Possible £100 Halifax switch offer starting 4/8/20

Isaac_:)

Isaac_:) said:

I've made a bit of a mess of this. I'm temporarily staying with my mum and dad due to the whole Covid thing. Thought it would be best to open a Reward account with my permanent address, in case it flagged up that I don't have a record of living at my parents' address and asked me to send proof of address for here (which I don't have). Opened the account yesterday and requested to switch from my Starling account. This morning I got a text from Halifax saying that the switch couldn't be progressed - called them and realised I'd forgotten that I'd previously updated my address on the Starling app to my parents' so that any post would reach me in the short term. The addresses didn't match, which is why the switch failed.

So I then opened another Reward account with my parents' address (which should match Starling's records) and requested the switch again - to my surprise the account opened successfully. Hoping I'll still receive the bonus as the other switch failing meant I won't have received one already. After opening the second account I also received an error message saying they weren't able to send me a debit card - not sure if this is related but should be something I can sort out once I (hopefully) receive the bonus.

This also means I'm in the situation where I have two sole Reward accounts - planning to downgrade one to a standard account after I've (again, hopefully) had the bonus come through.

All this for the sake of 100 measly quid. Need to get a life.

Got the bonus just now - applied on the 5th, switch due to complete tomorrow.

Herbalus

Yorkshire_Pud said:

colsten said:

crumpet_man said:

veryintrigued said:

Can anyone, who has successfully switched to an Ultimate Reward AND then subsequently received the £100, tell me which type of Bank Accounts they have the option to downgrade to online please.

TIA

Current Account (no rewards or interest etc, just a basic/everyday type account)  This is the one I went for.
Student Account (I didn't check the details as I assumed I would not be eligibile)

Same options for me but I am not sure the downgrade worked as there was a message that 'something went wrong', and the account still shows as an Ultimate Reward. I had an email saying the 'Welcome to your new Halifax Current Account". All very confusing. I am now going to switch the account out so I can be sure I won't get charged (at least not the full £17).

UPDATE: the account name has now changed to Current Account. It seems you have to log out and in again to see the change.

When I read the UR t&c welcome pdf  page 53 it said the £17 is charged monthly in arrears on the second working day of the month, so in September, but if the account is changed before then then no charge will be made at all (my interpretation check yourself!)
Also said term 5 If you want to cancel, that you have to cancel the account in writing but maybe that’s just one option. I’m just wary that they are setting up the insurances and they don’t just get cancelled with each provider but they probably do by Halifax.

There is also a 14 day cooling off period. My interpretation is that the situation of account closing mid-month is in the usual scenario where the account has been running for some time, and then the charge is made for the amount of days in the month that the account was open for.

closing or downgrading within the 14 day period should mean there is no charge, but I’ll leave £20 in there just in case.

The terms probably weren’t written with the idea that people would downgrade them 8 days after opening.

colsten

youngretired said:

Has anyone opened a second reward account who already held 1 and received the £100?

Yes. I opened an Ultimate Reward.

youngretired said:

 I was originally told that I can have 3 accounts, but when I stated the T&C's state only 1 joint and 1 sole reward, I was advised that it could take from a week to months before it's picked up and so to make it a joint when we get back.

I am not sure why you went for the joint account route, as this was bound to create additional hurdles for yourself. Also, why are you arguing with them when they say you can have 3 accounts?

youngretired said:

I know that I can't activate the Reward Extra until it is a joint as I already have this on my existing account

How do you know you cannot activate Reward Extras? Did you actually try it? You'd be the first known person who couldn't do this.

youngretired said:

...... how quickly Halifax close second accounts?

You'll find out if you are patient enough. 

Doc_N

For anyone with existing 'old style' Reward accounts, it seems logical to simply upgrade them online to the new Reward accounts - then claim the £100 later when transferring another non-Halifax account across.  That way you don't hit the maximum account limit.

Anyone actually done this successfully, and received the £100?

Herbalus

What is an old style reward account? I thought there is just one type of reward account, so you can’t upgrade from old to new?

colsten

Doc_N said:

For anyone with existing 'old style' Reward accounts, it seems logical to simply upgrade them online to the new Reward accounts - then claim the £100 later when transferring another non-Halifax account across.  That way you don't hit the maximum account limit.

Anyone actually done this successfully, and received the £100?

Even if there was (which there isn't) such a thing as an 'old style' Reward account that you could upgrade, it wouldn't qualify for the switch bonus. The T&Cs are more than clear that only new accounts qualify.

youngretired

colsten said:

youngretired said:

Has anyone opened a second reward account who already held 1 and received the £100?

Yes. I opened an Ultimate Reward.

youngretired said:

 I was originally told that I can have 3 accounts, but when I stated the T&C's state only 1 joint and 1 sole reward, I was advised that it could take from a week to months before it's picked up and so to make it a joint when we get back.

I am not sure why you went for the joint account route, as this was bound to create additional hurdles for yourself. Also, why are you arguing with them when they say you can have 3 accounts?

youngretired said:

I know that I can't activate the Reward Extra until it is a joint as I already have this on my existing account

How do you know you cannot activate Reward Extras? Did you actually try it? You'd be the first known person who couldn't do this.

youngretired said:

...... how quickly Halifax close second accounts?

You'll find out if you are patient enough. 

I went for the joint account as I didn't want to tempt going against their T&C's, as we both hold a joint Lloyd's and BoS account which are our main accounts, so we can't risk them closing these (these joints were both opened years ago online, no problems). Also in theory opening a joint should have been straight forward, but the misinformation I was told was I had to make an appointment to show the ID to get the telephone appointment by numerous staff and then obviously wasn't told about the cards by anyone that I spoke to via live chat, facebook, customer service or branch.

The reason I thought I couldn't activate the Rewards Extra is from the other forum when Halifax 1st announced the £3 fee, I thought people had said they had had issues applying it to more then 1 account.

oli356

My switch date is tomorrow and the £100 has gone in today  

Yorkshire_Pud

oli356 said:

My switch date is tomorrow and the £100 has gone in today  

Me too! After all my self induced drama after reading this thread!

[Deleted User]

Me too! After all my self induced drama after reading this thread!

So have you downgraded yet ? 😁