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

where_are_we

Please help! My Oh and I each have sole Halifax Reward current accounts and have received the message in online banking about the changes starting 1st June. I pay 20% tax and earn very close to £1000 personal savings allowance interest limit whereas my OH is a non taxpayer. We can do either the £5000 or £500 monthly debit card to earn the reward. Does the £5 reward totalling £60 in a year form part of my interest payments? If so is there any benefit from either option. My OH claims back the 20% tax taken off her rewards and I presume it makes no difference which option she takes. The £500 debit card option is more of a faff, but you get the reward plus your £5000 is earning interest somewhere else on top of that, so is our preferred way to go. 

General_Grant

where_are_we said:

Please help! My Oh and I each have sole Halifax Reward current accounts and have received the message in online banking about the changes starting 1st June. I pay 20% tax and earn very close to £1000 personal savings allowance interest limit whereas my OH is a non taxpayer. We can do either the £5000 or £500 monthly debit card to earn the reward. Does the £5 reward totalling £60 in a year form part of my interest payments? If so is there any benefit from either option. My OH claims back the 20% tax taken off her rewards and I presume it makes no difference which option she takes. The £500 debit card option is more of a faff, but you get the reward plus your £5000 is earning interest somewhere else on top of that, so is our preferred way to go. 

The £5 for £500 DC spend does not count as interest.  It is like normal Cash Back payment - that is it is simply returning some of your own money to you and therefore not taxable.

King_Of_Fools

where_are_we said:

Does the £5 reward totalling £60 in a year form part of my interest payments? If so is there any benefit from either option. My OH claims back the 20% tax taken off her rewards and I presume it makes no difference which option she takes. 

The £5 reward for £5000 is actually a £6.25 reward minus 20% tax. It is classed as income not interest so makes no difference to the £1000 personal savings allowance. As your OH does, they can claim the £1.25 back if they earn less than their personal income allowance. It is also liable to be taxed at 40% if you earn more than that threshold.

where_are_we

Please help again! It seems as though there is an option to select a start date. I presume you select the first available date ie 1/6/20 and then the offer is fixed for 12 months.

Super_Stomper

Sorry if I've already missed this point (there are 28 pages to trawl through) but why is it a good idea to keep £5k pounds in a current account? This seems to contradict normal practice.

YorkshireBoy

Super_Stomper said:

Sorry if I've already missed this point (there are 28 pages to trawl through) but why is it a good idea to keep £5k pounds in a current account? This seems to contradict normal practice.

Well doing so here will return £60 per year, which equates to a 1.5% return on the £5K.

How many savings accounts are paying approaching 1.5%?

General_Grant

where_are_we said:

Please help again! It seems as though there is an option to select a start date. I presume you select the first available date ie 1/6/20 and then the offer is fixed for 12 months.

I would do that as you will not get the reward under the old terms after the one for May.

JustAnotherSaver

Well i was going to check in on this thread and ask whether the number you call to inform them you want to keep the account is automated or whether you speak with a human. I don't mind calling them but certain family members get quite anxious about calling these people on the phone.

So it's 100% automated then? I'm only double checking because....

colsten said:

What number are you calling? You should be using  0345 129 9711.

Sure? I'm not saying you're wrong. Maybe different people have been given different numbers. I'll quote the literature i was given...

Tell us if you'd like to keep your Reward Current Accounts

Because these accounts will have a monthly maintaining the account fee, you'll need to tell us if you want to keep them. You

can do this by calling 0345 129 9744 by 15th May 2020 and you'll also be asked to select your choice of Reward Extras at

the same time.

Well looks like i can't wrap quote around it so i'll put it in bold. What a great forum this now is when the features don't even bloody work.

As you can see though, i've been given a different number to you.

Wheres_My_Cashback

Super_Stomper said:

Sorry if I've already missed this point (there are 28 pages to trawl through) but why is it a good idea to keep £5k pounds in a current account? This seems to contradict normal practice.

If you want a very easy £60 just leave £5K there, no fuss, however if you want to earn more you'd put the £5K elsewhere earning interest and just spend the £500 on a debit card and still get the £60 reward, but you'll have to put a little work in each month to do so.
There MAY be a relatively easy solution to spending the minimum £500 by pulling it to another account of your own, but that can't be proven until the new scheme has been up and running for a month and the first reward payments have come in......or not !

Joe9090

JustAnotherSaver said:

Well i was going to check in on this thread and ask whether the number you call to inform them you want to keep the account is automated or whether you speak with a human. I don't mind calling them but certain family members get quite anxious about calling these people on the phone.

So it's 100% automated then? I'm only double checking because....

colsten said:

What number are you calling? You should be using  0345 129 9711.

Sure? I'm not saying you're wrong. Maybe different people have been given different numbers. I'll quote the literature i was given...

Tell us if you'd like to keep your Reward Current Accounts

Because these accounts will have a monthly maintaining the account fee, you'll need to tell us if you want to keep them. You

can do this by calling 0345 129 9744 by 15th May 2020 and you'll also be asked to select your choice of Reward Extras at

the same time.

Well looks like i can't wrap quote around it so i'll put it in bold. What a great forum this now is when the features don't even bloody work.

As you can see though, i've been given a different number to you.

I was given 0345 129 9733 !