Halifax overdraft withdrawn with no notice - now being chased by Blair Oliver and Scott

[Dudley67]

I going to try and make this short so whoever out there wont get bored reading it. The story goes like this - me and the wife (joint a/c) have a ultimate reward account with the Halifax, in Feb 2009 with no notice they withdrew the o/d facility and left us high and dry with £3k in the red, one week away from payday and demanding the money back. they insisted on a repayment plan for £280 per month until it was paid back they wouldnt negotiate a smaller repayment plan, they said it was that or court action. In the end we moved our account to another bank. As they had agreed to the repayment plan we were able to withdraw all of our wages out of the account - although they had put a market on the account - we felt like we were doomed. We had banked with halifax for nearly 15 years and everything we had coming in went into that account, we felt that we were just cast aside, no loyalty no nothing - they wanted their money.

 

Anyway I drone on, in the end and at leat £600 worth of charges over approx 6 months, the account was passed to various DCA, they were demanding stupid payments £300 per month and more. The account was transferred to Blair Oliver and Scott, the phone never stopped ringing, the letters were geting nasty. I took thebull by the horns and called them, they allowed us to set up a payment plan for £120 per month and advised me that the term of the arrangement was 2 years +. We were relieved that it was at last sorted. They took my bank card details and set up an automatic card payment plan, so no need to call everymonth. This week to my shock, the letters have started arriving again, they are saying that the plan has come up for review and to call with my I&E details to hand.........dumbfound is the word.

 

I have not called them yet - what do I do?

Any help on this woud be so appreciated. all we want to do is pay back what we owe, they have made their money on us time and time over.

 

Dudley

[The Mould]

OK Dudley

 

Firstly, cancell that automatic payment transaction on your card.

 

Secondly, do you have anything in writing from B,O & S Ltd regarding this 2yr+ agreement/contract?

 

When was the said contract concluded, how long have you performed your obligations under that said contract?

 

Third thing, have a look at the Law of Contract regarding the different types of 'breach of contract' and the remedies that the non-breaching party are entitled to chose from depending on the seriousness of the violation of the contract terms/conditions/obligations of the party who has caused the offence (I do not mean offence as in criminal).

 

My advice to you, based on what you have posted, is cancell the card payments to B,O & S Ltd, write them a very short letter stating that as a direct result of their substantial non-performance of the agreement/contract, an act that they were obligated to perform under the agreement when the two (2) parties (they and you) agreed and accepted to be bound to the instrument from the moment it was concluded, without having first provided you with any notice or any reasonable notice of their intention to terminate the said agreement, you as the non-breaching party to the said agreement hereby give notice that you have at your disposal three (3) alternative remedies that you are at liberty to chose from as the remedy, under the Law of Contract, for the said fundamental breach of contract by you (B, O, & S Ltd), from this day (put the date in here) I accept recission of the contract as the remedy that I am entitled to in law, therefore, any obligations that the said instrument had me bound by are now lawfully discharged.

 

Send that and make them choke (legally choke that is)

 

Godzilla to that.

 

Kind Regards

 

The Mould

[Dudley67]

Blimey Charley, think you may need to run that past me twice.

We started the arrangement in January 2010 and have not defaulted on the agreement. In answer to your question, no,they never wrote to me to confirm that this was set up as a fixed payment plan. I was convinced they did but cannot find any correspondence to confirm.

So, going back to the content of a letter - could you explain again please?

Kind Regards

 

Dudley

[firstship]

Hi.............1st do not send I&E to Blair Oliver & Scott,they are the in house debt collectors for Halifax,so in essence you are dealing with Halifax.,only a court can demand a I&E.You must not deal with either Halifax or their debt collector arm BOS over the phone, only in writing,if they phone refuse their security questions and state You will only deal with them in writing.You only need to pay what you can honestly afford NO MORE,Cancel your DD to BOS only ever use SO you have total control of a SO.As I am writing this reply The Mould has also replied,we are both telling you the same things..........hope this helps....FS

[Dudley67]

FS... many thanks for your reply. I will certainly take the advice given regarding cancelling the automatic card payment and set up a SO. I do still have by bank card so perhaps could be just as easy to pay the money monthly direct into the account. What I need to prepare is a letter that fully explains my (our) position as to what we agreed and hope that they wil take note. From what I have read on these forums, they certainly like to take a pound of flesh as well as cause distress.

 

Dudley

[The Mould]

Dudley

 

OK govnor, what I am saying is B,O & S Ltd have broken the contract/agreement (the 2yr+ agreement) with you, B, O & S Ltd are acting on behalf of and under the authority of Halifax, so anything done or not done by them, the Halifax is responsible for (legally responsible).

 

B, O & S Ltd did not give you any reasonable notice that they were terminating the said agreement, 2 weeks notice would be considered by the Courts as reasonable.

 

They broke the agreement, this is a serious material breach of that bilatteral agreement, substantial non-performance of their obligations, as a result of their broken promise, you can now treat your obligations under that said agreement as discharged, in other words, you are no longer liable for any amount that you were liable for before the breach of contract.

 

You do not have to under any laws of England and Wales pay any further monies to them.

 

Perhaps a more suitable phrase would be 'HALIFAX, THIS IS PAYBACK TIME'. TAKE THAT.

 

I hope that clears the matter up for you Dudley.

 

Kind Regards

 

The Mould

[The Mould]

Dudley

 

Forget about making any payments SO or not.

 

You owe them nothing now, that is the law, the Law of Contract.

 

Kind Regards

 

The Mould

[Dudley67]

Apologies for not picking up your posts yesterday evening, my PC had a moment and crashed. I ought to write a letter to confirm the above, but suspect that they may say that 'Ross' never entered into any such agreement, or the usual 'one line' "there is no note on our systems and we do not operate fixed terms contracts/arrangements" - IF this is their reply what am I obliged to do? Sorry for the long protracted questions but after reading some of the posts on the forum regarding this firm I suspect that I need to prepare myself (and the wife for the long haul) just when we thought it was agreed and sorted.

 

Kind Regards

 

Dudley

[Guest]

dudley

 

have a good read through this for eg re o/d's http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?237096-Are-overdrafts-covered-by-cca-s

[Dudley67]

Not entirely sure what I gleened from that thread? is an O/D covered by a CCA?

[Guest]

Not entirely sure what I gleened from that thread? is an O/D covered by a CCA?

 

an o/d is regulated by the consumer cr act, to some extent!

[Dudley67]

I think that today I will prepare a letter to state that we agreed to this payment plan on the understanding that it would be cleared 2years+ and that in fact the account is not due for renewal as indeed they state? Do I then just sit back and wait?

 

With the experience of this forum would this be considered the best form of action?

 

Regards

 

Dudley

[Dudley67]

any help would be appreciated on this one.

 

thanks in advance

 

Dudley

[Chipmeister]

Hi Dudley, afraid I can't offer any advice but wanted to bump your thread as it sounds like you've been royally had, to be polite.

 

If you need help urgently you can click on the little triangle at the bottom left of your post and this will draw your thread to the attention of the Admin bods here.

 

All the best,

CM

[Dudley67]

CM

 

A lovely post on my thread - we feel like we have been 'had over' my concern is that my poor wife is at her wits end with worry and stress of it all and we desperately want to clear what we owe. We certainly dont want to get off paying, but dont want to be harrassed either.

 

Thank you again, and will tip the triangle as you suggest.

 

Dudley

[Dudley67]

Admin - can you assist me please?

 

Kind Regards

 

Dudley

[citizenB]

I think that today I will prepare a letter to state that we agreed to this payment plan on the understanding that it would be cleared 2years+ and that in fact the account is not due for renewal as indeed they state? Do I then just sit back and wait?

 

With the experience of this forum would this be considered the best form of action?

 

Regards

 

Dudley

 

In respect of the original overdraft.. was there any problems ie were you going over the agreed limit ? If not and they just called the overdraft in then you may be able to use the Unfair Terms regulations.

 

I believe an overdraft can be called in without the need for a default notice, but I am pretty sure that they are required to give you some notice by way of a letter. Did they do this ?

 

 

 

Was the agreement for the repayment plan done by letter or over the phone ?

 

Either way, it might be worth you investing £10.00 for a Subject Access Request. Link to a draft letter below.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/resources/templates-library/48-bank-templates/110--data-protection-act-1998-subject-access-request-

 

They are obliged to send all information they hold on you, and the template letter is such that you can ask for additional information that isnt already included in the draft letter.

 

I would suggest you add a bit requesting a copy of their communication logs which should let you see if they have noted on these, any communication with you in respect of the payment plan in January 2010.

 

The above has to be sent to Halifax.

 

Meanwhile, I would send a letter to Blair Oliver advising that as far as you are concerned there was a payment plan in place at a rate of £120.00 per month until DATE.

 

As already advised, you are under no obligation to provide them with details of your income and expenditure so dont. When you entered into the payment plan, did they stop adding interest and charges to the account.

Edited August 20, 2010 by citizenB
spelling

[Dudley67]

Hello there, to answer your questions, we used our overdraft regulalry but also paid it off regularly.

 

We always had our statements come through clealy stating how much our overdraft was and when it was due for REVIEW. Thhe next thing we realised they had reviewed it and withdrew it, the first we knew was when there was no money in the bank. We never rreceived anything in writing from them, and when challenged they simply stated that the account was reviewed in line with the T&C's of the account and the facility withdrawn. yes we went over he overdraft from time to time but we paid for it £35 charge per item and £35 over limit fee. Not cheap.

 

there were no reasons they just called it in - end of. It was a terrible time, never known anything like it, we were borrowing money just to eat and feed the children. Its awful considering we both work and would happily have reduced the O/D a bit at a time if they only spoke to us. we had banked with them for 15 years.

 

And yes the charges have been frozen, its good job too as the charges were nearly £100 per month at one point.

[citizenB]

Sadly you are one of many facing this type of action from the bank. I think your best plan of action is as you have already advised. Write to them saying you were led to believe that you had an arrangement in place. If they are now withdrawing that as well then would they please confirm this in writing in order for you to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

 

HTH

[Dudley67]

Many many thanks for your post. I will take your advise and get a lette in the post on Monday. In your experience will they allow the current payment arrangement to continue or will they take us to court? I know that I am trying to get one step ahead, but as they say forearmed is forwarned. I am trying to ascertain what I am dealing with and am I setting myself up for the long haul of a battle?

 

Kind Rergards

 

Dudley

[Dudley67]

sorry, just to clarify, I send the SAR request to the Halifax, then the letter regarding the payment plan to Blair, Oliver & Scott?

 

Kind Regards

 

Dudley

[citizenB]

sorry, just to clarify, I send the SAR request to the Halifax, then the letter regarding the payment plan to Blair, Oliver & Scott?

 

Kind Regards

 

Dudley

 

Yes, SAR to Halifax

 

You can send the payment plan letter to Blair Oliver if it is them who last contacted you about it. At the bottom of the Blair Olly letter put "copy to Halifax"

 

Then print off a further copy of the letter and send a copy of it to the Halifax, along with a short covering letter just saying something as follows:

 

Dear Halifax

 

Please find enclosed a copy of a letter I have today sent to your "in house" agents, Blair Oliver Scott".

 

This is for your reference only.

 

Yours etc

 

At the bottom of this letter put

 

Original letter sent to Blair Oliver

 

Ok

[Guest]

re an o/d - IMO. they are required to send an o/d 'letter' soon after the o/d arrangement, and this shld contain the terms of the o/d. they are also required to send some 'notice' before calling in an o/d. also, if in 'breach' of the o/d agreement, then a compliant Default Notice is required before the cr can terminate etc if they are doing so on the basis of your 'breach'. the 'clause' saying that they can call in the full amount at anytime in such short notice may be regarded as 'unfair', and an 'unrealistic demand' for payment.

[Dudley67]

Cit B - Will arrange a letter without delay, will take the advice you have kindly offered.

 

Ford - thank you for your post, we received no notfication at all, we had the usual statements with the review dates as we had year on year before, and the o/d was ongoing, our circumstances had not changed and we used the o/d in the same way when it was withdrawn - with no notice. What we found most alarming was that they were demanding that we repaid it at 10% per month until satisfed and there was no discussing it, they just would not budge. We went to ground after that, and panic set in. Then Blair Oliver & Scott appeared - the rest you know.....

 

Best Regards

 

Dudley

[Dudley67]

Just keeping this thread updated as I consider it may help people in similar situations.

 

I have written said letters and no reply so far, will post back when there is an update, I suspect there will be one soon now that the bank holiday is over!