Halifax to relaunch regular saver @10%+

LongTermLurker

KAB wrote: »

Guardian's view on Halifax 10%/12% Reg Saver

And an excerpt "Only one Halifax Regular Saver account is allowed per customer. That spells a problem for anyone who recently took out Halifax's 7% Regular Saver, which allows people to put away between £25 and £250 a month and enjoy that rate fixed for a year. If they really want to take out the higher-paying new version of the account, they will have to close their existing one and take the interest 'hit'. Asked what the advice was for people in this stuation, the bank says: "The customer needs to assess where they are and what's best for them.""

I take that as a "Yes you can" :T

a&akay

alternatively - would Halifax actually detect the difference between a SO and a payment - they both use BACS dont they ?[/quote]

The Halifax accounts allow you to just see BACS transfers and my SOs from Barclays are shown as BACS, as you say, so I'll transfer my money in manually on the 1st of the month. I timed one just now - at a weekend. It took 2 minutes to show up. I'm hoping the sort code for the new 10% shows up on the APACS checker.

Speculator

more here http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=442612&in_page_id=7&ct=5

If you continue to save after your deposit reaches £5,000 and do not lower it again below that mark, the 2% bonus interest kicks in and you will earn an additional £65, bringing the total amount of interest to £390.

Surely, this part is wrong?

KAB_3

Speculator wrote: »

Surely, this part is wrong?

Absolutely! :mad:

Paul_Herring

superstar wrote: »

I'm not sure why does this new RS account attracts so much interest or I have missed something here.

The new 10% will give you £325 at the end of one year provided, you make a £500 (Full) payment. That means £6000 at the end of one year. How about taking a, say one year fixed (again, at Halifax to compare) at 6%+, which would easily give you £360++.

Can anyone explain that to me.?

You're assuming a £6000 lump sum is available at the start of the period. If you can (say) afford to save £500 per month out of your wages, would you put it in the 10% regular saver, or in a 6% savings account? (Alternatively, if you have a lump sum, would you leave it in a 6% account, or use that 6% account to drip feed the 10% account? Naturally this assumes the 6% isn't a year fix.)

Dagobert

a&akay wrote: »

The current rules for the 7% say that subsequent payments must be by SO. ... Does anyone use payments rather than SOs to their 7% successfully without contravening this rule?

I have signed up to numerous regular savers over the last 3 years (30+ at a time). I have been paying all of them by manual BACS payments as opposed to SO including the Halifax regular saver. They all mature successfully.

Note that a Standing Order is nothing but a repeated BACS payment for your convenience. Whether you initiate the payment manually or set up a SO at the sending bank is not distinguishable for the recipient.

Obviously, some banks are gradually moving to Faster Payments now but I do not presume that a FP pay-in would be against the T&Cs.

Speculator

details now on the halifax website...

http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/regularsaver.asp

Speculator

when I tried to apply, it brings up the following message......

Regular Saver application ineligible
Unfortunately you cannot continue with this Regular Saver application for one or more of the following reasons:

• You do not meet our age requirements
• You already hold the maximum number of Regular Saver accounts we allow

For more information about savings accounts we offer please visit our savings pages

So it confirms that I will have to close my existing regular saver to open this one.

AP

I have already closed my existing Regular Saver account last Friday but when I tried to apply online a moment ago I still got the same message - now what?

LongTermLurker

AP wrote: »

I have already closed my existing Regular Saver account last Friday but when I tried to apply online a moment ago I still got the same message - now what?

They might not process the closure until today because of the weekend - wait a couple of days or phone them up to ask.

Let us know how you get on - I may as well wait to hear your experiences.

I was upset this morning cos I logged in at 6:30 (sad, I know) and it was still showing at 7% then