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

Poor_Leno

latinaid said:

I'm currently getting 1.4% on my Marcus savings account.  That's about £70 for the year.  On current rates, it's very slightly better to leave £5000 in the Halifax account, especially as the Marcus rate is variable and (given the recent Bank of England cut), will probably be reduced soon.  Am I missing something? Can I just use the Halifax account as a savings account (paying in and withdrawing £1500 a month to avoid the fee).

Yes...as Zero Sum explained earlier, you can actually avoid the £3 monthly fee by simply spending £500 on your reward account debit card as well as funding your Halifax account with 1,500 a month.  So,  day 1 you whack 1,000 in to your halifax account.  day 2 you spend £500 with your halifax debit card into savings accounts that accept debit card payments (they've been listed by colsten above), day 3 you move the £500 back to Halifax.  Voila, you've met both criteria of 1,500 pay in and 500 debit card spend to get the £5 reward.  There is a however though, cos Halifax has thrown a rotten tomato in the works by commenting that certain transactions on the debit card will , or could be , excluded from the £500 spend requirement.  Payments to bank / societies could be among those.    But that's not definite.  I guess we won't know until its been tested.  If it doesn't work then having to leave 5k in the account to avoid the £3 fee would indeed make it worse than just leaving that money in a Marcus account.  That's unless you are attracted to the non-cash incentives.

Ed-1

If it doesn't work then having to leave 5k in the account to avoid the £3 fee would indeed make it worse than just leaving that money in a Marcus account.  That's unless you are attracted to the non-cash incentives.

You don't have to leave £5k in the account or make £500 worth of debit card payments to avoid the fee, rather just pay in £1,500.

I think all debit card payments to other financial institutions will work for the reward as they did for similar offers in the past (Halifax £50 switch + £85 for making at least one debit card purchase and paying in £1.5k for first 6 months after switch. And the TSB £5 for making 20 debit card purchases in a month).

ZeroSum

Poor_Leno said:

latinaid said:

I'm currently getting 1.4% on my Marcus savings account.  That's about £70 for the year.  On current rates, it's very slightly better to leave £5000 in the Halifax account, especially as the Marcus rate is variable and (given the recent Bank of England cut), will probably be reduced soon.  Am I missing something? Can I just use the Halifax account as a savings account (paying in and withdrawing £1500 a month to avoid the fee).

Yes...as Zero Sum explained earlier, you can actually avoid the £3 monthly fee by simply spending £500 on your reward account debit card as well as funding your Halifax account with 1,500 a month.  So,  day 1 you whack 1,000 in to your halifax account.  day 2 you spend £500 with your halifax debit card into savings accounts that accept debit card payments (they've been listed by colsten above), day 3 you move the £500 back to Halifax.  Voila, you've met both criteria of 1,500 pay in and 500 debit card spend to get the £5 reward.  There is a however though, cos Halifax has thrown a rotten tomato in the works by commenting that certain transactions on the debit card will , or could be , excluded from the £500 spend requirement.  Payments to bank / societies could be among those.    But that's not definite.  I guess we won't know until its been tested.  If it doesn't work then having to leave 5k in the account to avoid the £3 fee would indeed make it worse than just leaving that money in a Marcus account.  That's unless you are attracted to the non-cash incentives.

No no no
The £1500 deposit is only to avoid the fee.

The £500 spend or £5k balance is just for the cashback

So even if the £500 building society transfer doesn't work you won't be charged £3, you just won't get the £5

soulsaver

The £1500 monthly fee should be no problem for legacy multiple reward ac holders, as they have to circle/xfire now to get the reward, only now it's more£££. 
So for now I'll keep the accounts, just got to decide whether to debit card or deposit.. 

alandaniel132

What happened if I do not want to move to this account and remind in the current Reward current account, will I get £2 if I bank in £750 per month and 2 DD?

northwalesd

alandaniel132 said:

What happened if I do not want to move to this account and remind in the current Reward current account, will I get £2 if I bank in £750 per month and 2 DD?

I think it's quite clear that if your account remains as a Reward account, you only pay in £750, have 2DDs (those will be irrelevant under the new rewards scheme) AND don't spend £500/mo by debit card or keep a balance of £5000 in the account then not only do you not get a 'reward' (the £2 reward is going) but you will have to pay the £3/mo maintenance fee.

alandaniel132

Time to switch Halifax Reward account or close it.

hermante

If the £5 payment is paid net, then it could represent an interest rate of 1.5% depending on your circumstances.

The £5 payment also represents 1% cashback on £500 debit card spend. So I think I will choose this and try to pay off my credit cards with it, effectively giving me 1.5% cashback on £500 credit card spend.

(I know some people use Curve to pay off Amex, and also to pay off credit cards which were used to pay off other credit cards (or even the same credit card) using Curve, but this behaviour is questionable to me.)

If I have less than £1500 credit card spend in a month (wife's account and joint account) then we'll just forego the reward that month for some of the accounts. And if credit card payments don't work, then it doesn't matter. If there are spends where I don't need credit card protection I might genuinely use the debit card, since it's still 1% cashback as long as you are sure of spending £500.

Steve_xx

Poor_Leno said:

ZeroSum said:

Poor_Leno said:

Surely rather than all this merry go round of cash...i.e 1,500 pay in...£500 debit card transactions per month.....isn't it better to just keep your 5 grand in a Marcus account?  I mean, I've got 7 grand in mine at the moment and that earnt 8.52 last month.  3.52 more than it would earn having to do a load of leg work if I wanted to keep the Halifax reward account.  I don't see the point unless you've maxed out the 85,000 protection limit on the best paying instant access accounts, or like the sound of the non-cash incentives.

The point is you can do both.
Pay £1500 to Halifax. Then move £1000 to Marcus. Deposit £500 by debit card to PO or YBS. Then move £500 back to Halifax, then onto Marcus.
Then you pretty much get full interest (baring the 3 days on £500) and the £5.

Yes, I stand corrected.  I just re-read the message and its either spend £500 on the debit card  OR maintain a 5,000 balance along with 1,500 pay in.  I thought you needed to meet all three of those criteria.  Ok, this isn't bad then.  Since I can make debit card payments to my NS&I savings account Direct Saver account, I guess that would take care of that.  I think Birmingham midshires allows the same, will need to check.  I think NS&I deposits can't be withdrawn until 30 days after the date they are paid in.

I do wonder about this part on the offer terms of the debit card spend :
 " payments that are disputed will not count towards the £500 ".

I wonder if payments as such into other banks / building society accounts will then be part of the exemption / disputed spend.  I'd expect it to be quite likely so.

hmmm.  Its tough cos once you opt in, you're stuck in for at least 12 months, so if the debit card spend to savings does not count (or credit card payment with debit card), would be kinda stuck with either having to leave 5k in the account to avoid paying the fee or just paying it. 

You mentioned that you you may be able to use a debit card to get monies into a Birmingham Midhires account. I have several BM accounts but they didn't come with debit cards. 

colsten

hermante said:

(I know some people use Curve to pay off Amex, and also to pay off credit cards which were used to pay off other credit cards (or even the same credit card) using Curve, but this behaviour is questionable to me.)

Questionable behaviour? What do you mean by that?