Halifax bank WebSaver withOUT card now 5.05%

ED

Please keep us posted, airwalk + thumshie.

Halifax website has changed again since June 1st. The version of WebSaver with cashcard which on June 1st stated the rate was 5.25% now states the rate is 5%!

Lack of efficient Secure Online Messaging (or open email) facility is one of my big gripes with Halifax bank. Many building societies are way ahead of Halifax in these facilities. MiserlyMartin, please let us know the response in the event of you deciding to complain about the 0.05% rate rise by perhaps writing a letter and delivering it to a branch of Halifax.

Maybe Halifax Bank Of Scotland are preparing to urge WebSaver account holders to swap to the BoS account. If so, I wonder why?

jem16

thumshie wrote: »

And the BoS one has a guarantee:

Ok, not at current level, but Halifax don't even have that. Now to find out if transfers Halifax->BoS->Halifax are same day.....

Yes they are. I have a BOS current account and the rest are Halifax. All treated as being the same, i.e. HBOS. Transfers are instantaneous.

Compound_2

airwalk wrote: »

Just noticed this on the bank of scotland website

http://www.bankofscotlandhalifax.co.uk/savings/directsavingsIASA.asp

I can't see the difference between it and the halifax websaver.

And that just had a 0.25% rise!!

The key difference, and probably the reason why most people here have the Web Saver, is that only the Halifax account is eligible to receive maturity funds from the Halifax Regular Saver. With the Halifax range replacing BoS's, I think the above account was introduced to retain one instance of the BoS brand in savings.

thumshie

Took a while but finally got my Bank of Scotland IASA registered and set up for online banking, via a halifax userid. Can confirm that transfer to/from a Halifax Current account are instantaneous.

So if you want to manage your High Interest Current account and sweep 'excess' into a savings account to maintain that £2500 balance you can use this instead of the halifax websaver to get 5.5% instead of 5.05% with the web saver, and losing no interest in Bacs transfers etc..

[Deleted User]

thumshie wrote: »

Took a while but finally got my Bank of Scotland IASA registered and set up for online banking, via a halifax userid. Can confirm that transfer to/from a Halifax Current account are instantaneous.

So if you want to manage your High Interest Current account and sweep 'excess' into a savings account to maintain that £2500 balance you can use this instead of the halifax websaver to get 5.5% instead of 5.05% with the web saver, and losing no interest in Bacs transfers etc..

Good thinking Batman. I might just do that.

alared

Took just over a week to get my Bank of Scotland IASA set up.

Alan_T_2

jem16 wrote: »

Yes they are. I have a BOS current account and the rest are Halifax. All treated as being the same, i.e. HBOS. Transfers are instantaneous.

Not 100% correct. If all the accounts sit on the Halifax systems then transfer is instananeous... however if I recall correctly then the BOS IASA account still sits on the old BOS systems. The systems will attempt to send the payment via the standard BACS run at the end of the day, however they run this file through a program to remove any transfers to any HBOS sortcodes to avoid them taking 3 days to reach the receiving account. The net result of this is that transfers don't reach the recipient account until the next day when the accounts sit on different systems.

Alan_T_2

Compound wrote: »

With the Halifax range replacing BoS's, I think the above account was introduced to retain one instance of the BoS brand in savings.

Correct ... this was originally designed for the BOS Private Banking customers as feedback showed that they more driven by brand than the average customer. It is now used as part of Andy Hornby's (Chief Exec) multi-brand approach.

Alan_T_2

thumshie wrote: »

Took a while but finally got my Bank of Scotland IASA registered and set up for online banking, via a halifax userid. Can confirm that transfer to/from a Halifax Current account are instantaneous.

So if you want to manage your High Interest Current account and sweep 'excess' into a savings account to maintain that £2500 balance you can use this instead of the halifax websaver to get 5.5% instead of 5.05% with the web saver, and losing no interest in Bacs transfers etc..

No strictly true... see below.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=5549561#post5549561

A better solution might be to transfer your excess to a Sainsbury's Bank Internet Saver. This sits on the same platform as all Halifax Accounts and as a result transfers to this from Halifax are done instantaneously. It is a bit complex in that you have to maintain a separate online banking service (Sainsbury's Bank accounts don't show on Halifax or BOS online banking), but you get 6.0% interest in return, and no delays between transfers (need to confirm that this applies in the opposite direction .. Sainsbury's to Halifax, although the worst case scenario would be overnight).

Milarky

Alan_T wrote: »

you have to maintain a separate online banking service (Sainsbury's Bank accounts don't show on Halifax or BOS online banking), but you get 6.0% interest in return, and no delays between transfers

Like HSBC and First Direct are instantaneous for transfers but accessed on separate sites...