Halifax Reward account and qualifying Direct debits

nearlyretired2004

Has anyone used the combination of Tesco Savings and Santander eSave as their two qualifying DD’s to get their free fivers?

Just had a slightly worrying phone call with Santander (no surprise there then……)

Set up Tesco savings account and direct debits on my three Reward accounts - all showing in my Halifax online banking –no problems there then …(hopefully)

As the DD’s I had requested to fund the eSave account still aren’t showing on my Halifax online banking, I called Santander.

After initially being told they hadn’t been set up, asked to speak to a manager (!!) who told me I couldn’t set up DD’s on the account …….

After explaining to him that I was looking at the form which said ‘eSaver Direct Debit Form’ at the top he checked and told me the three requests HAD in fact been actioned but that Santander call them ‘funding mandates’.

…………(so why does it say direct debit on their form…!!!)

He couldn’t explain how they were set up and why they don’t appear on my Halifax online banking, but did say that SANTANDER accounts which require direct debits need to be ‘company’ type DD’s such as utilities, not to savings accounts (not sure how they would know?)

Does anyone know whether we are on safe ground usingthese savings accounts as our DD’s and specifically has anyone set them up on theirSantander eSave accounts and do they appear as DD’s in your Halifax online banking ??

10_66

I too set up DDs with Tesco (all fine with those), but with Santander I did have problems. I sent off 3 DD forms with copies of the bank statements that they require for my 3 Halifax Reward accounts. Only one of them was actioned. When I rang for an explanation, like you, I was told that they don't do DDs from this account, eventuallyyyyyyy, I got the "they're called funding mandates" but 2 of the 3 had been set up incorrectly. One with a £0 amount and the other with only a manual request for the transfer rather than it being automatic. Took several 'phone calls to get them to work properly, thank goodness I'd had them set up before the cut off date so their errors could be rectified in time. They're all working now. This is why I'd NEVER use Santander as my main bank. They co*ked up big time on an ISA transfer a few years' ago too, and I'd never put an ISA with them again either, regardless of their interest rate.

ffacoffipawb

Direct Debits

Recipient ......... Reference ....................Amount (£) .......Frequency............ Last Paid
E-SAVER ......... 090128xxxxxxxxxxx ......£1.00................Not Known ...........11 Mar 13
TESCO BANK..... 000xxxxxxxxx/xxxxx .....£4.00 ...............Monthly ...............07 Mar 13

EDIT: All 3 of my Reward Accounts (2 HFX, 1 BOS) have been set up as above and Tesco has taken two monthly payments and Santander just the one (so frequency for that is not known by Halifax yet)

10_66

ffacoffipawb, very off topic here, but wonder who'll win this time on Saturday!

05/02/2012: Eireann 21 - 23 Cymru
12/02/2012: Cymru 27 - 13 Alba
25/02/2012: England 12 - Cymru 19
10/03/2012: Cymru 24 - 3 Italia
17/03/2012: Cymru 16 - 9 France
Grand Slam 2012 Woo Hoo!!!

ffacoffipawb

10_66 wrote: »

ffacoffipawb, very off topic here, but wonder who'll win this time on Saturday!

05/02/2012: Eireann 21 - 23 Cymru
12/02/2012: Cymru 27 - 13 Alba
25/02/2012: England 12 - Cymru 19
10/03/2012: Cymru 24 - 3 Italia
17/03/2012: Cymru 16 - 9 France
Grand Slam 2012 Woo Hoo!!!

I think England will win this year. Unfortunately.

10_66

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

I think England will win this year. Unfortunately.

It's about time we won something! I wouldn't like to place any money on it though!

nearlyretired2004

So are the 'funding mandates' working as Direct Debits? Did you have to change anything? and how did you know they weren't set up correctly?


Do they show on your Halifax online banking, as, as I say, mine don't ?

Alex92_2

I havent tried the santander D/Ds for esaver yet.

KTF told me he uses e-saver and tescos to fund halifax, so i planned on doing the same.

There is a thread somewhere, dont have time to look for it and link it, but it was by innovate and it showed every single account that allows you to use DDs.

So can you not setup DDs on E-Saver then? If you cant I will need to find somewhere else that can to qualify for the Halifax reward acc.

10_66

nearlyretired2004 wrote: »

So are the 'funding mandates' working as Direct Debits? Did you have to change anything? and how did you know they weren't set up correctly?


Do they show on your Halifax online banking, as, as I say, mine don't ?

The funding mandates "act" like DD's. They won't appear in your list of DD's when you log in to Santander. If you look at the payment options on the left side of the screen (I think from memory), there's a list of "pulling payments from" (again, just from memory, may not be the exact terminology), the Halifax funding mandates are listed there with their account numbers. When set up properly, they should show when logged in to Halifax under DD's.

I found out they weren't set up correctly because the payments weren't made when they were due. I then rang Santander and established what I mentioned in my earlier post.

Alex92 wrote: »

I havent tried the santander D/Ds for esaver yet.

KTF told me he uses e-saver and tescos to fund halifax, so i planned on doing the same.

There is a thread somewhere, dont have time to look for it and link it, but it was by innovate and it showed every single account that allows you to use DDs.

So can you not setup DDs on E-Saver then? If you cant I will need to find somewhere else that can to qualify for the Halifax reward acc.

They are set up using the Santander DD form (God knows why they call them funding mandates if they set them up using DD forms, but that's Santander for you), but Santander don't set them up in the same way as DD's (see above). However, for Halifax purposes they seem to satisfy them as they appear on their system under DD's.

nearlyretired2004

I think I must have picked the very day (yesterday) that Santander set up the Direct debits (....funding mandates?) as they weren't showing in my Halifax online banking yesterday, but are today .... so hopefully all now looks good.

Can anyone tell me when the direct debits have to be in place by, as I've just discovered I have a relative who hasn't set them up yet....

I had it in mind that although the changes take effect from 1st May, the DD's had to be in place by 1st April but cant now find reference to this?

10_66

nearlyretired2004 wrote: »

...Can anyone tell me when the direct debits have to be in place by, as I've just discovered I have a relative who hasn't set them up yet....

I had it in mind that although the changes take effect from 1st May, the DD's had to be in place by 1st April but cant now find reference to this?

The letter I had said the DD's had to be set up by 14 April, but the new t&cs are effective from 1 May.