Halifax - another useful loop hole.

soulsaver

Halifax Web Saver Extra pays a useful 2.5% +0.2% if you have a funded current ac with 'em, so 2.7%. But it has withdrawal restrictions: 30 day loss of interest on amount withdrawn after one free withdrawal.
And its only one ac per customer.

You can make it a no penalty access:

Say you want half your deposited funds now, but know if you need more later you'll lose interest. Using your one free w/d close the ac taking the lot out. This will get your accrued interest paid as well, rather than wait 'til year end.
The following day (it won't let you do it immediately) you can open another websaver extra & pay in the balance you didn't need from the first w/d. You now have one free w/d again.:)

I did it Tuesday.

talexuser

I had exactly the same problem, put in for a withdrawal to fund the Northern Rock esaver4 when it was available and then realised about the loss of interest on the remainder. Luckily I had time to cancel the withdrawal and instead closed the account to my current account with no loss on the 1st withdrawal. The remainder then went to the Santander esaver2 which is 2.75% with unlimited access.

soulsaver

talexuser wrote: »

I had exactly the same problem, put in for a withdrawal to fund the Northern Rock esaver4 when it was available and then realised about the loss of interest on the remainder. Luckily I had time to cancel the withdrawal and instead closed the account to my current account with no loss on the 1st withdrawal. The remainder then went to the Santander esaver2 which is 2.75% with unlimited access.

Snap, that's what I was doing it for.
The other thing I discovered and found hard to believe is that if you're moving funds to another Halifax ac, the help desk said there's a maximum £15k per withdrawal- so if you want to move 20k you have to do a £15k then a £5k. And then you lose 30 days interest on the £5k. "I Cant believe you'd do that.." says I; "S'true!" he says.

sabretoothtigger

Santander esaver2 which is 2.75% with unlimited access.

was just thinking, isnt that better anyway

talexuser

soulsaver wrote: »

The other thing I discovered and found hard to believe is that if you're moving funds to another Halifax ac, the help desk said there's a maximum £15k per withdrawal- so if you want to move 20k you have to do a £15k then a £5k. And then you lose 30 days interest on the £5k. "I Cant believe you'd do that.." says I; "S'true!" he says.

That is bad and I'm going to be wary of these types of limitations in future. I thought of it as a "rainy day" account, not to be touched only in emergency, but when a better rate comes along you need to touch it!

talexuser

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

was just thinking, isnt that better anyway

yep, if you gamble on not needing any Santander service seriously though, no trouble here, even transferred a cash isa away from them to a better rate at Halifax with no problems.

pqrdef

soulsaver wrote: »

Snap, that's what I was doing it for.
The other thing I discovered and found hard to believe is that if you're moving funds to another Halifax ac, the help desk said there's a maximum £15k per withdrawal- so if you want to move 20k you have to do a £15k then a £5k. And then you lose 30 days interest on the £5k. "I Cant believe you'd do that.." says I; "S'true!" he says.

Tried to withdraw £10K to another bank. The website told me it couldn't do it by FP, it would have to be BACS. But I wanted some money straight away, so I thought I'd do £9K by BACS and £1K by FP. This would cost me a withdrawal penalty on the £1K, not best pleased, but maybe I should have been more on the ball.

But then it told me it was going to delay the BACS transfer to start the following day. Looked like I was going to pay the penalty on the £9K instead of the £1K. I closed the account.

soulsaver

You could put it in a 2.9 from the Post Office....
or a 2.8 from Egg; but you had it with the Halifax in the first case for some reason... and if you want to keep it there and avoid a penalty witdrawal...

opinions4u

soulsaver wrote: »

You could put it in a 2.9 from the Post Office....
or a 2.8 from Egg; but you had it with the Halifax in the first case for some reason... and if you want to keep it there and avoid a penalty witdrawal...

Egg rate is currently 2.5%.

pqrdef wrote: »

Tried to withdraw £10K to another bank. The website told me it couldn't do it by FP, it would have to be BACS. But I wanted some money straight away, so I thought I'd do £9K by BACS and £1K by FP. This would cost me a withdrawal penalty on the £1K, not best pleased, but maybe I should have been more on the ball.

Halifax savings accounts don't do immediate Faster Payments. So your £1k or £9k was never going to be sent this way.

soulsaver

opinions4u wrote: »

Egg rate is currently 2.5%.

Halifax savings accounts don't do immediate Faster Payments. So your £1k or £9k was never going to be sent this way.

Yet can take 48hrs to get from saving a/c to current a/c before you can maybe on their random chances of getting a faster payment. Pee poor IMHO. But if you've need funds in one place over the FSCS limit my choice would be Halifax 'cos of the Govt interest irrespective of their foibles.