New Halifax Reward account. Has anyone figured out a way around £500 spending?

ForumUser7

MACKEM99 said:

Thanks very much.  Over the phone they have just tried to tell me the reason why one of my rewards has not updated despite me going through the process is because they say I cant have 3!

So we went through the "yes I can",  "no you cant" routine.

Complaint Route next.

No worries - it is concerning when banks don't know their own terms.

I think I remember reading on here about someone having difficulty upgrading the accounts to reward when they already held one, but I cannot remember which thread or when, or if they found out why it occurred.

I upgraded my expresscash to rewards, and then opened 2 new rewards slightly spread out. This worked fine for me.

MACKEM99

This is the 3rd year of 3 that I have had problems with one of my reward accounts.

jinkssick

Annoying. I've been using Revolut in exactly this way for 6 months, got held in month 1 but released after an exchange by chat. 

What did Revolut's whip-cracking consist of? Did they bounce the payment or issue an email warning? Something else?

Hi it consisted of a message when I opened the app stating that too much is going through and abusing rules etc. Account still active. To be fair I run some other £ through it "similar to this Halifax" so I believe if its solely £500 a month with Halifax then youd be fine. 

Currently using wifes Revolut. Just trying to have systems in place when she also is cautioned.

PloughmansLunch

ForumUser7 said:

MACKEM99 said:

Thanks very much.  Over the phone they have just tried to tell me the reason why one of my rewards has not updated despite me going through the process is because they say I cant have 3!

So we went through the "yes I can",  "no you cant" routine.

Complaint Route next.

No worries - it is concerning when banks don't know their own terms.

I think I remember reading on here about someone having difficulty upgrading the accounts to reward when they already held one, but I cannot remember which thread or when, or if they found out why it occurred.

I upgraded my expresscash to rewards, and then opened 2 new rewards slightly spread out. This worked fine for me.

Possibly me - I opened one in Jan and was declined opening any further accounts for some time after, and the advice given here was to leave it for a while. I can’t remember who said this but they were spot on, as I’ve just tried again now and have been approved. I’ll wait another couple of months to open a third and have a full house. 

SwiftSuzie

I'm pretty new to the forum and happened on this thread. I don’t know whether to be astonished or in awe of how hard core people are here. I've read every page waiting for someone to say: What? All this rigmarole to slide a fiver a month around the edge of the rules? But nobody has. Even if it's 2 or 3 fivers on different accounts. Fascinating. Is it the money or the satisfaction of getting one over on the system, I wonder? Clearly I have a long way to go on the matter of thrift.

MACKEM99

I am retired so it's a bit of a hobby.  Collect the money up and use it for something, it could be a pass to airport lounge, a night in hotel near airport before holiday or such like.

😁

Band7

SwiftSuzie said:

I'm pretty new to the forum and happened on this thread. I don’t know whether to be astonished or in awe of how hard core people are here. I've read every page waiting for someone to say: What? All this rigmarole to slide a fiver a month around the edge of the rules? But nobody has. Even if it's 2 or 3 fivers on different accounts. Fascinating. Is it the money or the satisfaction of getting one over on the system, I wonder? Clearly I have a long way to go on the matter of thrift.

It's £60 a year per account. £180 if you have the officially permitted three. It's not "getting one over on the system", just legitimate use of the account(s).

It's not compulsory, so if you don't like it for some reason, you just don't do it.

crumpet_man

SwiftSuzie said:

I'm pretty new to the forum and happened on this thread. I don’t know whether to be astonished or in awe of how hard core people are here. I've read every page waiting for someone to say: What? All this rigmarole to slide a fiver a month around the edge of the rules? But nobody has. Even if it's 2 or 3 fivers on different accounts. Fascinating. Is it the money or the satisfaction of getting one over on the system, I wonder? Clearly I have a long way to go on the matter of thrift.

It's easy money.

Three accounts for me, three for the wife, takes maybe ten minutes to bounce £1500 through all the accounts  and make six £500 payments to a savings account to earn us £30 each month.  

Nebulous2

SwiftSuzie said:

I'm pretty new to the forum and happened on this thread. I don’t know whether to be astonished or in awe of how hard core people are here. I've read every page waiting for someone to say: What? All this rigmarole to slide a fiver a month around the edge of the rules? But nobody has. Even if it's 2 or 3 fivers on different accounts. Fascinating. Is it the money or the satisfaction of getting one over on the system, I wonder? Clearly I have a long way to go on the matter of thrift.

You need to dig deeper if you are new to the forum, if your astonishment meter can cope. A fiver is big money compared with some of the challenges people set themselves. If you look at the savings forum, you'll see the lengths people will go to for several pence or fractions of a pence of interest. I think it's part hobby, part competitive, part compulsion to make every penny count, in differing proportions for different people. 

I'm new to Halifax rewards, I got £175 for switching and have just had my first fiver, which makes it well worth doing for me. I generally spend over £500 a month on my credit card. I've a minimum payment direct debit set up as a fall-back, but I pay it in full with a debit card and the DD isn't taken. I'll use Halifax for that now. Pay money in, log in to my credit card, select Halifax debit card as my payment method and its an easy fiver. 

TheBanker

I think everyone has their own tolerance for what's worth doing. If someone thinks it's worth having dozens of accounts and shuffling money back and forth to maximise their reward and interest, then who am I to argue?