Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Will not pay for water damage full stop!

...On returning from our family holiday we were greeted by a neighbour that was looking after our home. She informed us that there were extreme weather conditions and we had suffered a leak to our bay window flat roof. Our neighbour to her credit had minimised much surrounding damage as she could. Nevertheless the laminate flooring was damage and the ceiling had sagged considerably as a result of the rainwater. We are insured via St Andrews Insurance PLC who is actually also Halifax. They sent someone to assess the extend of damage and on concluding this arranged to send someone to take samples of the Artex on the ceiling as some ceiling textures used asbestos. When the results came back they were found to be positive. There was a period of silence for about a week or more and when I contacted them to find out how the claim was progressing... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: supposedly comprehensive cover
Disadvantages: too expensive for existing customers

...My buildings and contents insurance has been with the Halifax for many years and even though I shopped around, it always came out well for price and unlimited contents cover. This year, however, the renewal was £930. Comparison websites produced several cheaper quotes but the only one that was directly comparable was M & S at £600. As the Halifax were also offering to beat your quote and freeze for 3 years I tried their website but was unable to get a quote online because I was already a customer! So I tried again using next door's house number with all my details. Result- £560!!! So I went into my local Halifax and showed them the details, the chap was as staggered as I was. So he phoned a Halifax insurance expert who took all my details again and offered a quote of £970!!!!!!!! I politely declined the new quote, which could have been... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: cheap, lightening fast turnaround, excellent customer service
Disadvantages: None

...I have only had Halifax home contents insurance for 8 months and I took it out because they were offering the best deal at the time. I pay £180 per year and that includes accidental damage, personal belongings while away from the home and with a £50 excess. I spilt something on my antiquated computer the other day and gave them a call. I made the phone call on Wednesday evening and received a phone call on Thursday morning as promised by the people who were going to come out and "inspect" and possibly repair my PC. As it stood, they advised that because my computer was quite old in today's standards they would send me out a brand new the very next day! I was absolutely amazed - they did not want to come out and look at the old one first, they trusted that I was telling the truth with the model that I currently had. They offered... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: lifelong policy, cheap, easy set up online
Disadvantages: £50 excess per condition

...Bought my West Highland Terrier slightly more than 1 year ago. My vet suggested I take out a lifelong policy for her. What are lifelong policies? basically if you take out a lifelong policy then if your pet develops a condition e.g arthritis, your insurance company will continue to pay for that condition as long as you continue your policy with them. If you switch to a different company the new insurers could decide not to pay for that condition. Of course you can switch to a different company anytime but it is better to stick to one. Anyway when i first took out a policy, it was with norwich union. They were the cheapest at the time...£15 a month. When it came time to renew the policy, the price increased to £16 a month. Yikes! I decided to shop around and found halifax which also did a lifelong policy. Advantages: Halifax... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good competitive quote
Disadvantages: tell you that you are covered for everything until you try and claim

...We took out our house insurance for buildings and contents with Halifax when we had our mortgage with them last October. They advised us it would help with our mortgage application if we had a complete package with them i.e payment protection,house insurance, life insurance, so we did. The premiums wasn't too bad in price so we didn't think anything of it. I did however read all the small print and check with the advisor what we was and wasn't covered for. On Feb 1st 2004 we awoke as normal went into the utillity area and water was coming in from the flat roof, it wasn't just coming in it was pouring in. It had cracked the ceiling and there was a hole where the flat roof had come in courtesy of a ridge tile that had blown off during a night of high winds. We also had 3 fence panels down. We had a quote from a builder that we were... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: I don't know which ones, I couldn't have a glimpse because they didn;t want of me
Disadvantages: They are a headache to open a bank account with, and they also reject you *after* having opened the account

...Hello, Ciao-ers. I'm an Italian woman, and I moved to UK this summer, looking for a permanent job to stay here for good. You can't know how much problems I had to find a job. Here in England everything seems difficult for us non British people. Companies ask for you to have a National Insurance Number. But when you phone the Social Securities asking for one, they tell you that you must have a job first. The first time I was told of this (and I had a big, wide, huge question mark over my head) I had just arrived to England and was in a jobcentre looking for a job. One of the assistant there told me that, "yes, they say that, but in truth, you can start to work with a temporary NI number and bring to the Social Security a letter from your employer that states you work in there." So, I kept looking and eventually found a job at McD as crew... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: good for 1st time buyers
Disadvantages: did not offer a good rate after fixed term ended, overcharge customers

...*This is the second review I posted on Ciao and have edited it as it needed more information and an update* For the purpose of this review I am writing about my experience of having a mortgage with Halifax and am not reviewing Halifax and it’s services as a whole. I am very much aware that for some they have had a great experience with them, but for me after being a loyal customer for such a long time. I felt that they had let me down and recently I realised that I had overpaid when my mortgage came to an end and successfully received a refund from them. Halifax is a leading building society and has been providing mortgages for many years. I had been a customer of Halifax for over 10 years as my parents insisted when I was younger that I had a Building Society savings account (at the time it was the Little Extra Club) so... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Great customer serice, a great way to build a tax free lump sum
Disadvantages: No withdrawals allowed in fixed term

...Looking for a great tax free return on your savings!! Look no further. If you are looking for a tax free lump sum return over a period of 1 to 5 years Halifax has got the answer. As I am looking for a tax free lump sum from my savings after I graduate from uni in five years time. For those of you who are not familiar with ISA's I have provided some general info below. * ISA's General * ISA's are Individual savings accounts launched by the government in 1999 to replace TESSA's and PEP's as a Tax free savings vehicle for people to save and earn interest tax free. They are split into three components of which you can invest per year up to £3000 in cash component as a cash mini ISA up to £3000 in stocks and shares mini ISA up to £1000 in insurance mini ISA You can choose to have 1,2, or three components of an ISA... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Handy to keep an eye on your account
Disadvantages: none so far

...After having problems with my previous bank, I decided to open an account with halifax, this was about five years ago. The reason I chose Halifax Well they were always advertised on tv and I needed a new account for my wages to be paid into, so I went in made an appointment and opened my current account, which did`nt take long and the staff were friendly and helpful. Other services available at Halifax Credit cards Mortgages Personnel loans Savings and Investments Insurance Share Dealing However I basically use my account as a savings account and dont have any Shares or Credit cards through Halifax. Five years later Five years on and I cant say anything bad about the services provided by Halifax, Eighteen months ago was when I first started to use online banking, I found their web address at the back of my... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Large amount of interest

...I took my first ever mortgage out just over 2yrs ago with the Halifax whom I found to be very helpful. It was suggested that I take out at the same time building insurance, which I obviously had to have, with them as it would make life so much easier.This I elected to pay alongside my mortgage repayments monthly. When it came up to the yearly renewal I received the quote from the Halifax and decided to ring round other insurance brokers to see if I could obtain abetter rate. After afew days I decided to change over to a different company for the insurance. I contacted the Halifax to inform them and wanted to know what my monthly repayments would be minus the building insurance. I was informed that the repayments would stay the same, I was baffled and I just couldnt understand why when I would not be having the benifit of the insurance... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful