Halifax and Intelligent Finance

goldlox

Although not strictly a credit card thread, I can't see where else I can put this question.
I have a joint Halifax current account with horrendous overdraft charges of £1 a day. Unfortunately we can't switch, but I do have an Intelligent Finance current account in my own name with less excessive charges (10.9% AER), which is hardly used at all. So, I was wondering about the best way of doing this.
As we pay in over £1000 per month in benefits (due to my circumstances) we get the £5 'reward' which can soon get lost with our arranged O/D charges with the Halifax. My wife thinks that's OK for some reason, but I'm less impressed!
Is there a way I can move my money from the Halifax to Intelligent Finance to be able to get a small overdraft of £100 - £200, to offset going over our existing £1000 overdraft charges with the Halifax?
I'd hate to lose our £5 reward, but the benefits do come in at different dates so I could move perhaps one over, or would I have to use more and use the IF debit card? Intelligent Finance is of course a subsidiary company of the Halifax.

opinions4u

How big is your Halifax overdraft limit?

How much do you go overdrawn by at worst?

How many days are you overdrawn by at £1 a go?

goldlox

My overdraft limit is £1000.
The most we normally go over by is about £100 or so. We have on occasion in the past gone over by over £300 when we were really broke. This is not likely to happen again. In extreme cases in the past we've gone overdrawn up to 10 days, but mostly it's about £5.00.

I don't expect to get anywhere near this overdraft limit with Intelligent Finance, but would like some kind of arranged overdraft, preferably of £100 - £200.

opinions4u

I'd suggest moving chunks of money into the IF account and back out again for a few weeks. Then apply for the overdraft.

HoneyAndLemon

goldlox wrote: »

My overdraft limit is £1000.
The most we normally go over by is about £100 or so. We have on occasion in the past gone over by over £300 when we were really broke. This is not likely to happen again. In extreme cases in the past we've gone overdrawn up to 10 days, but mostly it's about £5.00.

I don't expect to get anywhere near this overdraft limit with Intelligent Finance, but would like some kind of arranged overdraft, preferably of £100 - £200.

Why dont you upgrade the existing halifax account to the ultimate reward account? The fee is £15 per month (£10 if you pay in more than £1000 each month), and then the first £300 of an arranged overdraft is fee free? And then you'd only be paying £10 per month, and the £1 fees would only kick in once you'd gone more than £300 overdrawn.

goldlox

Honey and Lemon
I've thought about the Ultimate Reward card before but it wouldn't be worth it because I don't often pay more than £5 overdraft penalty and I'd just be paying an extra £5 a month for something that I might never need. As I said at the outset, the IF idea was simply as a better buffer for when we do have to go overdrawn over our limit. I'm intending to get rid of the o/d completely in the near future.

With regard to opinion4u's suggestion, do you know if just moving chunks of money to IF's a/c and then straight back out again would be 'flagged up', especially if it's not going to be utilised but simply going straight back to an associated bank? In other words would the o/d application be dealt with by an actual person who might suss what's going on, rather than a simple rulebook overseen by a computer whose programme might not be clued up?
I'm inclined to have a go but wondered if there might be any bank staff out there that might know the answer?

goldlox

Further to my last post of 17/05/12, I realise I may have clouded the issue.
Although we have an overdraft limit of £1000 with the Halifax, we'd prefer not to use this at all. I'd rather use instead the more reasonable rate of Intelligent Finance's 10.79% (rather than Halifax's horrendous £1 a day charge).
I agree the best bet may be to transfer chunks of money straight into the IF account, but would it be ok to simply transfer it straight back into the Halifax account? Is this likely to provide sufficient evidence to successfully apply for an overdraft with IF, once I'd used this tactic for a few months? Alternatively, would I have to use up the chunk of money using IF's debit card (which I'd rather not do)?
It may be that bank staff, (IF or Halifax, or indeed others) out there may know on what criteria overdrafts are decided. That way, I'd be able to use the appropriate tactic.
Thanks.

Dr_Cuckoo3

Transfer money to IF from Halifax and then back to Halifax

If you do not wish to transfer the money back to Halifax directly from IF , you could use a savings account which accepts debit card deposits (EGG savings account allows use of debit card deposits immediately )

IF are unlikely to know which type of Halifax you are transferring the funds back to (you could say it is a savings account or open a Halifax savings account for this purpose)

I have an IF current account which is rarely used and it is possible to phone them to find out if they are likely to offer an overdraft without obligation to proceed and without a credit search

The computer will know whether you qualify for an overdraft , I don't think that the staff make the decision

joedenise

I've got an IF account which I don't use now but still have a £5K O/D facility. Even when it was being used it never had much more that £2K being paid into it. I can't see any reason why they wouldn't give you an overdraft.

Denise