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

HappyMJ

Do the 2 direct debits have to be monthly. I pay my gas/electric/phone quarterly. Broadband monthly. 18185 is whenever.

I have 3 reward savers so trying to figure out how to balance the direct debits.

innovate

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

But that's not true.
Previously going, say, £40 overdrawn for one day in the month would cost you £1. Now it costs you £5.

You are mixing up two entirely unrelated things. Going overdrawn by £40 costs you £1/day today, and nothing from May. So if you are overdrawn for say, 10 days, it costs you £10 now, and nothing from May onwards. A potential saving of £10 a month.

And for those whining about losing the free fiver: you got at least £1K every month, otherwise you wouldn't have got the free fiver in the first instance. If you are desperate to keep your fiver, just live within your means and you will keep getting it.

JimmyTheWig

innovate wrote: »

You are mixing up two entirely unrelated things. Going overdrawn by £40 costs you £1/day today, and nothing from May. So if you are overdrawn for say, 10 days, it costs you £10 now, and nothing from May onwards. A potential saving of £10 a month.

And for those whining about losing the free fiver: you got at least £1K every month, otherwise you wouldn't have got the free fiver in the first instance. If you are desperate to keep your fiver, just live within your means and you will keep getting it.

For us it's not a question of living within means, more a question of keeping track of the balance whilst maximising money in other accounts. E.g. I try to keep £3k in the Santander 123 account, so the Halifax balance gets low by the end of the month.
Obviously currently, at £1 a day, I try not to go overdrawn. But sometimes it does happen. With one or two slip-ups during the month I'm still £4 or £3 better off for having the account. Now that won't be the case.

I don't think the two are unrelated. It's a question of how much does a slip-up cost me.
Currently going £5 overdrawn for one day would cost me nothing. With the new scheme it would cost me £5.
Currently going £40 overdrawn for one day would cost me £1. With the new scheme it would cost me £5.
Currently going £100 overdrawn for one day would cost me £1. With the new scheme it would cost me £6.

I understand that there is a flip-side. E.g. going £40 oversrawn for a week would currently cost me £7 but with the new scheme would only cost me £5. But that's not something that I generally do.

callum9999

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

For us it's not a question of living within means, more a question of keeping track of the balance whilst maximising money in other accounts. E.g. I try to keep £3k in the Santander 123 account, so the Halifax balance gets low by the end of the month.
Obviously currently, at £1 a day, I try not to go overdrawn. But sometimes it does happen. With one or two slip-ups during the month I'm still £4 or £3 better off for having the account. Now that won't be the case.

I don't think the two are unrelated. It's a question of how much does a slip-up cost me.
Currently going £5 overdrawn for one day would cost me nothing. With the new scheme it would cost me £5.
Currently going £40 overdrawn for one day would cost me £1. With the new scheme it would cost me £5.
Currently going £100 overdrawn for one day would cost me £1. With the new scheme it would cost me £6.

I understand that there is a flip-side. E.g. going £40 oversrawn for a week would currently cost me £7 but with the new scheme would only cost me £5. But that's not something that I generally do.

I really don't think anyone abusing their Halifax Reward accounts can legitimately moan about it becoming harder to abuse!

(That's not a judgement on people who abuse it by the way - I do the same)

lippy1923

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I know you have to have 2 different DD's set up monthly, but do they actually have to be taken monthly?

I plan to set up DD's on 2 of my credit cards with different organisations. But if I only spend on 1 credit card in 1 month, then the other will have nothing to collect.... if that makes sense

innovate

Did you check out the new terms on the Halifax site?

BugsyBrowne

All this for a bloOdy fiver a month What ever next.

dixon-bainbridge

BugsyBrowne wrote: »

All this for a bloOdy fiver a month What ever next.

I'll happily take a free £60 a year for a small amount of effort thanks.

KTF

BugsyBrowne wrote: »

All this for a bloOdy fiver a month What ever next.

When you have 6 of the accounts its worth the effort.

JimmyTheWig

callum9999 wrote: »

I really don't think anyone abusing their Halifax Reward accounts can legitimately moan about it becoming harder to abuse!

(That's not a judgement on people who abuse it by the way - I do the same)

I don't _feel_ I abuse it.
It is the account that my salary gets paid into and we use for spending when necessary. We had the account before they gave us the free £5 a month (back when they used to pay us interest) and will probably keep it when they stop.

But it's certainly not our main bills account, so if that counts as abuse then fair enough.