Complaint about Halifax new charges regime, template letters here.

[bigyeti]

I've had some success. I pestered them for a true signed copy of the agreement that shows that I agreed to the charges. The agreement that doesn't exist, yet they still cashed my cheque for. Eventually I got a letter back saying that they refunded the charges (well most of them, their maths is a good £65 out in their favour), all other charges have been frozen and I just need to contact them to arrange a repayment plan. This works out cheaper than my original offer. Huzzah!

 

However, I have another plan. Because they never supplied me with any agreement, then surely I have not been liable for any interest payments on the balance over the last 8 years. So, I'm wondering if it's worth trying to offset them against the balance which would reduce it by almost a grand.

 

Worth a try?

[bigyeti]

I agree. As I was adding up the interest I thought 'Sod it', I don't owe them sod all.

So I drafted up such a letter and it is now in the hands of the Royal Mail's finest.

[bigyeti]

At first I thought you called me angel. lol

 

Did you jump ship before the daily OD charges started? That's what we did so until they backed down they had piled over a grand in charges onto the account. At first I was going to just take them up on their offer, but without the agreement I don't see why I should.

 

My advice is go down the "prove I agreed to the new charges" route

[bigyeti]

When I moved to another bank, we couldn't get an overdraft so we didn't bother and just left the Halifax account in arrears. Transferred all the direct debits and wages and carried on as normal but without a huge OD sucking interest out of us.

[bigyeti]

I've just checked my credit report with Experian, and Halifax have filed 8 missed payment endorsements on there. Apart from that, my report is all green.

 

As they have defaulted on the CCA request, I have written to them telling them that they are in default. After finding all that on my credit report, I think I'll send a S10 DPA notice.

[bigyeti]

To tell them to stop processing my details, remove anything on the credit record and delete the account

 

I think anyway

Edited November 25, 2010 by bigyeti

[bigyeti]

I think this is it

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?411-Legal-notice-issued-under-Section-10-of-the-Data-Protection-Act-1980

[bigyeti]

I actually started to switch accounts before the letter came, and set up a SO to pay off the direct debit. Then the letter came so I wrote back and told them I don't agree. I sent 5 letters before the charges actually started, by which time we'd gone, cancelled the SO and maxxed out the OD.

Overdrafts are covered by the CCA as it's a rolling credit agreement, and works in exactly the same way as a credit card. There was a court case that determined that. Coutts vs Sebestyen, as mentioned here

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?31515-CCAs-and-overdrafts

 

They sent the first request back saying there isn't an agreement for this type of account, so I sent it back saying 'yes there is' and mentioned that case.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[bigyeti]

Do you really need an overdraft in place?

[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.

[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.

[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.