Halifax wont shut down credit card account

[jock_munro]

Has any other forum member had a similar problem ?

 

I cleared the balance on my Halifax credit card account and instructed their customer services to close the account. Which they confirmed as closed.

 

A month later I received a statement, and a transaction had gone through on that account.

 

I queried why this could be allowed to happen, as my account was closed.

Halifax honoured the payment because it was a regular payment that I had set up and it was my responsibility to stop the transactions with the third party. I was told this is in their terms & conditions.

 

I was not told this at the time of closing my account down.

 

I have disputed this transaction. As far as I am concerned the account is closed. The amount in question is only £20. But I firmly believe that I should not be liable for this.

 

I am sure we all know how difficult it is to close down a credit card account, and I believe that Halifax, like other card companies, deliberately allow a transaction to go through in order to make it more difficult to zero your balance and close the account. Thus giving you the temptation to continue spending with that card.

 

Halifax are standing firm and are saying that I am liable to pay the outstanding balance. I have written to the financial ombudsman service to ask them to review this situation.

 

 

 

Your views, advice and experiences would be gratefully appreciated.

[OoopNorth]

Not what you will want to hear but the Halifax is correct. It is up to you to stop the recurring payment with the company taking the 20 GBP. If you haven't sent a letter to that firm do so now. You can then use this letter to prove the item is in dispute (as you have cancelled the recurring agreement).

 

At the moment I can't see the item being refunded, the company claiming will say you haven't cancelled the agreement.

 

That said if you can prove you have stopped using the service or not received goods due from the recurring charge company then Halifax may refund to close the account.

[jock_munro]

yeah its frustrating. Because the transaction in question was for a corporate phone bill, which I had no access to their details as it was all handled at work. Therefore I had no means of contacting them to stop the payments.

 

Obviously I wrongly assumed that if an account was closed, that no further transactions would take place. I think its fair to assume that if you close your bank account, that account should no longer exist, and anyone who tries to take money from that account should not be able to.

 

I did manage to stop the third party from taking money from my credit card. They now take this money from my current account instead.

 

As I said, its only for £20, but I still maintain that Halifax are a shower of bastards. Perhaps I shall swallow it and just pay them the outstanding amount.

 

It cant hurt to see what the ombudsmen say. I shall wait until I receive a response from them.

[OoopNorth]

This is the same as closing a bank account but knowing there is a cheque out there which is guaranteed. I think the cheque remains guaranteed until the card used to guarantee it has expired (which could be years). If that cheque was presented after closure the bank would pay it and chase for the money (if they could).

 

But I do agree that the Haliban are a deluge of illegitimate beings.

[jock_munro]

heh heh.

 

I honestly thought that the third party would attempt to take money from my credit card account and that it would be refused. Then they would write to me and I'd be able to resolve it directly with them.

 

I've got no issue in paying the money to vodaphone (the third party), as I said its only about £20.

 

I think what ****es me off the most is that whenever I've attempted to close any credit card account its never straightforward. Its as if they go out of their way to make it as difficult as possible, so they can keep you in their grasp and suck interest off you like a big leech for the rest of your life !

 

cheers for your advice. I think its safe to assume that I should really pay Halifax the 20 quid and forget about it !

[Gilbert_O'Sullivan]

This is a bit weird as my sister had some financial troubles and her credit file was and is shot to pieces.

 

However, I cleared her balance for her and she rang them to close the account.

 

They said ok but instead just lowered her credit limit to £4k from £7k and they send her statements with zero on all the time but the credit is there if she wants it. But as I said her file is absolutely awful now and no-one would give her any credit but they do.

 

Why is that in these credit crunch days?

[jock_munro]

I have had a lot of credit cards in my time, and the majority of them I have always had problems closing them down. They deliberately make it hard for you because they want your business. They want you to keep the card, even with a zero balance, just incase you need it. They know that you'll eventually be tempted to start running up more credit again.