Halifax : Serious ?

Frenchtouch

Good afternoon;

I would like to know if halifax is really serious ?
In fact, the difference seems very difference with aib, boi, ...

What do you think ?

Thanks

Regards,

Fabien

Jesus Wept

Are they serious??

Can you elaborate? What are you asking exactly?

Davy

tricky question

Frenchtouch

Sorry,
I ask me this because hqlifax says no fees, ... and give a high interest on current account.
If you compare with tsb, aib, ... there is a big difference.

stepbar

Try opening an account with them. You might need a mountain of paperwork. Look up my thread on trying to open a bank account with Halifax. Try their customer service. It's awful. You want life cover? We don't do life cover..... or investments (not savings) .... Walk in the door and the guys are over to you like vulchers. Want a credit card? or a loan? P1SS off will ya, I want to pay my credit card because I can't see it online :mad: They certainly don't cater for small business customers either. Branch network? What?

For some people Halifax might just be right down their street. If you want Ryanair style banking I suppose. But for something as important as your finances does Ryanair style banking cut it? TBH if its free fees you are looking at AIB and BOI have fairly straight forward conditions for saving you fees. e.g AIB use your debit card once per quarter and pay one bill online, BOI keep 500 eur in your a/c for the quarter or do 3 bill pay transactions for the quarter. Simple. Not onerous TBH. Both offer credit interest on accounts. Its your choice but I would think twice before going to Halifax.

Frenchtouch

thanks a lot,
You disavice halifax

orbital83

I have no vested interests in what I say below (not sure if previous posters could say likewise?)

Positives:
I find Halifax to be efficent and their customer service is of a relatively high standard.
The paperwork requirements are no more onerous than what's needed for any other bank.
Once you open your first account, all you will need is ID for any subsequent accounts.
I was able to open a current account with minimal hassle, and didn't need to step inside a branch.
The internet banking works well but I have only been using it for a few months so things could go wrong yet I suppose.

Negatives:
The constant effort to push products on to you has been quite offputting in my experience.
Savings account rates tend to be attractive at first, but are then dropped on the quiet. You need to be ruthless and on your guard to maximise benefits from these accounts.
Products can have quite convoluted terms and conditions - read carefully.

Davy

John J wrote: »

I have no vested interests in what I say below (not sure if previous posters could say likewise?)

Positives:
I find Halifax to be efficent and their customer service is of a relatively high standard.
The paperwork requirements are no more onerous than what's needed for any other bank.
Once you open your first account, all you will need is ID for any subsequent accounts.
I was able to open a current account with minimal hassle, and didn't need to step inside a branch.
The internet banking works well but I have only been using it for a few months so things could go wrong yet I suppose.

Negatives:
The constant effort to push products on to you has been quite offputting in my experience.
Savings account rates tend to be attractive at first, but are then dropped on the quiet. You need to be ruthless and on your guard to maximise benefits from these accounts.
Products can have quite convoluted terms and conditions - read carefully.

one of the biggest negatives you didn't mention is not possible to view credit card transactions online. To me this major thing, banks are meant to be helping fight against fraud. I canceled my card for this reason alone

jackbhoy

davton wrote: »

one of the biggest negatives you didn't mention is not possible to view credit card transactions online. To me this major thing, banks are meant to be helping fight against fraud. I canceled my card for this reason alone

Yeah, I only held mine for good int rate but now that AIB bettered that and offer online access I've switched.

I might not be totally unbiased as work for rival (still take genuinely good deals from rivals though e.g. had halifax card for 2 years!!)but I am wary of banks offering all these short term incentives, they cannot sustain this practice of offering high int deposits and low int loans as well as little/no charges, its just not possible without losing shed loads of money. Maybe they are happy to do that to establish market share though.....