Halifax Reward changes from November 1 2022 2 August 2022 at 11:20AM in Budgeting & bank accounts 79 replies 8.5K views

Alex9384

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Does anyone know if Halifax do hard searches for additional accounts? 

Would not effect me, but info may be of use to others. 

No, they don't. Not even for credit cards or anything else.
Once you have one account with them, no more hard searches. This is what I really like about Halifax/Lloyds.

WillPS

Alex9384 said:

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Does anyone know if Halifax do hard searches for additional accounts? 

Would not effect me, but info may be of use to others. 

No, they don't. Not even for credit cards or anything else.
Once you have one account with them, no more hard searches. This is what I really like about Halifax/Lloyds.

Interesting that there's no credit check for Credit Cards....!

swanfan02

Alex9384 said:

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Does anyone know if Halifax do hard searches for additional accounts? 

Would not effect me, but info may be of use to others. 

No, they don't. Not even for credit cards or anything else.
Once you have one account with them, no more hard searches. This is what I really like about Halifax/Lloyds.

I applied for a Halifax credit card 4 months ago(already had a reward account), & no credit check. I applied for a 2nd Lloyds current account & as with Halifax, no credit check on the 2nd account. IIRC there was no credit check when I applied for a 2nd account at the Bank of Scotland. I’ve just applied & been accepted for a 2nd Halifax reward account, so I would guess no credit check for that.

wiseonesomeofthetime

Just added a second Reward Current Account. Smooth process. No credit check. Easily funded and new payee created to return fund. £5 Rewards set up.

Just need debit card now to perform the required £500 debit card transaction (a la account 1)

Already have their Halifax Clarity credit card.

Thanks all.

cheerfulcat

Spotted this in the changes document - 

“Restricting the amount you can have in your account

We’ve added a new condition that says if it’s necessary, due to economic circumstances that affect the banking industry, we may restrict the amount you can have in your accounts either by applying a limit or by imposing a charge. If we have to do this and it applies to your account, we’ll write to you with more information.”

Anyone else find this a little worrying?

Daliah

cheerfulcat said:

Spotted this in the changes document - 

“Restricting the amount you can have in your account

We’ve added a new condition that says if it’s necessary, due to economic circumstances that affect the banking industry, we may restrict the amount you can have in your accounts either by applying a limit or by imposing a charge. If we have to do this and it applies to your account, we’ll write to you with more information.”

Anyone else find this a little worrying?

Doesn't worry me, as there are plenty of banks and building societies - - - all of whom have had accounts with varying limits, mostly way above the FSCS limit, for a long time. Plus, Halifax don't have attractive enough interest rates for me to keep any money with them, anyway. 

phillw

jbrassy said:

What's the benefit of having the Halifax Reward account these days? You get £5 a month for keeping £5000 in the account or spend £500 a month. You can get higher interest on £5k in a Chase account and get 1% on all spending (irrespective of whether it is above or below £500). 

The £5000 option hasn't made sense for a while. Chase is only 1% on debit card payments for the first year, while halifax is £5 per account ongoing & you can of course do both if you want.

WillPS

jbrassy said:

What's the benefit of having the Halifax Reward account these days? You get £5 a month for keeping £5000 in the account or spend £500 a month. You can get higher interest on £5k in a Chase account and get 1% on all spending (irrespective of whether it is above or below £500). 

Not true, the Chase 1% offer is limited to 1 year and has a list of exclusions as long as your arm. By contrast the Halifax account genuinely pays £5 for spending £500 on their Visa debit card regardless of where you use it.

soulsaver

AFAICS you can only get 5 Reward Extras between 2 peeps Is that right - 2 each plus a joint?

k_man

soulsaver said:

AFAICS you can only get 5 Reward Extras between 2 peeps Is that right - 2 each plus a joint?

An individual can have 3 x Reward accounts (so 3 x Reward Extras), so it would be at least 6. Not sure if you can also have an additional shared/joint one.