Halifax long-term "interest on maturity" accounts

strawberrylane

This thread is specifically about the following types of Halifax accounts:

- Fixed rate Websaver, where the term is more than 1 year and all interest is credited at maturity
- Guaranteed Reserve, where the term is more than 1 year and all interest is credited at maturity

In particular, this thread is about how the maturity of these accounts will be handled by the Halifax following the migration exercise last weekend.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, these account types do not appear to have been fully migrated to the LTSB system. It seems that the intention may well be to allow these accounts to run to maturity on the old (Halifax) system.

The old (Halifax) system stored the Roll Number of the account that the matured funds were to be automatically swept into at maturity.

Since the migration last weekend, however, the old (Halifax) system will no longer be able to locate the destination account into which the matured funds are to be paid (as the destination account will have been migrated to the LTSB system).

So, does this mean that the maturity of these accounts will now have to be done manually, with someone actually debiting and closing the matured account on the old (Halifax) system and then crediting the maturity value to the appropriate account on the LTSB system?

I know that Jim431 has recently reported on this forum that his guaranteed reserve account matured a couple of days ago and that the maturity funds have not yet arrived at his current account as they should have done by now.

If anyone can shed any light on the actual maturity process now for these account types, please reply on this thread as it will be helpful for others that have these accounts and are approaching their maturity date.

Jim341 - hope you manage to get your maturity sorted soon, please keep us advised and let us know what happens.

Thanks.

jonesMUFCforever

The answer is yes and yes.
Halifax customers will not be disadvantaged though as interest should be adjusted until credited to receiving account.

There are bound to be some hiccups after the biggest migration of accounts to a single system in the world.

Jim431

My Guaranteed Reserve bond matured last thurday and has not yet been paid back into my Halifax current account.

The local branch tried to sort it out for me on Friday. They were going to ring - they expected to have it paid that day.

Must have hit a problem as it has not yet been paid. I'll go back in tomorrow to see what's going on.

I'll be watching to see if they pay for lost interest.

strawberrylane

Jim, it would be helpful if you could answer each of the following please:

1. Is your guaranteed reserve account visible online right now?

2. If not, what day was it last visible?

3. When it was last visible, was the balance that was shown just the original opening balance or did it look like the maturity interest had been added on?

4. When and how did you set up the details of the account which you wanted the maturity balance to be paid into? Did you do it when you opened the guaranteed reserve, or did you do it more recently than that?

5. When you went into branch on Friday, did they find your account on the old (Halifax) system and if they did was it showing as open or closed and had the maturity interest been added to the balance on their system?

Sorry for all the questions, but answers to these will help to clarify what has happened and what may happen next.

Thanks.

Jim431

1#no
2#tues or maybe wednesday
3#don't think the interest was included
4#post some weeks ago
5#not on the (new) system at cashiers desk. Found on old system as still active. Don't know if the interest was included.

strawberrylane

Jim, the fact that the account is not now visible online is probably because it has now been marked as closed on the old (Halifax) system.

When you go into branch again on Monday, ask them to find the account again on the old (Halifax) system and ask them to see if it is flagged as open or closed. Check the balance and see if any maturity interest is included. Also, ask them to check the recent transaction history on the account (using the old Halifax system) and see what if any transactions are recorded for the last few days- there may be an interest credit, also check if there is any sign of a closure transaction recorded as a transfer (TFR).

In addition to the above, get them to show you on the old (Halifax) system what maturity instructions are set up on the account - you should be able to see the Roll Number of the account that you specified the maturity balance to be transferred to (i.e. it should be the Roll Number of your current account).

Let us know how you get on. Good luck.

Jim431

The account was still open on Friday when they found it on the old system. They got instructions from a help line on how to proceed and a cashier went thro the paperwork (my ID, signature etc) to close the account. She may well have calculated the interest and closed the account because the operation failed afterwards when she took the paperwork to her manager for countersignature.

The manager spent a long time going through a multipage document ticking things off. The problem seemed to be on page 2 or 3. At which point they said they would call me later.

I was concerned about where the money had gone when it didn't arrive. If I had done nothing it would have gone into a maturity account which would have been accessable online and I could just have done a transfer. Less worry about whether my instructions had arrived and had been input correctly. That is what I will do next time.. if there is a next time !

Jim431

Well another 1 1/2 hours in my local branch. New faces so had to start from scratch. They had great difficulty finding out how to do the transaction but eventually it was done.

This is what I gleaned on the way.

At maturity a Guaranteed Reserve bond converts to a "maturity account" paying a low rate of interest. Same account number but on the old system cos the new system doesn't recognise the "D" numbers.

When the technical difficulties have been sorted out this account will appear online and you can transfer the funds yourself. It doesn't appear at the moment tho.

If you send instructions on what to do then this can take 3 working days to complete after maturity. Unless you re-invest and then it happens immediately.

You can instead go into the local branch and get them to transfer the money and close the account. But at the moment the two systems make this very difficult for them to do.

I don't know why they couldn't do it on Friday. I spoke to someone on the "Maturity helpline" and they said that there should be no problems. I confirmed my instructions tho... just in case.

If I had left it... it would probably have been sorted by the end of business tomorrow... so I gained a day or maybe two.

No prospect for claiming lost interest as it was within the 3 working day period.

Not sure if this will help anyone else... I seem to be the only one... just lucky I guess :cool:

strawberrylane

Well done Jim! At least you managed to get this sorted today.

What's the number for the "maturity helpline" and what sort of help were they able to provide?

Finally, how soon before maturity did you get your pre-maturity options letter and what options did it give you?

Thanks.

Jim431

I phoned the savings team on 0800 0326479 and after explaining was transfered to the "maturity" help line.

Maturity letter arrived 3-4 weeks prior to maturity. Needs to be back 5+ days before maturity.

Options were
Full or part withdrawl. Cheque (from memory) or transfer to another Halifax account.
Full or part re-invest in Fixed Saver 6 months to 5 years term.

There may have been more options but I don't still have the form...

So when does your bond mature ?

strawberrylane

We have 2 accounts both maturing in early December. They are fixed rate websavers (with all interest on maturity) rather than guaranteed reserve accounts.

Both accounts are visible online still but are being run behind the scenes on the old (Halifax) system.

We set up maturity instructions when the accounts were originally opened and the old (Halifax) system is currently still storing the roll numbers of the accounts that we specified at the outset for the maturity funds to be paid into.

But of course this can no longer be an automatic maturity process as the accounts we specified for maturity funds to transfer to are now located on the new LTSB system.

Based on what you have said, Jim, I expect we'll get pre-maturity letters in early November and from then on we'll be keeping our fingers crossed that things go more smoothly than you've experienced!