Hi Guys I know this is a bit of a long shot - but I'm trying to get my debt and finances in order - so figured every little helps right ? - I wanted to know if it would be possible to claim back bank charges from an account that has now been closed for some time. I have had an active account with halifax - in 2008 when I tried to claim back my charges I sent them a letter ( template that I found somewhere ) asking to be refunded , I then got a response from them saying I do not qualify for a refund - I know I should have contested this but didn't and left it as is - I then left the country for a few months and had no money being paid into my account - when I came back - I wasn't using the account and I think in 2010 the account was closed by Halifax - I did however still have a savings account with some funds in it with them this when I extracted my savings the account was then closed by Halifax in 2011 I read somewhere that the 6 year time limit may not apply - so was just wondering if I would be able to try an get my money back ? Again I know this is a very long shot Hope you guys can advise, thank you in advance Buma

Hello - I'm new to this forum but am in desperate need of help and awareness and really just want to warn everyone out there to be very careful if you choose to open a contract with Orange Mobile. I'd really like to know if anyone has had a terrible experience with mobile service provider, Orange Mobile - similar to the one detailed below: On March 27th 2012, I called Orange for the third or fourth time to discuss a previous mishandling of my bill, whereby they charged me significantly more than I had used and had not made my bill available to me in any way so it wasn't until the money left my account that I knew anything about it. On the above date, I was offered a cheaper tariff for my inconvenience and as an incentive not to take the matter up with a regulatory body; a deal I accepted. I was also offered a £30 contribution from Orange towards my next bill. At this time, a support representative told me she was setting up the Direct Debit immediately and that the matter should be considered resolved, with no further requirement for my involvement. As such, I did consider the problem concluded until Friday 20th April 2012 when I discovered that my phone was barred from making outgoing calls and text messages. Upon investigation, I discovered that Orange had failed to ever attempt to contact my bank in setting up a Direct Debit. As such, my phone was cut off for non-payment with absolutely no previous contact of any kind - written or otherwise. The only balance I could see on my online account was the one that Orange had told me to dismiss, agreed to remove and were supposedly planning to replace with an accurate balance. To be clear I still have not received any contact from Orange with regards to any aspect of my account since my phone call to their service operators at 10.13am on March 27th 2012. I immediately transferred the outstanding balance from my bank account to Orange but received no confirmation of payment. The following morning (April 21st 2012), with no deduction from my bank account and no service on my phone, I attempted to do so again. Once more I received no proof of payment - I can only assume that I have now paid either twice or not at all. I have also reviewed my previous bill, which reveals that Orange has deducted £25 instead of the promised £30 'apology discount'. My phone has now been disabled for four days, through no fault of my own and following no attempt of contact from Orange. I have logged on to my account several times during these four days and as of this morning it has been updated to state that my outstanding balance is £0.00. And yet my phone remains out of use. I have no other way of contacting Orange as all customer service numbers and any other contacts recommended to me have also been barred from my phone, which is my only form of communication aside from online. I have emailed Orange via Hotmail message, customer service enquiry and via Facebook and Twitter. I am being consistently ignored, though I can only assume someone within the company must be aware that they failed to debit my account, failed to contact me if I needed to do anything to help, and have quite happily now taken my money repeatedly - and over the owed amount - and cancelled my service. I am not by any means well off and am supporting myself at the edges of my monthly budget. I do not have the kind of funds to be messed around this way but I can't see a way out if I can't even contact Orange. Has anyone gone through anything similar? I'd love to hear your advice and experiences - I am very much on my own here and need all the help I can get. Thank you, --Julia.

Hi folks, I got offered a Halifax Ultimate Reward account as an "upgrade" to my Easycash account at a time when I was doing fairly well financially. I was keen to take the account at that time as I was trying to rebuild my credit rating. However, my finances took a nosedive in the middle of last year and I stopped using the Rewards account. Unfortunately I had gone just over my agreed overdraft limit and was of course levied with some charges. I asked if the account could be closed but was told that his was only possible once the overdaft was cleared. So I was in the situation of having no income, trying to pay off the overdaft but being constantly thwarted by the £12.50/month account fee, which pushed me futher into debt and incurred further charges . With me so far? After a while I managed to get them to agree a nominal fee repayment of £1/month but they were still charging the account fee of £12.50! I asked if there was anything I could do about that and was told the only thing would be to convert the account into a standard account but that the overdraft fees would be more that the Rewards account fee - so now I was stuck! A while later I had a further conversation with them and was able to get them to put a "stop" on the account so that no further charges would be levied. Once again I asked about the £12.50 account fee but was given the same reponse as before, so a little better - but not much! I had been going on like this until September 23 this year when I had a call regarding the account and once again I was able to get them to agree to continue with the arrangement we already had in place. Now comes the 1st bombshell: The person I spoke to told me that the £12.50 account fee was purely for the "Rewards" (RAC cover, travel insurance etc, etc) and that if I wasn't using those then the fee could be waived! No one had told me that before so I have been paying that fee for over a year COMPETELY UNNECCESSARILY! So now the fee was stopped and I had some prospect of making headway into the now considerably inflated "debt" of just over £427 (it was a little over £100 when this all started). Now the 2nd bombshell: I was called yesterday (3rd November) by a collections firm called "ICOR" who informed me that Halifax had passed the "debt" to them and that I now had to pay up. I had no prior notification the Halifax were going to take this action and I suspected a [problem] and told them to "foxtrot oscar". Of course I immediately contacted Halifax who confirmed that this was indeed the case. I asked the person I spoke to why I had not been informed that this was going to happen and he said "I have no idea" - great! (the words elbow and arse come to mind). I was furious . I called ICOR today and explained the situation (I am on JSA) and they then expected me to go into detailed financial disclosure about income and expenditure over the phone. I told them I wasn't prepared to do that but was willing to provide the information in a more secure manner which I have now done but I doubt whether there will be any form of acceptable (to me) arrangement forthcoming - if I know anything about collection firms - they were even making threats of "sending the boys round". So my dilema is twofold: 1. Where do I stand with Halifax regarding the unnesseccary account fees - which, of course also created extra penalty fees. Is there any way of reclaiming these? Should I have been informed by Halifax of thier intended action regarding ICOR? 2. What should I do about the collections firm? I certainly will not be dealing with Halifax in any form ever again. Luckily I do have an account with the Helpful Banking people so I am going to transfer everything over to them. Any help will be gratefully received as I am just about at my wits end with this.