Santander or Halifax Rewards?

Wammer

I am one of the many who are looking to switch from the Nationwide now that they are charging for using your card abroad. Been with them for 25 years and this is the straw that broke the camel's back.

Now the question, who to switch to?

I'm tempted by the £100 to switch to Santander plus £35 from Quidco and 5% interest up to £2,500. However I believe that interest is only for a year.

However I am put off my the many posts on their lousy customer service.

The other option is the Halifax Rewards. That would give me £5 a month if I pay in £1,000 a month. It would also give me the Clarity Card and that also pays £5 a month is you spend £300 on the card which I can do easily.

I am leaning towards the Halifax at the moment, but would value opinions.

I would also welcome suggestions of anything else I haven't already considered.

I'm just hoping I would be accepted as I just opened a LTSB account last week to use for savings and that may count against me if I try to open another current account so soon.

Acremead

Do not have ANYTHING to do with Santander until you have done a forum search for them and read people's experiences. In my personal experience a nightmare company to deal with.

saving-mad

can you not do both to benifit from both offers, it only takes £1000 into each account to qualify, with a few faster payments you are sorted!
I would switch to santander then open halifax transfer in then out every month.

apt

Why not use the Lloyds Vantage account that you've already opened as a current account as well for your savings? Santander is a poor bank and I would not use it as my main current account. But it is worth doing a transfer from an account with only one or two minor direct debits to get the £135 plus 5% interest for a year. (Set up a direct debit on the Vantage and 'switch' this account, or move all but one or two direct debits from the Nationwide flexaccount and switch this.) By all means open a Halifax reward account as well to pick up an extra £5 a month, but as a main current account it does not offer much - no interest on balances and unreliable faster payments.

Amme

Wammer wrote: »

I am one of the many who are looking to switch from the Nationwide now that they are charging for using your card abroad. Been with them for 25 years and this is the straw that broke the camel's back.

Now the question, who to switch to?

I'm tempted by the £100 to switch to Santander plus £35 from Quidco and 5% interest up to £2,500. However I believe that interest is only for a year.

However I am put off my the many posts on their lousy customer service.

The other option is the Halifax Rewards. That would give me £5 a month if I pay in £1,000 a month. It would also give me the Clarity Card and that also pays £5 a month is you spend £300 on the card which I can do easily.

I am leaning towards the Halifax at the moment, but would value opinions.

I would also welcome suggestions of anything else I haven't already considered.

I'm just hoping I would be accepted as I just opened a LTSB account last week to use for savings and that may count against me if I try to open another current account so soon.

Hi,
I would be tempted to go with Santander I have just switched to them myself, I would not choose Halifax as I used to work for them and dont like the way they operate their banking, but that is my own personal opinion.

butterfly72

I moved my current account from A&L to Halifax. A&L messed up my account which took over 6 months to resolve. I would stay well away. As a previous poster said, do a search on them and you will see horror stories!!

When someone hacked into my A&L account and took 2k, I rang A&L and they were not helpful. I had to tell them to freeze the account!!! Halifax, on the otherhand, even though no money had gone from them, were very on the ball and helpful.

I like Halifax. The online set up is much more advanced and easy to use than Santander.

Wammer

Thanks for the replies. Plenty to think about there.

The cashback on Santander is very tempting, but I have already read many posts on here about their shocking customer service. I have experience this to some extent when my partner tried to have their name added to my MIL's account. There was a massive form to complete which asked all sorts of financial questions which had nothing to do with them.

The £5 per month from the Halifax is also tempting. Do you know if the £5 per month for putting £300 on the Clarity card is in addition to the £5 for putting £1000 into the account or is it £5 total?

I hadn't thought about using a LTSB Vantage account as the main account. My original idea was to use this purely for savings, but it is something else to consider.

opinions4u

Wammer wrote: »

The cashback on Santander is very tempting

Halifax branches tend to have an under the table offer of up to £50 if you are transferring salary and direct debits.

The £5 per month from the Halifax is also tempting. Do you know if the £5 per month for putting £300 on the Clarity card is in addition to the £5 for putting £1000 into the account or is it £5 total?

The credit card fiver is in addition to the current account fiver.

Amme wrote: »

I would not choose Halifax as I used to work for them and dont like the way they operate their banking, but that is my own personal opinion.

It would probably be helpful if you could expand on that - any particular reasons?

albacookie

I have both - you can cycle £1000 through each of them easily every month and qualify for the £5 from Halifax and 5% from Santander.