Halifax Scrapping £5/Cinema ticket Rewards.

goatfaced

Yes Lloyds gives 1.5% I believe ? I get pennies, but not this month because one of two direct debits has ended. My teenager really appreciates the club Lloyds cinema vouchers so Lloyds is good for us. 

OrangeBlueGreen

masonic said:

They're doing the best they can to put spin on it, but they've essentially ended the scheme. New things they mention are pretty much becoming the standard for current accounts anyway.

Yes, there's nothing "rewards" about this new offering. Just a bog standard account that resembles everything else on the market with low interest rates for savings (with a £3 fee if you forget to downgrade).

I just wonder when is the best time to downgrade? Is it on the day the current offers expire? (November for me) or do it the day after? I don't want to do myself out of £15 for downgrading too quickly but also don't want to incur £12 fees for not downgrading quickly enough. Mind you, just re-read things and if I keep paying the £1500/month there wont be any fees so probably best to wait til after the offer expires.

PRAISETHESUN

OrangeBlueGreen said:

masonic said:

They're doing the best they can to put spin on it, but they've essentially ended the scheme. New things they mention are pretty much becoming the standard for current accounts anyway.

Yes, there's nothing "rewards" about this new offering. Just a bog standard account that resembles everything else on the market with low interest rates for savings (with a £3 fee if you forget to downgrade).

I just wonder when is the best time to downgrade? Is it on the day the current offers expire? (November for me) or do it the day after? I don't want to do myself out of £15 for downgrading too quickly but also don't want to incur £12 fees for not downgrading quickly enough. Mind you, just re-read things and if I keep paying the £1500/month there wont be any fees so probably best to wait til after the offer expires.

As you say if you keep paying in the required £1500/month to avoid the fee then it shouldn't really matter when you downgrade as the fee won't be charged, you just need to make sure you keep your reward account open long enough after your final qualifying month to ensue the reward is actually paid. Can downgrade after that.

danny13579

So let me get this straight. If opening or renewing a Reward Current Account from today, they still expect me to funnel £1,500 and “spend” £500 on the debit card per month otherwise I get hit for the £3 fee.

In return I get:

From today until 7th July. Sweet F.A. Nada. 

From 7th July until 1st October: No more debit card fees on foreign currencies. 

From 1st October: As above + a paltry 1.5% on balances up to £3,999, and 3% on balances between £4,000 and £5,000.

Excuse me while I crack open the Champagne in celebration and try to quell my excitement! 🙄

I mean, what an absolute rubbish offering. You know when they’re not even offering Disney+ with ads that things are bad! There is no amount of spin that can save this train wreck. They’d have been better off scrapping it altogether, rather than offering this turd, which is what they’ve effectively done. 

Plan of action I think is to downgrade each Reward Current Account to Current Account as soon as I receive the final £5 for each one. Keep one current account open so I can still avail of cashback extras (they very occasionally have a good offer such as this month for 7% off at B&M) and keep the other 2 as burner accounts.

The only positive out of this is that when the rewards for my 3 accounts expire, I rarely have to use that ghastly Halifax app again.

Hattie627

danny13579 said:

So let me get this straight. If opening or renewing a Reward Current Account from today, they still expect me to funnel £1,500 and “spend” £500 on the debit card per month otherwise I get hit for the £3 fee.

In return I get:

From today until 7th July. Sweet F.A. Nada. 

From 7th July until 1st October: No more debit card fees on foreign currencies. 

From 1st October: As above + a paltry 1.5% on balances up to £3,999, and 3% on balances between £4,000 and £5,000.

Excuse me while I crack open the Champagne in celebration and try to quell my excitement! 🙄

I mean, what an absolute rubbish offering. You know when they’re not even offering Disney+ with ads that things are bad! There is no amount of spin that can save this train wreck. They’d have been better off scrapping it altogether, rather than offering this turd, which is what they’ve effectively done. 

Plan of action I think is to downgrade each Reward Current Account to Current Account as soon as I receive the final £5 for each one. Keep one current account open so I can still avail of cashback extras (they very occasionally have a good offer such as this month for 7% off at B&M) and keep the other 2 as burner accounts.

The only positive out of this is that when the rewards for my 3 accounts expire, I rarely have to use that ghastly Halifax app again.

Not disagreeing with you at all, but just pointing out that the £500 debit card spend is not a requirement to avoid the monthly £3 fee. It is/was one of the ways of earning the £5 reward.

danny13579

Hattie627 said:

Not disagreeing with you at all, but just pointing out that the £500 debit card spend is not a requirement to avoid the monthly £3 fee. It is/was one of the ways of earning the £5 reward.

Thanks. I've only had a quick look through it so I may have missed some things. 👍

pfpf

i'll probably keep the accounts open and rotate the £1500 for a few months in case "rewards" actually re-appear

Hattie627

pfpf said:

i'll probably keep the accounts open and rotate the £1500 for a few months in case "rewards" actually re-appear

My bet is that existing rewards will continue until their individual expiry dates. 

friolento

pfpf said:

i'll probably keep the accounts open and rotate the £1500 for a few months in case "rewards" actually re-appear

I’ll do the same, not least because I need to keep some Halifax accounts for Yougov. Cycling £1,500 through all of them once a month takes but a minute or two, unless they tighten up the rules for the funding

pfpf

Hattie627 said:

pfpf said:

i'll probably keep the accounts open and rotate the £1500 for a few months in case "rewards" actually re-appear

My bet is that existing rewards will continue until their individual expiry dates. 

yes, i agree. i did mean beyond the expiry date. thanks.