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Account charges, reward payments and interest
This section contains everything you need to know about our account fees, reward payments, interest rates, including the amount of interest your money will earn and what we charge for special services.
Account fees
Reward payments
Interest paid on credit balances
Fees for special services
International payments fees
Buying goods and services in a foreign currency
Additional information
Account fees
Overdrafts
For Ultimate Reward Current Account, Reward Current Account or Current Account customers
To get an arranged overdraft for the Ultimate Reward Current Account, Reward Current Account or Current Account, you must pay your salary or other regular amount (for example your grant cheque, student loan or parental contribution) into your account.
If you have an arranged or unarranged overdraft, your statements will show the amount of fees we will take from your account at the end of the month. If you have to pay fees for any unarranged overdraft, we will also send you a letter about these. We will send you regular reminders if you continue to have an unarranged overdraft. Please see conditions 26 and 27 of Section 3.
| Arranged overdrafts | Unarranged overdrafts | |||
| Account | Amount of overdraft | Daily fee | Amount of overdraft | Daily fee |
| Up to and including £2,500 | £1 | All balances | £5 | |
| Over £2,500 | £2 | |||
| Ultimate Reward Current Account | Up to £300 | £0 | ||
| Up to and including £2,500 | £1 | |||
| Over £2,500 | £2 | |||
For Student Current Account or Cardcash bank account customers
If you go overdrawn on your Student Current Account or Cardcash bank account, the interest rate we charge will depend on whether you have an arranged overdraft with us, or whether it is unarranged – in other words your account has become overdrawn without an arrangement, or has gone over your arranged overdraft limit (an unarranged overdraft). We charge a higher rate of interest and also other fees on unarranged overdrafts. So it makes sense to ask us to increase your overdraft limit if you think you may need to go over your current limit.
| Variable interest charged on overdrawn balances | ||||||
| Account | Customer | Amount of arranged overdraft | Arranged overdraft | Unarranged overdraft | ||
| All customers | £3,000 or less | Interest free (0% EAR) | 1.82% a month (24.2% EAR) | |||
| Over £3,000 | 0.58% a month (7.2% EAR) | 1.82% a month (24.2% EAR) | ||||
| Under 18 | Does not apply | Does not apply | Does not apply | |||
|
Over 18 Please note this account is no longer available to over 18s |
Does not apply | Does not apply | 2.20% a month (29.8% EAR) | |||
EAR is the equivalent annual rate. It shows what the interest rate would be if interest was taken from your account once a year. It does not take account of any fees or charges.
For arranged student overdrafts of more than £3,000 we will charge interest at the arranged rate on the whole of the overdraft.
Keep an eye on your balance and keep your overdraft fees as low as possible. Direct debits, standing orders, cheques and debit cards all make life easier. But to keep overdraft fees as low as possible you need to have enough money in your account to cover these payments. So please try to top up your account in good time.
If you bank online with us, you can transfer money from other accounts right up to midnight. For other amounts you pay into your account (for example, cheques or payments made at a cash machine) you’ll need to allow time for the money to reach your account. For cheques this can take several days.
It’s easy to check your account balance. You can do this 24 hours a day online, by phone or from a cash machine. Or call into one of our branches during normal working hours.
Account fees for Student Current Account and Cardcash Account
The section below outlines the fees that we charge to your account in different circumstances.
| Cardcash | ||||
| Type of transaction | Description | Students(see note 2) | Over 18 | Under 18 |
| Paid item fee (see note 1) | A fee we charge when a card transaction, cheque (whether guaranteed or not), standing order, direct debit or other instruction that we pay results in or increases an unarranged overdraft (see notes 4 and 5) | £20 (no more than once a day) | Does not apply | |
| Unpaid item fee (see note 1) | A fee we charge when we decide to return unpaid, or not to pay, any cheque, card transaction, standing order, direct debit or other instruction that would result in or increase an unarranged overdraft (see notes 4 and 5) | £20 (no more than once a day) | £15 (no more than three times a day) | Does not apply |
| Unarranged overdraft fee (see note 3) | A fee we charge for every month in which you at any time have an unarranged overdraft. | £28 (up to once a month) | Does not apply | Does not apply |
| Fees for special services | Stopped cheque (except for lost or stolen cheques) | £10 | £10 | |
| Special presentation of a cheque (faster clearance than usual) | £12 | £12 | ||
| Banker's draft | £20 | £20 | Free | |
| Copies of paid cheques | £5 | £5 | ||
| Extra statement | £5 | £5 | ||
| CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payment System) payment | £25 | £25 | ||
| Bank reference | £10 | £10 | ||
| Foreign drafts, foreign currency, travellers cheques and transferring funds electronically abroad. | Please ask for details | Please ask for details | ||
Notes:
1. We will collect the fee 15 days after we pay or don’t pay the item
2. 'Student' is defined in the Halifax bank account conditions
3. We will give you at least 14 days’ notice before we take any interest out of your account. We will collect the fee on the last day of the next month. There is no charge or debit interest to pay if you are aged under 18
4. 'Card transaction' is defined in the Halifax bank account conditions
5. Other instructions could include any money coming out of your account
Reward payments
For Ultimate Reward Current Account and Reward Current Account customers
| Account | What you need to do | Amount of reward payment |
| Reward Current Account and Ultimate Reward Current Account | If you pay in £1,000 or more during any month you will receive one reward payment the following month | £5. This payment is ‘net’ of income tax, which means that we pay it after taking off income tax at the rate set by law (currently 20%). If you are a higher-rate taxpayer, you may have to pay extra income tax on the reward payment. (The gross amount is £6.25. This is the amount before income tax is taken off.) This may change in the future. |
| If you do not pay in £1,000 in any month you will not receive any reward payment for that month | None |
Interest paid on credit balances
For Student Current Account, Cardcash and Expresscash bank account customers
If you have money in your bank account (credit balance), we'll pay you interest on it. The interest you receive will depend on the type of account you have and may depend on how you pay money into it.
| Interest paid on credit balances | ||||||
| Account | Customer | AER % | Gross (before tax each year) % | Net (after tax each year) % | ||
| Student (see the student bank account conditions.) | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.08 | |||
| Under 18 | 1.51 | 1.50 | 1.20 | |||
|
|
11 to 15 year olds | 1.51 | 1.50 | 1.20 | ||
The annual equivalent rate (AER) shows what the interest rate would be if we paid interest on the full balance once a year. The gross rate (before tax each year) is the rate of interest we pay before we take income tax at the rate set by law. The net rate (after tax each year) is the amount of interest we would pay after taking off tax (currently at 20%). This may change in the future.
| Fees for special services | |
| Stopped cheque (except for lost or stolen cheques) | £10 |
| Special presentation of a cheque (faster clearance than usual) | £12 |
| Banker's draft | £20 |
| Copies of paid cheques | £5 |
| Extra statement | £5 |
| CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payment System) payment | £25 |
| Foreign drafts, foreign currency, travellers cheques and transferring funds electronically abroad | Please ask for details |
| Bank reference | £10 |
Receiving international payment fees
These are the fees that apply if you receive an electronic funds transfer into your account which originated overseas.
| Amount paid into your account | Amount of fee when Euros are paid into your account | Amount of fee when other currencies are paid into your account |
| Up to £100 | Free | Free |
| £100.01 to £8,000 | Free | £3 |
| £8,000.01 and above | £3 | £3 |
The amount of the fee you pay will be calculated after we've converted the money you've received into pounds sterling. We'll do this on the day we pay it into your account.
You may also have to pay an extra £3 fee if the information we are given by the paying bank is incorrect or missing, or if we have to make extra checks. The most you will pay for any transaction is £6.
Buying goods and services in a foreign currency
Additional information
Halifax bank accounts and the services we offer depend on your circumstances and our requirements. Credit facilities (including overdrafts and debit cards) are only available to people aged 18 or over.
At any time we may tell you to repay any overdraft, interest and fees that you owe on your account. You must pay interest and fees when we add them to your account. This means, for example, the fee is due on the day we refuse to pay a cheque. We will give you at least 14 days’ notice before taking the monthly fee for unarranged overdrafts. We will give you at least 14 days’ notice before we take any interest charged on overdrawn balances out of your account if the interest you owe us is more than the interest we owe you on any money you have in your account for that month.
Under the conditions, we may change fees, make new fees or change the way in which you have to pay fees. We may also change interest rates.