Halifax Reward Account want me to go in Branch?

atlantis187

Hey guys, Halifax are soo strange.

I have 2 sole reward accounts and my wife has 2 sole reward acoounts and we also have a joint reward account soo 5 reward accounts in total. Have had these since they launched.

Around january this year we were going on holiday and I upgraded the joint reward to the ultimate reward for the travel insurance and mobile phone cover.

Anyway a month after we came back from holiday decided I longer wanted the ultimate reward as was not really going to be hardly using any of the benefits. So I rang them up to downgrade this back to the reward account. They said as u currently have 2 rewards each in both mine & wife's name they could only change this account to a standard current account. So I told them to leave it as it is.

Fastword this this week gone I thought would have another to to downgrade to the reward account and would u believe it they have downgraded the account back the reward instead on the standard current account, no mention of how many account u can have, terms & conditions etc...

So now we are back to the way it was
5 reward accounts between me & the wife free £25 a month. + 2 clarity rewards credit cards.


p.s. Will not be ringing halifax in a long time about anything, incase it arrouses suspicion (which is not a real problem for me anyway as our main bank accounts are with First Direct)

RRRRodgA

atlantis187 wrote: »

Hey guys, Halifax are soo strange.

I have 2 sole reward accounts and my wife has 2 sole reward acoounts and we also have a joint reward account soo 5 reward accounts in total. Have had these since they launched.

Around january this year we were going on holiday and I upgraded the joint reward to the ultimate reward for the travel insurance and mobile phone cover.

Anyway a month after we came back from holiday decided I longer wanted the ultimate reward as was not really going to be hardly using any of the benefits. So I rang them up to downgrade this back to the reward account. They said as u currently have 2 rewards each in both mine & wife's name they could only change this account to a standard current account. So I told them to leave it as it is.

Fastword this this week gone I thought would have another to to downgrade to the reward account and would u believe it they have downgraded the account back the reward instead on the standard current account, no mention of how many account u can have, terms & conditions etc...

So now we are back to the way it was
5 reward accounts between me & the wife free £25 a month. + 2 clarity rewards credit cards.


p.s. Will not be ringing halifax in a long time about anything, incase it arrouses suspicion (which is not a real problem for me anyway as our main bank accounts are with First Direct)

That is a prime example of calling up and getting proper service from one consultant and improper service form another :rotfl:

First Consultant did their job and noticed the 2xRewards on both names hence not able to have another...

Second Consultant didn't do their job and didn't notice the 2xRewards...

Just goes to show the understanding between how the products work between 2 different consultants, you lucked out in the second call for sure, good times :cool:

pinkdalek

Andystriker wrote: »

Hi Opinions, Hope you are well.

Do you think I would get anywhere?

The Payment Services Directive - can you point me in the direction of where it says they have to give me 60 days written notice of a detrimental change? Is there a website?

Perhaps I could get the accounts put back into Reward accounts for a couple of months?

Cheers

Andy

Yes you will, tell them how distressed you are over the incident, the whole inconvenience of having to visit a branch when in reality why could this not have been done centrally and less inconvenient to you. Tell them you want your accounts back to how they should be. Good luck.

marvin

As I have said before I did not open my second reward account until last year, after the rules had apparently been changed they are both in my name and both have the same £1000 moved through them every month (in out to the place it came from then back in again then out again to a different account to the one it started with!).

I don't think Halifax know what they are doing unless it is people who do not make them any money are getting the chop. I occasionally use their OD facilities although I make more in cash than I ever pay in interest over the year.

Andystriker

Thanks for all the replies. I have done my letter to be posted 1st class tomorrow.

I'll let you know what they say.

Sharon87

Are they only targeting people who only have transactions to get the Reward? (like put £1000 in then take it out the next day?) Because I had 2 Current Accounts then got them both upgraded, one is for all household bills so has a lot of money going through it, the other has my mobile DD coming out of it, and then I have to make up the £1000 for the reward (transfer my rent for example into one account from my other bank then transfer it into the other account.

I want to keep the Reward accounts for as long as possible. I hope that the fact I had these accounts before the Reward account existed and that I have DDs coming out will mean I won't get downgraded on one account!

Andystriker

Sharon87 wrote: »

Are they only targeting people who only have transactions to get the Reward? (like put £1000 in then take it out the next day?)

Well I am unsure as to why they have targeted me. I put £1,000 into each of my 3 accounts each month and I then wrote a chq out on each account for £1,005 so they had my money for 3 days.

I have seen posts on here from others who have put the £1,000 in for a nano second and transferred it back out straight away/same day.

I wonder if its the luck of the draw?

GraceCourt

Andystriker wrote: »

I have rang the online helpdesk and they want me to go into a branch with photo ID.

You are lucky!

At the end of May I found that, every time I tried to transfer any money out of my Santander eSaver - balance of £19,250! - I got the error message "Unable to complete your request - We have been unable to complete your request. Please try again later."

After a day or so I faulted it, and last weekend - to my astonishment - I was informed that this is because (for the third time) my account access has been blocked, and that I should contact their Fraud Department by phone - at my expense on a chargeable 0844 number, of course. When I rang them, they kept refusing to say why this had occurred, stating only that someone would contact me "in a day or two".

On Friday, two weeks after the account was frozen, I got fed up waiting and rang them again, and after an hour and a quarter on the phone (both sides recorded the call), it was eventually revealed that - for God only knows how long! - they have been waiting for me to go into a branch with ID documents! Not only had they never asked me to do so before then, but I opened the eSaver last March to replace a previous Web Saver account with exactly the same details, and they already have colour photocopies of my passport and that of my wife, authenticated by the solicitors acting for us when we took out a mortgage with Santander last year! We also have a business current account with Santander, opened SEVEN YEARS AGO, and we both opened ISAs with them for last year and this year!

Sorry for the rant, but at least your bank doesn't expect you to be telepathic! And the money is still frozen, because when their Stage 2 Complaints representative found out that I was recording the call as well as them, she hung up on me...! So, off to the County Court we go tomorrow...

Andystriker

When I checked my on-line banking yesterday evening I now find that 2 chq's I wrote last week (on these Accounts they have downgraded) for £1005 on each account have been returned by Halifax marked RD.

Is this because the accounts were frozen? There was (and still is) cleared funds in the accounts. I have no idea why they stoped them. (the accounts are now un-frozen ordinary accounts)

I am just about to write another complaint letter asking for an explanation

I am getting a bit irritated now:(

superbabe612

I know we're all supposed to be money saving, but the whole idea of transferring the same £1000 from one account to another to another in order to gain the £5 a month reward is taking advantage of the system - so we shouldn't really be surprised when they close the loophole!