Halifax online banking - interest rate not shown

zombiex

Anyone else noticed that the Halifax has stopped showing the interest rate when you are reviewing your accounts online..? I'm really not happy with this so I sent off an email of complaint, this got the standard reply of 'we no loger support this function' which annoyed me even more. So I sent another email this time to the CEO of LLoyds (as they now own Halifax). I got a phone call, I thought this was a good response from the bank, the personal touch etc. He first apologised for the rather terse email I originally got from them and then went on to explain that as they were merging the banks systems and the ability to supply the interest rate to the online accounts was a casualty of that merger. Being an ex large mainframe online systems manager I could understand the reasoning but not the logic. Why remove a fantastic service differentiator from your systems, no other bank that I know of supplies this information.
The guy I spoke to said I would get an email putting the explanation in writing, although it would not be himself who sent the email. You could have knocked me down with a feather when the email arrived, this told me that the complaint had been declined..! It went on that they had reviewed what customers wanted and this facility was not among those requested...then came the weasely words..! they assured me that their high quality service would continue..albeit with the loss of some services...you have to laugh..I sent this back and now await a reply..

Dear Mr Merriman,

An interesting reply, but not the same one I was given over the phone. From that phone call I understand that due to you merging your online systems, since the joining of the banks, that the feature we are discussing (interest rate information) was not part of the system you have chosen to install when amalgamating the differing online systems.

I also do not understand how declining my complaint comes into it. You cannot decline a fact.

Basically you have removed a vital part of your online systems, which as I previously mentioned was a great differentiator for the Halifax and something which none of your competitors provided and a great help in knowing the interest rate you were getting in real time.

I would be interested to see the results from your customer trend survey where this feature was counted as not important.

All you are really saying is that the Bank is making the change and whether it is to the detriment of existing customers or not, that's the way it is.

You say that you looked at the most commonally used areas of the site, I would have said that if customers were asked (I know I was not) that this was a very important function of the online systems you provided.

How you can then say that you are maintaining a quality service, by removing one of the best features is beyond me.

Sorry its a long read.....Al

jonesMUFCforever

Wouldn't bother me one way or the other.

opinions4u

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Wouldn't bother me one way or the other.

It's a nice to have. Not one that I've cherished, as I don't need them to tell me the rate - I make sure I know it!

The HBOS online infrastructure is the best one I've used. The thought of it deteriorating worries me and, presumably, worries others too.

Aligned to the excellent Web Saver account (high easy access rate, the ability to name accounts so that you could have multiple pots for different parts of your finances, external payment facility from a savings account) it has been right up there for a long time.

Unfortunately the Web Saver rates have been demolished and now some of those "nice to haves" are disappearing too - like the ability to close an account online and, as the OP highlights, the display of the interest rate on most of the savings account screens.

It seems that the poor lending decisions to property companies by some Scotsman in Bank of Scotland Corporate are impacting the retail customers of HBOS in rather unfortunate ways.

At the moment it feels like Lloyds is taking customers back 15 years in time in order to achieve their promised cost savings.

They will have to hope that their customers stick with them, because delivering cost savings is pointless if it drives down profitability.

Joe_Bloggs

I am very annoyed by this retrograde step. I am sure that cave paintings of the interest rate that you signed up for will be available where geological conditions permit

Unfortunately the Halifax have suddenly become incapable of communicating interest rate information as it applies to individuals with specific circumstances. This is unacceptable. Halifax Toadies may disagree.

J_B.

jambosans

Joe_Bloggs wrote: »

Unfortunately the Halifax have suddenly become incapable of communicating interest rate information as it applies to individuals with specific circumstances. This is unacceptable. Halifax Toadies may disagree.

To be fair, less Halifax, more Lloyds TSB "Toadies" may disagree.

Sucker_for_sweeties

jambosans wrote: »

To be fair, less Halifax, more Lloyds TSB "Toadies" may disagree.

My god, are there such beasties?
not that I'm bitter and twisted you understand, but when they shave 32K off your parents pension, and they aint rich, it galls.

Inactive

zombiex wrote: »

Basically you have removed a vital part of your online systems, which as I previously mentioned was a great differentiator for the Halifax and something which none of your competitors provided and a great help in knowing the interest rate you were getting in real time. [/FONT]

It clearly is not a " vital " part.;)

D1zzy

Inactive wrote: »

It clearly is not a " vital " part.;)

It was the only good part of Halifax clumsy, slow, and inconsistant on-line banking system.:mad:

..and particularly "vital" on their "Reward" accounts where the account type is not shown as "Reward" only as the standard name eg Web Saver - so you need to remember to add the info into your account nickname

zombiex

One of the reasons I liked to see the interest rate was that..what I thought I was getting is not always the case. Take Santander for instance..Online you only see the haedline account type..ISA, current etc.. But each of these may have various subnames or versions..ISA direct, ISA reward, 1,2 or 3 etc... So it may be that you think you are in one account but its actually been superceded by another..your actual account is getting much less interest than the new account although online the name appears to be the same. I thought it was a great differentiator. As no other banks (that I know) of supply this info on their online systems it seems a shame that Halifax et al have removed it....It was vital to me if not to them...Life ! it just betterer and betterer.

jonesMUFCforever

So some on here believe that the Halifax system whereby your money dissapears for a few days after you have paid it in to a new account is better than the LTSB system which is a live up to date system?
The LTSB system also has a 5* security rating.

Having used both I know which one I prefer.

Dave_save

zombiex wrote: »

One of the reasons I liked to see the interest rate was that..what I thought I was getting is not always the case. Take Santander for instance..Online you only see the haedline account type..ISA, current etc.. But each of these may have various subnames or versions..ISA direct, ISA reward, 1,2 or 3 etc... So it may be that you think you are in one account but its actually been superceded by another..your actual account is getting much less interest than the new account although online the name appears to be the same. I thought it was a great differentiator. As no other banks (that I know) of supply this info on their online systems it seems a shame that Halifax et al have removed it....It was vital to me if not to them...Life ! it just betterer and betterer.

The simple question is 'Why did they remove it?'. And the answer is.. to hide it. Why do they want to hide it? Because by doing so they can confuse their customers into thinking the interest rate is at (for example) 2.8%, when in fact it dropped to 0.1%. And by the time their customers realise, the bank will have made £millions.