HALIFAX REGULAR SAVER - ripped off

ED

Good idea, grumbler. Upon opening the account 1 year ago, the Halifax staffer suggested leaving blank the Standing Order end-date. People opening the account now may be wise to do the same. Naturally, customers can if desired cancel a SO upon the anniversary of account opening.

flea72 - while it is normal for all the money (+ interest) to be swept into a savings account upon the anniversary, it is a nuisance for you that the SO was deleted. Are you thinking of starting all over again, from scratch?

Halifax state at the base of their Regular Saver annual statement received early this month (indicating £96.91 interest earned before tax) :

"Your Savings have now been transferred to your nominated account and the Regular Saver fixed interest rate for the next 12 months will be 7.00% gross per annum.

"No action is required - to earn this rate simply let your standing order payment continue."

Leia - it's a little tricky weighing up pros and cons of Halifax RS a/c @ 7% (fixed rate) versus Derbyshire Bdg Soc monthly a/c @ 5.85% (likely to rise with Base Rate).

1) How many spare £'s can you save each month?

2) Access to one lot of £'s per year is penalty-free from the Derbyshire BS a/c, whereas Halifax would pay a lower rate for the full year on the whole balance

3) on the anniversary, Halifax transfer-out all the money + interest, whereas Derbyshire allow it to continue earning the prevailing rate. Two of many possible scenarios (ignoring, for now, compound interest, + any tax due) :

£3,000 already in Derbyshire a/c 1 yr hence, if @ 5.85% = £175.50

OR

£1,500 yearly average in Halifax a/c @ 7% = £105
+ £1,500 yearly average in Alliance + Leicester online a/c @ 5.35% = £80.25
Total : £185.25 minus 2--4 days per month nil interest while SO in transit

ie very little difference in interest earned. If Base Rate rises, Derbyshire are likely to raise their's, whereas Halifax use a fixed rate.

The above calculations are, of course, very different to starting from scratch now.

Also, people able to deposit more than £250 per month can put up to £1,000 monthly into the Derbyshire a/c.

Kazza242

I'm wondering what will happen when my Halifax regular saver matures next month. Unlike a lot of posters in this thread, my deposits have not come from an external account. Halifax set up a standing order for me which transferred funds from my Halifax current account to the regular saver each month. If I leave the standing order as is, will future deposits go into my (then £0 balance) regular saver at the new rate of 7%.

Has anyone else had a SO set up to transfer funds directly from another Halifax account to their regular saver? Did you have to amend anything or did your deposits go into your 7% regular saver automatically?

grumbler

Kazza242 wrote:

If I leave the standing order as is, will future deposits go into my (then £0 balance) regular saver at the new rate of 7%.

As far as I understood from other posts, SO set up by Halifax do not have end date. In this case money keep on going to the same account that will have 7% interest rate after anniversary.
I can check and edit all my SO in Nationwide online. Can you check yours in Halifax?

Paul_Varjak

If the Regular Saver account just gets closed after 12 months any Standing Order to the non-existent account will be refused!

grumbler

Paul_Varjak wrote:

If the Regular Saver account just gets closed after 12 months...

It does not! It remains empty, but alive.

lipidicman

Just to confuse matters my anniversary is halfway through april - so I have been told that is when it will be swept out. However what should be the first SO of the new year goes out in the first week of april. This is because I opened my account late in the month, but paid my first SO at the beginning.

I have been told that you get a new RegSaver, but it sounds like they use the old one - I wonder if the sweeping will include this last £250?

ED

Kazza242 - my family member has always fed the Regular Saver via an internal Standing Order within Halifax - direct from Web Saver account. Nothing had to be amended upon the anniversary, although I believe I heard newcomers may not be able to feed from Web Saver. If true, that's a shame because the 4.90% interest rate motivates people to use Halifax for online day-to-day saving, as opposed to using competitors offering higher rates (eg Alliance + Leicester @ 5.35% or Yorkshire Bdg Soc @ 5.20%).

Leia_Stephens

ED wrote:

my family member has always fed the Regular Saver via an internal Standing Order within Halifax - direct from Web Saver account. Nothing had to be amended upon the anniversary, although I believe I heard newcomers may not be able to feed from Web Saver.

I have heard too that apparently it isn't possible to feed the RS from the WS,
but I haven't actually tried myself .

Leia

P.S. Does your family member have a current a/c with H?

ED

Leia - yes, a Cardcash account. Method used was :

- Cardcash account received cash over-the-counter (account pays nil interest)

- WebSaver sameday received the deposit via online transfer

- 1st of each month (even Sundays!) Regular Saver received monthly deposit automatically via Internal Standing Order (originally set up online by customer)

Upon the Regular Saver's anniversary, the WebSaver having received the funds + interest, the temptation is to leave much of it in WebSaver to feed back month-by-month into Regular Saver. However, interest greater than WebSaver's 4.90% is available elsewhere...

Kazza242

grumbler wrote:

As far as I understood from other posts, SO set up by Halifax do not have end date. In this case money keep on going to the same account that will have 7% interest rate after anniversary.
I can check and edit all my SO in Nationwide online. Can you check yours in Halifax?

Thanks grumbler. I checked my Halifax current account standing order as you suggested. There is no end date. The only thing is I'm in a similar situation to lipidicman, in that my regular saver matures on 7 April, yet my internal SO payments are set up to transfer funds on the 4th day of every month! I'll have to edit my standing order date otherwise April's payment will breach the T&C's of my existing 6% regular saver.

Fingers crossed that my regular saver account does not disappear once it matures.

Thanks for the info ED. I hope it is still possible for the account to be funded from a Halifax websaver account.