Complaint about Halifax new charges regime, template letters here.

[VillageBranson]

Hi there,

 

I've been receiving letters for the last fortnight from Halifax detailing how they are charging me £5 a day for going over my agreed O/D and this is worryingly escalating.

 

A friend suggested that I might close my account in order to stop these 'service fees' accumulating and be left with just a single lump sum to pay them back. Is this a viable alternative? I cannot afford to pay them what they are asking and have already sent them a Statement of Means to this effect and an accompanying letter asking them to desist with their outrageous charges, which they haven't done.

 

Is there something I could send to get them to stop sending me daily letters and charges?

 

If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Merry Christmas.

[car2403]

VillageBranson,

 

Firstly, I think you should start a new thread in the Halifax/BOS subforum - there's some links in my signature, if you're not sure how.

 

Secondly, I think it's going to be very important for you to open a parachute bank account, as even if you're extremely reasonable with them, they will continue to charge you the daily amount.

 

I have to say, I've gone overdrawn with my Halifax account by them paying items which shouldn't have been paid (DD's I cancelled) and I didn't end up being charged as I managed to transfer some money to cover the overdraft before the close of business on the same day - I was expecting to have returned item fees, but they have never came. Sounds like fee free banking to me, but then I can transfer money to cover the overdraft amounts and those not in my position will be feeling the pain from these charges. The fight continues.

[Bigdebtor]

Village Branson

 

As Car says, try to open a parachute account elsewhere - and then tell HBOS you NEVER accepted these new terms and quote the bit earlier in here about the CCA 1974 requiring them to continue on same terms as before if you don't accept changes to such T&C's.

 

I would also threaten to go to FOS if they don't waive all such charges. At least this will cost them around £500 by FOS if they don't agree. It might be cheaper for them to agree to play ball withyou - but you will need to bank elsewhere from then on.

 

Good luck!

 

BD

[domonic89]

I desperately need some advice/help. I'm new to the forum so please forgive me if this thread is in th e wrong place.

Recently, I went over my authorised overdraft by £40. I have 3children and I am going through a terrible divorce, so my head isnt in a good place. Ii am trying to reduce my £200 overdraft with halifax so I can close the account as it is joint with my husband. However, I noticed that once again my account had gone up to £240, I was perplexed so I looked into my account and noticed the Halifax had charged me £150 in charges. I phoned them immediately thinking it was a mistake, but no, the girl informed me that I've been charged £5 per day for every day I was over my overdraft. This is daylight robbery. I explained my situation and almost begged them to remove the charge, ( my incoming money has literally been halved) I really (stupidly) wasnt aware of the charge. The most they would give me was £35 off, she then asked for my national insurance number, she went away and came back to tell me that because I work(part time) they cant help me. I have written to their customer relations, but I suspect they will either offer me £35 off or say tough. I'm at the end of my tether I jsut dont know what to do.

I dont think a loan shark would charge this much, if I dont pay do you think they'll send 'Howard' round to break my legs. Sorry for the sarcasam I think I'm losing my marbles!

[bigyeti]

If you haven't categorically agreed to their new charges regime when they changed them last February or whenever, then they can't bind you to a contract. To my knowledge, silence does not constitute agreement - just because you didn't tell them you don't accept the new charges, it doesn't mean you agree to them. They'll claim that in the T&Cs it says that they can change them as and when providing they gave you notice. Which they probably did in a letter that just looked surprisingly like a letter asking if you want an ISA or something, which tends to make you ignore it.

Dump Halifax, open an account somewhere else and have ALL your ins and outs go through that. That way they can't take any other cash off you. Write to them asking for unequivocal proof that you agreed to the new charges. That's what I did, and they refunded all of the charges and said that they would not apply any more.

 

If you've not done so already, read through this entire thread.

[Bigdebtor]

Dom

 

I agree with Big Yeti. It's worth doing as he says - including reading the entire thread - it will only take an hour or so and you'll feel much more knowledgible afterwards. As I said above, complain to them formally - even if you are in part time work, you do seem to be in genuine financial difficulty and they are NOT treating you as they should under current guidleines (google "FOS (or OFT?) financial difficulty" for more info on this). Tell them it's a formal complaint and you WILL write to FOS if they don't satisfy you. This will cost them around £500 plus a lot of hassle in writing to FOS to defend the indefensible, so they may just play ball right away - but I doubt it!

 

You will need a parachute account elsewhere to stop them taking any more of YOUR hard earned money - set it up PDQ and get everything transferred over (other than your overdraft!).

 

Good luck!

 

BD

[bigyeti]

All this aside, Halifax are filing a blemish on my otherwise spotless credit record on a monthly basis. In my proposal to pay off the balance, I required they put my credit record straight. They say they cannot agree to it as they are obliged to. They are still amending it even now after they agreed not to add any more charges. I applied for a mortgage with Santander in December in order to take advantage of the low interest rates, and was turned down for this reason. This has cost me in the region of £80 per month or so. I want Halifax to remove these entries urgently.

What's the best way of forcing them? Will I need to take them to court?

[bigyeti]

Halifax are really becoming irksome. Although S.74 does apply as it is a current accout overdraft, is it still counted as a regulated agreement? Surely there must be an agreement of some sort or another, otherwise they could claim I owe any amount they choose to pluck from a hat.

[Bigdebtor]

That's exactly what they DO. It used to be they charged £28 per month for an unauthorised overdraft plus £39 a shot for every payment made (or declined) which caused this unauthorised overdraft. Now they charge up to £155 pe rmonth for an unauthorised overdraft of anything over £10 - so the CAN and DO claim you owe them whatever THEY CHOOSE - and it appears we can do nothing about it unless and until we are able to pay off the overdraft.

[car2403]

Halifax are really becoming irksome. Although S.74 does apply as it is a current accout overdraft, is it still counted as a regulated agreement? Surely there must be an agreement of some sort or another, otherwise they could claim I owe any amount they choose to pluck from a hat.

 

Nope, there's no form requirements for an overdraft as a result of s.74. What they do have to comply with, though, is the requirements of the OFT's Determination to benefit from s.74, which means that they need to have sent you a letter shortly before or after entering in to the overdraft outlining interest rates, charges and their method of termination. If they didn't, they don't benefit from the Determination. Where they don't, we know they don't have an agreement that is enforceable, hence the debt is unenforceable as a result.

 

Suggest you read links in my sig about the CCA and overdrafts

[bigyeti]

I have no issue in paying back the overdraft, my main concern is what they're doing to our credit record. We're in a 5yr fixed rate mortgage with Halifax which ends next May, we went into our current bank to see about switching early and if it wasn't for Halifax trashing our credit rating, we would have been accepted and would be paying about 80pcm less. That means of course that other banks won't accept us and Halifax themselves wouldn't offer us another deal next year which means we could be paying full whack.

 

I'm going to chase them on this with the Consumer Protection from Unfair trading Regs Act 2008, particularly Part 2, S3

3) A commercial practice is unfair if—

a) it contravenes the requirements of professional diligence; and

b) it materially distorts or is likely to materially distort the economic behaviour of the average consumer with regard to the product.

[lhmcr1]

Hi all,

I have just noticed this thread even though I have been on CAG for a few months.

basically my main account is with Halifax and I too am having to pay these daily overdraft charges of £2 and have been doing since they implemented them.

Would it be too late to object to these charges now? I do have a parachute account but it has no O/D facility (don't really want it to have one)

Would I be able to write to the Halifax at this time and object and if I can would I get anything back and/or have the account closed and pay monthly to bring my balance down?

Thing is, if they request say £60 a month to clear the balance it would take quite some time and I would be no better off, or is it just best to leave it as i doubt another bank would give me that big an overdraft.

[bigyeti]

Do you really need an overdraft in place?

[lhmcr1]

Do you really need an overdraft in place?

 

Until I sell the house, unfortunately yes.

I have a feeling it may be to late to do anything though

[Bigdebtor]

Hi all,

Would I be able to write to the Halifax at this time and object and if I can would I get anything back and/or have the account closed and pay monthly to bring my balance down?

Thing is, if they request say £60 a month to clear the balance it would take quite some time and I would be no better off, or is it just best to leave it as i doubt another bank would give me that big an overdraft.

 

No harm in writing to them telling them you do not accept them changing your T&C's and asking them to revert to previous T&C's - or freeze interest and allow you to repay at £60 per month interest free. You WOULD be better off - as your debt would reduce by £60 per month whereas at £2 per day charges paying £60 per month is just treading water - paying less is sinking deeper into debt.

 

Alternatively ask them to convert it into a personal loan at around 7% apr. That way at least the bulk of it will go to repayments.

 

Doing nothing at all is the worst option.

 

BD

[lhmcr1]

As said, i have an awkward situation.

I don't know if I'll be any better off putting my salary, DD's etc on my other bank a/c and paying £60 a month to HFX, it will take quite a while to bring down the O/D unless the house gets sold. the other bank said they will not match my Hfx O/D so that is not an option.

If I did write to the Hfx and ask for proof that I agreed to their new T & C's would I get the £60 back for each month they have took it out?

As I said, I feel it's a no win situation.

[Bigdebtor]

Lhmcr1

 

Have you read this thread and the template letters right through? There is a wealth of help on thsi and other threads - but it needs YOU to act upon it to be successful.

 

First thing to do is parachute account - which you seem to have done.

2nd is to get charges and interest frozen - or a lower cost personal loan set up if they won't agree to this. Many people have succeeded in one or other option.

3rd is to negotiate they remove ALL £2 per day charges that you didn't agree to in the first place (I assume the interest charged before this was less? If not then you've really no grounds for complaint!). If they won't play ball - and you feel you are in hardship and are not getting any help from them whilst in hardship then put in a formal complaint - followed up by a letter to FOS if they still won't play ball.

4. If you can't afford to repay £60 per month to Halifax then you need to tell them - NOW - before your overdraft grows even more and they slap you with the HIGHER £5 per day for UNAUTHORISED overdraft.

5. Have you any unfair credit card charges and associated interest you could reclaim right now? Remember it's only unfair overdraft charges that the SC ruling covered. Credit card default charges CAN be reclaimed IN FULL - PLUS CONTRACTUAL INTEREST - with the amount of refund due effectively doubling every 3-4 years they remain unclaimed (at around 2% per month or more compounded monthly).

6. Have you shopped around for cheaper options on other household bills - life, car, house and contents insurance, maintenance contracts etc. ?

 

AS I said doing nothing is the worst option.

 

It doesn't have to be a no win situation - but will be if you just accept it is so.

 

Sorry if this sounds harsh but being saddled with an unjust £60 per month charge is pretty light weight compared to some of the situations appearing on CAG!

 

Carpe diem!

 

BD

[lhmcr1]

Hi Bigdebtor,

I have asked about a low cost loan with no joy.

Is there a template letter to get charges and interest frozen? I have read through this thread but cannot find that particular one.

The interest charged before was less, by about £20 so it would better by a little, which is what I was referring to about would I be any better off.

I am in the process of reclaiming credit card charges from Egg, but have already been rejected by the FOS, I now need to pay £60 to take my chances in court.

I won't get very far with a hardship claim as I am working full time, I already tried that with bank charges.

I always shop round for the best insurances etc...

Thank you for helping

[bigyeti]

I think I posted my letter to them on this thread somewhere, which basically demanded proof that I had agreed to the new charges. It was over a year ago though so I'm not sure without trawling through the entire thread. However, I was in a position to jump ship and transfer all payments to another account. After which my income was safe and couldn't be interfered with.

[lhmcr1]

Hi Bigyeti,

I have looked through all of the posts and can't find your letter, can you remember what you wrote or do you have a link?

Did they refund each of the £60 a month charges or just the £5 overdraft charges?

[bigyeti]

Well basically because I'd switched banks, the account was just dormant and the only transactions were their charges so when thry finally backed off, they just credited the account what they'd taken and agreed to freeze all charges. The downside in all this is that they had been filing bad things on my credit record which has bothered me most of all.

[lhmcr1]

Well basically because I'd switched banks, the account was just dormant and the only transactions were their charges so when thry finally backed off, they just credited the account what they'd taken and agreed to freeze all charges. The downside in all this is that they had been filing bad things on my credit record which has bothered me most of all.

 

So would it make any difference if I still use the HFx as my main account, I'm still trying to work out if I'll be any better off!

[car2403]

So would it make any difference if I still use the HFx as my main account, I'm still trying to work out if I'll be any better off!

 

you really need to stop using that account - if you continue to credit it, you may well find yourself 'locked out' of it when they decide enough is enough. The parachute account is there to prevent that happening. There are plenty of nightmares on here, so it's only a matter of time, unfortunately.

[bigyeti]

Yup, switch everything over. At the moment you're paying £60 a month for nothing which I'm sure you'll agree is better in your pocket than theirs. I assume all your outgoings are covered by your income otherwise you're in a position of more going out than what's coming in and your overdraft balance will be increasing all the time. If you can cover all your bills with your income, then just switch everything over and you won't need an overdraft.

As someone else said, sort out other bills, switch utilities suppliers, insurers and other such stuff. You can save a fair bit doing that for precious little effort. That will be yet more spare cash in your pocket.

[lhmcr1]

Just thought I'd let you know that I've created a new post with regards to my Hfx current account.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?299810-Halifax-Current-Account-overdraft-charges-Is-it-too-late-to-do-anything-(2-Viewing)-nbsp