Card me baby! (Halifax Classic Credit Cards)

Member Name: SimonFinnigan

Product:	Halifax Classic Credit Cards
Date:	14/01/04 (904 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sensible credit limits, Excellent online facilities

Disadvantages: No idea of the interest rate!

I know, isn`t it amazing. ANOTHER review of a Halifax financial service from me :-) What can I say - I am perfectly happy with the service I get from the Halifax!

Anyway, this review is all about my Halifax credit card. I`ve had a credit card with them for 7 years now, and the credit limit has gone from £250 to well over £4000 as I`ve gotten older and had more money to spend. The card itself is a bog standard Visa card, you can use it almost anywhere (and I DO use mine almost anywhere :-) ). The interest rate is reasonable (as far as I know - I always pay my bill in full by the end of the month, so I never pay interest on my balance).

The big advantages, certainly for me, come from the online side of the Halifax. Since all my other bank accounts are with the Halifax, when I sign in to the online banking site, my credit card is listed there for me as well. I can get a copy of my last 3 statements online, check my balance and available credit, check out the recent transactions that have gone through but have not made it onto a "full" statement yet. You can ask for an increased credit limit online, and do anything else that you want. You can also pay the bill easily, just as you can with any other bill though the web site.

The biggest "issue" with the Halifax is their credit limits. They don`t seem to be a bank that hands out stupidly high credit limits willy-nilly, which for most people is a very good thing. If they don`t think you`re capable of dealing with the increased limit, they won`t let you have it. This has caused me a slight problem once though - I`d spent most of my limit on stuff I wanted, and then suddenly got told that I was going to Chicago in 2 days. I had to pay for the flights and the hotel myself, which was going to take me well over my current credit limit. I rang them up and asked for a higher limit, and the first person I spoke to said that they couldn`t help me, as the computer wouldn
`t increase my limit at all. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and once I`d convinced them that I needed the increased limit (it was an expenses paid trip, the money was going to be waiting for me when I got back home) and was not a risk, he was very happy to increase the limit by £1000 there and then, and it has stayed there until recently, when they increased it of their own free will. I was a bit worried about them not increasing my limit, but they obviously took a sensible view of the situation - the computer wasn`t sure, but a person had the final say and was willing to listen to the whole story, and make a decision based on all the evidence available to them.

In conclusion, I`m completely happy with my Halifax credit card. The interest rate I can`t comment on, but everything else about the card is great. Get your own financial advice, don`t take mine (I`m not a financial advisor :-) ), but for me this has been a brilliant card run by a brilliant banking organisation!

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