Anyone have a spare current account and looking to go for this? Or are the Reward account terms too much of a faff?
too much of a faff
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I think, to get the full reward without paying out you’d be looking at
ÂŁ1500 in
Then spend either £500 on the card or keep £5000 in the account…
I suppose I could switch my Starling account , as I dont use that , but would then need to move 1500 money in to move back to Monzo to spend or would that not count as £500 spend a month ??? hmmmm , basically 100 quid aint worth the hassle , and I dont want to have to spend a level that they set or pay the £3 a month …too much of a faff
Looked up the terms:
Remember that if you do switch to the Reward Current Account, you’ll need to pay in at least £1,500/mth (equivalent to a £21,300 annual salary) to avoid its £3/mth fee. Plus if you want to get any rewards (more on this below), you’ll also need to stay in credit and either spend at least £500/mth on your debit card or keep at least £5,000 in your account.
You can get the bonus if you’ve been a Halifax customer before - though to be eligible you’ll need to be opening a new account, and you can’t have received a Halifax switching incentive since April 2018.
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Could transfer ÂŁ1500 in and instantly back out.
For the ÂŁ500 debit card spend to get the reward. I wonder if paying off a credit card via debit card or using a debit card top up with say Monese would get round it?
Or could top up an ns&i income bond…
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Looks like there isn’t the usual requirement to switch X direct debits to qualify?
If you enjoy such things, moving ÂŁ1500 in and spending ÂŁ500 on their debit card is all of 2 minutes work for ÂŁ5/month.
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Yeah I can’t see anything which implies you need to move DDs. Apparently the £100 is paid pre switch
yes - the ÂŁ100 and the ÂŁ5/month are separate things.
I might do it - Virgin Money keep blocking transfers (just moving money back to the account, in my name, it came from…) so their 2% on £1000 is beginning to feel like more trouble than its worth.
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Or starling?
On other threads about the Reward account on MSE, posters have claimed that topping up savings accounts by debit card (and then withdrawing back to account later) has proven sufficient to meet the debit card spend criteria.
My last switch to them was summer of 2018, so I don’t qualify anyway. No donor accounts left though anyway as all my 7 accounts serve a purpose and so none for sacrifice yet.
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If you can deposit ÂŁ5000 with them, and then move in/out ÂŁ1500 monthly and choose ÂŁ5 cash reward it is 3.2% return on capital deployed for the first year. And 1.2% in subsequent ones.
I would suspect other banks will offer more money in a few weeks/months time, not too sure if I remember right but I think Halifax did offer more money to switch before COVID
Weeks? I doubt it. There’s still this whole Covid and recession thing going on. Months? Maybe. But they’re not going to be a patch on deals even as recently as a year ago. I reckon we’ll have low-value switching deals for at least three or four years, and before we get to that point there will possibly be a nadir when the best switching incentive is a packet of Worcestershire sauce french fries and some belly button fluff.
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This has the advantage of being lower effort - you can set standing orders to move the ÂŁ1500 in/out and just leave it to accumulate fivers.
I’d rather double-dip it though (if I had 5k lying around…) - put the 5k somewhere it earns interest, and make a little extra effort to put £500 through the debit card. Same return from Halifax plus the interest on your 5k in another account.
True, but the game has changed. Safe to assume there are more people needing overdraft facilities in the short to medium term. A low-risk approach for banks would be to offer incentives like this - ie with minimum-balance requirements - so they can build funds for lending
A high-risk approach would be to offer the “incentive” of lower overdraft interest to get people to switch. Does seem like there’s some margin in the near-standard 40% rate banks are charging…
This is the only way the 5k balance makes any sense
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Did the switch this morning took a couple mins.
Brave messed with date picker for when you want it to switch in case anyone else uses that you need to disable first.
What was new was Credit Karma during the signup at about step 3/6 said that a hard search had just happened with a push alert and also an email for good measure.
and added immediately with the details inside the app
How long do you need to hold onto the account? Is there a fixed term?
Lots of people are commenting on depositing ÂŁ1500 or spending ÂŁ500 each month but do you actually need to keep the account open that long? The bonus is pre-switch so the rest of the account is irrelevant if you switch away before the future fee comes in?
Did it open the account right away?
I have just moved address, and the other day I did an eligibility check elsewhere and it said they couldn’t find me. Not sure it that will be an issue with this as well…