This packaged account costs £19 per month
Halifax Ultimate Reward is a packaged bank account. It gets a bundle of insurances that could save you money on getting them individually. Here’s what you get with the Halifax Ultimate Reward account.
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Note that this is just an overview of the insurances offered with this account — there may be exclusions, excesses and limitations that we’ve not covered below. You should have a look through the documents about the policies to make sure it suits you.
Halifax Ultimate Reward vs Reward Account
The Ultimate Reward account is an upgrade to the Reward account, so you get all the same benefits with this one as you do with the Reward account, including the option to choose between three monthly rewards: either £5 in your account, a cinema ticket or three digital magazines.
There are a few hoops you have to jump through to get the rewards, which we explain in full in our review of the Halifax Reward account.
What do you get with the Halifax Ultimate Reward Account?
The Halifax Ultimate Reward Account costs £19 a month.It comes with worldwide family travel insurance, family breakdown cover, mobile phone insurance for the account holder and home emergency cover.
We’ve included an estimated value of each benefit. This is based on getting individual insurance with similar cover. Where the cover offered by this account is family cover, we’ve searched comparison sites for a family of four. This is just to provide you a guide, and we haven’t checked that every aspect of the insurance is the same.
Travel insurance
- Provided by: AWP Assistance
- Estimated value: £130
- This is based on quotes we found for a family of four getting a worldwide multi-trip annual insurance policy
You get included multi-trip travel insurance for you and your family. The insurance covers you for cancellation, medical costs and personal belongings. You get some winter sports included, as well as golf holidays and UK getaways.
Yours and your partner’s children are covered when they’re travelling with you or another responsible adult. They need to be under 18, or 24 and under if they’re still in full-time education.
Are pre-existing conditions covered?
If you’ve got pre-existing medical conditions then they won’t be covered unless you contact the provider AWP. You might be charged an additional premium to cover them. You get a 14-day cooling-off period when you get this account, so you’ll be able to find out if it’s suitable for you during this period.
AA Breakdown cover
- Provided by: the AA
- Estimated value: £210
- This is based on breakdown cover for a family of four
You also get UK breakdown cover for yourself and your family. You’re covered whether you’re the driver or the passenger, which is decent cover.
To be covered as well, your family needs to live at the same house as the account holder, or a student away at university.
Mobile phone insurance
- Provided by: Assurant
- Estimated value: £120
- This is based on quotes for insurance for the latest Apple iPhone for a similar level of cover
The account holder (or holders, if you have a joint account) gets mobile phone insurance included with the account. This gets you repair or replacement if your phone breaks, or is accidentally damaged, lost or stolen.
Home emergency cover
- Provided by: Inter Partner Assistance S.A
- Estimated value: £130
- This is based on quotes for similar home emergency cover
Here’s where Halifax Ultimate Reward is different to others, as this is the only packaged account that offers this as a benefit. It covers things like your central heating breaking or a burst pipe. You can claim up to £250 each time to get the problem dealt with.
Waived card fees abroad
Halifax usually charges 2.99% when you use your card abroad. With the Ultimate Reward account, you won’t be charged for making payments abroad or withdrawing money abroad.
While this is great, it’s not a reason to choose this account. There are plenty of other free debit and credit cards that you can use abroad without paying fees, including Chase, which lets you earn cashback on your spending.
Just be sure to pay in the local currency when spending or withdrawing abroad to avoid being charged additional fees.
How Halifax Ultimate Reward differs from other packaged bank accounts
✅ Worldwide family travel insurance
✅ Includes home emergency cover
✅ Breakdown cover is for the whole family
❌ Mobile phone insurance is for the account holder only
❌ Breakdown cover is UK only
Customer reviews of Halifax Ultimate Reward
Customers of Halifax Ultimate Reward have given the account 3.99/5 over at our sister site, Smart Money People. Customers feel that the monthly cost is worth it and that the cover they get is excellent.
A lot of the negative comments were in relation to the home emergency cover, with customers struggling to make claims.
Is Halifax Ultimate Reward worth it?
Zoe’s analysis
This is the only packaged account we’ve reviewed that has home emergency cover included, but it’s a particularly expensive account, especially considering that you don’t get mobile phone insurance for the whole family.
The travel insurance included is excellent, with the entire family included, however, you’re better off with a cheaper account, like the Virgin Money Club M account at £12.50 per month. You don’t get home emergency cover, but this might fall under your home insurance policy, so you may have the insurance you need already.
Halifax Ultimate Reward
| Account name | Halifax Ultimate Reward |
| Cost | 19 per month |
| Annual cost | 228 |
| Minimum term | No minimum term |
| Benefits | Worldwide family travel insurance |
| Mobile phone insurance | |
| UK family breakdown cover | |
| Emergency cover | |
| Use your card for free abroad | |
| Drawbacks | Mobile phone insurance is for the account holder only |
| Breakdown cover is UK only | |
| Joint account available? | Yes, at no extra cost |
The additional premium to get cover for pre-existing medical conditions is exorbitant. When I made enquiries, the extra premium was more than the cost of a stand-alone annual travel policy with a major provider. These accounts seem to be tailored for young families.
I mean, “Reward”, “Ultimate Reward”, where are they or can they going to take it next?
Does anyone else just yearn for the time when a bank account was just a bank account?
What is the point of all this? Who’s got the time to try and work out whether or not it’s worth getting any of these, and that means even after reading a lengthy review like this you’d need to spend more time deciding whether it was worth it before you take the plunge. And then probably still regret it when you try to make a claim, apparently.
Who on their deathbed has ever said, “I regret not spending more time juggling my money between my 15 bank accounts in order to get an extra £50 over a year, or working out which packaged accounts are better than the others?