Halifax to relaunch regular saver @10%+

amz84uk

I just visited my local Halifax Bank and was given an appointment with a Financial Advisor to open this account.

He advised me that it is better off to go for medium/longer-term investments and advised to go for Gilts/Bonds/etc.

I've never ever looked into these type of savings, so can anyone please help me out whether I should go for that? The Financial Advisor didn't even mention this 12% Regular Savings account, as he said it's only short-term (12months), and I can get more returns from medium/longer term investments.

Please advise. Thanks in advance.

debbie42

amz84uk wrote: »

I just visited my local Halifax Bank and was given an appointment with a Financial Advisor to open this account.

He advised me that it is better off to go for medium/longer-term investments and advised to go for Gilts/Bonds/etc.

I've never ever looked into these type of savings, so can anyone please help me out whether I should go for that? The Financial Advisor didn't even mention this 12% Regular Savings account, as he said it's only short-term (12months), and I can get more returns from medium/longer term investments.

On what basis did they make these statements? (Apart from as a sales pitch!)
Yes, it's only short term savings account, but that might suit you better.

Sure, you could investigate a longer term investment, but if you decide that suits you then see an IFA not a tied adviser.

Most stock market investments in the short term, would be hard pushed to return 10% this year without a degree of risk. Did they ask you about your approach to risk at all?

amz84uk

debbie42 wrote: »

Did they ask you about your approach to risk at all?

Yes, the advisor did go through a Risk Assessment, and it came back with Medium Risk.

I'm happy to go with short-term though, as 10-12% Interest (pre-tax) is very attractive.

Is there really better medium/long term investments out there? If so, is it suitable to go for it right now under the market circumstances?

(Apologies for hijacking this thread. This 10-12% is VERY attractive and personally, I think it's a no brainer)

Paul_Herring

thumshie wrote: »

For those that have already opened one of these accounts - online preferably -does the application take an 'initial deposit'?

I tried online, and got stuck on the last step. I rang them up asking if I could use £500 from the 7% I'd just closed and sitting in my WebSaver to start the first deposit.

They said no. They want 'external' money to the point where (apart from being able to skirt round the T&C's and setting up a standing order online from the WebSaver) they wouldn't let me do this.

If they don't let you use 'internal' money, there's no way you can 'initiate an SO' from another bank account, so no - you can't put in the initial deposit on application.

1.Open account online today.
2.Create SO for first initial payment to be the 27th June- so June payment is before 28th and by SO
3.On the 28th of June modify SO so payment is taken on the 1st July and all subsequent months..

SO Payments aren't 'taken' - they're 'sent.' (c.f. DD's which are 'taken')

And the time taken will depend on the banks concerned - it may take up to 3 working days (weekends don't count) to arrive. Your payments must arrive by the 28th or you cancel your regular saver, so your payment dates need to be adjusted for this.

Page 3 (adobe page 4) of the T&C's:

Missed payment
• Your standing order payment must reach your account by the 28th of each month. We recommend that standing orders from non-Halifax accounts be arranged for no later than the 23rd of each month in order to reach the Halifax Regular Saver account by the 28th.

Edit - I've just realised - they specifically mention 'non-Halifax' accounts in that clause - a loophole perchance since it implies Halifax accounts can be the sender of the SO?

debbie42

amz84uk wrote: »

I'm happy to go with short-term though, as 10-12% Interest (pre-tax) is very attractive.

Is there really better medium/long term investments out there? If so, is it suitable to go for it right now under the market circumstances?

I imagine there are better longer term investments available: it's knowing which they are that's the tricky thing :rolleyes:.

You can have both short term savings and long term investments: I certainly do. I am moving some of my cash savings into this as I too think it's a very good offer.

debbie42

Paul_Herring wrote: »

I tried online, and got stuck on the last step. I rang them up asking if I could use £500 from the 7% I'd just closed and sitting in my WebSaver to start the first deposit.

They said no. They want 'external' money to the point where (apart from being able to skirt round the T&C's and setting up a standing order online from the WebSaver) they wouldn't let me do this.

I just opened one up in branch. Like an earlier poster, I couldn't close my old regular saver online (don't know why?), so had to go in anyway.

I put in the original deposit as a transfer (not a SO) from my Halifax current account, and set up a SO for the next months payment.

One thing I spotted in the t&c is that you have 14 days to fund the linked account with 5K to get the bonus. According to the adviser (and the wording, though that isn't clear) you must have above 5K for the rest of the year to get the bonus, i.e. you don't just get 2% bonus while the account is above 5K, and not when it's below.

thumshie

Paul_Herring wrote: »

SO Payments aren't 'taken' - they're 'sent.' (c.f. DD's which are 'taken')

Im my case it will be from a Halifax current account, thus the taken date and the receive date is the same. Current SO's from HBOS CurrentAccount -> HBOS Savings account both occur on same day.

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Edit - I've just realised - they specifically mention 'non-Halifax' accounts in that clause - a loophole perchance since it implies Halifax accounts can be the sender of the SO?

It's my understand it means Halifax Current accounts are OK, but not savings accounts. On the leaflet in branch - back page - it states

No standing orders from Halifax or Bank of Scotland savings accounts.

EDIT:

Paul_Herring wrote: »

And the time taken will depend on the banks concerned - it may take up to 3 working days (weekends don't count)

Again, as it's HBOS-HBOS there is no issue. All my SO's have been for same date. when this has been a weekend it still occured on that day, both debit and credit..

dkmax_2

jimclark1967 wrote: »

Doing the 28th/1st trick just means that your average balance is almost £500 higher than if you paid in on 1st of each month.

What you are saying rather obliquely is that by this timing trick you are making 13 payments in a 12 month period. It works because you are disconnecting the payment date from the anniversary date and maximising this time difference subject to the 12 month constraint. The cumulated benefit of that extra payment may be too small to worry about and does depend on what it would be doing elsewhere.

It would be unfortunate if those that deployed such delays in July last year missed out on the 10% rate which only applies until 20 July 2008.

debbie42

dkmax wrote: »

What you are saying rather obliquely is that by this timing trick you are making 13 payments in a 12 month period.

With this offer, wouldn't it be 12 payments in just over 11 months, so skewed to the beginning of the term? It's academic for me as I just opened one up now rather than messing about with dates etc. as I'd probably forget otherwise!

worried3

I opened one of these today in branch they tried the hard sell on a shares isa (not what i went in for but they seem to be trying to push longer term products)
I also have a 7% one of these I opened about 5 months ago but she looked through my account list & made no reference that I had to close it.
but they are different regular savers
10% up to £500 per month against
7% up to £250 per month.
are you sure you are not needlesly closing your 7% accounts.?