Hi, folks - gonna need some advice on this one. Sent off my preliminary letter and LBA demanding £595, stipulating that it be paid by cheque (as Halifax are chasing me for a credit card and personal loan debt, which would be absorbed if left in my account). A couple of days later, on the 25th of July, Halifax sent back a letter saying that they were arranging (as a gesture of goodwill, natch) to credit my account with £383 within 14 days, and if this was unsatisfactory, to return their payment and contact them within two weeks. On the 26th of July, Halifax deposited £383 into my account. On the 27th of July, Halifax took that £383 to pay off a credit card that had defaulted. On the 30th-odd of July, these letters arrived. Now, the question on my mind is what can I do about this? Am I within my rights to demand that the payment be reversed, and sent out in cheque form instead? Please help - I'm hoping to move into a new flat in September, and need all the cash I can get!

A wiki has a whole load of useful features, Phoenix - that goes without saying, and so does a forum. The problem I have is that a forum is supposed to be for discussion, and for coming up with new ideas - when you have a concept nailed down to most people's agreement, it should go in either a static page or in a wiki, so that it can be easily accessed and referenced. As it is, the most valuable posts are ones that go on for hundreds of pages and could be boiled down to less than 10% of their current volume. What we're doing here is mixing hard information with discussion, rebuttal and counter-rebuttal, until the signal is so diluted with noise that your typical newbie takes one look and says "too complicated." I'm thinking of setting up a Wiki myself for bank charges - to take the best information from this site (with the OP's permission, of course) and present it in a concise, logical, step-by-step manner, seperating content from discussion. My aim would be to provide a supplemental resource for reference (and another site through which people can get interested in the subject) and then encourage them to start their own threads on CAG. Forums for ideas, conclusions and guides placed in the Wiki once they're reached. Alternatively, if you'd like me to work on the wiki here, let me know and give me access. As it is right now, the Wiki we have is of no use to man nor beast.

Fourteen sticky topics, a thread with over six thousand replies, an ungodly number of FAQ's, and an amazing amount of fantastic quality information mixed in with the most basic questions being asked again and again. I came on today to have a look for information pertaining to compounded contractual interest on bank accounts; I know that the information I need is somewhere within those two thousand replies... It's pretty clear that this site is outgrowing itself; the forums are great, but things need to be streamlined and simplified a tad. I propose a Wiki. Make of this suggestion what you will, I'm just throwing it out there; but I'd like to make it clear that I'll help in any way I can. Mods/admins, PM me if you want to know my credentials. Members, any thoughts? Would a wiki help to organise the vast amount of information we've accrued in the forums?

You have my support, and I'll be watching this one closely; Smiffy, take 'em to the cleaners.

Shellywelly, It's quite safe to assume that the Halifax operate in accordance with some sort of procedure to help minimise their costs; it's also safe to assume that a lot of that procedure is designed to narrow down the number of people claiming, by discouraging them as soon, as strongly, and as often as they can. Thus out of a hundred people who start a claim, maybe fifty (as a guess) will finish it. One thing's for sure, though; the fifty that don't pursue their claim to the end probably don't know about this website. Never give up, never back down. Carry on until you get what you want - everybody gets their refund in the end, provided that they don't get discouraged.

I sincerely doubt it - that could probably be compared to closing a bank account as a retaliatory measure, which banks have been fined for quite recently.

After reading some of the other threads, I've decided not to pursue contractual interest. It seems I might invite a lot of unnecessary legal complications... If anyone wants to correct me, please do! In any case, the N1 gets filed for DPA non-compliance on Tuesday. Should I also file a complaint with the ICO, or not bother?

Do you mean compounded or contractual interest? I've not heard of construct interest.

Also worth mentioning - if you do phone them and try to negotiate before court, then in the highly unlikely event that it actually does go to court, then you'll have shown that you've done everything that you can (in fact, you'll have gone above and beyond what's expected of you) to avoid court action. Plus, you never know - you might be pleasantly surprised! Unlikely, I know, but worth a shot!

Here's a link to some information about default notices: Default Notice | Payplan To see if a company has registered a default on your credit file, you'll need to obtain said credit file. Credit Reference File and Credit Repair | Payplan MoneySavingExpert has a technique to get your credit file online, without having to pay the statutory £2 fee, but to me it seems like more hassle than it's worth, particularly since you need a valid credit card to apply for these services (and I don't have one! ) : Your Credit Rating: How it works and how to improve it | MoneySavingExpert: Consumer Revenge, Credit Cards, Shopping, Bank Charges, Cheap Flights and more Good luck!

For avoidance of doubt - if the debt has been passed to a debt collector, you still send correspondance to the original company that held the debt (IE the bank or building society or credit card company etc), not to the debt collection agency. At least, I believe this is the case. If anyone knows different, please let me know.

Hi ejmbon - I'd agree with Advoc8, send them a letter via recorded delivery stating that you'll accept the £778 in part payment, and will be pursuing them for the rest of the amount. It's what they'd do to you. Don't add the 8% interest yet. You only get to do that if you actually file a claim with the court. Add it now, and the bank will assume you don't know what you're doing, and come up with more excuses to fob you off. The chances of you actually going to court are infinitesimal, but just in case, keep a copy of all the letters that go between you and the bank, and hold on to your recorded delivery receipts. Good luck, mate - keep us updated on how it goes!

Marie31 - in my experience (see the new thread I've posted), Halifax are God-Awful at sending out statements. Come Tuesday I'm heading down to the local court to claim for my statements. Mind you, plenty of other people have had them pretty quickly - so how long they take is anyone's guess, really.

Hey, all. This is a bit of a long story, but I'll do my best to try to remember it all and be as concise as I can. After pestering my bank for statements pertaining to my personal loan account for several months, I found this site and realised I could reclaim my charges - and I sent a SAR on the 21st of September last year, covering two credit cards, two bank accounts and one personal loan account. Only the credit card statements arrived. I disappeared to the USA in November, and stayed there for three months. I got back a couple of weeks ago. Before I left, I made mention to the Halifax that I expected the statements to be delivered in my absence. You can probably guess where this is going. Not a dicky bird. To sum up, here's a copy-paste from the file I'm keeping my notes in: Customer Relations number: 08457 253 519 Spoke to Sally Kaye at customer relations 21/02/07 12:30pm, informed her of the outstanding statements. She said she'd request that the statements be sent as soon as possible. Chased up with Bernadette Murphy at customer relations 10:30am Friday 23rd February, who said that she would E-mail the department again as a matter of urgency and chase it up for me. Spoke to customer relations Monday 26/02/07 2:30pm. Was told that no record of my two previous calls existed. Told them that this behaviour was unacceptable, and that I would put it in writing, and that they have seven days to comply before I seek resolution through the county courts. Posted Letter Before Action for DPA Non-Compliance via recorded delivery 26/02/07 3:30pm. Tracking number (DELETED). 1st March - received list of charges (only penalty charges, no transactions) from Halifax, for account (NUMBER DELETED). Handwritten address on the envelope. Rang up customer relations and spoke to Steven Brown. He says that Cheryl Brash read the letter today at 9:41am. He took my number, and assured me that Cheryl will call before the weekend. 2nd March, 4:45pm - spoke again to Steven, who said that no action had been taken. He apologised profusely. I told him I'd hold off until Tuesday since the complaints department is closed on weekends, and would then pursue court action as per my letter. Now, I have a few questions to ask. I've decided to go ahead and claim for the bank account and the credit card, while I wait for the details on the other bank account and personal loan account. I've been reading up on contractual interest, and this is my understanding thus far for credit cards: I add up all the charges, then to work out the interest that the bank charged upon said charges, I would compound it using the interest rate stated on the card. In this case, 17.9%. This adds, as a single example, £29.10 of interest onto a £20 charge taken in 2001, more than doubling that particular charge - and turning my £495 claim into £717.28. This is roughly what the bank has taken from me, in interest and charges. I then use Halifax's unauthorised borrowing rate (28% if I recall correctly), in the same spreadsheet, again compounded, to figure out what they would have charged me if I had borrowed the money without their consent. This adds £411.66 to my £495 charges, and the £222.28 that the bank took in interest applied on those charges, making a total of £1,127.94. Aha, BUT, is that the correct way to figure out contractual interest, bearing in mind that the interest that I'm adding for contractual interest isn't being applied to the interest that the bank charged, but only to the original amount? I fear I may be going about this the wrong way! Simply adding the 28% to the 17.9% results in an interest rate of 45.9%, making the total amount for claim jump to a massive £1,440.50. But, I still don't think this is accurate! Let's investigate further: By creating a new column in the spreadsheet which adds the interest (at 17.9%) and the original charge, I create a list of the total amount of each charge after the card's interest is applied. I copy the output (not the formula) from this column, and paste it into the "Charge Amount" column, and then change the interest rate to 28%. The total amount owed is now £1,441.05. 65p - not as big of a difference as I would have liked, but anyway, moving on... Am I correct in assuming that contractual interest at the unauthorised rate is applied after any interest that the bank has applied for themselves, or am I simply being ridiculous? Thanks for any replies - looking forward to taking the Halifax to the cleaners.

Paul Miney just phoned me - only to tell me that my complaint would be replied to within 28 days of my sending it in, and to call him should it not be resolved through writing. :-/

My first post: Got my statements this morning, found £480 owing. Just called the number on the previous page. Paul wasn't available, but the lady I spoke to asked me to send an E-mail with my complaint to: [email protected] She acknowledged that accounts have been sorted out to satisfaction over the phone, but noted that the initial complaint should be put in writing first. E-mailing them now.