Halifax Junior Cash ISA paying 6%

Mk14:37

chrisnw wrote: »

So make an appointment before you travel would be my advice.

I too made the mistake of going to a high street branch in my small town on my day off, expecting to be able to open a JISA account. I was surprised at being unable to do it online, particularly as I had opened my own online to get the linked 6% (not to mention the current account and regular young saver that were also opened online), but shocked that I couldn't make an appointment to see someone for several weeks. Instead they gave me the telephone number for savings account and told me I could open the junior ISA over the phone, but no, it's branch only.

I gave up and opened the account in the London Victoria branch, and wasn't impressed by the appointment starting 20 minutes late. When the account was opened, he sent me downstairs to the cashiers but there was such a queue I didn't bother and paid money in from a current account with another bank. The money has now been returned-any guesses as to why? I called Halifax to ask but in an extension of the "branch only account" issue, the phone banking people couldn't even locate the account to see what the issue is. Now I have to take time out of my working day to go back to the branch to find out.

Mel2

My Dad went into Halifax yesterday to open one of these junior isas for my son and the staff denied it even existed! I'm going to print it off their website and take it in there!

ses6jwg

chrisnw wrote: »

So I waited over the week-end to see whether any other institution was going to respond to the Halifax offer and launch another decent JISA account. However as nothing better seems to be on the horizon I swallowed my pride yesterday and called two other reasonably local branches of The Halifax.



The first branch told me that the only person at their branch that could open a Child Cash ISA was on leave all week and that there was no one else that could do it. "Would I like to make an appointment for next week?" I said "Forget it"

The second branch, the largest locally in a major West Country city, again initially told me that there was only one member of staff that could do this and that the first available appointment was not until Friday. When I expressed my incredulity the staff member I was speaking to eventually admitted that they also had a 'floater' who could open ISAs and that provided I avoided busy times they should be able to help me, just go to the 'Help and Advice desk' I was told.

So this morning I tried again at 9:30, and was not entirely surprised to be stone walled by the lady on the 'Help and Advice' desk (her most important task seemed to be cleaning the computer screen, they were so busy). Only one member of staff was allowed to do this, no Junior Cash ISA without an appointment was still the message. After protesting that this was contrary to the advice I had been given on the 'phone yesterday the manager was called. After waiting for 15 minutes he eventually appeared and I was ushered into an interview room and asked to explain my problem. I reiterated what I had been told the previous day and what I thought of a supposedly leading edge financial institution that couldn't open accounts when their customers wanted them. I was stone walled again with the "There is only one member of staff who can do this sir because of FSA regulations" line, and made to feel quite uncomfortable, not to say the guilty party. I also queried how long the process would take, and told about half an hour as they had to check lots of information with me and go through all the terms and conditions etc. I expressed my further incredulity.

Finally the manager did grudgingly apologise for the incorrect information I had been given, saying he would register this as a complaint and asked what he could do to rectify matters. I told him he needed to arrange for the account to be opened then and there. At this point, still protesting that he couldn't do this as he didn't have anyone qualified available, he said he would see whether he could arrange something and left the room. A few minutes later I was ushered into the adjacent interview room where a very pleasant young man was already logged on to the system. He proceeded to work through the process which consisted of a lot of mouse clicking and key tapping, but only actually asking me about four questions, checking IDs and my existing account. Job done in less than 15 minutes. Afterwards he admitted he had not done one of these before. I reckon that the second one he does should take him no longer than 10 minutes and he could easily get it down to 5 minutes after that!

So in the end a result, but the total time in the branch of 50 minutes to have an account opened is no way to run a service business. Needless to say I didn't hang around afterwards to complete registering my original complaint with the manager, although it might have been fun to ask him whether he had lied to me or broken the FSA rules. He clearly must have done one or the other!

I am under no illusion of course that this account will remain in any way competitive in the medium term. I predict that it will be closed to new business within weeks rather than months, and that the variable rate will be systematically reduced over the next year or so to the point of being only marginally better than anything else. Finally after about 2 years it will probably be paying a lot less than other equivalent products, including those from the Halifax. I would be very happy to be proven wrong in these predictions, but I am not hopeful. It would be good to see a financial institution break the nasty habit of the industry of enticing funds in with high rates, only to let them "wither on the vine". This has been the pattern over many years now and penalises the less financially savvy, it also creates a lot of unnecessary work for those who are able to keep abreast of changes having to repeatedly chase decent rates of return. Wouldn't it be great to be able to just put savings into an account and be sure it would earn a competitive rate until you needed them?

I do think people generally need to be less accepting of the poor level of basic customer service provided by some of the financial institutions.

OK Rant over.

banks are not a service business and haven't been that way for 20 year or more

they are a sales business.

sales-wise they get very little from opening a junior cash isa with 3000 in it. they wanted to book an appointment to try and cross sell you life insurance, a current account or similar.

this is the way banking now works in the uk

however there is some truth in what they were saying in that not all branch staff can actually open accounts. when you go to a branch to open an account and sit with an adviser they are obliged to comply with certaint regulations to protect themselves against accusations of mis-selling. only certain staff members will have the neccessary training and authorisation to open accounts and this is indeed, set out in FSA guidelines.

bank managers in most banks nowadays do not carry authorisations to sell on most products. they are there to drive sales, manage performance and do a limited amount of controls such as money laundering checks and cash management

kalsha

Anyone who is thinking of opening this account, I would say make the appointment asap. It took me 2 weeks to get an appointment.
As this is a newish account, the staff don't know much about it. The first time I went to ask about it, the staff pointed out all the other junior accounts but this one. When I insisted that I was after the 6% one, she went away to ask someone else about it.
I have been to 2 different branches, 3 times in all and got different answers all the time. When I have rung their support helpline, she just read off exactly what was on the website - so I didn't learn anything new from her. She said it was a "branch" account so I need to visit one to get all the info.
As ses6jwg has said, they do try and sell you other things. I did make the appointment to return with my other half just to get them off my back and then cancelled the appointment the day before.

I finally opened this account for my daughter yesterday! It could be a problem for some people as you can't touch the money till the child is 18 and you don't know how the interest rates will go in that length of time. But for anyone like me, with the child over 16 years old, 2 years is not a big deal and to get 6% for that length of time it is brilliant. Also after 5th april you can invest £3600 for 2012/13 - so £7200 @ 6% for 2 years, I can't complain.

chrisnw

kalsha wrote: »

I finally opened this account for my daughter yesterday! It could be a problem for some people as you can't touch the money till the child is 18 and you don't know how the interest rates will go in that length of time. But for anyone like me, with the child over 16 years old, 2 years is not a big deal and to get 6% for that length of time it is brilliant. Also after 5th april you can invest £3600 for 2012/13 - so £7200 @ 6% for 2 years, I can't complain.

If you have the cash available and wish to do so, I believe you can also open separate additional normal adult ISAs for 16+ year olds with £5600 or whatever the limit is now. Although you won't find 6% on that anywhere at the moment! Remember too that the Halifax JISA rate is variable and as I have said previously I certainly don't expect it to last 2 years.

chrisnw

I visited a Halifax branch today to add the new tax year's allowance to my daughter's Cash JISA. While there I asked for a statement of the account so that I could check the interest paid so far. Unfortunately I had not calculated what it should have been so just accepted the information and went home. I have now very quickly realised that it has only been paid at 3% despite me providing all the information about my own ISA when the account was opened.

So following the line on the bottom of the Welcome letter received "If you have any queries about the Junior ISA account please ask in a branch or call us on 0845 723646..... we'll be happy to help. "I did just that. Only to be told after a 5 minute wait that "We can't help you with that sir you will have to visit the branch" Haifax customer service strikes again.

I suggest that anyone with one of these accounts double checks the interest that has now been paid for the fist time.

kalsha

Thanks for the warning chrisnw. I will give it a few days and check the interest rate. should we get a statement to end of year ie 5th april? When opening the account, I learnt that as it is a branch account, when you ring their helpline, they can't help you!!!

kalsha

I visited my branch today and asked them for a statement so that I could see how much interest I had got till 5th April. Guess what? - they have applied 3% and not the 6% that I was expecting. They couldn't give me an explanation but said someone will call me back - so am waiting patiently and calmly. Anyone who has opened this account, I would say visit your branch to find out what rate interest you are getting and please do post your experiences here so we know we are not alone! Thanks.

chrisnw

When I returned to a branch to query the issue (on Tuesday) I was told that it appeared an error had been made when the account was set up, with no linked adult ISA identified. However, because the account was opened at another branch they could not explain it or do anything about it there. They took all my details including my own account details and promissed to get in touch with the branch where I had set up the account and get back to me.

Just as I got home the 'phone rang and it was a lady from The Halifax. However this appeared to be as a result of the complaint I had also raised about this via The Halifax web site. This person explained that it appeared that a number of these accounts had not worked correctly and they were working through them to sort them out. She said that there did not appear to have been many of these accounts created and that she would correct mine immediately. She also offered £40 compensation. I am still waiting on Friday so won't hold my breath. I am also still waiting for a call back from the branch, I suppose it is just possible that they have linked my two complaints and have therefore not bothered but I'm more inclined to think it is incompetence and usual standard Halifax Customer Service.

I suggest anyone else with a problem with this goes straight to the online complaints procedure as it appears to be the most effective way into the Halifax's Customer Services, and ask for compensation while you are about it too!

kalsha

Thanks Chrisnw. I shall give them a few days to get in touch with me. Then I will be complaining as I have other things to point out to them as well.