Halifax credit card customers told of €30 stamp duty savings

HALIFAX HAS contacted its credit card customers by text informing them that they will save €30 in Government stamp duty if they close their account by April 1st.

The bank, which has about 50,000 credit card and current account holders, has announced it will close its branch doors in June, forcing customers to transfer their business elsewhere.

Customers who rang the helpline yesterday were told they will be liable for a double stamp duty charge if they do not close their account by April 1st, the date on which the annual Government stamp duty charge applies.

However, when contacted by The Irish Timesa spokeswoman for Halifax said customers who change to another credit card provider after that date would be provided with a waiver letter which will exempt them from paying the charge a second time.

Under the current system, credit card users who change to a different credit card account do not have to pay the duty more than once provided they furnish their new issuer with a letter of closure from their original provider, stating that the stamp duty has been paid for the year.

A spokesman for Revenue confirmed yesterday that the waiver letter which Halifax will provide to customers will fulfil the function of the letter of closure.

Yesterday, Halifax, which is the retail arm of Bank of Scotland Ireland announced the closure dates for its 44 branches and said that customers have until June 18th to close their accounts. The bank said it would be writing to all customers by April 14th, detailing how the closure of the branches affects their accounts and outlining the options available to them.

Last month, Bank of Scotland Ireland, which is owned by the part-nationalised UK bank Lloyds, announced that it was to close its 44 Halifax branches in Ireland with the loss of 750 jobs, approximately half of its Irish workforce.

The bank said it was withdrawing from the Irish retail banking market after a review found that Halifax was too small to survive as a result of the financial crisis and the recession.

While mortgage customers can retain their mortgages with the bank, they must move to a new lender if they seek to remortgage or top up their loans.

The bank has about 7 per cent of the Irish mortgage market.