Halifax regular saver rate

[camlin90]

Am I entitled to close this regular savers account and withdraw the balance at no cost to me?

To summarise above posts - if you close, you lose the bonus interest earned since the last anniversary date. So you will incur a cost.
However this cost will be less significant in your case, because it's not long since your last anniversary.

As a guide - for an account with an average balance of 10K, closing now would lose you about €7.30 (after tax) for each week you had it open between the last anniversary and yesterday.

Alternative is to draw all money out down to the minimum of €10, and alter the DD to €10 a month, which (according to above posts) still qualifies you for the bonus interest.

 

[ClubMan]

Who offers the best regular savings account at the moment?

See the Financial Best Buys lists.

 

[Godfather]

Hello everyone,

sorry if I didn't connect so often to this lovely forum for such a long time (long story... did anyone call the garda about the fact that I was the Godfather of this forum? ).

Terrible to read that the old reg. saver (the most loyal ones!!!) are now awarded with 3%!!!!

I'm going to close my old. reg. saver account ASAP!!!

Thank you halifax for the loyalty bonus!!!

 

[ClubMan]

Anybody else faxed them instructing them to close a regular saver account and cancel the DD? Did you hear anything back?

 

[Godfather]

Ciao Clubman! Long time we didn't have a chat! I hope everything's ok there... I'm thinking about going to my nearest subsidiary to close both account and direct debit...

 

[oldtimer]

Clubman, I wrote to them cancelling three regular saver accounts and went to the bank to cancel the 3 direct debits. I expect my 3 cheques next week.

 

[ClubMan]

I faxed them yesterday but just realised that I never signed the fax. I'll give them a call later to see what the story is.

 

[TSThomas]

Decided to simply close the account after yesterday, was told at the branch they'd take care of it (Was told over the phone I'd needed a signed statement to that effect, so I handed that over). Direct Debit canceled. Wonder how long it'll take for money to transfer...

 

[eileen alana]

Hello everyone,

sorry if I didn't connect so often to this lovely forum for such a long time (long story... did anyone call the garda about the fact that I was the Godfather of this forum? ).

Terrible to read that the old reg. saver (the most loyal ones!!!) are now awarded with 3%!!!!

I'm going to close my old. reg. saver account ASAP!!!

Thank you halifax for the loyalty bonus!!!

Welcome back Godfather, yep there sure has been some changes with these regular savers since last you signed in. First it was AIB dropping down to 4% and now they are after launching another regular saver with a high interest for new recruits. I am beginning to get tired from chopping and changing accounts all the time, running to the banks at lunch times etc, its a tough job being a rate tart and trying to keep one foot ahead.

 

[camlin90]

I hope all the people above who are closing are not getting stung for the bonus interest...

Halifax is obviously not like all other banks, who can transfer money instantaneously between internal accounts.
I transferred 10K to the Flexi Saver yesterday, but for some reason it's still sitting in the Monthly Saver earning 4%... Customer Service will be getting an earful in a few days!

 

[ClubMan]

I hope all the people above who are closing are not getting stung for the bonus interest...

My account anniversary was last month so I will lose a little bonus interest but I'm better off moving in spite of this.

Halifax is obviously not like all other banks, who can transfer money instantaneously between internal accounts.

I think if you do the transfer before noon or thereabouts then it should happen same day otherwise it should happen the next day. Unless the transaction is subject to additional security checks in which case they will call you and this can delay things by a further day (at least in my experience).

 

[Godfather]

Welcome back Godfather, yep there sure has been some changes with these regular savers since last you signed in. First it was AIB dropping down to 4% and now they are after launching another regular saver with a high interest for new recruits. I am beginning to get tired from chopping and changing accounts all the time, running to the banks at lunch times etc, its a tough job being a rate tart and trying to keep one foot ahead.

I totally agree with you eileen alana! How much petrol (and lunch-breaks in which I could have relaxed more) I spent in reaching the branches of the banks for new reg. savers accounts... And for what? A bit of difference in terms of interest rates?

...Btw I'm so grateful to this forum... Sorry I keep repeating that because I've never seen such an "open share source of information on savings".

 

[dublinhead]

Anybody else faxed them instructing them to close a regular saver account and cancel the DD? Did you hear anything back?

I went into my local branch yesterday and withdrew all but 10 euro and I also reduced my monthly amount to 10 euro. I had to sign a form to this affect and I should get my money in 3 working days. I'm a bit peeved off that they didnt write to me to inform me of the reduction in rates. I only found out through this forum. . They tried to push the flexi saver on me but i said thanks but no thanks.

 

[dec11]

hi all,

just found out about the new rate today and i need some advice.

on the 2nd of February I phoned Halifax regarding the interest rate and got confirmation (verbally) that the rate would stay 1.5% above the ECB rate for original account holders. so i increased my monthly DD to 350 a month.

i phoned Halifax this evening and they said they would investigate and get back to me.

can anyone advise where i stand here? my next maturity date is July 2008

 

[camlin90]

on the 2nd of February I phoned Halifax regarding the interest rate and got confirmation (verbally) that the rate would stay 1.5% above the ECB rate

You were given misleading information by customer service, so you could try to use this to "encourage" them into waiving the limit of one DD alteration per year on your account.

Worst case scenario though - the interest difference will be quite minimal on the extra €340 you'll be paying in between now and July. You could draw out some money in 3 months time to reduce your exposure; assuming you haven't already used the permitted withdrawals.

 

[Godfather]

Hi guys, I went to a subsidiary this morning trying to close my account but couldn't because I faced a weird behaviour... I am lodging a complaint now asking for the form to be sent by post... They must be going through hard times after this continuous reduction in the rates!

 

[ClubMan]

I faxed through instructions to close my account on Wednesday afternoon. I didn't hear anything further so called them last night to be told that the fax and instructions were logged on the system and the closure process was in train. I thought that it might happen sooner than that.

 

[Godfather]

I thought that it might happen sooner than that.

Hi mate, as I thought: too many requests at the same time. That probably partially justifies the weird behaviour I faced this morning that I had to complain about...

 

[treasure]

I was in touch with Halifax today and the rate on the Regular Savings accounts has just gone down to 4%.

 

[ClubMan]

I was in touch with Halifax today and the rate on the Regular Savings accounts has just gone down to 4%.

Er, yeah! Posted 19-02-2008, 03:26 PM:

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be true. There have been some quite savage cuts in interest rates on these accounts. See Halifax website.

To summarise:

First tranche of Monthly Savers (opened prior to 24/10/06)
Rate has fallen from 5.5% to 3%

Second tranche of Monthly Savers (opened between 24/10/06 and 07/10/07)
Rate has fallen from 7% to 4%

Third tranche of Monthly Savers (opened after 07/10/07): rate unchanged

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