An overveiw;
The Halifax has been around for as long as I can ever remember.Having no major financial problems and a long history of British banking makes it a well established and solid institution.It has expanded its services to meet the requirements of todays consumers and investors.
While I shall try and cover all the facilities breifly I shall concentrate on the main features and points that make it a high street feature.
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What's on offer;
There are many services available ranging from Mortgages,insurance,investments,holiday money and share dealing to credit cards,loans,estate agents,savings,off-shore dealing,buisness
banking and of course savings/current accounts.
Their cashpoint system operates with link and that means around 150,000 points arround the uk,this is along side the many branches (usually at least one in every small town),which are all interlinked so each branch is as good as your own,and negates the need to be restricted to the branch you initialy dealt with.
Most of their branches operate a face to face policy where you are not seperated by massive panes of 4 inch thick glass,and you can talk to an advisor at the drop of a hat.
The different services avalable I shall cover below in a little more detail,deviding them into subheadings to hopefully make things clear.
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Bank accounts;
Offering current accounts with 2.02% APR interest,and £100 interest/charge free arranged overdraft with cheque book and debit card,it is competative with most banks,in fact paying over 1% more than some at present.
They also have a comprehensive array of student and yound peoples accounts with comparable options to other banks,and savings accounts with good interest rates.
Their cardcash account is also excellent as it offers both cheque book(no gaurentee card) and solo debit card,all without the need for a credit search,just comprehensive identification.
Credit cards;
Halifax offer a range of credit cards with apr's varying accross 14.9%,15.9%,and 17.9% with a 10% flexirate option and a 0% for 5 month initial offer.A couple of their option include a 1% cashback,all competative with other banks some going as high a 18.9%,but a few do still do a lower rate than is on offer here.
Many of ther options are much better if you are one of the few, who pay your balance in full each month,but most cater for part-balance or minimum payment makers.
Holiday Money;
As with most high street banks,foreign currency is readily available,can be order easily and can be paid for directly from your account.The one great thing they offer here is a 0% charge buy back facility for your left over notes or travellers cheques.
Investments;
Stakeholder pensions,ISA's and stock market investments are their main field and although perfomances vary they do offer stock market investments thay you have a say in, so it is not left soley upto them to decside where your money is best put,though advice is freely available.
Mortgages;
Their mortgage rates are competitive,and with the interest rate being low generaly offer an attractive proposition.They offer a 3% down for first time buyers and to compliment this you can have a certificate within 15 minutes of applying on-line which gaurentees the morgage amount available to you,very handy when negotiating a quick sale or a firm offer!!
Savings;
As well as the usual savings accounts with reasonable interest rates, considering how low they are everywhere at the moment,Halifax have also implimented an online savings account called Web Saver.
On-line banking;
In acordance with the moving times,they have introduced the on-line banking offering all the stadards features.
Telephone banking;
Again they are keeping with the times with their telephone banking,and whilst this can be a very handy tool it is worth bearing in mind that once you have signed up to this service it is incredably hard to ever get to speak directly to anyone real.And as their phone banking works on an automated system not all options you may want to use,such as cancelling direct debits etc, are available.
The actual cost of the call is at national rate not local rate too so whilst not massively expensive you can soon tot up a tidy sum by the time you have been through the automated menus and options for 3 or 4 minutes on a few occasions.
They do take the security very seriously and I have always felt assured that using this option does not present a security risk.
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Charges;
Charges here are steep,at around £28 for a failed direct debit or returned cheque,but they are understanding and when it is not your fault they happily resolve these matters.
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My humble opinion;
The Halifax is very competitive on all their services and have a comprehensive assortment of services.They are cooperative,very polite(noticably so in this day and age),and have a good face to face feel to their branches.
The structure the branches operate under is very useful and time saving in most instances, only the telephone banking lets them down a little.
Having banked with them myself for a long time I am in no hurry to change to another bank or establishment and i am encouraging my children to bank with them too.In fact i recsently opened an 11 to 15 year old account for one son so that he can now have a clothing allowance and use his solo debit card to buy his own clothes,and i feel that being able to use this option should give him a good insight into the shopping and expense parts of life :-) ...let's hope it works!!!
I should also mention that my cardcash account has helped me no end to get my finances straight at a time when other banks would barely open me an account.
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Summery;
Give them a try,it cetainly is service with a smile.And you should be able to find whatever you need here and find it accesable too.
by (12%):
by (6%):
17.06.2004 19:04
Hey 1st of all let me apologise! You asked me to re-rate this about a year ago! I have just come back to Ciao so am slowly catching up on everything! Good, detailed review - Thanks, Alex
12.10.2002 14:31
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10.10.2002 11:34
I love the title!