Ultimate Challenge. 457 days / £16600!!!

Siouxsie32

Phew, what a lot of questions and answers - you gals have been busy!

Re the Current Accounts, firstly to answer your questions...

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

1. So techinically I only have to have 2 direct debits coming from this account - say the least important in my life...Gym and Cinema amounting to £50.40. Would this suffice? Absolutely. I have a DD to a credit card and one to a savings account (Tesco is one of the few savings accounts that collect direct debit payments from current accounts so I have one set up to move the £5 Reward each month from Halifax to Tesco Savings. Voila, £5 free )
2. I get paid on the last day of every month - if I continue to use my Dankse current account in Northern Ireland could I transfer £750 into this Halifax account and back out as you do within 5 minutes? Or does it have to stay there for a period of time to "count"..? I transfer money in and straight back out again and it qualifies as depositing £1000. There is no minimum time that it needs to sit in the account for so you could transfer it straight back out again. With Faster Payments available at most banks now, the money transfers instantly, so my money shuffle is all done in literally 5 minutes, once a month)
3. Does leaving £1 in the account (on top of the £51 I would deposit for direct debits ) count as being "in credit" to gain me the £5 per month..? I leave my balance as £0 and that counts as being in credit. As long as you don't go overdrawn, you'll get the £5 Reward
4. Is it worth changing the DD details with the companies myself incase Halifax try and change ALL my DD's which I don't want happening..? I would double check this, but when I switched, they asked if I wanted all or just some of my DDs switched. I had a semi-redundant Santander account (the one that I only keep open to get the free travel insurance) so I manually switched 2 DDs myself from my real account (BoS) to Santander so that I could say yes to a full switch. Turns out I didn't need to do that as the Halifax guy gave me the option to only switch some if I wanted. I didn't switch my wages. With the Halifax account, you have to open and switch before 7 July so there's plenty of time to do a bit of manual jigging around if you wanted (I'll have a look what you posted about which money goes from which account in a bit and see what I think you could/should do)

Free money's the best kind!!! It may seem like a bit of a faff for £5 a month, but it's actually really easy PLUS Halifax have the £100 incentive as well so I'd say it's definitely worth doing. The First Direct offer is a good one as well (especially, as lilt pointed out, they offer you another £100 if you switch out after 6 months...although, I feel you may have to explain why you're dissatisfied in order to get that). Right, I'm off to backtrack and read what is said about savings.....

NinjaSavingKat

Siouxsie - thank you for that answer. I am desperatly awaiting Lilt to get back on here before I transfer money OUT of my ISA ..but I think I will go into a little branch of Halifax and speak to someone. I don't like doing this kind of thing online and I think if I get a name etc it makes it all a little more personal.

Okay so I shall continue to check things but am happy with the two DD which I can sort out myself. The Tesco suggestion was on another thread as well which will be super easy to set up I think. How much is your other DD for that goes to your CC..? I don't use my CC so might set up something else with your suggestion...maybe a DD to pay into another savings account that I have already with Dankse..?

I think if I keep everything coming into my Dankse account on the 30th or 31st of every month and transfer £750 manually on either of these days into halifax and back out again ( leaving enough money for the direct debits only) then I will be fine.

Siouxsie did you say to them "I want one DD to be the £5 you are going to pay me" ..(:T) or did your own money to get to ball rolling initially..?

Sorry more questions...:)

Siouxsie32

Yip, all sounds good! I set up my DDs online (I'm the opposite to you, I hate having to do things with a real person in a branch. I always feel I know better ), but I actually had to go into the branch to set up the account (something to do with needing verification of my address) but I was in and out in the space of ten minutes and the bank guy knew exactly what he was doing (which is exactly what I wanted him to do ). Tick here, sign there and I was out of there with my new bank details in ten minutes flat! He's the one that asked if I wanted to switch all my DDs and wages, so you'll probably get on well if you visit a branch.

My 2nd DD to the credit card company is for £250, but any DD will do. Mobile phone? Another savings account? I don't know about Danske, but most banks will only allow Standing Orders to go to savings accounts, which is why I set up a Tesco one (you're right, dead easy to open and set up a DD)....the Post Office is another so if you're stuck, you could open one of those.

I suppose the 2 DD thing is to stop people doing exactly what we're doing to get the free money. Most people wouldn't bother. We're loons who get excited about free fivers :beer:

NinjaSavingKat

And the free £100!!!...:-)).. Thank you for this!!! Sorry to ask again.. Did you put money in to get the ball rolling.. How soon did u set you DD up? For what date after opening the account?.. (You will never escape my questions but I'm worried about money being caught short)..

killerpeaty

Kat, I have found one at 1.3% so far, it's not great but you have transfers and no minimum allowed, find it here. Also I might add that I have a reward account but didn't transfer my account so no £100 there, but it's so easy to get £5, totally worth it.

Missus; I'd genuinely love to know what you get up to, cruises seem like a totally alien concept to me.

I'm knackered. And grumpy. So apologies if this is shortly written, it's not intended that way.

killerpeaty

DOUBLE POST ALERT!

Kat, click me, click me, click me!

Yup, Peaty sleepy.

NinjaSavingKat

Oh Peaty you poor thing! Hope you are okay!! Who has annoyed you??

What do you mean you didn't transfer your account?.. Do you mean your wages and ALL your DD's...Siouxsie did you get the £100?

Siouxsie32

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

And the free £100!!!...:-)).. Thank you for this!!! Sorry to ask again.. Did you put money in to get the ball rolling.. How soon did u set you DD up? For what date after opening the account?.. (You will never escape my questions but I'm worried about money being caught short)..

Ask away - I'm anal with my spreadsheets and paperwork so here's my path....

19 January: Opened Tesco savings account, deposited £5 (although could have been any amount from £1) and set up DD to transfer £5 each month from my Santander account starting on 3 February (Halifax pays the £5 Reward on 1st or 2nd of each month)

19 January: Called Marriott Visa and switched DD from BoS to Santander.

All of the above was just my preparation so that I had 2 DDs set up on the Santander account so I could do a full switch. Not necessary in your case.

19 February: Visited Halifax and set up Rewards Account. Didn't deposit anything at this stage.

27 February: Deposited £1 via online banking just to test that everything went in ok (it did)

28 February: The monthly shuffle began...deposited £999 and withdrew £745, leaving just enough money to cover both DDs

1 March: Received £5 Reward :j

5 March: Marriott Visa DD paid from Halifax Account

14 March: Received a letter from Halifax to confirm the switch had taken place

28 March: Payday so I shuffled another £1000 in, then out and the whole process started all over again.

Interestingly, the first £5 Reward was paid before a single DD had been paid . Also, the Tesco Savings DD wasn't fully switched until April so only one DD was paid in March but I still got my Reward.

Siouxsie32

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

What do you mean you didn't transfer your account?.. Do you mean your wages and ALL your DD's...Siouxsie did you get the £100?

I transferred from the semi redundant Santander account which had 2 deliberate DDs set up. My wages and all my other DDs still get paid into/out of my Bank of Scotland Account. I was given the option when I set up the Halifax account to switch all or some of the DDs and also the option to transfer my wages. I chose to switch all of the DDs since I only had 2 set up and didn't switch wages.

I personally didn't get the £100 because I was already a Bank of Scotland customer and they're the same company (I knew in advance that I wouldn't qualify for the £100, the free fiver was enough to win me!!) BUT the bank guy told me that what I was doing would have been enough to get the £100 if I was a brand new customer. They were quite keen to promote the £100 offer when I was in so you could just ask them to confirm that what you're doing is enough.

killerpeaty

I didn't transfer my account because I didn't tick the option. I wanted an account to store money for easy access but not my "spends" account.