At last! Halifax shuts dreadful notice accounts

By SYLVIA MORRIS, THIS IS MONEY AND DAILY MAIL SAVINGS EXPERT
Updated:

Halifax has closed two of its old notice accounts, Bonus Gold and 60 Day Gold, to new savers. Both demand you give notice to take out at least part of your money unless your balance has fallen below the original minimum of £5,000. 

With Bonus Gold you have to give 30 days' warning that you want to withdraw money from your account, while with 60 Day Gold the notice period is 60 days.

If you fail to give notice, you lose the equivalent of 30 days' interest in Bonus Gold and 60 days' on 60-Day Gold.

Happy days: Halifax has finally shut two of its notice accounts to new savers

Happy days: Halifax has finally shut two of its notice accounts to new savers

The rates on both accounts are appalling and well below the rates you can earn on easy-access accounts.

In the 60 Day Gold account you earn just 0.08 per cent after tax (0.1 per cent before tax). This means it will cost you just 13p per £1,000 to pay the notice penalty - a loss you can easily make up in a better-paying account.

On Bonus Gold, the underlying rate is also 0.08  per cent (0.1 per cent) plus a bonus of 0.4 percentage points (0.5  per cent) if you limit the withdrawals you make on the account.

Newer easy access accounts pay better rates than these notice accounts, which come with complicated terms. You can earn 2 per cent (2.5 per cent) with Abbey in its easy-access account. Or you could split the money between an easyaccess account and a fixed-rate bond.

Halifax is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, which has a notice account called Lloyds' 90 Day Notice. It is closed to new savers and pays 0.08 per cent (0.1 per cent).

A Halifax spokesman says: 'We have closed the accounts so we can simplify the range of accounts open to new savers.'

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