In an effort to create some waves in the personal and business bank account industry, Halifax has recently launched a new prize draw every month for savings account holders with balances of at least £5,000.

The new Halifax Savers Prize Draw will be giving away a thousand £100 prizes, a hundred payouts of £1,000, and three £100,000 lots to qualifying savers.  All the prizes given out by the taxpayer-owned bank will be paid tax-free in cash to any account the customer chooses.

Any Halifax account holder with more than £5,000 in their savings pots can register for the draws, which the bank says will run for at least 12 months from December 2011.  However, account holders must register in order to enter the monthly prize draw.

Savings director for Halifax, Simon Kenyon, said that the goal of the new draw was to inject some fun and excitement into the banking industry suffering from the record low 0.5 per cent base interest rate set by the Bank of England early in 2009.  Halifax conducted exhaustive research, remarked Mr Kenyon, and the bank found that customers enjoy the practice of encouraging saving through the use of prizes.

The new Halifax prize draw could be compared to NS&I’s Premium Bonds, said the savings director, but differ in that interest rates will continue to be paid.  This way, customers lose nothing and gain the chance to win an amount of cash that is truly life changing, added Mr Keynon.

There are no limitations on qualifying for the prize draw, save the minimum £5,000 account balance.  Registering for the prize draw must be done either in branch, over the phone, or online.