Halifax kids Regular Saver fiasco

NJD_3

I used the SAVE4IT account that my daughter has had for a couple of years.There should have been no reason to open a new one, sounds like the staff at Halifax don't really understand their own products or they are trying a fast one.
I will certainly be checking online and through the local branch that payments are going in as they should. Really disappointed that something so easy should be such a hassle. Personally I have had trouble with the Halifax over the years and have moved all business away from them apart form the SAVE4IT which seems to be good value. I would certainly think twice before using them again FOR ANYTHING!!!

Baby_A

The shocking thing is that its every Halifax! I could probably come to terms if it is just my branch thinking lack of training or bad management at the branch, but if its nationwide its obviously not been thought through as a whole.

Makes me think how many other people have experienced the same problem but not read or posted on here!

Well I am looking to applying for a mortgage at some point soon and will be steering clear of Halifax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

deedums

I posted on the 13th August to say I had just opened an account for my son. The letter asking me to take identification in arrived on Friday so we went straight to our local branch with his birth certificate & £10 to activiate the save4it account. Cashier was lovely, she explained she couldn't issue the passbook then because their system for adding security information was down so book will have to be posted to us. Still keeping fingers crossed that everything will be ok and won't pay anything into rsa until it is available to view online!

bootman

I have tried to open one for my son. First of all the lady said the the new 10% account was a waste of time don't bother. So I said OK just open the save4it account then. My son's surname is a double barreled name both mine and partners.
She said new ruling from August that cannot open as my son has a different name to me. Provided her with passport and birth certificate for my son. Would not open either as a re account of just in his name!!!

deedums

bootman wrote:

I have tried to open one for my son. First of all the lady said the the new 10% account was a waste of time don't bother.

Did she say why it was a waste of time?

jo_b_2

bootman wrote:

I have tried to open one for my son. First of all the lady said the the new 10% account was a waste of time don't bother.

How can a savings account offering 10% be a waste of time! :rolleyes:

My son has a different surname to me. The account was opened without any problems. I just had to provide one additional source of ID for myself alongside son's birth certificate.

Personally, I'd write and complain to Halifax head office about the apalling cutomer service you received and the totally incorrect advice you have been given! :mad:

stevem01

A savings account offering 10% interest on average amount of £650 (if saving the maximum of £100 per month) will yield £65 interest - about £30/£35 more than can be obtained by putting exactly the same amount into other savings accounts.

The key difference is that "other savings accounts" don't involve trying to open a Regular Saver Account and a save4it account at the HALIFAX for each child saver. Consequently the "cost" in terms of travel, time and effort that individuals often have to expend to open the HALIFAX RSA and save4it accounts are avoided. Which in my opinion is worth way more than the extra £30/£35 per annum that HALIFAX are offering.

I've been trying for the past 10 weeks to get these accounts correctly opened for my son and daughter. After lots of effort and repeatedly travelling to the "local" branch it seems that the RSA is actually open for my son (but the online access still shows that I haven't produced ID yet, even though I have produced it - three times in person at the branch). However, my daughters RSA account is proving a bit of a problem for HALIFAX to sort out. The most recent episode in the saga being that they've gone and closed it now and have bounced the recent standing order payments.

I've written very annoyed letter on 2 occassions to HALIFAX complaining about time wasted for myself, my wife and children plus their staff. I also pointed out that they couldn't have designed a more error-prone and therefore costly system if they had tried and that if they could operate their banking systems more efficiently then either they could make more profit and keep the shareholders smiling, or they could offer an even higher rate of interest to their CUSTOMERS. I also pointed out it wasn't worth wasting the amount of time that me, my wife and they themselves have spent of this problem for the extra £30/£35 per year that the RSA accounts offer compare to others.

To be fair they have telephoned me (or rather my wife) twice to discuss the details of the problems they have created. But simply opening accounts that THEY are apparently trying to offer as an incentive to encouraage saving, seems to be beyond them. If I was a bit more cynical I would suspect that they deliberatly make it difficult to persuade people to AVOID using these "high interest" rate accounts thus saving paying out the "high interest" payments that they apparently offer.

Steve

realaledrinker

Just an update from me, the OP.

My supposed satisfactorily-resolved problem appears to be anything but. Having re-opened the closed RSA for my daughter and moved money around my various accounts to get the balance at £200 with the credits dated correctly, Halifax seem to have forgotten to remove the bar on the account which prevents credits being made. The result is that the August payment was bounced and arrived back in my current account last week. Only realised this today as I have been on hols. I feel another sarcastic phonecall coming on for tomorrow!!

realaledrinker

For anyone still with this, I got an admission from Halifax today that they have major system issues with these Regular Saver accounts; the Customer Service Manager I spoke to was dealing with another four similar problems herself & knew all her colleagues were in the same situation.

As a poster above noted, for the sake of maybe an extra £30 interest, it simply isn't worth all the bother!

devil1916

A big thanks to 1jim who reccomending writing to dennis stevenson. I have been having the same problems with these accounts as averyone else as well as a couple of other issues. I first went through there complaints process and and after around 5 phonecalls from me was still unresolved. I wrote to him last week asking for compensation and for my issue to be resolved or i would be going to the ombudsman. I recieved a letter the following day saying they would be in touch after they looked into it.

Result is i got a letter in today from there executive office, apologising for all errors along with a cheque for £150 :j first looked and thought it was £15 and would have been happy with that as i wasn't expecting anything. But im delighted with £150