Reclaiming £849 From Halifax

[marko2002]

Hi guys, this is my first post, and I have just this minute sent an email to Halifax's customer services with a letter attached detailing my request for a full reiumbursement of £849 charges.

 

I was referred to this site by a friend and cannot believe how great it is. I will of course keep everyone updated by adding to this thread as and when I receive correspondence.

 

Many thanks for all the hard work and effort everyone has put into this site.

 

Marko

[Bookworm]

Welcome, and well done.

 

Use the time they take to respond (and tell you to sod off, lol) to read through this forum, you'll then be better equipped to respond.

[marko2002]

Hi again guys,

 

Had a reply from Halifax yesterday stating they have acknowledged my "complaint" and they will be looking into it asap and will contact me soon!.

 

Cmon!!!!!

 

Marko

[scotia]

Remember m8....dont let the bank stipulate the timescales for getting back to you....did your original letter give them 14 days ??? if so stick to this........if you haven't had a reply by 14 days, send LBA on the 15th day giving them another 7 days........

[marko2002]

I did stipulate they had 14 days to provide a satisfactory outcome to my complaint otherwise action would be taken, although their letter states they will be in touch no later than 28 days or do.

 

I won't obviously be accepting their 28 days and will instead keep to my original 14 which by my count gives them until next Friday (21st April) to offer me full payment - OR ELSE!!!.

 

Will keep y'all updated!!

 

marko

[marko2002]

Well, surprise surprise, received letter from Halifax today (19/04/06) dated 18th April 2006 offering £140 in full and final settlement as a "good will gesture". I know the site advises to accept and pursue for the rest although I am concerned that if I accept this I will have accepted their offer and will have no further recourse to continue with my claim.

 

Also, they have "very kindly" sent me a detailed list of the charges I have incurred over the past 6 years on both my accounts and it actually turns out they have charged me £960 and not £849 as I had thought!!!.

 

Here's the letter in it's glory which I'm sure others will probably relate to as their own "personalised" reply! . . .

 

Thanks you for your recent letter. I tried to call you today to discuss your complaint but I was unable to contact you.

 

I am sure you will appreciate that like other organisations we incur costs for every transaction made. When we pay an item against an unauthorised overdraft or return an unpaid item, we incur extra costs regardless of the shortfall involved. We believe it is fair to pass these costs on to the accounts affected, rather than absorb them into other areas of our operations, penalising all our other customers as a result.

 

We clearly outline our charging policy in the terms and conditions that apply to your account. In addition, we are committed to complying with the Banking Code, which sets standards of good banking practice for banks and building societies to follow when dealing with personal customers. The terms and conditions of your account state that you must have funds in your account to cover your transactions. We cannot be responsible if you have authorised payments against funds which were not available.

 

We are keen to help you avoid any unecessary charges by providing various ways to keep track of your account. You can do this via telephone banking on 08457 20 30 40, online banking (www.halifax.co.uk) or mini statements at cash machines. You can also contact one of our banking advisers at any of our branches.

 

Ultimately it is your responsibility to manage your account. However, as a gesture of goodwill I am prepared to refund 5 previous charges totalling £140.00 in full and final settlement of your complaint. I must stress that future charges will stand and we reserve the right to close your account if you do not manage it correctly. If you are prepared to accept my offer, please sign and return the enclosed acceptance form in the pre-paid envelope.

 

Turning to your request for an exhaustive list of charges. Whilst I acknowledge it is your legal right to apply formally under the Data Protection Act for all the records we hold on you, your request is very specific. There is normally a £10 charge for a formal request, however in the interests of customer service I have provided a list of your bank charges for the last six years, free of charge.

 

I understand that you would like to receive information about specific transactions. We are under no statutory obligation to record the information you require and thus are unable to comply with your request.

 

You recently received a copy of our leaflet explaining our complaints procedures. Should any of your concerns remain unresolved please let me know what you'd like me to do to put matters right. We are keen to resolve your conerns, if we are unable to do so we'll provide you with the details of how you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service for help. If I don't hear from you in the next eight weeks I will assume you are happy.

 

If you would like to discuss your concerns, please contact me on 01422 333465.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Richard Aitken

Customer Relations Manager

Core Business Team

Customer Relations

 

I will of course, be sending the next letter on Friday which is the end of the 14 day wait after the first one sent although I am still concerned regarding accepting the initial offer of £140 in full and final settlement!. Any advice greatly received guys.

 

Marko

[scotia]

i received exactly the same letter (apart from you not being in to accept phonecall) and the nice Richard Aitken offered me my worst 6 months of charges back as full and final settlement, after 5/10 minutes of discussion regarding legalities, and amounts etc i told him that this isn't 'Deal or No Deal' and explained i would be submitting my claim on expiry of the 7 Day LBA (Which is today !)

 

My full details are herehttp://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=1922

 

Dont accept any offer if its 'full & final settlement' unless it's for the full amount you're claiming......

 

Hope this helps you

[marko2002]

Thanx 4 the reply Scotia - wont be accepting the offer for definate now - will proceed as instructed and send final letter on Friday - let u all know how it goes

Marko

[marko2002]

Hi all, normally I would have had either good or bad news by now regarding this claim, but unfortunately I've been quite under the weather recently and had let my dates slip!. I have today now sent my final letter giving the Halifax 14 days to get their act together and reimburse me for the full £960 or else I will begin court action. Here's hoping

[laura1clark]

Hope you're feeling better and don't have much longer to wait for your cash either!

[marko2002]

Thnx Laura

[marko2002]

Hi again all and sorry once more for the obvious delay in my responding with an update on my case though as before I have again been unwell and between this and work commitments have been unable to devote any time to the matter in hand - although back on form now 8-)

 

Anyway, to recap so far . . .

7th April 2006 - 1st letter sent (actually emailed) to Halifax requesting full payment of charges I had calculated to be £849,

12th April 2006 - Received standard reply from Halifax explaining they were looking into my complaint and would reply shortly,

18th April 2006 - Received reply offering £140 as a goodwill gesture,

9th May 2006 - 2nd letter sent advising of my intention to raise a claim against Halifax and rejecting their offer of £140. Also received breakdown of charges and now the claim is raised from £849 to £960,

18th May 2006 - Received reply now offering £280 as a goodwill gesture,

6th June 2006 - Thought I'd give them one more chance (yeh I know it was probably foolish to think they would give in so easy) as a "goodwill" gesture (cheeky me) and explained they had a further 7 days to comply otherwise off to court!.

 

Needless to say I have not heard anything back from them yet, and I have already downloaded a Summary Claim form and will start filling it in tomorrow. I have one last question though regarding the "interest" which we're allowed to reclaim and seems to be confusing a few people by what I can see on the forum. With the addition of a few extra charges incurred recently, my total claim will now stand at £1077 and I have since downloaded and completed the excel sheet kindly created by Vampiress at http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=182 although some threads say to claim the interest from the date of submitting a claim yet the sheet seems to indicate we can claim interest at 8% from the time the charge was actually made!. Is it possible for someone to clarify this please?.

 

Also, does the fact that I am in Scotland make any difference to the various Acts quoted, such as "Interest pursuant to section 69 County Courts Act" as I believe our equivalent is the Sheriff Court and I don't wish to add any details to the claim which wouldn't obviously apply in Scotland!.

 

Many thanks again all for your assistance.

Marko

 

My intended statement for the court is as follows (again, any advice more than welcome) . . .

1. The Claimant has 2 accounts ("the Accounts") with the Defendant which was opened on or around the beginning of the year 2000 (for account D/########-#) and the beginning of the year 2001 (for account D/########-#5)

2. During the period in which the Accounts have been operating the Defendant debited numerous charges to the Accounts in respect of purported breaches of contract on the part of the Claimant and also charged interest on the charges once applied. The Claimant understands that the Defendant contends that the charges were debited in accordance with the terms of the contract between itself and the Claimant.

3. A list of the charges applied is attached to these particulars of claim.

4. The Claimant contends that:

a) The charges debited to the Account are punitive in nature; are not a genuine pre-estimate of cost incurred by the Defendant; exceed any alleged actual loss to the Defendant in respect of any breaches of contract on the part of the Claimant; and are not intended to represent or related to any alleged actual loss, but instead unduly enrich the Defendant which exercises the contractual term in respect of such charges with a view to profit.

b) The contractual provision that permits the Defendant to levy such charges is unenforceable by virtue of the Unfair Contract Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (1999), the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the common law.

5. Accordingly the Claimant claims:

a) the return of the amounts debited in respect of charges in the sum of £1077.00 and any interest charged thereon;

b) a declaration from this honourable court that the term of the contract leading to the application of the charges is unenforceable;

c) Court costs;

d) Interest pursuant to section 69 County Courts Act as set out on the attached list of charges or at such rate and for such periods as the court deems just.

 

I believe that the contents of these particulars of claim are true

[marko2002]

Just another quick update guys - I will now be heading off to the local Sheriff Court on Wednesday (pay day - monthly!) after Halifax have ignored my last letter giving them one further change, which only goes to prove there is absolutely no point in further correspondence with these people other than what is recommended on this site. I will, of course, let everyone know how this goes

[marko2002]

Hi again guys,

 

Could someone possibly advise on my post made 13th June in regards to my intended court action. I'm not sure whether these details are relevant for Scottish courts and obviously don't want to look silly when making an application to the court and referring to English law (i.e. County Court . . .), would be most appreciated.

 

I intend submitting this application tomorrow (21st June 2006).

 

Thanks again.

Marko

[marko2002]

Guys, I'm eager to crack on with this claim but don't know what to do about the wording on the summary - could someone (possibly someone who has already made a successful claim in Scotland) possibly advise. In particular, it's the County Court thing that's making me doubt.

 

Thanks again

Marko

[clayts]

Have you had a poke around the Scotland forum ? That may help ?

[marko2002]

D'ya know, I must be sooooooo blind - I was that busy trying this forum that I didn't even realise there was a Scottish section!!!! Apologies to all for my obvious homer moment (Doe!) and thanks to you clayts for the steer m8.

Marko

[marko2002]

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