jmg666 vs Halifax

[jmg666]

Hi all - I've had my duplicate statements back from the Halifax (responded really quickly, I have to say) and have discovered that over a 3 year period they've had £2,538 off me in charges. The interest calculation route seems far too complicated so I'm just going for a repayment of the above and will be sending off the letter together with a breakdown of these charges tomorrow.

Be interesting to see what happens with this - advice/support appreciated as appropriate, will keep you all posted. Good luck to everyone else going through this procedure!

[mechs]

hi jmg and welcome you seem to know what you are doing you need the preliminary approach for repayment letter template.

Good luck

[jmg666]

Thanks - yes, have used the preliminary approach for repayment letter. If I give the impression that I know what I'm doing that's reassuring - I'm just making the best use of the experience and guidance of others on here who've already been down this road.

[mechs]

Thats good read a few more threads,especially the ones that have been paid out and when you get to the next stage hopefully you will be ready for them

[jmg666]

Hi all - I've been away for a week and came back to a letter from Halifax saying that they'd received my letter and that they'd definitely get back to me within 4 weeks. There was a second letter too, which said the usual stuff about my need to ensure that I had enough money in the account yadda yadda and that as a goodwill gesture (where have I seen that phrase before?) they'd be prepared to refund £500 of my charges (the total I'm chasing is £2,530) in full and final settlement. Am about to send a further letter suggesting that they come up with an offer for the full amount (in the politest way, of course). Will post again when they respond to that one - if what I've seen on the forum so far happens in this case they'll up the offer slightly, but still fight shy of offering the full amount.

[jmg666]

Hi - I just want to make absolutely sure that I'm about to do the right thing as my next step. I've had a letter from the Halifax in which they've offered £500 as a full and final settlement - the LBA letter introduction suggests that this is the letter to use if they haven't replied - but they have. I'm not totally clear about what I should be doing next. My inclination was to write back to the person who wrote to me from the Halifax and say that I'll accept their offer only as a partial settlement and that I'm looking for full settlement.

Obviously I don't want to cock it up at the second fence and neither do I want to settle for a fifth of what they owe me.

I'd appreciate some guidance here folks.

Thanks in advance.

[rascal]

That's exactly what I did - I replied acknowledging the offer and stating I would accept it as partial payment and would proceed with my claim for the full amount.

[gemka]

hi there, really interesting to read your post as it nearly exactly the same as my situation, did you get a reply from the Halifax before you sent your LBA, as i have just received acknowledgement and they will get back to me within 4 weeks. Should i just send a LBA.

 

Any advice appreciated

[jmg666]

I sent off my original letter having received my duplicate statements and worked out what they'd taken off me over the last 6 years. I was then away for a week (last week) and came back to two letters - the first said thanks for your letter, sorry to hear your concerns, usual crapola about their charges, and that they'd get back to me within 4 weeks. Also in the pile of post that had collected last week was the letter saying much the same as before but offering £500 as a goodwill gesture in full and final settlement.

I'm probably wrong but the LBA letter seems to be the one to use if you haven't had a response; I had a response, it just wasn't what I'm looking for (£500 instead of £2,538), so my feeling is that I'm going to write back and say I'll accept the £500 as a partial settlement but I'm still looking for them to pay me £2,038 and if I don't hear from them within 14 days I'll start proceedings in the small claims court. At least, that's the gist of it, I'll use the form of words that the fine folk who've started this ball rolling on this forum have put together. Hope that helps - I'd like to get this out of the way as I'm also thinking of going after NatWest with whom I'd banked for about 30 years until we parted company a while back. After their takeover by RBS I got a particularly shoddy standard of customer care from them. But that's a different story for a different thread. Good luck.

And yes, I'll be donating to the forum once I've got some cash out of Halifax - seems only fair to put something back.

[gemka]

thank you, just a little bit nervous as to what to do.

 

Thanks for the advice

 

Good luck

[jmg666]

Hi all - been so busy with work that I've let my timescale slip slightly. I've received no response whatever to my last letter to Halifax, in which I said I'd accept their £500 as a partial settlement but would proceed with my claim for the full amount, and it's now over 14 days. Where do I go from here - is it to start the small claims court action? Guidance appreciated here! Thanks.

[david Reed]

nice n simple jmg666 they have passed YOUR DEADLINE!! so time to go to http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

 

check out the guidance notes on filling out the form on this site first but it is pretty simple!!

 

dave x

[jmg666]

Thanks for that, Dave - just gone through the Moneyclaim online process and it seems OK but I have two questions before I press the button. I'm after the return of £2,538 - the default court fee shown on the final screen is £30. When I keyed in £2,538 and then pressed "recalculate" it went up to £120.00, with a total of £2,658. Presumably this only becomes payable if the thing goes to court, or do I have to pay this up-front? At the moment that would be, frankly, impossible.

 

Also I've been wavering over the interest issue - wasn't sure whether to bother or not, and found the Excel spreadsheet really complicated - not sure how I'd go about working this out. Is it as complicated as it appears or am I just panicking and convincing myself it's not worth bothering?

[Brad Smith]

it's not complicated at all, just download the simple excel calculation, all you need to do is; put in the charge, amount & date and it calculates it all for you. I reckon it's worth doing, you'll probably find out it's another couple of hundred quid or so

[jmg666]

When you're right, you're right. Thanks for the shove in the right direction - didn't realise that the spreadsheet calculated everything on the fly - bloody fantastic. It's worth an extra £283.84 so we'll definitely be going for that too.

Can someone just reassure me that if this went to court (hopefully Halifax will do the sensible thing and fork over the quids way before then) that I don't have to stump the court fee up too far in advance?

[Brad Smith]

I'm a little behind you in that I've only sent off my preliminary letter today, but I was under the impression you have to pay the court fees when you file the claim and the fee gets added onto the amount you're claiming.

 

I could be wrong though, and I'm sure somebody will correct me if this is the case.

 

Cheers

[MissMorningStar]

Yes I think Brad's right. You pay this upfront and when you win () you gt it refunded.

 

If your on benefits though including Working Families Tax Credits you can get the fees waived I believe but that way you have to go to court and fill out a paper claim and show them evidence of your benefit.

 

If you look around I've seen this talked about in threads somewhere.

 

All the best of luck

 

Missy xx

[jmg666]

Thanks - discovered you're right by arriving at the last screen where they take payment by credit/debit card. I'm not on benefits, thankfully, I'm self-employed and occasionally have problems getting clients to settle on time, which is precisely why I'm chasing this money in the first place. Hopefully the plastic will take it and this will be on its way - presumably once this is in the system the Halifax have to decide whether or not to defend and might start the horse-trading again - bit disappointed that they didn't come back with a second (higher) offer in reply to my second letter, but there you go.

 

Incidentally, had my monthly statement from Capital One yesterday and they have revised their charges down to a flat £12, so hopefully the message is trickling through the banking industry that they need to do something about making their charges more realistic.

[jmg666]

Sod's law - hadn't had a reply to my last letter so instituted the moneyclaim process yesterday. I've just had a call from someone called Chris at Halifax who wanted to confirm that I'd rejected the offer of £500 and asking what I'd be prepared to settle on today as a figure. I replied that my claim was for £2,538 which was what they'd taken off me and that's what I'd settle for. He said that he was authorised to offer me £1,400 today which I said I'd accept as a partial claim but that having not had a response to my last letter within my time frame I'd started the online claim process.

This news didn't seem to dismay him at all - in fact he seemed quite pleased that I'd done it and said something about me getting something from them in writing in the next 2 days. Could have done with getting the call yesterday in which case I could have saved myself £120, but there you go. At the end of the day I just want them to pay up what they owe me plus interest, and not have to go to court if I can avoid it.

Be interesting to see what their letter says.

[jmg666]

Have just received two things in the post, one of which was the notice of issue in Northampton County Court (not sure why it's here when I live in Essex, but never mind) of my claim against Halifax.

The second is worth quoting in full as it's from the guy I spoke to yesterday, who signs himself Chris Hale, Redress Assessor, Core Business Customer Relations.

 

I refer to our telephone conversation on 24 August 2006.

 

We offered to refund six months worth of charges to your account which you refused to accept. Please understand that we are not prepared to refund all of the charges that you have incurred on your account over the last six years.

 

To comply with legislation, I would like to let you know that if you remain unhappy you can refer your concerns to the Financial Ombudsman Service. They can be contacted by telephone on 0845 080 1800, or by post at:

(address details and email, website details followed)

 

You will find enclosed a leaflet providing full details of the Ombudsman service. If you wish to refer the matter to the Ombudsman you must do so within 6 months of the date of this letter.

 

(signed)

 

Firstly, I said during the conversation that I had with this man that I would accept the figure which he said he was authorised to offer me - £1400 - as a partial settlement but that I would be pursuing the claim for the full amount.

 

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had a similar letter to this in their dealings with the Halifax and to get an idea whether this is just part of their normal gameplan and that they're likely to fold and fork over the cash without going to court. I'm tempted to write back to him and clarify that I'd said I would accept the offered amount as a partial settlement, rather than refusing it outright, which is the impression created in his letter. Also, my claim doesn't represent 6 years' worth of charges, the claim starts on 2nd October 2003.

[jmg666]

Would really appreciate someone giving me a view on whether it's worth writing back to the writer of the last Halifax letter correcting the impression that I'd outright refused the offer when in fact I'd said I'd accept it as a partial settlement. Also I'm concerned at the "there's no question of us refunding" etc note in this letter - is this standard practice for Halifax or are they changing tactics now?

Just feeling slightly less confident at the moment that I'm going to get a settlement without having to go to court, but would appreciate hearing from anyone else who might have had a similar experience.

 

Thanks!

[rkilbride]

You can write back if you like, but I don't think it will make any difference.

 

They have stated that you have refused it because when you accept it as partial settlement, they withdraw their offer.

 

Just sit tight and keep checking your account. They did this with me, then stated they were going to defend the claim, then 2 days later, all of the money appeared in my account.

 

You will win, it's just a matter of time

 

Richard

[jmg666]

Have just received notification from the court that the claim has been filed and that Halifax in the shape of A O'Brien, Head of Legal Services, intends to defend the claim. It's dated 25th August, so they've got 28 days in which to either pay up or meet me in court. Could do without the drive to Northampton but prepared to do it if I have to.

[becka]

Hi JMG, just to put your mind at rest the reason it is from Northampton is that you did it online rather than at your local court. If it does get to court (which is unlikely ... but you may be the lucky one!) you can probably get it moved to your local court

[jmg666]

I think the phrase is settled in full!

 

What a surprise to check my account an hour ago and find that the Halifax has quietly paid in the amount of my claimed charges plus the 8% interest plus the £120 court fee. I'm not sure what I need to do now about the small claims court thing though.

 

To say I'm chuffed is a massive understatement - thank you all so much for all the support, assistance and encouragement in getting this money back, I couldn't have done it without this fantastic community. I'm now going to sort out a donation to the site to help it keep on rolling.

 

And to anyone who's just started this process, don't be scared or put off, just go for it and get YOUR money back.