MSE News: Halifax axes £5 monthly payments to overdrawn current account holders

innovate

Tesco and ING would be 2 different recipients.

JimmyTheWig

Lady_K wrote: »

Its yet to be seen if they will really allow transfers and just two dd's because it isnt really a main account.

If everyone does this and this alone then they will probably change the rules again. But the more they restrict the rules the more chance there is of excluding people (e.g. youngsters living with parents) from getting the benefit.

YorkshireBoy

Lady_K wrote: »

Its yet to be seen if they will really allow transfers and just two dd's because it isnt really a main account.

It is according to Halifax...and that's all that matters!

They say a main account is one which receives £750 (from anywhere) and has two separate DDs (to anyone) paid per month.

They'll have to re-define "main account" if they want to change things now. Maybe they'll go the way of Santander (in terms of their cashback) and say the DDs need to be paid to utilities* and also say the credit must be salary by BACS Direct Credit**.

But I can't see them doing this as they'll alienate a large number of their genuine customers.

Halifax boobed in a big way when they launched this account. Rather than limiting it to one per customer, they (for reasons best known to themselves) set the limit at 3 per customer. Furthermore, they didn't have the robust systems required to stop people such as myself bagging a 4th Reward account by re-designating old HICAs.

I actually think the next thing Halifax will do with this account is pull it! I hope I'm wrong, but it's hard to see what else they could do without risking alienating some of their genuine customers.


* This would preclude those who wish to pay quarterly by cheque/paypoint etc, as well as those living with parents.

* This would exclude those who receive their wages by cheque.

innovate

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I actually think the next thing Halifax will do with this account is pull it!

You know, you could make a fortune if you offered them some Consultancy on how to un-boob themselves!:D

zerog

So if they expect someone who uses their account as a "main" account to earn £750 a month and spend it all during the course of the month, then the average balance in the account might be £375.

Say 50% of customers go overdrawn every month and the other half never go overdrawn. The reward payment is £75 gross per year. Make that £37.50 per customer (including the half who don't get any reward).

£37.50 per year/£375 is 10% interest. Assume that overdraft charges remain the same, I think it may well be the case that they lose less money by just giving 2% interest or something.

LuSiVe

OK, 10 mins work, savings accounts opened at Tesco and Post Office getting £1 each paid into each by direct debit on the 11th of each month. Simples

rb10

zerog wrote: »

So if they expect someone who uses their account as a "main" account to earn £750 a month and spend it all during the course of the month, then the average balance in the account might be £375.

Say 50% of customers go overdrawn every month and the other half never go overdrawn. The reward payment is £75 gross per year. Make that £37.50 per customer (including the half who don't get any reward).

£37.50 per year/£375 is 10% interest. Assume that overdraft charges remain the same, I think it may well be the case that they lose less money by just giving 2% interest or something.

Far too many assumptions in there to be in any way realistic.

The average current account balance is more than £375.

It's much less than 50% of customers who use their overdraft every month.

Consumerist

It occurs to me that if you go overdrawn, the effective overdraft charge for the first day is going to be £5 more - i.e. £6, £7 or £9 for a planned o/d and £10 for unplanned.