Halifax keep on withdrawing from my bank account?

[2Grumpy]

Thanks, will get onto the authorities today

which authority is most likely to have most clout on this matter?

is there any one authority i should be approaching first and being persistent with?

Mak

Trading standards would be the best bet (yours and the area where they are based)

 

You can't complain to the Financial Ombudsman until you have made a formal complaint to the Halifax & had their final response - so it's a good idea to make that complaint now as well

[mak71]

I have spoken to trading standards today, am awaiting a call back, was promised it would be within the hour, that was at 12 noon:confused:

[mak71]

Well bit of an update

Trading standards eventually advised me to speak to the financial ombudsman,

i did and he said i should contact halifax and tell them ive never agreed to the £700 overdraft and see how i got on direct with them and any proiblems to get back in touch.

Now halifax have added charges for the priviledge of being overdrawn too:mad:

I rang halifax, spoke to a woman who wasnt very understanding,said ide taken out the loans and had to pay them:eek: , i asked if that meant them drawing the money from my account on an unauthorised overdraft which ive never agreed to and which was now iincurring charges and was that acceptable or not? she tried to side track the issue, i explained one of the direct debits in question for a loan which they hadnt supplied me a cca for, at this point she was in cloud cookoo land, didnt have a clue, and said i had to pay so thats why they were taking the money,

I told her ide cancelled the direct debits/standing orders and had documented proof re screenshots, and my account stating no direct debits or standing orders were active.she said according to her system they were still active,to which i suggested they must have re instated them internally and i considered that appaling behaviour from a financial institution

 

Eventually she got bored of my no cca rambling and put me through to a bloke in loan accounts, he was much more understanding and clued up, explained the cca situation and he said he could see my letters on file etc, and a cca has apparently been sent a few days ago, (only a week late but better late than never hey) await its arrival with great anticipation.

Anyway he agreed amounts over my agreed overdraft shouldnt really have been processed, and has now cancelled the direct debits/standing orders, and i have him on record stating this,so will just play this one by ear now, but how do i go about getting my charges back? are all bank charge claims suspended now pending high court ruling or can i still apply for any charges to be refunded?

Mak

Edited November 12, 2008 by mak71

[hillards]

Although my case wasn't as deep as yours, I had a similar issue with the Halifax. I had a current account, I also had a Halifax CC.

 

I lost my job, was unable to pay the CC payments as I didn't even qualify for benefits. They still took money out, without my knowing, to pay the CC. That caused DD's for my regular bills to fail, for which I was charged of course. I cancelled all the DD's to stop that happening again.

 

As far as I'm aware, they are supposed to inform you they've taken money, but they didn't. It wasn't until I got a statement, a couple of months later, that I found out.

 

That had made me go overdrawn, I got slapped with charges galore which eventually went up to £170. They then closed the current account and threatened all sorts if I didn't pay the balance off.

 

I pointed out they were the ones who had authorised the payments, not me, so the terms they used were invalid. My agreement was that I would not make payments that would cause my account to become overdrawn - and I hadn't. If they caused the overdraft by their own actions, and then added further charges, it was not of my doing...

 

In the meantime I had discovered the CAG and started action to reclaim bank charged they had made. The full story is at http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-if-successes/39442-old-dj-halifax.html

 

The outcome was that not only did they repay the charges, but part of the deal was they they would drop any recovery action for the unauthorised overdraft. I would have stuck to my guns on insisting it was not my actions which caused that.

 

When I added everything up, and them wiping out the old overdraft, I actually gained on the deal... ;-) In retrospect, let them close your Hx account, then they can't take any more from it. Tell them you're not paying anything into it so it's up to them what the next move is...

 

It's a slog, but hopefully worth it in the long run.

[mak71]

Thanks, going to pop into the branch over the weekend,see how i get on,

Are all bank account claims now on hold pending high court ruling,?

is it only credit card companies now that the account holder can claim charges back from?

Mak