Halifax 6% Childrens's Account: Opening Requirements

ang61ry

Anyone had the same difficulty opening this account as I've experienced?

You can only open the 6% children's saver in branch. Not ideal for a working single parent with 2 children, but fair enough, I'll drive the 20 minutes to my nearest branch on a Sat morning the only day I can get there with child's ID (I have a current account with them), to be told I have to make an appointment to see an adviser to open the account. One branch attendant telling me that it is a legal requirement when opening children's accounts. Bit dubious about his when you consider the thousands of pounds that can be transferred between accounts online, never needing to get to a branch.

Am given a tel number to call to arrange an appointment with the adviser. I make the call to discover that the appointment to open this account is an hour!!! The only realistic time I can make is 9.00 a.m. on a Sat morning (I'm working when they offer the weekday appointments) as I drop one of the children at a sporting venue close by. The child's class starts at 9.00. I had told the Halifax that I could be late, and so with delays in getting them into the class I got to the Halifax 25 minutes late, to be told that the adviser now could not see me as they didn't have enough time as the service (which I didn't request) would take at least 40 minutes to set up the account and they had customers to see at 10, and then 11 a.m.

Is this everyone else's experience of trying to open up the 6% Halifax Children's Saver account or is it only the city I live in that is making the opening this account so difficult? Am probably extremely naive, as friends have said that the 6% saver is really intended to lure you in to have a complete financial review in order to tie you in to other products

Not feeling very kindly towards the building society that likes to sell itself as giving you "Xtra" help!!

PeacefulWaters

Not feeling very kindly towards the building society that likes to sell itself as giving you "Xtra" help!!

It's not been a building society since 1997.

ang61ry

Apart from my lack of knowledge there - appreciate the correction - does it make a difference in the way that you'd open an account with them?

xylophone

https://apply.halifax-online.co.uk/personal/a/apply_savings/juniorisabelow16

Open on line?

GingerFurball_2

Account opening needs to be done by a specialist for regulatory reasons. If you're that desperate to open the account then make the time to do it.
You say 'you didn't want the service' - yes you did. And the branch were quite right not to take you, why should others be inconvenienced because you can't keep an appointment?

agentk

ang61ry wrote: »

Anyone had the same difficulty opening this account as I've experienced?

You can only open the 6% children's saver in branch. Not ideal for a working single parent with 2 children, but fair enough, I'll drive the 20 minutes to my nearest branch on a Sat morning the only day I can get there with child's ID (I have a current account with them), to be told I have to make an appointment to see an adviser to open the account. One branch attendant telling me that it is a legal requirement when opening children's accounts. Bit dubious about his when you consider the thousands of pounds that can be transferred between accounts online, never needing to get to a branch.

Am given a tel number to call to arrange an appointment with the adviser. I make the call to discover that the appointment to open this account is an hour!!! The only realistic time I can make is 9.00 a.m. on a Sat morning (I'm working when they offer the weekday appointments) as I drop one of the children at a sporting venue close by. The child's class starts at 9.00. I had told the Halifax that I could be late, and so with delays in getting them into the class I got to the Halifax 25 minutes late, to be told that the adviser now could not see me as they didn't have enough time as the service (which I didn't request) would take at least 40 minutes to set up the account and they had customers to see at 10, and then 11 a.m.

Is this everyone else's experience of trying to open up the 6% Halifax Children's Saver account or is it only the city I live in that is making the opening this account so difficult? Am probably extremely naive, as friends have said that the 6% saver is really intended to lure you in to have a complete financial review in order to tie you in to other products

Not feeling very kindly towards the building society that likes to sell itself as giving you "Xtra" help!!

been there and got the t shirt in 2011. never bothered again!

account requires 2 accounts per child opening, as after the term of reg savings ac balance is transferred to a savings account.

in branch appointment only.:mad:

I needed appointment to shut and move funds as well.:mad:

And remember 6% looks good but its a reg saver. 12 month £100 a month max dep

mike

PeacefulWaters

ang61ry wrote: »

Apart from my lack of knowledge there - appreciate the correction - does it make a difference in the way that you'd open an account with them?

No. But some people have a kind of fluffy love for mutuals. This is a bank you're dealing with, so if you are one of those you're misguided.

xylophone wrote: »

https://apply.halifax-online.co.uk/personal/a/apply_savings/juniorisabelow16

Open on line?

Alas, that's the Junior Cash ISA. While it pays the 6% rate if the parent has a Halifax cash ISA of their own, it doesn't have the access arrangements of Kids Regular Saver.

Their website offers no link to open a Kids Regular Saver and states:

Halifax_web_site wrote:

To apply, make an appointment at your local branch.

In addition to your own identification, you'll need the child's birth certificate or passport.

agentk wrote: »

account requires 2 accounts per child opening, as after the term of reg savings ac balance is transferred to a savings account.

It hasn't worked that way since September 2011.

ang61ry wrote: »

You can only open the 6% children's saver in branch. Not ideal for a working single parent with 2 children

I don't really get the reference to being a single parent. Surely it would be even more inconvenient if two parents wanted to open an account as joint trustees?

but fair enough, I'll drive the 20 minutes to my nearest branch on a Sat morning the only day I can get there with child's ID (I have a current account with them), to be told I have to make an appointment to see an adviser to open the account. One branch attendant telling me that it is a legal requirement when opening children's accounts.

There are legal and regulatory requirements when opening accounts, although these apply to all account openings, not just children. In the case of "normal" adult accounts the bank has developed systems to discharge these requirements over the phone and online.

In the case of children's accounts, with the exception of the Junior Cash ISA linked above, they haven't. I'd guess there is a cost in doing so and as the rates they pay on kids accounts will be loss making any desire to develop those systems will be met by an accountant saying "you want to spend £x00,000 to develop a system that increases sales of a loss making account? No chance! We've got a new bank account to launch and need the money for that!"

Am given a tel number to call to arrange an appointment with the adviser. I make the call to discover that the appointment to open this account is an hour!!! The only realistic time I can make is 9.00 a.m. on a Sat morning (I'm working when they offer the weekday appointments) as I drop one of the children at a sporting venue close by. The child's class starts at 9.00. I had told the Halifax that I could be late, and so with delays in getting them into the class I got to the Halifax 25 minutes late, to be told that the adviser now could not see me as they didn't have enough time as the service (which I didn't request) would take at least 40 minutes to set up the account and they had customers to see at 10, and then 11 a.m.

While you've gone around the houses there, if you've agreed an appointment for 9am and turned up 25 minutes late then I can see their point. While it's not your fault that their systems need 40 minutes or so to open an account, they have positioned a 9am appointment with you. They have positioned an hour with you. I don't see why their 10am customer should be delayed when you were the one who didn't show up on time.

And surely you did request the service when you said you wanted to open a new account.

Is this everyone else's experience of trying to open up the 6% Halifax Children's Saver account or is it only the city I live in that is making the opening this account so difficult?

There might be something else at play here around how they prioritise customers. Your £1,200 is low value. While it would be nice to treat everybody equally, if that 10am customer is bringing in £50k or looking to borrow money it would be a wise commercial judgement to prioritise them.

Am probably extremely naive, as friends have said that the 6% saver is really intended to lure you in to have a complete financial review in order to tie you in to other products

Their account opening processes are designed around a number of things:

- Money Laundering Regulations (which are more complex for a child account where both parent and child need to be handled).

- Fear of being accused of mis-selling (so they choose to cover their backside with a series of questions to make sure that they guide you towards selecting the right product. Just because you say you want a specific product doesn't mean it's the correct product from their range).

- A desire to promote other products that may be appropriate for you.

That final one can be covered by the questions asked to help ensure you select the right product. So unless you choose to buy additional products their desire to cross-sell shouldn't add more than a couple of minutes to the process. But their processes exist because banks have been fined for failing to comply with Money Laundering Regulations and they get accused of mis-selling and need to cover their backsides. Even on kids accounts.

I agree with those who say they should offer this account online. It irritated me personally that they didn't when I wanted to open one for my youngest. I took the view that the £30 in interest wasn't worth my time, especially as a new account would need opening every year.

Should the whole process take forty minutes? I'd like to think not. Ideally they should rip apart their systems and start again with something slicker. One of the problems Halifax has is that because they lost tens of billions of pounds as HBOS and jumped into bed with Lloyds they've spent the last five years merging systems with Lloyds rather than spending the IT budget on improving systems. This was then compounded by the firm spending another couple of billion carving out TSB to satisfy EU regulators. Meanwhile, they leave their branch network with inadequate systems to open these accounts with no back up online or on the phones.

If you turn up on demand to open an account and all trained staff are already with customers or have appointments booked they are not going to suddenly magic up new people. There are not dozens of staff sat upstairs waiting to collect your £100.

Equally, if you turn up twenty five minutes late for an appointment and that doesn't give enough time to do what they need to do I don't see why the next customer, who turns up on time, should be inconvenienced because you couldn't get Flossie to netball to fit round it.

Long winded. But hopefully it explains it. Even if it's not what you want to hear.

xylophone

it doesn't have the access arrangements of Kids Regular Saver.

Indeed- the HRS had slipped my mind. Does it need to be managed with a passbook? I say this because I recall that the Nationwide Child Saver can only be applied for on line if you don't require one?

- Money Laundering Regulations (which are more complex for a child account where both parent and child need to be handled).

But parent and child need to be handled for the JISA? And the JISA at 3% is available if the parent is not a Halifax Isa holder?

And if the Jisa can be opened on line and eg a Nationwide Child account opened on line, there would not seem to be any particular specialist handling required for regulatory purposes?

Puzzled!

PeacefulWaters

xylophone wrote: »

Indeed- the HRS had slipped my mind. Does it need to be managed with a passbook? I say this because I recall that the Nationwide Child Saver can only be applied for on line if you don't require one?

No passbook.

But parent and child need to be handled for the JISA? And the JISA at 3% is available if the parent is not a Halifax Isa holder?

And if the Jisa can be opened on line and eg a Nationwide Child account opened on line, there would not seem to be any particular specialist handling required for regulatory purposes?

Puzzled!

It's all about the way they have built the computer systems. Lloyds Banking Group, for reasons known best to themselves, have never opened kids accounts by phone or online (although HBOS managed it by phone until they got stuck with Lloyds systems). The Halifax Junior Cash ISA will have required a specialist online build. That same systems build hasn't been rolled out to other product in Halifax, BoS or Lloyds. Presumably due to cost.

Froggitt

I cant tell if the OP wants the 6% JISA or the 6% Reg Saver.


The JISA they would only open in branch. It felt like in return for the great rate, that I was a mugg/sales opportunity for other products. All you need to do is tell them that youre not interested in anything else apart from the JISA right at the beginning, that you would rather not waste their time and yours, and every time they veer off the JISA, you quickly but politely say "not interested" and get back to the JISA.


I opened two accounts in 30 minutes with them.

agentk

[QUOTE=PeacefulWaters;

I agree with those who say they should offer this account online. It irritated me personally that they didn't when I wanted to open one for my youngest. I took the view that the £30 in interest wasn't worth my time, especially as a new account would need opening every year.

Not very mse, but that is what i was getting at.

mike