"We're making some changes to our T&C's " says Halifax!

masonic

ranciduk said:

Surely this is just legal mumbo jumbo to cover themselves?

what if you were in the middle of a five year cash isa?! and they decide to restrict you?

They'd probably take the same approach that they did when the FSCS compensation limit was last reduced - allow people to partially transfer out without penalty to get under the limit. In any case, it is unlikely a maximum balance would be imposed that is below the current FSCS limit. In Germany, the limit was 100,000 EUR, above which a charge was levied.

It was February 2021 when the BoE told banks to prepare for negative interest rates within 6 months. A lot has changed since then, and it seems pretty unlikely rates will plummet into negative territory in the short term.

Voyager2002

S_uk said:

One thing I noticed when I scanned through the letter was something about having the right to close your account if you use abusive words in payment descriptions. Quite sad/concerning that some people would engage in that sort of behaviour.

Not sad at all. When the water industry was privatised I used to pay my bills using cheques made payable to "Thames Water Thieves".

S_uk

Voyager2002 said:

S_uk said:

One thing I noticed when I scanned through the letter was something about having the right to close your account if you use abusive words in payment descriptions. Quite sad/concerning that some people would engage in that sort of behaviour.

Not sad at all. When the water industry was privatised I used to pay my bills using cheques made payable to "Thames Water Thieves".

I suspect that the sort of word that they deem as abusive can be a lot worse than the word 'thieves' e.g. racist abuse would be within this group of abusive terminology. And if some people are using online payment descriptions as a way of targeting and harassing an individual, then yes I think that is sad/concerning.

[Deleted User]

S_uk said:

One thing I noticed when I scanned through the letter was something about having the right to close your account if you use abusive words in payment descriptions. Quite sad/concerning that some people would engage in that sort of behaviour.

They could already close your account for zero reason with notice and with reason with zero notice. Many of these T&Cs updates are simply to clarify existing practices or tidy up wording.

ranciduk

I wish they would announce some increases in their appalling interest rates rather than faffing around with t&c’s !

S_uk

Deleted_User said:

S_uk said:

One thing I noticed when I scanned through the letter was something about having the right to close your account if you use abusive words in payment descriptions. Quite sad/concerning that some people would engage in that sort of behaviour.

They could already close your account for zero reason with notice and with reason with zero notice. Many of these T&Cs updates are simply to clarify existing practices or tidy up wording.

But it's good in theory if they are upfront and clear if it puts some people off carrying out such practises in the first place, although given it's not prominent it probably won't.

BRichard

I just noticed in the T&Cs that it says they can close accounts if they suspect it's being used for business purposes. I have my mystery shopping fees paid in there but they are only small amounts <3k per year, so I assumed it would not be a problem, but now I am not so sure. There must be a lot of people doing that sort of thing because business accounts don't seem worthwhile for these small amounts.

masonic

BRichard said:

I just noticed in the T&Cs that it says they can close accounts if they suspect it's being used for business purposes. I have my mystery shopping fees paid in there but they are only small amounts <3k per year, so I assumed it would not be a problem, but now I am not so sure. There must be a lot of people doing that sort of thing because business accounts don't seem worthwhile for these small amounts.

Business purposes would be where you are running a business, not getting paid incentives for work done for someone else's business. Most of us have jobs and get wages and sometimes expenses paid into our personal accounts.

penners324

It would be used to stop a run on the bank...

callum9999

penners324 said:

It would be used to stop a run on the bank...

A run on the bank involves people withdrawing large sums of money. Giving them the power to restrict how much you're putting in wouldn't stop that at all.

This will be to prepare for a possible negative interest rate in the future - as other countries have done in the recent past. They'd be charged for keeping cash deposits so they may want to restrict how much of your money they're paying that interest on.