Merger

Compound_2

I was wondering, what is the current and likely future status of the Halifax Bank of Scotland merger? Would it be accurate to classify the merger as less absolute than Lloyds TSB, but more than RBS-NatWest?

It’s a bit difficult to do searches for Bank of Scotland topics without its Royal namesake getting mixed in. Do the frequent posts about poor Halifax customer service (e.g. on student accounts), apply to BoS?

When going between England and Scotland, what differences are noticable? Does joint branding lead to confusion regarding legal responsibility? I believe that BoS accounts were very much branch-based, whereas you could treat any Halifax branch as your own. Traditionally BoS shunned those in England, but this will not be the case for HBOS. Can Halifax branches fully service BoS customers (including overdrafts and complaints) and vice versa?

Although HBOS is headquartered in Edinburgh, it seems for personal customers the merger is a Halifaxization of Bank of Scotland. Halifax retains its own website but bankofscotland.co.uk redirects to bankofscotlandhalifax.co.uk (I thought the Halifax bit comes first!) which very closely resembles the Halifax site.

jonesMUFCforever

Do you have an account with either Halifax or Bank of Scotland?

Compound_2

Yes, I do.

Kilty_2

This actually confuses me a little as well (I'm also a Bank of Scotland customer who opened an account after the merging took place).

There are two different online portals in use, http://www.bankofscotlandhalifax-online.co.uk/ and http://www.halifax-online.co.uk/ . Both use the same scripts etc except one displays both logos and the other only shows the Halifax logo.

A lot of things seem still totally seperate, eg in the branch there is posters up offering Bank of Scotland products and posters offering Halifax products.

!

jonesMUFCforever

Well as a customer it should not affect you at all.
I suspect that the decision to keep Bank of Scotland visible is a political one because the scots would shout blue murder at an invasion from Yorkshire.
(Halifax being the biggest of the two partners - I am assuming they would want to keep that brand at all costs)

Compound_2

ejones999 wrote:

Well as a customer it should not affect you at all.

But if you are complaining to a member of staff working for the 'wrong' bank, surely they will follow the custom of avoiding responsibility?

regularsaver1

Halifax merged with Bank of Scotland due to their business banking - they have kept this. Each has their own products. Also part of HBOS are Brmingham Midshires, Esure, Sheila's Wheel's, First Alternative, Estate Agents, Clerical Medical, Rightmove, Lex, Sainsbury's Bank, TMB, St James's Place, Intelligent Finance, Insight Investment, Colley's Surveyor's, BM Solutions, St Andrew's Insurance Plc - to name a few.

see: http://www.hbosplc.com/abouthbos/group_company_websites.asp

Yes they have merged within branches but there are still Bank of Scotland sole branches. Most Bank of Scotland bank accounts can be serviced in Halifax branches but not loans or mortgages - again very separate. You can visit any branch.

If a complaint is received at Halifax - it will be forwarded on to customer relatrions should they not be able to deal with it.

Many customer receive share dividends due to the merger. Do you not? They merged in September of 2001. They are still changing things since then. Why do you think this would

They do have different TV ad's though ;o)

Compound_2

regularsaver1 wrote:

Many customer receive share dividends due to the merger. Do you not? They merged in September of 2001. They are still changing things since then. Why do you think this would

I think the customers receiving bonuses were former members of Halifax Building Society, who held their conversion shares. It’s likely that shareholder-customers have been kept better informed on the progress of the merger than other customers.

regularsaver1

Yes you would have got dividends should you have been a customer before the merger

no difference to shareholders, although the price is not bad today ;o) £11.42