New Halifax ISA 2.8%-3.0%

ferox666

Joe_Bloggs wrote: »

The Halifax have done an 'upgrade' on my existing ISA so that I am on version 3 rather than 2 or 1. I do wonder if those that are on version 1 or 2 are aware of the third option given the time between annual statements ? I am a very satisfied customer of The Halifax! .

Mines is listed as "ISA Direct Reward 3" when I go into the "recent transactions" page on online banking (but still showing as "Isa Saver" on my account page, I applied last week so perhaps still transitioning)

But what is number "3"? And why is it better than "2 or 1" that you mention?

Can anyone advise?

opinions4u

ferox666 wrote: »

Mines is listed as "ISA Direct Reward 3" when I go into the "recent transactions" page on online banking (but still showing as "Isa Saver" on my account page, I applied last week so perhaps still transitioning)

But what is number "3"? And why is it better than "2 or 1" that you mention?

Can anyone advise?

1. 3% fixed for 12 months,£1k min, 4 withdrawals only sold between Feb and May 2009. All are now expired.

2. 2.6% variable for 12 months, £1k min, 4 withdrawals only sold between Feb and August 2010.

3. 2.8% or 3% variable for 12 months, £1 min, no limit on withdrawals, sold since the end of September 2010.

On 3, don't drop below £1, or you drop to the 0.5% rate and stay there even if you top up afterwards.

lisyloo

On 3, don't drop below £1, or you drop to the 0.5% rate and stay there even if you top up afterwards.

Mines at zero although the transfer form went in straightaway.
Is this going to be a problem?

Technically I couldn't put a £1 in as I have already hit the ISA limit this tax year.
Please let me know and I'm sorry if I've already missed this elsewhere on the thread.

This is quite a significant point for us as we have a large amount.
So it's a couple of grand we are talking about.

Consumerist

lisyloo wrote: »

So how long are people finding the transfer takes?
When should I chase it up?

The transfer time depends on the original ISA manager. They have up to 30 days to complete the transfer. The new ISA manager should chase it up 14 days after they sent the transfer form, if they haven't heard from the originating manager. The new ISA manager should keep you informed, anyway. Halifax "promises" to keep you informed of progress, according to their website.

Consumerist

lisyloo wrote: »

Mines at zero although the transfer form went in straightaway.
Is this going to be a problem?

You have 60 days to make your initial deposit. A transfer-in should be completed long before that.

lisyloo

You have 60 days to make your initial deposit.

Thanks.
As long as we qualify and don't drop to the lower rate that's fine. Actually I think I remember something similar before.

I don't actually care if it takes a while becasue we're getting interest twice, so I wasn't going to chase it up particularly fast.

christinejp

Hi everyone

Just a warning to keep checking on this 'redesignation' to the new Isa Direct Reward 3.

I 'phoned Halifax to change mine on the 30th Sep, and my husband and son each spoke to the same call centre guy, all during the same call as mine.

Anyway, we were each told the same thing, "it would change into an Isa Direct for a day or so at the much lower rate, and then would change into the new Reward 3, no loss of interest blah blah".

Well, my husband's and son's did just that, although taking a lot longer than they had said. Mine,however, changed to the Isa Direct, and then just stayed that way.

Called them today, and got a friendly but clueless girl who said she didn't know anything about the 'reverting to an Isa direct for a short time' thing.

She then checked my Isa and said it was only getting 0.1% interest. Of course I was not best pleased, and said I would hardly choose to change it from the Reward 2 at 2.6% to the Isa Direct 0.1%.

She said she would put a note on the system to have sombody check up on it, and we left it at that.

However I decided I couldn't just wait and see, so I rang Halifax complaints number and got a lady who was very apologetic and said she would ring me back shortly after she had looked into it.

This she duly did, and said that she could see I had asked for the redesignation to Reward 3, but somehow it had only partly been done, leaving me stuck on the 0.1% rate. she assured me it would all now be sorted in the next few days.

I took the opportunity to say that it was a hugely retrograde step to change their online service so that it no longer showed the interest rate of your accounts. Because of this, us poor customers are forced to 'phone up and sit in endless queues, just to make sure we are getting the correct rate. If I hadn't bothered to check I would have only found out next April when I saw the puny interest i had received.

She sort of halfheartedly agreed, but I could tell my comments were water off a ducks back. It's because they merged with Lloyds, but so what?, and why irritate all your customers with this daft decision.

Anyway sorry about the long post, but I didn't want this to happen to anyone else.

rb10

christinejp wrote: »

I took the opportunity to say that it was a hugely retrograde step to change their online service so that it no longer showed the interest rate of your accounts. Because of this, us poor customers are forced to 'phone up and sit in endless queues, just to make sure we are getting the correct rate.

Agreed. However, the good thing is that they will be reintroducing interest rates online in the near future.

christinejp

Hey rb10, thanks for posting that they will be putting interest rates back online.

Where did you hear? Shame that the woman at the complaints desk didn't reassure me of that when I brought the subject up.

I must say, a lot of problems with customer satisfaction with banks seems to be caused by the telephone staff not knowing what is going on. I have been given wildly differing information each time I ring up.

On two occasions ,when I have quoted what I have been told on an earlier call, I have been asked "well who told you that?" Of course the answer is I don't know, as you just get through to an anonymous person each time, and at best they just give you their christian name.

My husband says that the only way is to vote with your feet and change banks, but I can't face the hassle. Anyway they are probably all just as bad. I certainly had terrible customer service when I dabbled with Alliance & Leicester/Santander earlier this year.

Sam37

Would the condition that 'You will also need to keep a balance of at least £1 for the 12 month reward period' mean that you cannot transfer out if you have contributed to the present year's contribution, as you can only transfer this as a whole and that would leave 0 pound within 12 months?