Halifax Offering £100 To Switch To Them

fossman

I have two forms:

Bank Account Transfer Form and
Credit Details Instruction Form

The BATF has the Roll number and my Halifax account number on it.
The CDIF has the Roll number on it and nothing else.

I think I'll pop into my branch and ask them what to do?

Once I've got my £100 I'll be switching back, Halifax aren't a patch on Smile!

Will my inital transfer of £1,000 to open the account count towards my 2 fundings?

regularsaver1

yeah its credits to the account

mmm I don;t go much on smile, but then i don't know much about them. I like a bank branch though

The CDIF is right to have the roll number only as it has nothing to do with your existing bank.

The BATF should have either the Halifax roll number/sort code and acc num - and then should have the sort code and acc num of existing account you are transfering from

fossman

I'll leave the forms for the staff in the branch to sort out, thats what they get paid to do!

I was quite lucky when I switched to Smile, the month after I moved my account to them they opened a branch in the city where I live, no matter what time of day I go down they have 3 cashiers on and I never have to queue.

regularsaver1

fossman - the branch can not sort out the online forms as they can only be printed once. They can send them on to the aats team, or phone aats to issue new forms. but they can't go into the aats system in branch once the forms have been issued , so aats dept will have to do it

I didn't think smile had branches

lipidicman

So should I go for the High interest account even though I intend to stop paying in the 1k after I get the reward.*

Any reason to get the normal one instead?

*I do genuinely want the account (just not as my main account) as I have an ISA and websaver so this will be convenient to write cheques from my savings

NEW IDEA: S/O for £1k from websaver > CA, another S/O for £1k from CA > websaver the next day. Then maintain a balance of 2.5k to benefit from the high rate on this amount.
It says nothing about external funds (?)

Edit: the site disn't ask for my other accounts with Halifax (savers etc). Was hoping it would do this to save time

Also although I entered the account to switch from in the process I now have to mail forms? (Maybe they need a signature?)

regularsaver1

they have to have your signature in order to switch

they send this form to your existing bank who will check your signature, as permission to reveal account info to halifax - and then direct debit companies

bobby_rae

As the terms and conditions say

"5. The £100 switching payment will be paid into your new current account by the end of the month following the month in which you make your second payment of £1,000 into your account. The second £1,000 payment must be received by 30th September 2007."


presumably this means you need to pay in 3 months worth of £1000 so that you are keeping to condition 4 ("4. You must make payments totalling at least £1,000 every month, into your new Halifax current account.")

Am I correct with this? Just thought i should highlight it as it would be a shame to pay in for just 2 months and then miss out.

Thanks

fossman

regularsaver1 wrote:

fossman - the branch can not sort out the online forms as they can only be printed once. They can send them on to the aats team, or phone aats to issue new forms. but they can't go into the aats system in branch once the forms have been issued , so aats dept will have to do it

I didn't think smile had branches

The letter that came with the forms said any problems pop into your local branch and they'll be happy to help.

Went in this dinner and the lady in branch completed the form for me all I did was sign and enter my phone number, I then posted it off to the switching department.

Smile definately have a branch where I live (Derby), although it maybe a Co-op bank with a Smile logo next to it.

iwbus

Got my debit card today, awaiting my PIN and chq book. Got my account setup for online banking and have been having a nose around the website

- Does the 100 I had to pay in to trigger the debit card count towards my £1000 for this month?
- Can I expect documents soon for switching direct debits etc?
- How do I know when the current month (for the £1000) runs from and till? If I don't know when the month starts from I don't know what the date is that I have to pay in the grand by

Thanks for any advice, I'm desperate to get this right!

tipsychick

You can download the switching form from the website here:

http://www.halifax.co.uk/HICA/pdf/switchingAppForm.pdf

I've sent mine back to:

Account Transfer Service
Halifax Plc
PO Box 548
Leeds
LS1 1WU

I think that's the right address, as I had a letter from the Account Transfer Service from there, saying if they didn't hear from me in the next fourteen days they'd assume I didn't want to switch. This was the first contact I'd had with them since applying online and I didn't even know at that stage if I'd been successful!