Halifax Reward Account changing to £3 charge with “lifestyle rewards”

JustAnotherSaver

Re-reading this i see they must be dropping the direct debit requirement?

Am i correct in my understanding?

So £1500 per month, £5000 every day of the month & you bag yourself £5, no other criteria to meet?

May be worth it after all with all the other rates dropping.

Ghostcrawler

Right no Direct debit criteria anymore but there is a new additional criteria introduced by Halifax i.e. £500 debit card transaction every month.

SpanishBlue

Ghostcrawler said:

Right no Direct debit criteria anymore but there is a new additional criteria introduced by Halifax i.e. £500 debit card transaction every month.

£500 debit card transaction every month OR keep a balance of £5000 in the account.

You can choose which of the two options you prefer.

colsten

JustAnotherSaver said:

May be worth it after all with all the other rates dropping.

Agree, if you have £5K spare for the entire year, your get 1.2% AER, and still have access in an emergency.

If you don't have the £5K spare, or would rather keep £5K somewhere else, you can still make a fiver a month if you can spend £500 with your Halifax debit card.

infoadict

Have just received my letter and it states these changes will come into force from 1st June and if you wish to keep your Reward account, then must phone them by 15th May.

However on their website and their PDF, it states the changes are from 1st July and have to call before 12th June?

I want to cancel my DD's, but not too soon and don't want to call to ask, as it's not really urgent.

But which is it?

rawhammered

Presume I can use my debit card to fund my Vanguard S&S ISA and cancel the £500 DD i currently have set up?

soulsaver

rawhammered said:

Presume I can use my debit card to fund my Vanguard S&S ISA and cancel the £500 DD i currently have set up?

Most of us are 95% sure that'll work; but it's not been tested yet. 

JustAnotherSaver

colsten said:

JustAnotherSaver said:

May be worth it after all with all the other rates dropping.

Agree, if you have £5K spare for the entire year, your get 1.2% AER, and still have access in an emergency.

If you don't have the £5K spare, or would rather keep £5K somewhere else, you can still make a fiver a month if you can spend £500 with your Halifax debit card.

I pretty much use my Amex for just about everything i can. Think i'm at 0.5% cashback rate now though.

On that note wouldn't it be better i went the £500 route on the account rather than the £5k (as i have Marcus at 1.5% now, or 1.45% or whatever they've recently dropped it to) but when the Marcus account drops it could be a different story.

Though i do appreciate that it would be a £1,500 spend as we have 3 accounts between us. May end up being better designating one account as a £500 spend and the other two holding £5,000 each.

SydSnott

I'm fed up with playing the "Cash Shuffle" game with Halifax in order to get a measly £2 "pat on the head", most months!
Life's too short.

Once upon a time I  used to maintain a minimum balance in my HFX Current account of £25k, ...then I had a word with myself and reduced it to a max of £15k.

The current letter regarding "Rewards" Account or "2nd Class" Account has me favouring the 2nd class approach and once more moving the excess in "Current" to another provider who may value my patronage! 
Meanwhile, I'll accept the 2nd class option, and probably change my allegiance after surveying how the land lies after June 20th

colsten

SydSnott said:

I'm fed up with playing the "Cash Shuffle" game with Halifax in order to get a measly £2 "pat on the head"

They must have heard you, as they are now offering you various choices for getting £5 a month, £60 a year