Re Halifax Current account

[steelman99]

According to the press Halifax are changing their rewards current account from June , instead of the £2 for having 2 direct debits,and £750 per month paid in , they will need £1500 per month paid in or theres a £3 fee. To get the reward which is now £5 , the requirement is a balance of £5000 for the month or £500 paid out on the debit card.

Im thinking £500 out on the debit card equates to 1% cashback, better than most credit cards give

Other thoughts are can you get cashback in shops and have it counted as a debit card transaction?? or if you wanted to try it on, can you spend on the credit card to get rewards ect fro the credit card company , then pay the credit card bill using the halifax debit card to meet the £500 minimum spend?

Also noticed that you can deposit into National savings accounts by debit card , so be interesting to see if you can send £500 a month to a NS&I savings account by debit card , then take it out a few days later

Guess it all gos down to how much effort your prepared to put in for £5 per month

[barchid]

Steelman
Oddly enough I had done some research into this debit card usage with their call centre end of last week.
Using it to draw money from an ATM does not count but if you have it linked to an i-web account and use it to put in £500 that qualifies.
I asked the lady twice if she was certain of this and she confirmed that it is so.
I have little interest in NSI so I missed that question.
I have had a reward account for quite a few years now and have always been happy with it

[pochisoldi]

I considered going for the £5 on £500 spend, but I already have a credit card giving me 0.5%, so it starts to become too much effort just to earn an extra £2.50 a month

I'm going to let the account lapse into a "standard" current account - I'll keep the account for the occasional "Cashback Extra" deal.

As an aside, the Halifax treat cashback at a retailer as a normal transaction. This means that a "10% off your Morrisons shop" means 10% cashback on the groceries and the extra £50 cashback you ask for.
Natwest "MyRewards" does differentiate - a similar style "10% off your Waitrose" shop will only get you rewards on the groceries.

Another method of "bringing forward" outgoings to ensure you meet the target include topping up supermarket gift cards.

[steelman99]

Interesting that if they count any payment on the card towards the £500 other than cash

Thoughts at moment are to do usual spending on my amex card to get 1% cashback , then pay the card off by debit card using the Halifax card , and getting my £5

See how it gos

[steelman99]

Just to update , paying your credit card using a Halifax debit card appears to count towards your £500 debit card spend ( their online checker shows Ive ticked all the boxes for getting £5 next month

Having spent £500 on my Amex card last month earning 1% cashback , then looks like I'me getting another 1% ie the £5 from halifax , so thats equivelent of 2% cashback on spending - not bad at the present time

[Myfyr]

I can confirm that adding £500 to an NS&I income bonds account does qualify for the £5 cashback, though the cashback arrives a lot later in the month now than in the previous version of the account.

[richfool]

I let my "reward" account revert to a standard current account, with no reward and thus no conditions or restrictions relating thereto. There were too many conditions and "if's and buts". And as their online saver account interest rate is so minuscule, I have reduced my float with them and am directing any surplus savings to a Markus account, at I believe 1.05% or thereabouts.

[beseeinyou]

Probably won't be much longer before Marcus reduce this, just got the Ford Money email a few days ago but at least it's 2 months notice they're giving.

Beseeinyou