Halifax Credit Card Hell.....p

[sparky72]

:)Hi to all, New user and first post after finding this excellent site,

 

My situation is as follows, I have two credit cards,

 

Halifax Mastercard Platinum with an outstanding balance of £7990.00 started in 06/07/2001 original credit limit of £3500 this was increased by Halifax over the years to £8200. This was changed from a Visa card by Halifax

 

Halifax Mastercard Classic balance of £9540 started in 19/09/2000 with a limit of £2000 again Halifax increased this to £9700 over he years. Always paid on time and have never missed anything. This was also changed from a Visa card Halifax.

 

Unfortunately due to circumstances I have run up a huge debt on these since summer 2007. I have been making the minimum payments on both cards and never missed any, the debt has risen slightly. My cards were due for renewal in January 2009 but Halifax card services wrote to me in January with two identical letters and said,

 

“Your credit card is due to expire and under normal circumstances a new card would be issued. After reviewing your credit card performance, we regret to inform you that we are unable to issue a new card to you at the present time and your account will be closed 30 days after you have received this letter. You will not be able to reopen this account. If there is an outstanding balance on this account, please continue to make payments until payment is made in full”

 

I am still struggling to make the minimum payments and I am receiving a statement every month, and on the statement it indicates that I have an available credit to use!!!!!!

 

What I am trying to find out is my options,

 

1/ can they still charge interest on a closed account?

 

2/ If I can raise some money to make a full and final payment, what is the maximum percentage they will accept?

 

3/ would it be worth following the CCA route as they are nearly ten years old agreements?

 

Any info would be appreciated.

 

Sparky72

Edited June 15, 2009 by sparky72
additional info about card supplier company change

[GARY68]

Hi Sparky

I was in the near exact situation with the status (mastercard-visa) balances -limits taken up etc...then when I paid a very large chunk off them they reduced my balance even though I never missed ,what I cant understand is that they have closed your account for no apparent reason, are you sure you havent missed payments,?.

 

personally I followed the cca route as I was in threat of redundancy in march and havent paid them a penny since nov as like you they will have unenforcable agreements ,you may be able to get out of paying yours,be prepared for a lot of reading on the threads to gain experience/knowledge.

Im now in the process of claiming back the ppi with interest,

there are loads of good threads on here,

these are some of mine

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank-bank-scotland/197657-gary68-halifax-gold.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank-bank-scotland/196392-default-notice-platnum-legit.html

[sparky72]

Hi gary 68, thanks for replying, was not sure this thread made it, as i cannot find it anywhere?????

 

No i have never been late or missed any payments at all on both cards, both cards were takne out pre 2002. They have since been changd by halifax to mastercard! When they arrived they came on a sheet of paper with "credit card agreement regulated by the consumer act 1974" under my name and address. My signature is nowhere to be seen as this was not the original company my cards where with. One thing it does indicate is that complete and return this if you wish to cancel.

 

good look in your journey!!!!!

regards.

sparky72

[fedup74]

Hi sparky I would CCA them. If you have problems getting a hold of the CCA letter, just shout. Welcome to Cag BTW:)

[sparky72]

:?::?:Looking for some guidance on this please. My situation above is two cc's with 17K debt on them, never missed a payment in 11 years plus on them, all of a sudden halifax cancel my cards with notice given. what is the the best route to take SAR or CCA?

 

thanks

[GARY68]

Hi Sparky

whats happened here then since last june??

 

firstly hows your credit rating at the moment,are you struggling,did they freeze the interest on the cards when they cancelled them on you?

 

This is my advice,

first i would send a cca request to give yourself the oppertunity to dispute the debt and stop payment,

 

I would also send a sar to find out what they have agreements including any ppi, when you get these scan through for all the charges..+ ppi if you have ppi then your well off, because at the credit limit you have had this would pay the cards off and give you cash back,

my guess is they will not have an agreement worth anything because it will have been changed from a mastercard to visa.

anyway ..1 step at a time.

send cca off

send sar

lets see what they have.

dont forget to record it-dont sign.start a folder and keep everything in date order,

 

and dont leave it so long to get back next time:)

[sparky72]

is this the correct address to send a SAR.

 

Customer Priority team

Halifax

PO BOX 718

LEEDS

LS1 9GB

 

who do you make the postal orders payable to?

 

cheers.

[GARY68]

hi Sparky

this is the one i sent off to the address below

xxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxx

xxxxx

HALIFAX PLC

TRINITY ROAD

HALIFAX

WEST YORKSHIRE

HX1 2RG

Data Protection Act 1998 Subject Access Request

xxxx 2009

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

 

ACCOUNT NUMBERS:

xxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxx+ Loan accounts

 

Please send me the information which I am entitled to under section 7(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 in relation to detailed occurrences relating to the account Numbers D/xxxxxxx and xxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx +HALIFAX PERSONAL LOANS

 

The following is by no means an exhaustive list but in the main this is what I require.

 

Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to ALL accounting history Credit cards,Loan and ppi with your organisation..

 

Additionally, all records you hold on me relevant to these accounts, including but not limited to:

 

1. A transcript of all transactions, including charges, fees, interest, repayments and payments and both the original amount of the credit card and loan and any repayments made to the accounts.

 

2. Transcriptions of all telephone conversations recorded and any notes made in relation to telephone conversations by your company

 

3. Where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my account. If you are unable to supply this data because there has been no such manual intervention, then please be so kind as to confirm this in your response

 

4. True copies of any notice of assignment and/or default notice or enforcement notices that you may have sent to me, with a copy of any proof of postage that you hold.

 

5. Documents relating to any insurance added to the account, including the insurance contract and terms and conditions, date it was added and deleted.

 

6. Details of any collection charge added to the account; specifically, the date it was levied, the amount of the charge, a detailed financial breakdown of how the charge was calculated, and what the charge covers.

 

7. Specific details of the fees/charges levied by any other agency in respect of these accounts and a detailed breakdown of said fees/charges and what each charge relates to and on what date said fees/charges were levied.

 

8. A genuine copy of any deed of assignment, or proof that you have a legal right to this money.

 

9. A genuine copy of any notice of fair use of my data as required by the Data Protection Act 1998

 

10. A list of third party agencies to whom you have disclosed my personal data and a summary of the nature of the information you have disclosed.

 

11. A copy of all account statements for the duration of the agreements.

 

12. Please would you also advise me of the logic involved in any automated decisions taken by you about me pursuant to section 7(1) (d) of the Data Protection Act 1998.

 

13. A True copy of the consumer credit agreement section 77-79 of the Consumer Credit Act of 1974.

 

Any Other information relating to these accounts

 

I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me, then I shall be reclaiming them, and also reclaiming the enclosed £10 Data Protection Act subject access request fee.

 

If there is specific information which you require in order to satisfy yourself as to my identity, please let me know by return. However, please note that the above address is the one which you normally use to communicate my private business to me and which you have hitherto found to be acceptable.

Yours sincerely

[sparky72]

Sent SAR off should have arrived on 12th february, do i have to wait for 40 working days? this takes me to 9th april. If no reply what happens next?

[zingy]

Sparky, you will have to wait a couple of weeks for all of the information to come from Hbos, but you will find they will send you a letter acknowledging your request in a week or so.

 

They might be quicker than other creditors, but when I received mine they only included information on one of the three accounts - still waiting on the rest:confused:.

[maroondevo52]

If no reply what happens next?

 

You send them a non-complience letter

[sparky72]

Received acknowledgement letter saying information will be sent within 40 days, though HBOS are not obliged to supply records held in paper format if they do not form part of a relevant filing system.

They have also included a copy of “our privacy statement”

Just sit tight now and wait to see what arrives!!!!

[chris433]

Hi Sparky.

 

The CCa is the route to take, we ourselfs had a halifax card which ended up at about £4500 in the end, i had come out of work and we struggled to make the repayments. we had had this card for about 5 years, anyway in the end they passed it on to a deby collector.

 

So i sent them a CCa and after about 2 months we got a letter back from the debt collecting company saying that they had requested the documents but had recieved nothing and was passing it back to the halifax.

 

The halifax then about 2 months later wrote to use direct offering to drop the debt to £3200 if we could pay this or £3400 over 3 installments, we just ignored this.

 

This was now 15 months since and we have not heard nothing since then, i can only assume they have lost or misplaced the agreement and have given up.

 

I hope everything works out for you.

[sparky72]

Hi Maroondevo52 thanks for your advice and experience, I read somewhere on this forum it would be better to SAR first to see if i get the credit agreement, my original cards were visa's, started back in the year 2000. Now though a couple of years ago just changed to mastercards's. So what do you think chances of having original visa agreements? .

[maroondevo52]

Hi,

 

Have you considered claiming back charges on the cards.

[sparky72]

Hi, yes i indicated in the SAR request that i would be pursuing any PPI.

[maroondevo52]

What about other charges.

[sparky72]

Such as? because i have never missed any payments.

Edited February 21, 2010 by sparky72

[maroondevo52]

Ok, forget I mentioned that

[Dotty50]

Hi Sparky

 

After my recent experience with Halifax, I would advise you, like others have previously on this thread to get the CCA request off sooner rather than later it will only cost you £1.00 plus recorded delivery postage.

 

If they don't comply, which is likely, you can then put the account in dispute and stop paying (if that's what you want to do) Of course, it depends how important your credit file is.

[sparky72]

Hi Dotty, thanks for the advice, currently waiting on SAR, hopefully they will include (or not ) the credit agreement. I cannot remember signing one originally with Mastercard, and definetley not signed with Visa. Have until april sometime for all info to arrive. If no credit aggreement then stop paying, would this affect obtaining a mortgage in future?

[Dotty50]

Hi Sparky,

 

SAR may not produce a copy of your agreement, because I don't think they have to produce it in this request, however a CCA request does ask specifically for this to be produced so I would still send CCA request off anyway.

 

As far as any other application is concerned, mortgage related or otherwise, yes, non-payment on your credit file will have an adverse effect.

[sparky72]

Hi, got first response from my Halifax SAR request,

pretty quick just under two weeks, they have included all my past purchases, some computer forms and a credit card application for a visa card.

 

If someone from the site team could have a look and leave me some pointers i would be greatfull.

 

case1.pdf

 

 

This application form shows an account number from a previous visa card, but Halifax automaticllay changed this to a master card, without my knowledge, so they have supplied my old credit card account number from the year 2000 on a application form. And now it is a mastercard with a completely different account number.

 

cheers

 

sparky72

[GARY68]

Hi Sparky

this was to be expected..application form, not enforcable of course

they would have to instigate proceedings to enforce and that would be a none starter, no prescribed terms etc..

 

Did you send off your cca and £1 fee, you need to start the ball rolling and see what else they have, if this is all they have then dispute the debt, My guess is they will send out the t&c and say that they have complied etc..

 

you say you have no charges-oh well

 

Sparky you would be better starting a new thread in the ppi forumn as you would be better adviced from claimers there

you need to look through each statement and write down the ppi you have paid each month with the date, then transfer them on to a spreadsheet using the calculater below.

its been a long time since I did a spreadsheet so others maybe of help better but this is what I did.

add all your ppi payments and dates then transfer each one buy date on the calculator, put the principle sum in ie £6.48 @ 24%(or your apr) =compunded annualy(tick 360 box) =£20.ish

you will have your payment made plus the % charged,this will as you see give a substancial refund.

I tranfered £6.48 +8% Stat.on to a spread sheet...then added the 24% charge after, then put the claim in

Compound interest calculator

[GARY68]

sparky

this may explain better

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/payment-protection-insurance-ppi/249257-ppi-interest-calculator.html#post2793785