Best Bank Account article discussion

regularsaver1

drzoidberg wrote:

hi, i'm just back from the bank of scotland/halifax having had an hour long new customer review, only wanted to open a high interest current account with them! anyhow, now have the high interest current acc, paid £100 into it to activate it as they asked ( they did say i could withdraw it tomorrow ) however i was planning getting them to switch all debits etc from my other bank's account to qualify for the free £100 but they said i could not leave the old account open which is what i want to do as still want my pay paid into old acc so a bit peeved! i thought i could have old acc open even if i use the hbos switching service, anyone know am i wrong?

yes you can leave the other account open. they are just switching your direct debits. at the end of the process you will receive a letter stating that switching process complete, and at that point you can do what you like with the old account

regularsaver1

maggienjim wrote:

Hoping to help my son reclaim charges from Nationwide and am trying to find another account to open before we start.Problem he is only 20 and only averages £800 a month at present and needs an overdraft facility as he frequently overspends !!! Any ideas welcome

sorry to be frank. he might not qualify for this account as he may not pass the credit score with the charges at Nationwide. worth him checking his credit file first. otherwise it might just happen again

brassmonkey001

Can I switch from an IF account? I believe IF and Halifax are linked?

regularsaver1

no sorry, past of HBOS

cdbe

Hi, could the poster who stated it is not possible to open two individual accounts from a joint account point me to the small print that says this. We want to move from our A&L joint a/c to individual ones because we wish to separate our finances (and are unhappy with A&L), and enjoy the £100 each and the high interest x2. We have already had letters saying both our a/c's have been opened (the same 'old' joint a/c name was stated on both applications). We wish to transfer some of the DD's and SO's to each a/c and leave a particular one in the old a/c. I seem to recall when I last moved a/c's I got a list from the new bank and chose the ones I wanted to transfer - this was not all of them. Clearly if they will not transfer any of the payments from the joint a/c to the new individual ones there is no point carrying on??

Thanks

regularsaver1

If you have a joint account , then get a joint account with Halifax.

you can't pick and choose which dd's you send over

at the moment all you have done is opened 2 sole accounts - nothing more

I rang the aats transfer team the other day and said this could not be done. its more to do with the existing bank not agreeing to give details due to not all parties being on the new account

cdbe

My partner got a letter from Halifax today dated 22 Feb (the original letter informing us account was approved was dated 16 Feb - and there is a weekend between them) this letter said as they had not heared from us since sending the first letter - only 2-3 working days - they assume we don't want to continue and have cancelled the account!!. This letter arrived 2 days after we did the online transfer of £100 for the debit card. We rang them up and they had no idea why they had sent the letter (doesn't really inspire confidence) but that it was incorrect, and seemed mystified that tthe transfer had not gone through yet - we told him they can take up to 4 days because all the banks like to steal our cash for a few days interest - this did not raise so much as a titter. Took the opportunity to ask about going from a joint a/c to 2 singles - they said this would be fine as their transfer team would send a list of DD's and SO's and we could choose which went where - and some are in her name and some in mine. On the basis of this we are going to continue with the moves - will post on here how we get on.

Snapelover

n3phi1im wrote:

I'd like to hear from folks as to whether they have been asked for the £100 credit.

Yes, we had to credit our new account with £100 too.

Snapelover

drzoidberg wrote:

hi, i'm just back from the bank of scotland/halifax having had an hour long new customer review, only wanted to open a high interest current account with them! anyhow, now have the high interest current acc, paid £100 into it to activate it as they asked ( they did say i could withdraw it tomorrow ) however i was planning getting them to switch all debits etc from my other bank's account to qualify for the free £100 but they said i could not leave the old account open which is what i want to do as still want my pay paid into old acc so a bit peeved! i thought i could have old acc open even if i use the hbos switching service, anyone know am i wrong?

If you're still having your wages paid into your old account then you are not using their switching service fullt are you so why would you think you'd qualify for the £100? Seems obvious to me.

Snapelover

We are switching form A & L to Halifax and we are very peeved off with the whole process.

We applied online, great, sit at home in the comfort and warmth but no, the Halifax are not content with that, they also require us to go to our local branch with various forms of ID but when I got there it appeared that the account names had already been verified. She said they were awaiting the £100 deposit and also required a copy of a months transaction with our current bank. I explained that I was a non tax payer and she took my national insutance number and printed out confirmation. When I got home and read it it had my NI number on but my hubby's name and date of birth. I then had to ring the Halifax, they put me throught to my local branch where they apologised and said they would rectify it and print out the new confirmation.

Today my hubby called in with a copy of our latest motnh's transactions with our current bank (as requested) and he was told that bank statements are not normally required and was promptly given it back!

He was then given a form for us to fill in stating all the details of money which is paid into our current bank account. We have to fill it in, sign and date it and return it to our local branch.

It is ridiculous, you apply for a service online but it requires half a dozen visits to your local branch and the staff don;t seem to know what they are dealing with (they do not appear 'trained' as proper bank staff do).

Hopefully, when the whole thing is set up and kept in credit I will not have to go to that damn branch again.