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

Notepad_Phil

phillw said:
They also explicitly say on their web site that "When you make a money transfer to another account." is not covered. I know this has been speculated to mean faster payments, but it's in the section "What kind of spending counts towards the offer?" and faster payments aren't a spend on your debit card. So it's already excluded by the terms

"Add the ‘£5 for £500’ offer to your account to get £5 for each month you spend £500 or more on your debit card."

But I believe that is for the Ultimate Reward Current Account, or have you found a link from within the Rewards Current Account pages? The new terms and conditions that I received yesterday via snail mail certainly mentions no such thing so I think they'd be on sticky grounds if they tried to enforce that - though I've still to decide whether I want the hassle of having to make the manual debits card payments.

masonic

phillw said:

masonic said:
The do get processing fees for the weird and wonderful ways so far mentioned.

Are you saying they receive the same level of fee you send money to a financial institution as when paying a merchant? That isn't my understanding at all of the fee structure of "cash" vs "purchase" transactions using cards (either debit or credit).
It's clear they are moving away from arbitrary requirements that trigger a payment, to something that funds itself. To cover the £5 for £500 they would need more than a 1% fee.

I don't know what level of fees various merchants pay on their debit card transactions, but they are generally not as high as 1%. Presumably firms with significant transaction volumes and infrastructure can negotiate very favourable fees (Edit: "Banks typically charge large retailers between 10p and 20p for each debit card transaction, or 0.6% for credit cards.", source). I know one or two financial institutions I use/have used encouraged me to pay into my account by bank transfer if possible rather than debit card to reduce their fees - although that plea seems to have gone away in recent times with the reduction in fees for processing debit card transactions. It probably works out cheaper now to process a debit card payment than provide customer support to people struggling to make a bank transfer in the correct manner. Are you aware of any firm capable of processing debit card transactions without paying any fee?

It's worth remembering the £5 a month was always loss making for Halifax. There is no reason to think each customer must now generate £5 per month in revenue for the bank.

phillw said:

They also explicitly say on their web site that "When you make a money transfer to another account." is not covered. I know this has been speculated to mean faster payments, but it's in the section "What kind of spending counts towards the offer?" and faster payments aren't a spend on your debit card. So it's already excluded by the terms

"Add the ‘£5 for £500’ offer to your account to get £5 for each month you spend £500 or more on your debit card."

Did they define "money transfer"? Because it doesn't have a generally accepted meaning and could be taken to mean almost anything.

surreysaver

DPS-2016 said:

Just got my letter this morning.  
Regarding the 'debit card spend' each month is this only payments made using contactless/chip and pin or are direct debits from your account included?  

If you read the T&Cs, it says:-
https://static.halifax.co.uk/assets/pdf/bankaccounts/reward-current-account-guide-to-changes.pdf
"Cash withdrawals from cash machines, branches or Post Office® counters and payments that are disputed will not count towards the £500. We will also only include payments taken out from your account by the last day of the month."
This in my mind, implies that cash machine withdrawals and payments that are not disputed, will count towards the £500.

As an aside, I am unable to get through to the Halifax presumably due to the coronovirus crisis to prevent my account being converted to an ordinary account.  Any email address or anything I can use to contact them is anyone aware of?

colsten

surreysaver said:

As an aside, I am unable to get through to the Halifax presumably due to the coronovirus crisis to prevent my account being converted to an ordinary account.  Any email address or anything I can use to contact them is anyone aware of?

What number are you calling? You should be using  0345 129 9711, which is an automated facility, not in any way impacted by the corona crisis

pafpcg

surreysaver said:

DPS-2016 said:

Just got my letter this morning.  
Regarding the 'debit card spend' each month is this only payments made using contactless/chip and pin or are direct debits from your account included?  

If you read the T&Cs, it says:-
https://static.halifax.co.uk/assets/pdf/bankaccounts/reward-current-account-guide-to-changes.pdf
"Cash withdrawals from cash machines, branches or Post Office® counters and payments that are disputed will not count towards the £500. We will also only include payments taken out from your account by the last day of the month."
This in my mind, implies that cash machine withdrawals and payments that are not disputed, will count towards the £500.

Sorry, I don't understand why you think that cash machine withdrawals would count?  I read that first sentence of the quote to explicitly exclude 'cash withdrawals from cash machines'.

General_Grant

surreysaver said:

DPS-2016 said:

Just got my letter this morning.  
Regarding the 'debit card spend' each month is this only payments made using contactless/chip and pin or are direct debits from your account included?  

If you read the T&Cs, it says:-
https://static.halifax.co.uk/assets/pdf/bankaccounts/reward-current-account-guide-to-changes.pdf
"Cash withdrawals from cash machines, branches or Post Office® counters and payments that are disputed will not count towards the £500. We will also only include payments taken out from your account by the last day of the month."
This in my mind, implies that cash machine withdrawals and payments that are not disputed, will count towards the £500.

As an aside, I am unable to get through to the Halifax presumably due to the coronovirus crisis to prevent my account being converted to an ordinary account.  Any email address or anything I can use to contact them is anyone aware of?

I have to disagree with your interpretation.  The list is meant to be that cash machine withdrawals will not be counted; cash withdrawals at Post Offices counters will not be counted; payments that are disputed will not be counted.  So only payments which are not disputed will be counted.
The "and" separates "cash withdrawals" and "payments".  Withdrawals are not payments.

colsten

surreysaver said:

"Cash withdrawals from cash machines, branches or Post Office® counters and payments that are disputed will not count towards the £500. We will also only include payments taken out from your account by the last day of the month."
This in my mind, implies that cash machine withdrawals and payments that are not disputed, will count towards the £500.

What this means is

Cash withdrawals from cash machines will not count

Cash withdrawals from branches will not count

Cash withdrawals from Post Office counters will not count

Payments that are disputed will not count

surreysaver

colsten said:

surreysaver said:

"Cash withdrawals from cash machines, branches or Post Office® counters and payments that are disputed will not count towards the £500. We will also only include payments taken out from your account by the last day of the month."
This in my mind, implies that cash machine withdrawals and payments that are not disputed, will count towards the £500.

What this means is

Cash withdrawals from cash machines will not count

Cash withdrawals from branches will not count

Cash withdrawals from Post Office counters will not count

Payments that are disputed will not count

Yes. Now you've written it like that it makes it clearer. So it implies that all other uses will count. Including Revolut.
Only I cannot get hold of them on the phone number provided 🤷‍♂️ 

colsten

surreysaver said:

Only I cannot get hold of them on the phone number provided 🤷‍♂️ 

It was working earlier today but seems to have gone offline now. You have until sometime in June to register, so no need to panic as of yet. You could try pestering them on Twitter if the number doesn't come back to life soon.

AlwaysLearnin

The changes come in to effect from 1/6, but you have to let them know if you want the new style account by 15/5.

Still plenty of time though