Changes to Reward and Ultimate Reward Accounts

YorkshireBoy

innovate wrote: »

I don't have an URCA but I believe they charge £15 regardless for it. Then if you qualify, you get the (taxed at basic rate) fiver.

See post #509 above (and the notice of variation).

Not sure how they do it now, but come 1st May the fee will be taken on the second working day of the month. If you met the conditions the previous month they'll take £10, but if you didn't meet the conditions the previous month they'll take £15.

innovate

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

See post #509 above (and the notice of variation).

Not sure how they do it now, but come 1st May the fee will be taken on the second working day of the month. If you met the conditions the previous month they'll take £10, but if you didn't meet the conditions the previous month they'll take £15.

Hmh, hadn't noticed that before since I hadn't really looked at the URCA, but understand now what you guys are on about.

I reckon the 'notice of variation' regarding URCA is wrong in a couple of respects - the way they have to handle the monthly fiver on URCAs (for tax purposes) being one of them. Though they might take the stance that it is up to their customers to figure out whether and how much they have to declare to the taxman - - or they might issue appropriate tax certificates.

The other one is the bit about the overdraft, where they say things like

The £10 buffer is increasing to £50 for Reward Current Account and Ultimate Reward Current Account ......

Clearly, the URCA amount is not [always] increasing [from £10] to £50 because according to their website, the overdraft on the URCA is "Up to £300 fee-free"

May be in the end this thread will help Halifax, and/or their parent, to make up their minds to trash the whole fiver saga and the Reward accounts, and just rationalise the LBG offerings down to classic, silver etc accounts with Vantage.

rb10

innovate wrote: »

I reckon the 'notice of variation' regarding URCA is wrong in a couple of respects - the way they have to handle the monthly fiver on URCAs (for tax purposes) being one of them. Though they might take the stance that it is up to their customers to figure out whether and how much they have to declare to the taxman - - or they might issue appropriate tax certificates.

The URCA does not receive a £5 monthly Reward. It just doesn't exist. So there's no tax due, because there isn't a Reward payment to be taxed.

There are just two different tiers of monthly fee.

innovate wrote: »

The other one is the bit about the overdraft, where they say things like

Clearly, the URCA amount is not [always] increasing [from £10] to £50 because according to their website, the overdraft on the URCA is "Up to £300 fee-free"

I believe this is also correct. It applies in the event that you do not have an arranged overdraft on an URCA, and go overdrawn by up to £50 - there will be no unarranged overdraft fees.

innovate wrote: »

May be in the end this thread will help Halifax, and/or their parent, to make up their minds to trash the whole fiver saga and the Reward accounts, and just rationalise the LBG offerings down to classic, silver etc accounts with Vantage.

Doubt it. It's been an immensely popular product as it actually offers pretty good value to genuine current account customers. The only flaw (from a LBG point of view) is that it has too many loopholes to enable people to collect the Reward without being main current account customers.

Given that a change to T&Cs costs tens of thousands of pounds, it's unlikely there'll be any further changes for a while yet.

Hominu

I knew they would do something like this eventually, but always thought they would use some 'average account balance' functionality to ensure your not just taking the pee. Eg. an average account balance in excess of £250, calculated by summing up all the end of day balances and dividing by the number of working days in a month.

innovate

Thank you for putting me right, rb10, I obviously have misunderstood that whole URCA thing thoroughly. I should just stay clear of things that I don't really understand :o

innovate

Hominu wrote: »

I knew they would do something like this eventually, but always thought they would use some 'average account balance' functionality to ensure your not just taking the pee. Eg. an average account balance in excess of £250, calculated by summing up all the end of day balances and dividing by the number of working days in a month.

I reckon there would presently be many who would very happily leave £250 in the account all month and year long, in return for a fiver a month. I would even leave my £1K in there for it.

So average min balance won't keep out the bonus tarts either.

Gromitt

innovate wrote: »

Thank you for putting me right, rb10, I obviously have misunderstood that whole URCA thing thoroughly. I should just stay clear of things that I don't really understand :o

The way I think about it that we are all here to learn. If you don't know something, you can ask others and collaborate to figure it out. If you get something wrong, others will correct you. If we all stood clear of things we didn't understand, we'd never learn anything.

That said, it does appear that the URCA is similar to other accounts which charge a fee if you don't fund it each month, but the URCA also charges the fee if you dip into your overdraft, unlike the others which would just charge an interest on a formal overdraft (or nothing on a fee-free overdraft).

Therefore I would said that if you use your overdraft regularly, drop down to a reward account and get a valued added account elsewhere if you think £15/month is too much for whats on offer.

charliehell

Anybody know if Skipton online allow more than one DD to the same sort code/different account number?

Udai

I concur, they've created a lot of hassle and I'll be closing my account. Switching to a better competitor, I liked Halifax up until now!

rb10

Gromitt wrote: »

Therefore I would said that if you use your overdraft regularly, drop down to a reward account and get a valued added account elsewhere if you think £15/month is too much for whats on offer.

... or manage your finances in such a way so that you retain a buffer in your account that prevents you from using the overdraft at all.