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

frosch411

Hi all,
I got this announcement of chance through as an online letter earlier today also.. not impressed
Some infos from the T&Cs for those who might need it:

T&Cs
These terms and conditions apply to Reward Current Account customers who have selected Reward Extras.
• To qualify for any Reward Extras Offer in any calendar month you will need to stay in credit and pay at least £1,500 into your account.
• When you select Reward Extras, we will invite you to choose from the different Offers available for your account.
• You can only choose one Reward Extra Offer per account, even if the account is in joint names. • The Offer lasts for a set period and starts from the date you select it.
• If you have met the conditions for your chosen Offer, the payment will be made into your account or you will receive the lifestyle benefit during the following month. Your account must remain open for any chosen Offer to be provided to you; for example, if you have chosen the cash Monthly Reward and you meet the Offer conditions in April but close your account in May before the payment is made, you won’t receive April’s payment.
• We will contact you before the end of the Offer period, either by writing to you or, if you have agreed, by sending you an email or text message, to tell you what will happen next.

Reward Extras
Under the current Offers, you can choose one Offer and then select your Monthly Reward as follows:
Offer
You can choose to earn a Monthly Reward if you:
• Spend £500 or more using your debit card in a month, or
• Keep £5,000 or more in your account every day for a month

Monthly Reward 
For your Monthly Reward you can choose to get:
• 3 digital magazines per month, or
• 2 digital movie rentals per month, or
• 1 cinema ticket per month, or
• £5 paid into your account each month

The Offer and Monthly Reward you choose is fixed for the Offer period, which will be a minimum of 12 full months, and you can’t change it during this time.


Offer Detail
Earn a Monthly Reward by spending £500 or more using your debit card
• In order to qualify for the Monthly Reward in any calendar month, you must spend £500 or more using your debit card.
• The Offer starts on the day you select it and lasts for a minimum of 12 full months. For example, if you select the Offer on 10th November 2020, it will end on 30th November 2021. If you spend £500 on your debit card from 10th - 30th November 2020, you will receive the Offer for that month.
• 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.
• If we reasonably think that any debit card payments have been made fraudulently, these amounts may be excluded from your debit spend calculation.

Earn a Monthly Reward by keeping £5,000 or more in your account
• In order to qualify for the Monthly Reward in any calendar month, you must keep a balance of £5,000 or more in your account every day.
• The Offer starts on the day you select it and lasts for a minimum of 12 full months. For example, if you select the Offer on 10th November 2020, it will end on 30th November 2021. If you keep a balance of £5,000 or more in your account from 10th - 30th November 2020, you will receive the Offer for that month.
• We will check your balance at the end of each day. That means if your balance falls below £5,000 during the day, you have until the end of that day to top it back up.

For the £5 for £5,000 offer If you choose to keep £5,000 or more in your account, the Monthly Reward will be paid 'net' after the deduction of income tax at the rate set by law (currently 20%). The gross value of the Monthly Reward before income tax is taken off is £6.25. If you're a higher rate taxpayer, you may have to pay extra income tax on the Monthly Reward. If we have deducted more tax than you have to pay you may be able to claim it back from HMRC.

ZeroSum

Deleted_User said:

Think I will keep my Halifax Reward on following strategy:-
Starting on 1st June 2020:-
(1) Transfer £1500 into the account at beginning of month. This will avoid the £3 monthly fee.
(2) Immediately transfer £1000 back out again.
(3) Log onto Post Office online savings and arrange to deposit £500 using Halifax Reward debit card.
(4) Once the £500 appears in Post Office savings account, move it out to nominated account.
(5) Receive £5 monthly reward into Halifax Reward account, beating current £2 reward.

There will be a few days while the £500 is "lost" and not earning interest, but should be well offset by the £5 reward.
Does anyone see a problem with this strategy?

Other than the PO not working as it should. Its a 1 in 10 chance that card payments actually work 

latinaid

Why are they deducting 20% from the reward for tax? I thought interest was paid gross now? 

crumpet_man

latinaid said:

Why are they deducting 20% from the reward for tax? I thought interest was paid gross now? 

Because it's not interest, it's a reward.

latinaid

crumpet_man said:

latinaid said:

Why are they deducting 20% from the reward for tax? I thought interest was paid gross now? 

Because it's not interest, it's a reward.

Yes. I think this would be something to change. It's frustrating that people have to reclaim the tax if they are non-tax payers. 

pinkdalek

Looks a croc of $hite to me, too many loopholes, whoopee 1 free cinema ticket - ok if you are billy no mates.

crumpet_man

I am going to choose £5 per month instead of a lifestyle reward.

[Deleted User]

pinkdalek said:

Looks a croc of $hite to me, too many loopholes, whoopee 1 free cinema ticket - ok if you are billy no mates.

Yes, this must be the most complex current account reward scheme so far. I wonder just what other complex schemes are being designed by the banks as we speak.

deadendwaterfall

I'm just going to let mine revert back to a regular current account. As soon as that happens, will Halifax automatically send me a new card that just says 'Current Account' on it or will I only get a new one after my current one expires or I request a new one? 

Chaykin

What about topping up Revolut account by debit card with those £500? You can then virtually instantly take it out of Revolut into your bank account.