Features

Rating: 3/6

Halifax has one of the most relaxed login procedures of any bank tested here: a user-chosen login and password, married with the correct answer to one of five randomly chosen security questions, are all that bars entry to an account. The security questions are hardly Fort Knox-standard, either - "father's Christian name" and "mother's maiden name" could easily be gleaned from a social-networking profile, for example.

Keeping abreast of your overall financial health is simple thanks to the Portfolio screen that appears straight after login, revealing the balance of all your different accounts at a glance. Accounts can be renamed with handy monikers such as "holiday fund" or "tax savings". Halifax also makes a good fist of combining other financial services with banking. Mortgage applications can be made online, for example, with the outcome appearing

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in your Portfolio screen once a decision has been made.

Transferring money between accounts is a painless procedure, but transferring money to third parties is needlessly overcomplicated, with the user first having to enter the details of the company or person they wish to pay and then having to close the dialog and reselect the recipient before they can enter the amount of money to transfer.

Halifax's paperless banking scheme allows customers to receive all their statements electronically, and these can be conveniently transferred to Microsoft Money or Quicken, although each statement has to be exported individually, rather than in a batch. Statements are archived for up to two years, which is longer than some ofthe other banks tested here, but stillhardly comprehensive.

There's a distinct lack of frills. Mobile banking is a pipe dream unless you have a phone with full web browser; even text message alerts remain beyond the Halifax. And while the bank provides links to revenue-boosting services such as ordering holiday money, basics - such as ordering a chequebook - are absent. Overall, the bank that claims to "give you extra" fails to rise above mediocrity with its online service.

Next: HSBC

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