Halifax Reward Account - Loses money!

Bestselling_Author

So, I've bitten the bullet and am transferring to the Halifax Reward Account after being with Barclays for 20 odd years. I opened the Reward Account online on Sunday and yesterday, everything was registered on Halifax's online service. So, I logged onto Barclays and transferred £100 to Halifax, to check everything works (and trigger the ordering of the debit card.)

Minutes later, I logged into Halifax and thanks to the brilliant Faster Payments service, the £100 is showing in my Halifax Reward Account. Perfect.

Log into the Halifax Account this morning, and the money has disappeared! According to the website there have been no transactions on the account at all! Is the money back in my barclays account? No!

Ring Halifax and after much to-ing and fro-ing, I'm told that this 'can happen occasionally' with new bank accounts. Apparently, it will be 're-keyed in tonight' and will show tomorrow morning.

Hmmm. Is it me, or a does a bank that loses money fill you with no confidence at all? Am now scared that this could the start of a catalogue of disasters. Has anyone else had this problem when opening accounts with Halifax? Is this likely to be a one off, or should I cancel the transfer? My confidence has been seriously knocked!

MoneySavingUser

It happens often when opening this account - it sorts itelf out after a bit and then everything is fine after that

petekeaney

Happened to me too, twice.. don't worry it'll be back in a day or so.
Apart from that had no problems with the accounts.

Old_Wrinkly

Could someone please explain why it happens.

MoneySavingUser

Because Halifax have some stupid system for activation and sending out a debit card

horngkai

Halifax asked me to transfer GBP100 into the account to activate it. However, the transfer been rejected twice and money got creditted back into my HSBC account.... not sure whether my Halifax account is open or not now...

Solomon_Broad

I've had the same problem. Money was transferred in, was OK for a day or two, and then vanished. It reappeared over a week later, but shows in internet banking as being re-credited 2 days later. I did worry for a while, but it seems to sort itself out eventually.

Azrael_1701

a lot of people phone up about "missing money" when they transfer in as soon as the account is applied for. When you apply for an account online it is NOT fully open, you need to wait until it is fully opened, and at this time you will receive a letter and may or may not need to provide ID at a branch, until such time as it is fully open monies that are transferred in can bounce back, and can take full BACS timescales.

Bestselling_Author

That's useful info Azreal_1701 - however, i would say that NO documentation from Halifax makes this clear at all. It would be useful information to have.

Just to clarify, I didn;t transfer any money to my Halifax Reward Account, until it showed as open on Halifax Online Banking. When it did, that's when I transferred the money, and it showed instantly. The money disappeared when the account had been open for more than 24 hours. Incidentally, I've logged onto the Halifax Online Banking today (very slow) and when I did, my Web Saver account was not showing (despite me transferring £1 to open it!) It looks like another phone call is called for.

I'm not having much luck am I?:(

Azrael_1701

Bestselling_Author wrote: »

That's useful info Azreal_1701 - however, i would say that NO documentation from Halifax makes this clear at all. It would be useful information to have.

Just to clarify, I didn;t transfer any money to my Halifax Reward Account, until it showed as open on Halifax Online Banking. When it did, that's when I transferred the money, and it showed instantly. The money disappeared when the account had been open for more than 24 hours. Incidentally, I've logged onto the Halifax Online Banking today (very slow) and when I did, my Web Saver account was not showing (despite me transferring £1 to open it!) It looks like another phone call is called for.

I'm not having much luck am I?:(

The online banking system is having problems connecting to one of the servers that houses people's accounts at the moment, so phoning isn't going to make a difference i'm afraid....

stevenj36

Hi,

Sorry to bump this thread but I have just had the same issue with Halifax.

I opened an account online yesterday and transferred £300.00 from Natwest. I checked the online banking and it was there instantly.
I then opened their web saver account online and transferred £100.00 from the new account into that.

Received a text this morning telling me that my current account was overdrawn by £100.00. Logged on to online banking and there is no trace of the £300 that was transferred from Natwest but there is the £100 transfer to the web saver. Funny how the transfer that took me overdrawn is still there though.

I've been on the phone to them this morning and they said that the money did come in but payment clearing removed it as the account was not fully open. Again, there was no mention of this on opening the account. I am going to have a great track record with them as I have gone into unauthorised overdraft on day 1 of the account! Now to get the charges cancelled....

I have to say that this does not fill me with confidence in Halifax. Not a good start. I had only opened the account as I thought it was necessary to have your current account with them to get the Clarity card but I have now found that this is not the case. I should have done more research.

Cheers,

S