Halifax introduce £100 interest free overdraft

pecunianonolet

Hi,

Just received notifications for all of my 3 Reward accounts that from 14th of April Halifax will introduce a £100 interest free overdraft for anyone who as an arranged overdraft agreed. 

Keep in mind that for getting the £5 rewards, one criteria is to stay in credit for the whole month, so stoozing is only an option if you not get the £5 each month.

Club Lloyds already has a similar feature in place but only for £50 interest free overdraft. The LBG may align this internally and the amount for Lloyds may increase in the future. 

Nationwide does the same £50 interest free for an arranged overdraft.

Great for those needing some extra flexibility and also for those using it for a little extra stoozing.

Hattie627

Thanks for posting this info.

I just got the emails saying that changes are afoot on the Halifax Reward account and to check messages in online banking for details. Immediate thought was that the £5 reward was being withdrawn, or made more difficult to achieve. Pleased to see that the change is actually of potential benefit to some.

sheffieldeagle

Probably a stupid question but do they do a hard search for the minimum overdraft. I did apply for my first account but never bothered with the other two.

Cheers

Ballard

Banks do try to look benevolent with these interest free overdrafts but even ignoring the loss of the £5 for not staying in credit, it’s not really a stoozing opportunity. You’d realistically only earn around 40p for the month. 

pecunianonolet

sheffieldeagle said:

Probably a stupid question but do they do a hard search for the minimum overdraft. I did apply for my first account but never bothered with the other two.

Cheers

Most only do a soft search, some do a hard search and they will tell you beforehand how they assess it. 

Ballard said:

Banks do try to look benevolent with these interest free overdrafts but even ignoring the loss of the £5 for not staying in credit, it’s not really a stoozing opportunity. You’d realistically only earn around 40p for the month. 

Correct, unless they change the criteria the overdraft benefit through stoozing, in a rate falling environment, is not worth it the slightest compared to the tax free reward payment. 

However, I only received this for my reward accounts, I do not know if this is applied in a wider context also to those with a non rewards account. You would think that if this would be a rewards account specific "benefit" it would be more of a marketing ploy because why would you have a rewards account with a potential monthly fee, if you not benefit from any of the rewards features. A standard current account would be much more suitable in that case for somebody struggling and having to make actual use of this interest free overdraft feature. 

WillPS

Did anyone else see the 'There are upcoming changes to your account' for all their Reward accounts and fear something a bit worse than this?

Bridlington1

sheffieldeagle said:

Probably a stupid question but do they do a hard search for the minimum overdraft. I did apply for my first account but never bothered with the other two.

Cheers

Halifax to my knowledge don't do hard searches for overdrafts and never did when I got an overdraft with them a few years back.

They only do a hard search for the first account you open with them, every additional account you open does not result in a hard search. The same is true for Lloyds and Bank of Scotland.

TwiceNightly

WillPS said:

Did anyone else see the 'There are upcoming changes to your account' for all their Reward accounts and fear something a bit worse than this?

Lloyds sent this message for their Club accounts, which are going up from £3 per month to £5 per month

pochisoldi

I used to have a £100 interest free overdraft with NatWest.
The account was (for me) dormant, but I had a e-savings account.
The £100 got transferred to the e-savings account and earned me about one beer a year in interest.
The main utility was that it allowed me to leave the debit card spent in my locked desk drawer at work. If I ever left my wallet at home (home was 90+ mins drive away), I logged in online, and transferred the money back, and I had £100 to play with.