Halifax v Santander

one_dull_guy

I am going to switch my bank account from HSBC (who have been kind enough to pay me 0% interest on my account for far too many years). I always thought that I'd go to Santander but suddenly thought that the 5% they offer is interest. I get paid my salary, but then the money quickly comes out of the account as bills get paid by direct debit. This means that most of the month the account will only have a couple of hundred pounds in there. This means that I'm not going to get much interest.

Or am I missing something?

The Halifax account gives a flat £5 every month. This sees li a much better deal.

Has anyone else had any experience of this?

qpop

The Halifax deal is brilliant but their customer service is lacking.

One thing I like about Halifax though is that their staff still seem to have the discression to "just fix something". Even if they're technically not supposed to. This could be seen as a good/bad thing. I'd not use them for my main banking (use FD for that) but as a joint account for bills etc. the free fiver is appreciated!

McKneff

You cant blame halifax for paying you 0% interest, its up to you to find places within Halifax that pays more interest.

Ive been with the halifax for years and have alwyas found their cs excellent.

I had a cash back debit card before they changed to the free fiver per month and was worse off when they did this but hey ho. The free £60 per year is still very welcome

Santander are the most incompetent bunch of banker (sp) I have ever come across.

Idiophreak

McKneff wrote: »

Santander are the most incompetent bunch of banker (sp) I have ever come across.

I agree...I'd avoid Santander like the plague.

If you've got the income, switching to (and from) First Direct would work out better monthly than Halifax for a while...

Thrugelmir

one_dull_guy wrote: »

This means that most of the month the account will only have a couple of hundred pounds in there. This means that I'm not going to get much interest.

Or am I missing something?

What are you expecting to receive if you have no savings?

00ec25

I have my salary paid into Halifax to get the £5 and then immediately transfer the required monthly credit amount (faster payments) to Santander (from where all the bills get paid) to get their 5% offer. When the balances goes over 2500 the excess is sent elsewhere

I cannot believe that all your money is spent each month so you will soon have more than enough to better the £5 per month from halifax.

I have had no bad experiences with santander customer service and have been with them (ok the old A&L) for about 5 years now

psychic_teabag

You don't need to have salary paid into Halifax to get the £5. Just push £1k in and out once a month. I think there's someone on here who has an overdraft facility with them, and he uses their £1000 to get his free £5.

So if some other institution has a requirement that salary is paid in to qualify for their perk, go with that, and just push the money out to Halifax and back before spending it.

ipri

Am I right to say that the £5 / month equates to a 6% interest rate?

Also, when people say it's a free fiver....it's earned is'nt it?

Milan82

hi guys, does santander pay the 5% interest every month??? If so, would it be possible to use my halifax overdraft to put in the maximum into the santander account, gain the interest and then transfer it back? 5% of £2500 is £125 or am i jus being simple?? lol

psychic_teabag

ipri wrote: »

Am I right to say that the £5 / month equates to a 6% interest rate?

Not really. If you left £1000 for a year, taking it out and in briefly once a month, you'd get £60 for the year (net of basic-rate tax). Which would be equivalent to 6% net interest rate per year.

But you can do the same with £500, moving it out twice a month, which would be 12%. Or £250 four times for 24%, or £200 five times, or ...

But that's not a requirement to earn your £5 - you can just put the £1000 in for a few seconds and immediately take it back out again, which equates to an almost infinite interest rate. In addition to the 3% odd you get for storing the £1000 in another instant-access account elsewhere for the rest of each month.

psychic_teabag

Milan82 wrote: »

hi guys, does santander pay the 5% interest every month??? If so, would it be possible to use my halifax overdraft to put in the maximum into the santander account, gain the interest and then transfer it back? 5% of £2500 is £125 or am i jus being simple?? lol

I assume 5% is the annual interest rate, so it's closer to 0.4% per month (less any income tax payable).