I agree Conniff, well I have had a reply from shopdirect and they are "investigating" my complaint - whatever they will just sit on it for a few days and then write to me to say tough **** thats the way we roll.

another email address for ya is [email protected] who is a Customer Excellence Officer for the Shop Direct Group Contact Centres.

ill keep ya updated.

4 weekley to monthly? I am on 28days and they have blocked my account because their system is making my pay due date earlier and earlier each month. I get paid 1st of every month but they dont give a ****...I am writing to [email protected] - CEO of littlewoods and other catalogue companies.

Has anyone has issues with Littlewoods blocking your account because there payment cycle is every 28 days and gets earlier and earlier each month so much so that its gettting to the stage that I would have to pay 2 payments in 1 months wage packet. I dont get paid until 1st of each month.

They were supposed to call me last week, I am still waiting.

strange... will keep you posted if they call me.

I belive this issue is being investigated by BBCs Panorama programme. They are calling me tomorrow.

Thanks for this - I am in middle of dispute with Crap One

Just had a phone call from there headoffice, so good luck.

It works! I put a read receipt on, and now have a second email contact:

[email protected] and [email protected]

Let's now see if they take my leagl notice seriously re: harassment by phone.

[email protected] still works - just sent an email to her and got a read reply.

Will let you know on the result and also if [email protected] still works.

I have 3 acc's with hbos, one which holds a healthy overdraft, which when i was earning bigbucks i didnt mind but now after the recession i am not earning big bucks i am constantly in my over draft, also in the over draft of the other 2. id say every month on avg i am now going to be charged about 75 quid instead of before i only paid about 35 in total interest if i was ever in od. but if we went back to the old way with the interest, if we have an unpaid item or a returned cheque etc they will also go back to charging us the 35.00 or would they?

 

one account i was up to my overdraft limit so i was paying a pound a day i had a direct debit due which i didnt have sufficient funds to cover so the bank went ahead and paid this which caused my account to go over arranged overdraft limt uncurring me a 5 pound a day charge i was fuming who decides whether to let money thats not even there leave my acc, after i phoned the bank to ask them, they said the bank make the decision based on if there is a chance i could get into trouble for not paying it and it was a broadband dd.

 

so should i be chalenging the bank on this change? i cant make up my mind its for the better or the worse?

So halifax are in to running are lives now are they? just reduced my OD down to £300 for the ultimate reward account, had to sell my dj-ing gear to do it but id rather cut my bollocks off than give the cheeky ****ers extra money.

Received a response from the Government today:

 

Read the Government’s response

 

The Government is aware that some banks have made changes to current account charging structures, but it is important to stress that the Government does not set terms and conditions for personal current accounts.

 

Some concern has been expressed that a flat daily fee may make overdraft borrowing more expensive. That is likely to depend on the way that consumers manage their account. Some consumers will be better off and others may pay more for overdraft facilities depending on the pattern of their borrowing.

 

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced, in October 2009, that it has reached an agreement with the main retail banks to make personal current account costs more transparent and the process of switching accounts easier. This follows the OFT’s 2008 market study, which identified a number of problems including hidden costs to consumers through opaque charging structures, which meant that the market did not work well for consumers.

 

Borrowers who may be adversely affected may wish to consult their bank about the best account to suit their needs, and how to minimise their exposure to overdraft fees. Alternatively they may wish to look more widely across the personal current account market. The OFT is taking steps to help consumers understand and compare the costs of bank accounts through new advice and tools, including an interest calculator on its Consumer Direct website at: Consumer Direct.

 

In addition, if any customer is dissatisfied with how their bank has dealt with a complaint, the Financial Ombudsman Service may be able to help. They can be contacted on 0300 123 9123 or at [email protected].

this is what I got from them....a BIG **** OFF

Arrgghhh Halifax !!!

I originally had a card cash account with the halifax and after spending many years sorting debt out i wanted to upgrade my account to a current account because they said i was no longer allowed an overdraft on this type of account but the halifax would not let me they said i was unable to upgrade that type of account but they would let me open a new current account and get an overdraft with this account so i did this. About 6 months later they upgraded my card cash account to a current account without even telling me and gave me an overdraft of £300 so i now have 2 current accounts and now they have introduced the £1 a day charge. I dont very often use my overdraft at all so i thought i would upgrade to the ultimate reward account as there are no charges for upto £300 overdraft and figured seen as though when i do use my overdraft its usually only for about 10 days so i thought paying £7.50 per month (because i get the £5 reward) for a fee free overdraft and get all the extra benefits such as mobile insurance, breakdown, card cover etc would be worth it.

 

I have had the Ultimate reward account for a month and yesterday i logged in to check my account to find they have taken away my £300 overdraft facility on this account i have not received any notification that they were stopping this.

 

So now i am stuck with the ultimate reward account for a year with no overdraft and paying the £12.50 a month and another account which has an overdraft which i no doubt will have to use at some point that i will have to pay charges on.

 

:mad::mad::mad:

 

Does anyone have any suggestions what i should do???????

Did halifax say they sent u a letter via post or online banking? they did tis with my partners student account they reduced her overdraft by £500 which left her £495 over the overdraft the reason they reduced it was because she hadnt paid anything in to the account for a few months. What is halifaxs reason for taking away your £300 o/d?

Hi there

 

Thanks for the advise they did offer me that but £12.50 to have it its a joke, I will have to do that through cant afford not to then reduce my overdraft until I can leave them.

However if we all just jump ship who is to say if they have been allowed to get away with this other banks we go to wont try this to, something to be said of getting paid in cash like the old days no charges at all for that and as we once thought the banks don't keep our money safe for us it would safer under our mattresses.

I am very disappointed with the Halifax after 20 years of hassle free banking to now have this dropped on us all.

Good luck

I agree, there is nothing stopping them but then if you think about it, if all banks do this all their customers will do is leave them and go back to getting paid in cash and paying for bills via postal orders etc. and then we wont have any current accounts etc and no greedy bastards at the top.

Today I discovered Halifax have charged me £105.00 for going over my arranged overdraft of £400.00 by just £2.80p with this new £5.00 a day charge, I have been with this bank for over 20 years and have watched as they slowly push away low end low earning customer bit by bit, first it removing counter services in their branches for us low grade Visa Electron account holders and now this £1.00 a day for arranged and £5.00 for unarranged overdrafts outrage.

They are playing a very clever game to get rid of us low earner customers by making their other accounts more attractive to the better off and business customer thus completely changing the image they once had back in the days I took my account.

 

They have refused to be reasonable with me even through in the whole 20 years I have had this arranged overdraft they have never allowed me to exceed it before by even a penny my card was always declined if the payment i wanted to make went over the £400.00, then hey ho like magic when they introduce this £5.00 a day fee they allow me to make a payment that put me over by £2.80, I honestly thought it was impossible because of what had always happened in the past for me to go over my overdraft so thought the £5.00 a day thing didn't affect me, how wrong could I be?

They cant get away with this they must be stopped they are taking advantage of the poorer people in society pushing them further and further down into poverty its so wrong and they have proved they show no loyalty to long standing customers such as myself so why should I show them any?

I am so angry and hope they loose so many customers they have to close that way it will be a warning to all other banks the public wont be pushed around like this and just lie down and accept it.

Grow up Halifax did you really think telling us this would make us better off was going to work it is clear from all the forums and comments your customers don't believe this.

Hi 0161linda10,

can you bring your overdraft down to below £300 and then upgrade to the ultimate reward current account which is fee free for the first £300, only drawback is it will cost £12.50 per month. this is what I have done with my account as per my previous post and then just going to pay off so much a month to clear and then close the account. The overdraft has to be paid off anyway so I'd rather just pay them what they lent me rather then what they lent me and some.

Really strange. My complaint is with the FOS so I shall print the statement out and ask them to query why they've credited this amount.

 

It did cross my mind that because their charges are so high and they've just woken up to how much it is going to cost their customers that they are trying to keep them down a bit. My charges were £39 - £4 = £35 which is what they were charging for going over the unauthorised overdraft previously used.

good idea but I dont think that is right, I was charged £55 anc credited £4. I cannot be bothered to take this any further with them so have closed my single account and am paying a cheque in from a family member today for £1150 which will close my joint account with them. I know not all people will be in the position to do this but Halifax and FOS have not upheld my complaint so i'd rather not give Halifax the chance to get rich from its customers that bailed them out.

I've just received another document from the Halifax so checked it out and found out that they have credited my account with £4 cash and debited the charges for the month of £39.00. Has anyone else had this happen? I can't fathom out what their game is to credit £4!

Yea I got credited £4, not sure was that is about?

still waiting to hear. I noticed that they've stolen £26 off me regardless, but that's now taken it into the red. I believe that it costs £5 per day at that point. Still, I don't care all my ins and outs are with the A&L now.

yea they charged me £25 arranged OD fee/£5 unarranged OD fee on my single current account which has took me over my arranged OD and £11 arranged OD fee/£75 unarranged OD fee on my joint current account which has taken me over my arranged OD. I dont have the money to be repaying this until at least the end of Feb so you can imagine my unarranged OD fees for this month will be £100+ on each account. Ive emailed Eric Daniels with a simlar letter to yours in respose to their letter I received today from the office of the money grabbing bastard executive. see what they reply if not good then will FOS them.

I'm going to send this on Monday:

***

Dear Bank,

 

Thank you for your letter dated 20th January 2010. Although you claim you have tried to call to us to discuss my concerns, I quite frankly don't believe you. Notwithstanding my previous letter, the bank statement we received on 15th Jan 2010 detailed the unlawful charge which you unlawfully wish to levy unlawfully, (just to ensure there is no ambiguity).

 

As you have introduced new terms and conditions to our bank account, I wrote to you previously stating that we do not agree to the changes. For some reason known only to you, you appear to have ignored our non-acceptance of the changes to the terms and conditions.

We wish to state our refusal of these unilaterally imposed terms, which we are entitled to do in accordance with your own terms and conditions which state:

 

If you do not agree to the change you can close your account. If you notify us that you do not accept a change, we will take this as notification that you wish to close your account immediately.

 

As we have notified you in writing within that 2 month period, you are bound to take this as notification that we wish to close this account. You say that you cannot close the account because there is a debit balance outstanding. This is nonsense and is a clear breach of you own terms as quoted above.

 

The agreement between you and us was that this overdraft was provided without a charge apart from the interest it attracts, and we have no wish for this to change, nor have you given us a choice in the matter.

 

I reiterate that I believe your actions contravene the Consumer Protections from Unfair Trading Regulations Act 2008 and are in fact prohibited under Part 2, section 3.-(3)(a) and (b);

 

3) A commercial practice is unfair if—

a) it contravenes the requirements of professional diligence; and

b) it materially distorts or is likely to materially distort the economic behaviour of the average consumer with regard to the product.

 

I also believe your actions contravene the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999, section 5. (1) to (4):

 

1) A contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.

2) A term shall always be regarded as not having been individually negotiated where it has been drafted in advance and the consumer has therefore not been able to influence the substance of the term.

3) Notwithstanding that a specific term or certain aspects of it in a contract has been individually negotiated, these Regulations shall apply to the rest of a contract if an overall assessment of it indicates that it is a pre-formulated standard contract.

4) It shall be for any seller or supplier who claims that a term was individually negotiated to show that it was.

 

and I also refer you to Schedule 2 "INDICATIVE AND NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF TERMS WHICH MAY BE REGARDED AS UNFAIR";

 

1) Terms which have the object or effect of –

k) enabling the seller or supplier to alter unilaterally without a valid reason any characteristics of the product or service to be provided.

I do not consider the "simplification" you claim is your primary reason for this change to be a valid reason. The more likely reason is that £1 per day is considerably more than any interest made on a debit balance. I will state this as clearly as possible so as you can understand what you are choosing to ignore.

 

Your terms state that you can change your terms and conditions with notice to us should you wish but you cannot bind us to them if we do not agree to them, regardless of whether there is a debit balance outstanding. Otherwise you could introduce whatever terms you like and we would be forced to comply. This is unlawful.

 

Your terms also state that the overdraft is repayable on demand. However, we strongly suspect the reason you haven't chosen to do this is because that the interest on our outstanding balance is considerably less than £1 per day. We fully intend to pay the overdraft back at the agreed rate of 19.5%, with a minimum payment of £10 per week and we reserve the right to make extra payments as and when possible. As we wish to close this account and that we do not accept the proposed charges regime, any attempt to levy the £1 per day overdraft charge without our explicit consent in writing will be disregarded and will be reported to the FOS for investigation.

 

We are more than willing to consider any counter offer you may wish to make should you choose to not accept our proposal. If you do not reply by 31th January 2010 accepting our offer or to propose a counter offer, our offer will be retracted and the account will be formally disputed by us. I feel that this is a fair repayment scheme and I am in no doubt that the court will agree given our income and outgoings. It may be worth considering that if you still levy your unlawful £1 per day charge, the balance would not be paid off until August 2019. It will be a sorry day for justice if a court deems that to be acceptable.

 

In addition to the legislation cited above, we intend to recommend to the court that it investigates whether you may be liable for prosecution under section 4-(1) of the Fraud Act 2006;

 

1) A person is in breach of this section if he—

a) occupies a position in which he is expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of another person,

b) dishonestly abuses that position, and

c) intends, by means of the abuse of that position—

i) to make a gain for himself or another, or

2) to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.

The change is going to hit the people in the worst economic situation hardest, as those who can afford it will leave in droves whilst those stuck in the living-in-the-overdraft trap will be the ones worst hit, unable to leave and hit for those fees month after month after month. In a lot of cases, it may lead people to try and raise additional funds by taking on consolidation loans to pay off the overdraft, when they may not be able to afford it in the first place, which would amount to irresponsible lending and/or a breach of the OFT's guidance on Unfair Business Practices 2.6 (b) "pressurising debtors to sell property, to raise funds by further borrowing or to extend their borrowing". Whilst we cannot be sure of this happening, we believe it is no coincidence that since I initially wrote to you, we have received two mail-shots from you offering us a bank-loan.

I repeat just to make sure there is no ambiguity in our absolute refusal to accept this change of charging regime and that we wish to close the account.

 

We await notification of the closure of our account plus your acceptance of, or a counter offer to our reasonable overdraft repayment scheme.

 

Yours irascibly,

 

Us

Hi bigyeti

How did u get on with your halifax letter?

S

Are you saying that you have defaults and Natwest have still agreed to switch accounts and retain overdraft?

yep got it in writing also

Yeh! I just opened an account with COOP this morning. no OD cuz of my credit rating! hey ho!!

my rating aint that great either, but they said they will match it. good luck 1 and all.

Iam sorry this was of no help to you! They really have got people over a barrel-and before Christmas when customers will rely on they're OD!!

Iam not happy Ive had to do this-tried asking if they would freeze the OD so I could make regular repayments from my JSA-NO JOY!! Those fees could be contributions towards settleing the debt. Anyone have any advise on the hardship/JSA/low income front??

I have just opened a natwest account and they will switch my OD, DD's and SO's over to them so basically they have matched my OD with halifax so I can then close the account with Halifax.

Hi Angel,

Keep us posted.

Stacy

had a reponse from Halifax saying basically tough sh*t. the FSA has said the same thing. Havent heard from the OFT yet nor my MP. Will keep you guys posted. but whatever the outcome I will be transferring all my business (2xCurrent Accounts,3xSavings Accounts) to a different bank, The Bank of Stacy Woodhouse, I mean how hard can it be to setup your own bank

petty much 25 years with them...no more.

Thanks, I'll keep your posted.

Regards

Stacy

Hi There,

1st time poster.

I called Halifax today and was told a letter was on its way back to me re: Prelim (10th Oct 2006). I asked the guy to read it to me and it's just a standard letter saying

"Dear Mr Woodhouse

With reference to your letter of complaint dated 10th October 2006.

Due to the nature of your complaint I have referred your letter to my Customer Relations Department at Head Office, who will reply to you directly as soon as possible.

I have enclosed a copy of our complaints procedure for your reference, which outlines how we will deal with your complaint.

If you need to speak to someone in the meantime, please do not hesitate to call on 08457 25 35 19, quoting reference xxxxxxxxx."

Now the question is do I continue with sending the LBA on 24th October or wait for them to investigate:?:

Please help!

Regards

Stacy