Halifax "Ultimate Rewards Account" Help!

[paullittle]

Hi folks,

 

I got offered a Halifax Ultimate Reward account as an "upgrade" to my Easycash account at a time when I was doing fairly well financially. I was keen to take the account at that time as I was trying to rebuild my credit rating.

 

However, my finances took a nosedive in the middle of last year and I stopped using the Rewards account. Unfortunately I had gone just over my agreed overdraft limit and was of course levied with some charges.

 

I asked if the account could be closed but was told that his was only possible once the overdaft was cleared. So I was in the situation of having no income, trying to pay off the overdaft but being constantly thwarted by the £12.50/month account fee, which pushed me futher into debt and incurred further charges . With me so far?

 

After a while I managed to get them to agree a nominal fee repayment of £1/month but they were still charging the account fee of £12.50! I asked if there was anything I could do about that and was told the only thing would be to convert the account into a standard account but that the overdraft fees would be more that the Rewards account fee - so now I was stuck!

 

A while later I had a further conversation with them and was able to get them to put a "stop" on the account so that no further charges would be levied. Once again I asked about the £12.50 account fee but was given the same reponse as before, so a little better - but not much!

 

I had been going on like this until September 23 this year when I had a call regarding the account and once again I was able to get them to agree to continue with the arrangement we already had in place.

 

Now comes the 1st bombshell:

 

The person I spoke to told me that the £12.50 account fee was purely for the "Rewards" (RAC cover, travel insurance etc, etc) and that if I wasn't using those then the fee could be waived! No one had told me that before so I have been paying that fee for over a year COMPETELY UNNECCESSARILY!

 

So now the fee was stopped and I had some prospect of making headway into the now considerably inflated "debt" of just over £427 (it was a little over £100 when this all started).

 

Now the 2nd bombshell:

 

I was called yesterday (3rd November) by a collections firm called "ICOR" who informed me that Halifax had passed the "debt" to them and that I now had to pay up. I had no prior notification the Halifax were going to take this action and I suspected a [problem] and told them to "foxtrot oscar".

 

Of course I immediately contacted Halifax who confirmed that this was indeed the case. I asked the person I spoke to why I had not been informed that this was going to happen and he said "I have no idea" - great! (the words elbow and arse come to mind).

 

I was furious .

 

I called ICOR today and explained the situation (I am on JSA) and they then expected me to go into detailed financial disclosure about income and expenditure over the phone. I told them I wasn't prepared to do that but was willing to provide the information in a more secure manner which I have now done but I doubt whether there will be any form of acceptable (to me) arrangement forthcoming - if I know anything about collection firms - they were even making threats of "sending the boys round".

 

So my dilema is twofold:

1. Where do I stand with Halifax regarding the unnesseccary account fees - which, of course also created extra penalty fees. Is there any way of reclaiming these? Should I have been informed by Halifax of thier intended action regarding ICOR?

2. What should I do about the collections firm?

 

I certainly will not be dealing with Halifax in any form ever again. Luckily I do have an account with the Helpful Banking people so I am going to transfer everything over to them.

 

Any help will be gratefully received as I am just about at my wits end with this.

[paullittle]

Just found out that the DCA is actually called iQor recovery Services Ltd - i.e. spelt with a "Q" not a "C"

 

Anyone know anything about them?

[Birdie2607]

I too was in a similar position. On JSA and one charge caused other things to bounce etc etc. I did question the charges and asked Halifax for an itemised account of how the bank charge was made up - if they expected me to pay it, I wanted to know what I was paying for. They told me that it was 'company sensitive' information and were not at liberty to give me that information. They then went over to this £1 per day malarky and I asked them to put a hold on the 'accumulating' charges whilst the account was in dispute, £110 charges accumulated to £575 and that was whilst going through the Ombudsman!! I have since had communications from Fairfax solicitors telling me that after 'refusing' to pay, they were going to get a county court judgement - I've told them to go ahead and I will meet them in court with the press - Headline: Halifax pursues unemployed person for bank charges to fund CEO's bonus. Marvellous I have sufficient evidence to show that I've tried to sort this out and am prepared to go to bloody prison if necessary LOL. The situation is such that I've given them 2 options - stop fannying about and go to court OR give up. Will let you know if I end up in Strangeways.

[paullittle]

Hi Birdie

I'd be interested to know how that pans out.

 

Incidentally I had a call from iQor yesterday. They always start off with:

 

"I'm calling from the Halifax" - obviously not true!

Or

"I'm calling on befalf of the Halifax" - obviously not quite true!

 

When I asked if the caller was actually the Halifax or iQor they hung up. Sounds like a real dodgy company to me

[paullittle]

Quick update:

I wrote to Halifax complaining about the fact that they had levied the £12.50 charge unnessecarily and about the harassment I was getting from iQor - up to three calls per day (in the end I just stopped answering). Amazingly I got a call from Halifax customer services saying that they would refund all the charges from the point where the stop was put on the account. This effectively halved the amount I owe. Result! They also agreed to take back the account from iQor. Result!!

 

At the same time I wrote to iQor telling them if they did not stop calling me I would report them for harassment. I also pointed out (again) my financial situation. Hey presto the calls stopped! Then I recieved a letter from them saying that I would have to make a "token payment to prevent further action". It will please me greatly to tell them to foxtrot oscar and that Halifax are now handling it again.

[angel2010]

I have a similar problem, no income for 2 months and waiting for JSA, my Ulimate Reward was just over the £100 overdraft limit, I have just checked it now and it stands at £337!! As if I have not got enough to worry about with larger other debts.

 

Is it best to write to the halifax or did you deal with them by telephone?

[Birdie2607]

I have a similar problem, no income for 2 months and waiting for JSA, my Ulimate Reward was just over the £100 overdraft limit, I have just checked it now and it stands at £337!! As if I have not got enough to worry about with larger other debts.

 

Is it best to write to the halifax or did you deal with them by telephone?

 

Everything is best in writing - remember to keep a copy of everything you send. Have you written to them to tell them that you are on JSA? That's the first step and ask them to stop the charges because they are escalating a debt that you can't repay.

[paullittle]

I have a similar problem, no income for 2 months and waiting for JSA, my Ulimate Reward was just over the £100 overdraft limit, I have just checked it now and it stands at £337!! As if I have not got enough to worry about with larger other debts.

 

Is it best to write to the halifax or did you deal with them by telephone?

 

 

I wrote to them. And I agree with birdie - this is always the best way as you can keep a paper trail.

 

Halifax actually called me after receiving my letter and agreed to refund the charges back to the point at which the stop was placed on the account. In my case they refunded the charges since I hadn't used any of the "ultimate rewards" since that is what the charge is for (apparently!) although it took me a looong time to find that out! I guess I could have argued to have them go back further but in reality I was using the account up to that point and had the option of making use of the rewards so fair's fair I suppose...

 

If you have used any of the rewards - travel insurance, RAC membership etc they might try to wriggle but keep at them!

 

Good luck!

[Birdie2607]

I too was in a similar position. On JSA and one charge caused other things to bounce etc etc. I did question the charges and asked Halifax for an itemised account of how the bank charge was made up - if they expected me to pay it, I wanted to know what I was paying for. They told me that it was 'company sensitive' information and were not at liberty to give me that information. They then went over to this £1 per day malarky and I asked them to put a hold on the 'accumulating' charges whilst the account was in dispute, £110 charges accumulated to £575 and that was whilst going through the Ombudsman!! I have since had communications from Fairfax solicitors telling me that after 'refusing' to pay, they were going to get a county court judgement - I've told them to go ahead and I will meet them in court with the press - Headline: Halifax pursues unemployed person for bank charges to fund CEO's bonus. Marvellous I have sufficient evidence to show that I've tried to sort this out and am prepared to go to bloody prison if necessary LOL. The situation is such that I've given them 2 options - stop fannying about and go to court OR give up. Will let you know if I end up in Strangeways.

 

Sorry it's been so long but just to update everyone.... Since I wrote the above post, I had to deal with another two DCA's - the last being IqOR. Had phone calls from them daily. When they asked if I could confirm my name and address and responded "Only if you tell me your name and address first, so that I can verify who I'm talking to" - the phone went down. Other calls included, 'She' didn't live here; 'She's moved to Australia'; 'She's dead' Then I got fed up of playing those games and just listed them in my caller ID as 'IGNORE'. There was a barrage of calls and then a threatening letter about doorstep collection so I got ticked off then ... sent 4 letters - one telling them that they could not carry out doorstep collection because I had not and would not invite them onto my property - two, Subject Access Request, three CCA request, four that I was in Serious Dispute.

 

Received letter from Iqor saying they'd noted my points. They included the SA Request which consisted of screen shots of my account and I laughed out loud seeing that my comments above had been logged - funny they never did actually confirm who I was but put my comments as 'debtor said she'd gone to Australia' They told me that they had sent the requests to the Halifax and were waiting for their instructions ..... 40 days passed ...... nothing, that was over 2 months ago. Today, I'm checking our joint account online with the Halifax and saw that the disputed account which normally shows the charges as an overdraft has now been closed LOL. So I think they finally got the message, 2 years this has taken to get this result but the satisfaction that the b'stds didn't get those charges is so fulfilling Persevere and it will pay off