Halifax to relaunch regular saver @10%+

humfer

Opened one of these the other day for the wife. Have had to go into Halifax today to validate my new address so planning to open mine tonight. One question - if I open it tonight and set up the SO to leave my Lloyds C/A tomorrow, do you reckon it will reach Halifax by the 28th?

Foggy

moneysavingaddict07 wrote: »

Can someone answer the following for me:

how long does it take in the branch?
Do you need to make an appointment?

I'm going for the 10% as i dont have a spare 5k, so can i open one of these account this saturday and set the SO from my halifax account on the 1st?

It might be long winded but I was planning to put all my money into the A&L account, which earns 8.5% for £2,500 in credit, also some in my lloyds 6.5% in credit. Combined i think these rates combined is better than most clean savings account. Question here is, is there any high street banks which can transfer £500 into the halifax RS instantly (without charging a fee)? If not then i would take my money out of these high interest CA, and desposit the £500 by walknig into the haliafx branch.

I applied online last Friday and got an email saying I would receive my online password soon to access the account. I went in to the local branch today and said I had applied online and wanted to bring in my ID (passport in this case) to move things along. The lady called up my details, photocopied my passport, printed out a 'New Account Form' to sign and I completed a SO form.

I then wandered across the road to the Abbey (my current account bank), handed in the SO form with instructions to make the 1st payment on 1/7 and the last one on 1/6/09 and withdrew £500 cash

Then I wandered back into the Halifax, queued up and paid in the cash with my freshly printed 'New Account Form'.

When I got home I checked the online details for the SO (which stated it commenced 24/6/8 indefinitely) so I amended it to start on 1st July with 12 payments.

I also opened the Guaranteed Saver as the nominated account and have just transferred 5K online into it with the account details from my original online app.

I hope that covered everything! Maybe there is an easier way but I need to see real people sometimes.

LongTermLurker

MigsyBigsy wrote: »

Hello all,

would like to enquire on opinions about advice on opening the Halifax savings account.

I have already my maximum in the ISA, I have £500 with Kaupthing Edge and have recently opened an A & L current account 8%. Is there any point in opening the new Halifax savings?

thanks in advance

If you have the money spare to put in it, yes. If you don't, then probably no. There's no point opening accounts just for the sake of it and I don't see much benefit in just moving the £500 from KE to Hx.

Bear in mind the A+L account is a Current Account and only offers 8% on money up to about £2500 (not sure, check the T+Cs) and anything above that gets a really low rate.

gelato_cat

Not sure I get you... when did you open the account?

Suze

sloughflint wrote: »

Is the IB down at the moment? Not sure if it is or if I have a problem as it's not my account.

If I do manage to get in, rather than trawl through the pages, can I just make an internal manual payment today and set up SO for 01/07 or should I set up a SO for tomorrow ( assuming that's the earliest I can set a SO for) and then amend to 01/07 when money has gone?
Sorry. I know it's been covered but I'm in a rush. Will delete post as soon as I see an answer.
TIA.
edit:
Managed to get in. Manual internal transfers don't appear possible so I have set up a SO for tomorrow and will see what happens.

10_66

After setting up SO from Halifax current account to make initial payment to Regular Saver, I've just tried to amend the existing SO online to the 1st July etc, and a message appeared saying that "this standing order can only be amended to pay other organisations. To pay an account with us, you'll need to set up a new standing order." I'd already spoken to Halifax about this and was told that I can make amendments to SO. Has anyone else managed to change a Halifax SO that goes to their Halifax Regular Saver account?

sloughflint

Suzey wrote: »

Not sure I get you... when did you open the account?

Suze

Sorry Suze. I left my post in the end to show people that straight internal transfers don't seem possible as opposed to SO. As far as your question, it's a POA account so longer opening timeframes.I'll remove the post now since it's confusing people.

Just seen 10_66's post.
I'll be in the same boat tomorrow. I hope it is possible to amend dates.:eek:

sloughflint

LongTermLurker wrote: »

MigsyBigsy wrote:

Hello all,

would like to enquire on opinions about advice on opening the Halifax savings account.

I have already my maximum in the ISA, I have £500 with Kaupthing Edge and have recently opened an A & L current account 8%. Is there any point in opening the new Halifax savings?

thanks in advance

If you have the money spare to put in it, yes. If you don't, then probably no. There's no point opening accounts just for the sake of it and I don't see much benefit in just moving the £500 from KE to Hx.

I disagree with you here.
S/he can put in £200 now and that will earn 10% rather than 6.5% over the year.
S/he can then drip-feed £25 per month out of KE and if lucky may even find more to put in some months.
Every little helps!
Or rather 1x£225 and 11x£25

LongTermLurker

sloughflint wrote: »

I disagree with you here.
S/he can put in £200 now and that will earn 10% rather than 6.5% over the year.
S/he can then drip-feed £25 per month out of KE and if lucky may even find more to put in some months.
Every little helps!

Fair enough. I guess I'm looking from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't see an awful lot of value in a few pounds extra, but I accept your point that some people might find that extra bit important.

There is a flaw in your plan though - you can't directly drip feed from KE to the Hx RS account - however, if your KE Linked account was an Halifax current account, you could withdraw £25pm manually each month into the CA and then transfer from that to the RS. However, I fail to see much benefit to anyone doing that unless and until Faster Payments are up and working for both these banks; the situation would be so much worse if your KE linked a/c wasn't with Halifax, because then you would have two transfer delays.

sloughflint

LongTermLurker wrote: »

There is a flaw in your plan though

I was aware of this ( linked account) but didn't want to overly complicate my post.
But you are right, it needed mentioning. The person MUST be prepared to manually do the transfers out of KE each month.
The extra pennies require a little more work.

Oh and the Maths was wrong: £225 now and 11 lots of £25...as long as access not required.

gelato_cat

No probs, was trying to understand the question to see if I could help, following your useful maths

I am about to reply to 10_66.

Suze

sloughflint wrote: »

Sorry Suze. I left my post in the end to show people that straight internal transfers don't seem possible as opposed to SO. As far as your question, it's a POA account so longer opening timeframes.I'll remove the post now since it's confusing people.

Just seen 10_66's post.
I'll be in the same boat tomorrow. I hope it is possible to amend dates.:eek: