History Question

Milarky

As the title suggests, this is an idle but genuine enquiry


Which bank invented the '2 direct debit rule'?

I believe it was Halifax back in 2009 when it launched the Reward current account. Any other theories?

18cc

It would be helpful if you could clarify what direct debit rule you are referring to

are you referring to needing direct debits in order to run an particular account and if you didn't have them then the account might be downgraded

are you referring to needing direct debits in order to get some kind of perks on the account like entitlement to monthly interest or access to regular saver accounts

are you talking about the direct debit rule which is sometimes required when switching accounts in order to get a switch incentive

JuicyJesus

I believe it was Halifax that "invented" it because the original version of the Reward account back in 2009 was just ridiculously easy to game. People had multiple sole and joint accounts, and were pinging the same £1,000 in and out of all of them each month then collecting a harvest of like £30 a pop. The "two DDs" rule came about as a means of them preventing that, along with limiting the number of accounts one person can have.

YorkshireBoy

Milarky wrote: »

I believe it was Halifax back in 2009 when it launched the Reward current account.

DDs were introduced over 4 years later in April 2013. One example of many threads running at the time...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4533703/halifax-reward-account-am-i-too-late-to-set-up-direct-debits