troublegum V Halifax

[troublegum]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here and I could do with a bit of advice/support.

 

I've read all the FAQs and procedures and have now decided to go ahead and claim my charges back from the Halifax (may try a couple of credit cards too if all goes well, but the Halifax is my main concern at the moment due to the amount of money involved)

 

I did have financial problems last summer and the Halifax really did not help matters by charging me several times a week for various things.

 

Ok, well first of all I live in Scotland so I realise that I can only claim for 5 years and also that there is a £750 limit to what I can claim (£1500 using summary cause).

 

Tonight I wrote the DPA request letter and it is all ready to be posted tomorrow.

 

However, in the meantime I decided to make a start on the calculations using my online statements... they only go back as far as 20/03/05 but it's a start... so I filled in the spreadsheet and was shocked to discover that between 06/05/05 (when my problems started) and 07/10/05 (when I managed to sort myself out) the charges totalled a whopping £1,131! In only 5 months!

 

I'm not sure how much I have been charged over the years 2001 to 2005, I know it's nowhere near as bad as last year was (a lot of the time i managed to go for months at a time without any charges) but I reckon that it will probably bring the amount to over £1500.

 

So, what I need to know now is, should I still send off the DPA request anyway and try and claim a bit more, or should I just forget the DPA request and only request the £1,131 back.

 

Or should I claim the £1,131 just now and still send the DPA request and claim the rest at a later date?

 

Thanks for any advice and comments

[thewifeandI]

There's no harm in starting with the DPA request. If there is some urgency in getting the initial amount you can always send a prelim letter for this amount as well while you await the statements. Once you have the statements you can adjust the amount claimed when you send in the LBA letter.

[troublegum]

There's no urgency at the moment, so I decided to send the DPA request and wait until I have calculated the full amount before sending my claim.

 

DPA request was posted today so that's the ball rolling. I'll give them 2 days before I start the clock ticking......

 

Thanks to all the people on this great forum. Reading through all the posts here has given me great encourangement!

[troublegum]

Checked with Royal Mail and the Data Protection Act letter was delivered on 28th June so the clock is ticking...

 

Incidentally, does anyone know if Halifax have changed their policy regarding charges?

 

I ask this because I managed to go over my overdraft limit (by £80) for the first time in about 8 months due a large payment that I had to make. After that I had a couple of small direct debits come out which they allowed (£11.14 and £0.32).

 

They have told me I will be charged £28 at the end of July for going over the overdraft limit but they seem to have ignored the direct debits which normally would have incurred a charge of £30 each. Maybe they've realised that £30 is excessive for such small amounts - it would be a bit ridiculous to charge £30 for the sake of 32p but I was fully expecting it!

 

I'll be adding the £28 to my claim as well!

[mechs]

Incidentally, does anyone know if Halifax have changed their policy regarding charges?

 

I ask this because I managed to go over my overdraft limit (by £80) for the first time in about 8 months due a large payment that I had to make. After that I had a couple of small direct debits come out which they allowed (£11.14 and £0.32).

 

We were charged £39 because her indoors transfered money across to our parachute account and I wrote a cheque that subsequently bounced

[troublegum]

Just had to phone the Halifax because my chip and pin card seems to be broken. The guy said he would order a new one, then had the cheek to say that because my account is well run I am eligible for a Halifax credit card!

 

It's not that well run.... I managed to go over my overdraft limit this month which has incurred a charge and this time last year they were taking over £1100 in charges from me!

 

So I declined. Another credit card is probably the last thing I need. It would just be too tempting to use.

[pmhread]

Oddly enough I had the good fortune of being able to deposit a sizeable cheque in some time ago and I suddenly became eligible for a credit card too... despite them not even letting me upgrade from a basic account to a normal current account a month before.

 

You can bet that had you said yes, they would have had a few questions to ask of you before the dreaded credit check...

[troublegum]

Incidentally, does anyone know if Halifax have changed their policy regarding charges?

 

I ask this because I managed to go over my overdraft limit (by £80) for the first time in about 8 months due a large payment that I had to make. After that I had a couple of small direct debits come out which they allowed (£11.14 and £0.32).

 

Looks like I was wrong, I have had a letter about the £11.14 - and "to cover their costs" it's going to cost me £30. They do however, appear to have let me off with the 32p direct debit!

 

30 quid to cover their costs because I had to borrow £11.14 from them for ONE day?!? (The direct debit came out the day before I got paid)

 

Never mind, it's been added to the spreadsheet and I'll get it back eventually. Although I now have £30 less to live on this month and I could do with it

[troublegum]

Hi guys, I haven't posted anything for a while but I have been regularly reading all the posts and keeping up to date with everyone's cases.

 

Nothing much has been happening with my own case but I thought I would just post a little update.

 

I did recieve an acknowledment to the DPA request (dated 7th July) which said that the statements would follow. So I waited... and waited... and here we are today on the 40th day and still no statements. They did cash my cheque though!

 

I will give them till the end of today and if my statements haven't turned up I will be sending the DPA non-compliance letter tomorrow. You never know, they may arrive in the late post today, but I doubt it.

 

And also, their letter referred me to http://www.informationcommisioner.gov.uk which doesn't exist. It should have been http://www.ico.gov.uk

 

Maybe I should point that out to them!

[troublegum]

I got my statements through specil delivery this morning, just starting to go through them now.

 

However, The whole of 2003 and half of 2004 are missing! One page suddenly jumps from 28 Dec 02 to 6 May 04!

 

Is this just another delay tactic by the bank?

 

It looks like I need to send a second non-compliance letter. Should I send template 2? It seems to be the closest one to my situation.

 

Any advice appreciated.

[troublegum]

Well, I have to say that Halifax are absoultely unbelievable.

 

Last week I sent them a second Data Protection Act non-compliance letter telling them that a 16 month period was missing from the statements.

 

Today I got 2 packets delivered special delivery, a larger one a small one.

 

The larger one contained all the statements that I previously recieved from them with the addition of SOME of the missing ones. It now only jumps from 31 Jan 2003 to 1st Feb 2004. So now theres only 12 months missing instead of 16.

 

And the second smaller packet was completely pointless, it containted more duplicate statements from 1 Dec 2002 to 1 Jun 2004 but again with the same 12 month period missing from it.

 

So, what do I do now? They have have a second chance and a third chance and have still failed to provide everything. I didn't really want this to go to court at this early stage but is that the best thing to do now? What is the procedure for doing this in Scotland and how much is it likely to cost me?

 

Is it worthwhile reporting to the Information Commisioner? Are Halifax really that incompetent?

 

Any advice appreciated, thanks

[troublegum]

Before I investigate court action, i was wondering if anyone has a contact number or email address for anyone within Halifax that is likely to be able to arrange for me to get my missing statements. Clearly sending letters to them does not work.

 

I am in the process of filling in the form located at http://www.ico.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=16318 at the moment but that could possibly take a while before anything is done.

 

Thanks

 

EDIT: Just found another post referring to [email protected] as a Halifax contact so I will give this a try. Still going to fill in the ICO complaint form though.

[troublegum]

OK, just sent the following email to [email protected]. I await a reply... is anyone even reading this thread btw, or am I just talking to myself?

 

Ms Hinchliffe,

 

I am writing to you as a last resort and hope you will be able to take the neccesary action to resolve my issue.

 

I sent a subject access request dated 27th June 2006 asking for copies of all my bank statements with your company. While the request was acknowledged and the £10 cheque was cashed, I received no statements.

 

After 40 days had passed I sent a further letter dated 8th August 2006 reminding your company of it's obligations. I did receive some of the statements but a significant amount (28th Dec 2002 to 6th May 2004) were missing.

 

I sent a third letter dated 14th August outlining what exactly was missing and today I received more copies of what has already been supplied as well as some of the missing documents.

 

However, I have still not been supplied with statements relating to the period 1st Feb 2003 to 31st Jan 2004 inclusive.

 

I really don't know what else I have to do to get your company to comply with my request other than reporting it to the Information Commisioner's Office and/or taking legal action.

 

I have been lead to believe that you are the person who can resolve this issue without me having to take such action and I have faith that you will be able to resolve this situation to my satisfaction within the next few days.

 

Regards

[mechs]

good luck with the letter

[troublegum]

good luck with the letter

 

Thanks, I'm looking forward to seeing what Ms Hinchclife has to say for herself.

[troublegum]

I did get an email from Rachel Hinchcliffe saying that she had passed the email on the relevant department who would investigate and would be in contact with me...

 

Today I got another special delivery. I could tell straight away that it was not what I was wanting because it was far too thin to contain a years worth of statements.

 

It contained only 6 pages. The months of December 2002 and May 2004 which I already have.

 

They just don't seem to understand when I say that I am missing Feb 2003 to Jan 2004. I am really starting to feel that they are taking the p*ss now.

 

Maybe it's time I started phoning them now. I did notice a number for a Mark Kellett, I'll maybe give him a try.

[troublegum]

I actually went into my local branch and spoke to somebody there. I explained the situation and the girl was very apologetic. She has ordered copies of the missing year's statements and hopefully I will recieve them soon.

 

Meanwhile, I have recieved notification of another charge to be put on the account. This time for a direct debit which they have honoured. The amount of the DD? £0.05. Yes, 5 pence!

 

I have had it with the halifax

[troublegum]

Just a little update folks.....

 

Ok, so queueing in the branch for 20 minutes to speak to someone didn't bear any fruit so I called up on the 11th and spoke to someone who was very apologetic and said she would get the remaining statements sent. Lo and behold, on the 20th September they arrived... only 84 days after they recieved my initial letter

 

So now I have the final figure of £1653 for the last 5 years. Looks like if it reaches the court stage it will have to be 3 seperate claims due to me being in Scotland.

 

Preliminary letter is now printed and in envelope waiting to go to the post office first thing tomorrow morning.

 

Can't believe it's been almost 3 months and I'm only at this stage.

Oh well, at least the ball is finally rolling

[bur667]

Well you've got the hard part out the way, now it's just a case of sending the next 2 letters in the space of 4 weeks, no need to wait for them to reply now:grin:

[troublegum]

Well you've got the hard part out the way, now it's just a case of sending the next 2 letters in the space of 4 weeks, no need to wait for them to reply now:grin:

 

That's certainly true. I think that if the whole process relied on waiting for the banks to do anything then nobody would get anywhere.

[Tinkerbelle]

LOL.. true!

 

Good luck with your claim

[troublegum]

Ok, so while I was at work today the wife answered a call from the Halifax (account was in joint names so they discussed it with her).

 

The guy said that the Office of Fair Trading ruling did not aply to banks, only to credit cards but he was willing to settle out of court for £600. He said he may be willing to go a little bit higher and he would send a letter outlining his final offer.

 

She said she would discuss it with me and made it clear that she did not accept the offer at that point.

 

Anyway, we've decided already not to accept the offer and to pursue this all the way.

 

So, should I tell them that I will accept their offer as interim payment but I still want the rest, or just reject it outright? Has anyone actually got the money from them when they've said they will accept it as an interim payment?

 

This guy had better hurry up and send his letter because there's only 3 days left until the LBA gets sent

 

Also, this offer has encouraged me to go after a few credit card companies as well

[troublegum]

I've just been browsing the forums and I'm a bit unsure as to what to do next....

 

I have found the template for the rejection of offer letter which is fine but this seems to assume that the offer has been recieved after the LBA was sent.

 

At the moment I haven't even got to the LBA stage, I have had a verbal offer after the preliminary letter and they will be putting it in writing....

 

The LBA is due to be sent in 3 days, which is possibly about the same time that I am going to get the offer letter through.

 

There are 2 possible scenarios here and I am unsure what to do or either of them...

 

1. The offer letter arrives before the next 3 days... do I send the rejection letter but with the reference to the LBA removed, and then send the LBA with the reference to them failing to respond removed?

 

2. The offer letter takes more than 3 days to arrive....do I just go ahead and send them the LBA on schedule with the bit about them failing to respond edited out and them send them the rejection letter when the offer arrives?

[bearo]

hi there

 

Just change to wording to suit what you need to say, i.e something along the lines of further to your offer by phone dated bla blah..kindly accept the offer as partial settlement but will pursue the rest in court if need be....you get the idea....send lba as planned..keep to your timetables!

[troublegum]

I've just recieved the offer letter from the Halifax.... they are offering £1163 as a full and final settlement... this is only £490 less than what I was asking them for! This is 70%!

 

I was only expecting £600 and was going to reject that but this offer puts a whole new spin on things!

 

I am seriously tempted to take up this offer! The main reason is that being in Scotland I would have to go through the hassle of 3 seperate small claims procedures which would take months, whereas if I take this offer the whole thing could be over within the next week.

 

And is it just me or are Halifax getting a bit more generous with their offers? I wasn't expecting to be made an offer of this size so early into the procedure.... all I have done is sent the preliminary letter.... haven't even got to the LBA stage yet!

 

Anyway, I'm going to have a think about what to do here......