay in the Halifax account(s).

However if you wish to actively use the Reward accounts .... the Halifax online is still one of the best.

kdband

Thanks for the rapid replies. We would want to actively use the Reward accounts as our 'treat' accounts, i.e. where we take the money from to treat ourselves and indeed each other without feeling guilty about spending the housekeeping money.

I'm not sure about the terms changing, I read it on the page on this web-site comparing bank accounts :-

It says there :
Pays you £5 a month if you pay in salary of £14,700+.
It also says :
The Halifax and Bank Of Scotland Reward accounts pay a flat £5 in each month you deposit £1,000.

I haven't got around to reading the conditions on the Halifax web-site yet.

Baldur

kdband wrote: »

I'm not sure about the terms changing, I read it on the page on this web-site comparing bank accounts...

The terms haven't changed, it's still simply £1,000 per month - http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/reward-current-account.asp?!!!!!hpc_pos1_reward_account

jambosans

kdband wrote: »

It says there :
Pays you £5 a month if you pay in salary of £14,700+.
It also says :
The Halifax and Bank Of Scotland Reward accounts pay a flat £5 in each month you deposit £1,000.

The website states this, but it's merely worded in a way that's easier to understand. As Mikeyorks has suggested, you simply need to have credits totalling £1k (or more) being deposited each calander month. There is no minimum balance, or requirement for the credits to be salary (could be cash, cheque, or BACS/ FPS). You can transfer the money in, then straight back out again if you wish.

Also, it's worth noting, if you also open a joint account, you can potentially earn £15 per month across 3 x Reward Current Accounts (two sole, one joint).

Mikeyorks

kdband wrote: »

It says there :
Pays you £5 a month if you pay in salary of £14,700+.

That article makes the assumption you're using this as your active current account. The Reward account only requires a monthly credit of £1k in order to achieve the £5. It makes no demands as to where that comes from (it can be a transfer from another Reward account) nor how long it stays there.