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

portenio

ZeroSum said:

portenio said:

masonic said:

portenio said:

masonic said:

portenio said:

masonic said:

where_are_we said:

LittleVoice said:

where_are_we said:

Will opening a second sole Halifax Reward Current Account and setting up Reward Extras for that account succeed?

"You can only choose one Reward Extra Offer per account, even if the account is in joint names."

The above T&C`s seem to indicate it would be OK because you are choosing one Reward Extra Offer for one account and then choosing a second Reward Extra Offer for another different account.

No, it doesn't mean that.
One sole account, one joint account.
The joint account obviously has two named people on it but only one reward extra offer is available - you can't choose, for example, £5 and cinema tickets for the joint account but only the £5 or cinema tickets.

I realise you can only have one Reward Extra Offer for one joint account and I assume a couple can have one sole account each and one joint account totalling three Reward Extras. However new joint account applications require a branch visit which we want to avoid. The T&C`s imply one Reward Extra per account. Therefore having two sole accounts means you can have one Reward Extra for each account. Am I correct?

The T&Cs do not just "imply" one Reward Extra per account. They explicitly state it. You cannot obtain more than one reward from a single account.

where_are_we said:

Therefore

No, not therefore.

where_are_we said:

having two sole accounts means you can have one Reward Extra for each account. Am I correct?

That is correct, if a limit was not put on the number of account you can hold, then you could in theory open any number of accounts and have one reward from each of them. You cannot open a second sole account.

OK. So the conclusions to these comments would be:

- People who have legacy sole Reward accounts will get 1 reward extra per account regardless of the number of accounts (as in the past multiple sole accounts were possible.

- People who attempt to open more sole accounts from 1st June won't succeed.

This is how I interpreted these tricky T&C's all along.
Is it your reasoning too?

I'm not expressing an opinion about whether those who have legitimately opened multiple accounts under previous T&Cs will continue to receive Reward Extras on the excess accounts they have registered for the new scheme. Halifax has previously had opportunities to downgrade these excess accounts and not done so. They could be safe for some time to come. My interpretation of the T&Cs is that Halifax could, subject to 2 months notice, downgrade those excess accounts, making them ineligible for the reward scheme.

Those who already hold a sole account and attempt to open a second one will likely befall the same fate as those who tried to open a second sole legacy Reward account after the limit was reduced several years ago.

I believe it's a reasonable interpretation.

My impression is that Halifax are not that harsh when it comes to enforcing some of their T&C's.

We have seen posters here referring that they were able to open Reward accounts over the limit set at the time when they did it (I even remember one person saying they had 6 Reward accounts!). I myself was able to open account number 3 in the transition period between the 2 schemes recently.

Having said that, I believe they will be keeping a keen eye that customers don't exceed the limit this time around. Otherwise they could be facing massive costs in cash payments, cinema tickets, movie rentals and so on. And the whole scheme could become unsustainable for them.

Originally it was permitted to open 3 x Halifax Reward accounts and 3 x BOS Reward accounts within the T&C. I recall some doing exactly that. I seem to recall someone was able to open a 4th Halifax Reward account by combining online and branch applications and got away with it, but that was obviously outside of the T&C.

Your experience with account number 3 does not surprise me if you have been a holder of Halifax Reward account(s) from when the original T&C were in force. I found a couple of years ago that I was able to close an account and then open another one in its place some time later.

If you look at the original cost of the reward, £6.25 per month including basic rate tax deducted at source, the cost per account is broadly the same now as it was then. You could argue these are tougher times for the bank, and that could incentivise them to finally close this long-term loophole.

Yes, they are bringing the cash reward to same level it was before the 2 successive cuts in recent years. I became a customer beginning of 2012, not sure if the original T&C's were in force as you put it. But for now I have 3 Reward accounts, yes.
My view of all this is that many have downgraded or left Halifax altogether with the new scheme. I have been taking part on a read-only mode in some other forums where people were rushing to leave, waving goodbye to Halifax and wishing them all sorts of disgraces, some after being customers for 30 years. I suspect that has been the norm across the board quite frankly. So Halifax won't have to pay rewards to them anymore. Even if some keep multiple accounts, I do believe they will be a small fraction of total customers who stayed. Therefore Halifax won't be necessarily worse off. (the non cash rewards they should get them easily after deals with big chains).
Mind you, I haven't seen on those other forums any of painstaking and patient analysis to weigh up pros and cons of every sentence in the T&C's, as it's done here. Instead, emotional decisions, frustration and anger. Halifax have not done it easy for anyone with the new scheme but those who are patient will reap the benefits eventually.

so don't know why folk are whinging & leaving

This is what I found on that forum:

People were trying to meet the criteria for the cash reward by using DC on shopping and physical purchases exclusively, or by saving £1500. Both of them were impossible to achieve for most. They hadn't realised that other options for the DC spend were available like savings, investments, apps and payment processors etc. In the many posts I read through the plans were: switch out asap to another provider, let account downgrade in wait for a good switching bonus to come along, close the account and leave the Halifax. Some even said to feel betrayed by Halifax after a loyalty of 30 years as customers, in the sense that the bank have changed the criteria to something impossible to meet.
This is where I say that the collective knowledge amassed here since 12 March has been so productive, along with the very careful analysis of the T&C's. This has allowed impulsive and emotional decisions to stay out of the picture. Personally I am really glad to have found this thread.

TOP_CAT

What forum ...is it facebook ?

portenio

TOP_CAT said:

What forum ...is it facebook ?

Spot on.
You got it

polymaff

portenio said:

This is where I say that the collective knowledge amassed here since 12 March has been so productive, along with the very careful analysis of the T&C's. This has allowed impulsive and emotional decisions to stay out of the picture. Personally I am really glad to have found this thread.

There has been foolish behaviour by MSEers in the past, e.g. Tesco £1 DDs, but long live facebook if it keeps MSE relatively select.

colsten

polymaff said:

There has been foolish behaviour by MSEers in the past, e.g. Tesco £1 DDs, but long live facebook if it keeps MSE relatively select.

Except that if anyone is trying to educate Facebook, it could all end in tears for everyone.

Mosler

Where the Halifax states:

"What kind of spending counts towards the offer?
There are a few payments which don’t count for Reward Extras offers:

When you take cash out of a cash machine, branch or Post Office counter.
When you make a money transfer to another account."

Is making a payment using a debit card to transfer to another account, a type of money transfer?

soulsaver

Mosler said:

Where the Halifax states:

When you make a money transfer to another account."

Is making a payment using a debit card to transfer to another account, a type of money transfer?

Can you think of an example when it's not?

bristolleedsfan

Mosler said:

Is making a payment using a debit card to transfer to another account, a type of money transfer?

https://www.mbna.co.uk/understanding-credit/understanding-transfers/money-transfers.html

It has been ascertained that making a debit card payment to savings accounts elsewhere qualifies for monthly reward.

Mosler

soulsaver said:

Mosler said:

Where the Halifax states:

When you make a money transfer to another account."

Is making a payment using a debit card to transfer to another account, a type of money transfer?

Can you think of an example when it's not?

I wasn't sure, that's why I asked for clarification.

Mosler

bristolleedsfan said:

Mosler said:

Is making a payment using a debit card to transfer to another account, a type of money transfer?

https://www.mbna.co.uk/understanding-credit/understanding-transfers/money-transfers.html

It has been ascertained that making a debit card payment to savings accounts elsewhere qualifies for monthly reward.

Have you received the reward after using this method?