we have WON

[Caron]

I am new to this site so Hi to you all. I am taking on the Halifax for my 18 year old daughter who has been charged £900 bank charges over 3 months. We have writen to them to ask for these charges to be refunded and of course got the standard reply.. What a joke they are only prepared to offer her £200 reduction. We are accepting this and taking them to court for the rest. In the mean time (we seem to have 4 departments now writing and phoning us, just to confuse things!) they are now taking "further action" to recover their money as she has apparantely broken a "promise" to repay £900. At no time did they mention a payment plan to her,or get her agreement for one. Do they make things up in their sleep!! Last night they phoned again demanding payment now in full and then hung up on her before finishing the conversation.. SOO frustrating. They have until next week and we will fill in the court forms.

C&c

[essjaydee]

Hi, this is pretty much how i got treated, with the excessive amounts of phone calls etc (i received 20 calls in 14 days - and those are just the ones i answered!), there are a few bits you can do, because this sort of threatening behaviour over the phone demanding payments etc is harassment, if you check my thread - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank/6939-essjaydee-halifax.html - there's a few posts in there about what to do in response to the harassment.

 

good luck!

[Caron]

Thanks for that thread, I have read it all and just sent a letter to the Halifax about harrassement. See if that shuts them up. Who do they think they are phoning an 18 year old and demanding £900 today. 9 calls in less than 3 days!

[Caron]

Hi,

I started a thread somewhere but will start again as it was a while ago. I am fighting for my 18yr old daughter who has run up £1000 bank charges is only 4 months of having her account opened. Anyway, we have sent all the letters including harrassement letter as she gets 5-10 calls per day demanding the money now. They ignore all written correspondance. Does anyone know who to address letters to as we have so many differant people contacting her, that not one seems to know what they are all saying.

She was offered a £200 refund that we acepted in writing and also asked for the full refund. Someone else wrote to her last week saying she refused their 6 month refund offer (as she has only had the account 5 months does that mean we can now say yes to the full £1000 back?)

They have now passed her account to a credit company. We offered to pay £50 per month into her account until this was settled, and are doing so, but this has been ignored. Can they now default her account?

We are now going to fill in the court forms, but I think we will loose this battle.

[mechs]

Hi,

I started a thread somewhere but will start again as it was a while ago. I am fighting for my 18yr old daughter who has run up £1000 bank charges is only 4 months of having her account opened. Anyway, we have sent all the letters including harrassement letter as she gets 5-10 calls per day demanding the money now. They ignore all written correspondance. Does anyone know who to address letters to as we have so many differant people contacting her, that not one seems to know what they are all saying.

 

If the letters are from the Halifax then the adressess are in the forum near the top

She was offered a £200 refund that we acepted in writing and also asked for the full refund. Someone else wrote to her last week saying she refused their 6 month refund offer (as she has only had the account 5 months does that mean we can now say yes to the full £1000 back?)

 

you have to follow the proccedure ie preliminary request for payment and then the lba letter if not already done so

 

They have now passed her account to a credit company. We offered to pay £50 per month into her account until this was settled, and are doing so, but this has been ignored. Can they now default her account?

write to both the Halifax and the credit company stating the account is in dispute that should stop any further action, you need to get her credit file read this thread here How to get your default removed

We are now going to fill in the court forms, but I think we will loose this battle.

you would be very unlucky to loose if you follow the right proccedure

[Guest NATTIE]

Was she 18 when the charges started?

[Caron]

Yes, she was 18 in November 2005 and opened her account in March 2006.

[Guest NATTIE]

Just checking as I have read on these threads about them starting earlier than that. Has she got a parachute account set up?

[Caron]

All the letters we receive are from the same address but differant people and differant sections.

We have followed the order of letters, starting with the prelimanary please can I have these charges dropped as they are unlawful and unfair etc.

Followed by an answer saying no you signed the customer contract agreeing to charges etc.

We sent them the next letter and so on and are now up to the court next.

So far they are being unreasonable and starting a default notice and credit agency involvement.

This is very stressful and worrying as their is no way my daughter can afford to pay this costs.

[Caron]

Yes she has her original account from when she was a baby. We have changed this to a grown up account!!

[mechs]

then file a court claim and write the letters as i suggested in my previous post

[Caron]

I have just read how to get a default notice removed. Thanks for the information. I have applied for her credit file from Experian and copied the letters for her to start sending when the report arrives.

I shall now go to the on-line court stuff and start reading this. This is now done and the claim filed at a cost of £120. All letters typed and off to the post.

Thanks for help.

[mechs]

glad to help good luck

[Caron]

We did it....At last. After weeks of harrassement from the bank and threats that they were taking action, I filed a court action and paid £120. That was only a week ago. Yesterday we got a letter saying although they are not at fault, my 18 year old daughter is, they will refund the full amount £822 plus court costs as it will cost them more than that to defend her claim in court.

Thanks for your help. Now to try for my other daughters account.

happy mum and daughter.

[lisa1977]

Very well done - seeing these threads keeps us going !

[caro]

Congratulations. I have merged your threads so that people can see how you won.

[Guest NATTIE]

Congratulations!

[jonni2bad]

Well done, great news.