Halifax tempts savers with special £1.35m prize draw

theguardian.com:

The Halifax is “supersizing” its prize draw for savers for one month only and will be giving away £1.35m in June, including 10 top prizes of £100,000.

It is the latest bit of encouraging news for longsuffering savers, who are starting to see interest rates creep up after the recent Bank of England base rate rises.

With interest rates moving upwards, it is perhaps no surprise that easy access accounts are proving popular at the moment, as people are not locked in and can quickly move their cash elsewhere if higher returns become available.

Halifax is one of Britain’s biggest savings providers and runs a monthly premium bond-style prize draw for savers with at least £5,000 stashed away.

The bank says that in June, “in celebration of its 10-year anniversary” (although the draw was actually launched in 2011), it will increase the prize fund.

Rather than the usual three top prizes of £100,000, there will be 10. In addition, only for June, another 10 prizes of £10,000 will be available. The usual draws of £1,000 (100 winners) and £100 (1,500 winners) will also take place.

The draw is free to enter, although customers need to register – via the app, online or in branch – and there are various requirements. You need to hold a qualifying savings account (all Halifax and Bank of Scotland savings accounts are eligible, with the exception of children’s accounts) for a whole calendar month.

To be in with a chance of winning in June, £5,000-plus must be in the account for the full calendar month of May. You also need to be 18 or over and live in England, Scotland or Wales.

A series of Bank of England interest rate rises and competition between providers have combined to push up savings rates across the board, said Rachel Springall at the