Thanks again SSL you are a star

If I wasnt skint I would send u a prezzie;)

this one doesnt look as scary.......

does this also apply to Eon electricity?

they are asking me to pay an extra £85 a month to clear arears (because after numerouse phone calls they didnt send a bill for nearly a year!!) on top of the £105 monthly bill which I just cant manage.

Thanks again SSL.

I think I had just been reading through too many statements and looking at to mant figures, then when I went to look at the spreadsheet stuff and it all just melded in to one big mass of numbers:confused:.

do I just use the complex spreadsheet or the "less" complex one?

ok I will give that a go, just looking through my statments I really cant beleive the amount that ive been charged, and also quite confused as to where some of the charges came from.

isnt there a limit to how many charges they can aply in a set period of time?

also having trouble understanding the spreadsheet tried reading the tutorials and now even more confused.

do you think they are more likely to want to settle this quickly if I am in debt with them because of the overdrafts?

thanks SSL

Any idea of what i should do now?

One thing that worries me is that the CCCs may not want to set up a DMP for me know if my debt has increased. I cant beleive i didnt take the overdrafts into account:mad:.

hello all.

I have just received my statement copies back from halif*x (after only 3weeks must be a record lol). I am just in the process of putting all the info onto the spreadsheet but just wanted some advice on another issue..

Both my o/h and myself have overdrafts on our accounts, we have recently set up an account with another bank so we no longer have to get charges from halifax, the question is if we officially close our halifax accounts what happens with regards to the overdrafts? and the charges that they are stilll adding to the account?.

will they then start to pursue us for the amount owed?

Do the charges stop when the account is closed?

Will they even allow us to close the account while there is monies outstanding?

we are also currently setting up a CCCs payment plan for all our other creditors but I stupidly did not include the overdrafts in my plan.

any ideas?

thanks

Malcom hater

thank you SeaSideLady.

I only just thought of it when I had already sent of my SAR

if you are claiming for charges on a joint account do you need to make a joint claim?

and can you still claim for charges if you close you're account/switch to another bank?

ok I will give them a ring and see what they say, like you say it would be better than waiting 40 days, and there will be nothing lost by trying I suppose......unless it just forewarns them.

do you think it is better to send the data protection access request and wait till I have all the statements first?, especially as all the cases are on hold or go another route?

the bulk of the charges have been on a joint account, but there are a few on my oh account (which is what the loan £160pmnth comes out of) . I had to wait until I had money in my account before i could write a £10 cheque to get all the statements (don't want another charge) .I have already downloaded/printed off the letter asking for the statements on the joint account then I can work out the exact amount.

I am not sure as yet exactly how much they have had from us in charges but in the last three months it is probably around the £1000 mark!. whatever it is it is quite a sum.

It depends on weather or not you owe the Halifax any money. If not it doesn't matter, however if you have any debts with them, they have a clause in their terms and conditions that allows them to remove money from your current account to pay loan / credit card arrears. This can be a devastating shock, they have done it to me.

my OH has a loan with them, but as yet we are not in default the only debts we seem to have with them are created by damn charges.

Halifax really are a breed apart aren't they, would love to give the dancing singing guy on the adds a sound beating:evil:

If you are both doing that type of work - then I wouldn't even think about taking on any more.

A good way to raise some cash is have a clear out and car boot sale or e-bay it.

we haven't really got much worth selling tbh I would sell the pc but i need it for studies I already sold the car to raise some cash (and bought a cheaper one) and its not like we go out to the pub and stuff the only unnecessary expense is a pack of tobacco once a week, I have also tried looking for work closer to home so that I don't have to spend about £200 prmnth on petrol and my wife about £80 on train and bus

Have you opened new bank accounts?

no...is this incase hlfx close ours?

thanks for the replies

some good advice, both me and my OH have been trying to get extra work, but the problem has been childcare, which seems to be ridiculously expensive especially weekends, evenings and school holidays, and wouldnt leave us much better financially. as well as the jobs that we both do being incredibly demanding and stressful (working with children with severe behaviour problems) it leaves you so wiped out that even making dinner seems like hard work.and studying most days for at least three hours just adds to it.

but we are going ahead with the Halif**ks claim they have been stitching us up for years:evil:.

and the other debts are going down the CCa route as suggested by you good people.

has anyone out there gone to NR with similar problems on a together mortgage , and have you managed to go interest only?

what do you think the outcome will be if I tell them that my income has changed? do you think that they will then just decide that I cannot pay and then try and take the house? and as I haven't told them of my income change can I get into trouble because of this?

I know that there are others in a far worse situation but I just want to do something before I get that far in.

thanx

mdnsknt

thanks Olive I am going to go now and see what I can read up then for the CCA, always worth a go also will follow you're advice on writing to the electric company, I think that will be more effective than lots of niggly phone calls which only end up making you angry and more frustrated:mad:.

many thanks

Thanks Olive, I did think about asking if I could go to an interest only for a while but im not sure if they would allow me to, I did also (probably stupidly) think of trying to get a loan to pay off the other cards loans etc, but only if the repayments would be lower than what i am paying out at the moment, I know it sounds daft but I thought if it freed up some money at the end of each month it might help.

We already have a £760 electric bill, not through not paying it but because (even after chasing them for a bill) they did not issue a bill for about seven months! and are know saying we need to pay an extra £60 a mnth to clear it which we cant really afford.

We were also supposed to have a payment holiday next month but that will be cancelled out when and if I can pay this month, it means we wont have arrears, but also means we cant use the money to pay off other bills cards etc, which was part of the idea of us getting a payment holiday in the first place, the only other option they gave us was to miss the payment and pay extra every mnth (about £300 extra over three mnths) which is not possible.

we managed to pay the council tax this month, but only just. It just seems that everything comes in one go, and I am determined not to bury my head in the sand which is a huge temptation at the moment....been there...done that doesn't work:(.

do you think that they would accept if i asked to go interest only for a while, even on a together mortgage?

hello

I am currently in a panic concerning my together mortgage with Northern Rock.

here is a brief outline of the problems;

1.we are currently earning substantially less than we were when we took out the mortgage (change of jobs, the cost of travel became to high).

2. we have cut back everything to the bare minimum on outgoings and still can not realistically afford monthly payments of £975. and have stupidly been using cap one and Vanquis cards to pay for food petrol etc, so know total outgoings are even more. Also ludicrous amounts of bank charges from Halifax which left us unable to make a mortgage payment for May (am currently awaiting reply from them with regards to claiming back charges).

although we are not currently in arrears with Nr I will be if I don't make this months payment (I have till the end of this month) which seem impossible. If we (wife and two kids) are to eat and get to work. I did phone them at the end of last month as soon as I realised that I could not make the direct debit payment for may and the woman I spoke to said it was ok just cancel dd and try to make payment by end of this month.

If I explain to them about us both earning less than when we took on the mortgage are they likely to take some form of action against us for not telling them of change of circumstances?

Do you think that as we are not currently in arrears that we would be able to get some form of reduced repayment for a period of time until we get ourselves back on our feet, (we are both currently studying and when qualified will/ should be earning more) and if so how do we go about this?.

After reading some of the posts with regards to people loosing there homes it just puts us in more of a panic as all these things seem just around the corner.

any help would be much appreciated.

thanks for reading

Madnskint

Thanks Tilly and Kennythecelt.

I was starting to think that I wouldnt be able to put in a claim:eek: (major panic). Especially as the sods charged me five times in on month (feb) then again last week:mad::mad:.

Any way I will get my statements and start a new thread and vent my spleen on it rather than carry on on this one.

thanks for setting me straight on those questions:D.

take care

sorry for sounding (and being stupid) but what exactly does "Stayed" mean?

does this mean you cannot try and get incorrect charges back?

Thanks for the welcome and the links:D...I will be sure to read them thoroughly....and probably still have loads of questions.

thanks again

Hello every one.

I have just found you're forum today and feel I can breath a sigh of relief (I hope not prematurely) that there is a place where people like myself who have been screwed by hali...hal...ha.. (dont even want to say it....that place) can get help and advice on how to recover these ridiculous, unlawful charges that get lumped upon us.

I look forward to catching up with you guys and gals as soon as i have my facts and figures, and know a bit more about what I am doing:confused:, as at the moment it all seems pretty daunting.

sorry it sounded more like a rant than a hello...but Im sure you understand:wink: