Halifax Reward Account - Scottish address holders will be rejected

opinions4u

I don't have any inside info, but it sounds to me like your problem is one of muddled info from Halifax, and the fact it is a joint account.

Bingo. And an excessive reliance on branches to do stuff that you used to be able to do online or by phone .

Lith

so what if you apply and use an English address? then one day.... you decide to move to Scotland? will they close it then?

lol... sure they will i call BS

That's like saying a english person cant have an RBS account .... w/e

jennifernil

Well, I have opened a Halifax Online Saver paying 2.8%, the very helpful Irish lad who did it was not at all concerned that I live in Scotland.

I did try to open the account on-line, but got a message that there was a problem and gave a number to ring. Apparently there is a problem with their on-line opening at the moment, so nothing "sinister"!

So savings accounts seem fine anyway.

I can't try a current account to see what happens there, as I already have several

Shona6540

Thank you for all your helpful posts.

I have contacted the Financial Ombusman today to see if they could help confirm any of the information given to me by the Halifax advisers, they are going to contact Halifax as they think it is something that should be looked into and they will have 8 weeks to reply. So I will let you know what their reply is and hopefully confirm who and where applications will be accepted.

The advisor at the Ombusman had never heard of that reason for rejection so I am increasingly suspicious of the Halifax advisors reason for canellation.

IanManc is right all 3 advisors since discovering my application could not be found have all told me something different. Since they have no record of our ID documents, I don't knnow if I would trust them with our money.

Shona6540

pqrdef wrote: »

How ironic that when I phone the Halifax switching team, on their dedicated number, the phone is always answered by a Scottish accent.

Ironically this is their Registered Office: The Mound, Edinburgh EH1 1YZ, and most of the advisors have either been scottish or irish.
I wouldn't care if they were from Timbuktu as long as they were giving me the correct information and preferrably decide wether you address would be an issue before letting you apply.

iblametheparents

Use this form to make a complaint: https://www.halifax.co.uk/HelpCentre/online_support.asp?!!!!!online_form

I did that and I received an email from a complaint handler the following day. I'd not received the £100 joining incentive because I had an Easycash account from years ago that I'd never used. She thought this was unfair so credited my account by £100. So, miss out Customer Services and go straight to Complaints

Shona6540

having read this thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3737715

it seems they are manufacturing reasons not covered in the terms so they don't have to pay out the incentive or at least thats the way it seems.

jamja

Hi there,

As a BoS customer I can log into the Halifax online banking where you can sign up to the reward account online. If your OH is a BoS customer could he open a reward account online in his name and then you could add yourself to it to make it a joint account next time you can get near a Halifax branch? A good excuse for a weekend away in York or the Lake District? :-) Or maybe you might be lucky this time and a visit to a BoS branch and a more knowledgable member of staff might get you added to the account to make it a joint one.

I have noticed that BoS have been phoning both my OH and I more regularly to ask us to 'review' our accounts. We have a reward account each and a joint one - two of them appear on online banking as BoS and one appears as a Halifax account. I expect over the next while they will be encouraging the Scottish customers to review their accounts to include only BoS accounts - lets hope this does not involve pulling the reward account for us altogether!

Shona6540

So finally I have had word from the Halifax after starting a complaint with the Ombusman and writing a letter to Halifax complaints, I would appreciate any advice on their offer.

They have not issued a final responce in writing but have phoned in reciept of my complaint letter not the Ombusmans and offered £200 to cover the incentive and inconvience, plus they will start the account by faxing my partners ID from a Bank of Scotland to Halifax branch, they still have no idea where our ID documents are he imagined inhouse somewhere.
I still have no clarity or confirmation regarding the Scottish residency issue.

Does this seem a fair resolve or should I let the Ombusman further this?
It has been 4 weeks since the Ombusman sent a letter of complaint and still no reply to that. Can anyone help?

jakirk

I live in Scotland and I have a Halifax reward current account.

I also had a Halifax reward savings account and when the interest dropped I tried to open another Halifax savings account but I was told it would now be a Bank of Scotland account and any future accounts I opened via phone or online would be Bank of Scotland accounts.

The person on the phone alluded that Halifax did not want to open accounts for Scottish residents as all the branches had been rebranded to Bank of Scotland.

Same with my Halifax ISA, it has now become a Bank of Scotland ISA.

So now I have a joint Halifax Reward current account and a joint Bank of Scotland vantage current account so money into Halifax for £5 then straight into Vantage account for the interest and pay the direct debits from