Jezza V's Halifax Plc

[jezza5986]

Evening all, been reading this site for a while and trying to get get myself as well prepared as possible before I sent off my Data Protection letter requesting the last six years bank charges so I can start claiming them back.

 

I'm just a bit concerned that if I start claiming them back, then the Halifax might take their bat and ball home and recall the two unsecured loans I have with them, totalling approx £20,000.

 

Without having the statements infront of me, I can't say exactly how much they've had out of me in charges so far, but I reckon it's easily over £500, so worth chasing, I just cant help worrying that they will start playing silly beggars with the loans.

 

Anyone else been in a situation like this? What happened - if anything?

 

Am I worrying over nothing?

 

Jezza

[hillards]

Am I worrying over nothing?

 

Probably. If they were to start playing silly beggers with their customers, and that got to the press, then it wouldn't look good for them.

 

At present they seem happy enough to pay up as long as we shut up. I had my bank account closed, but that appears to be a seperate issue to my claim.

[tonyevic]

Hi Jezza

 

you havent mentioned what type of loans they are so I assume they are standard loans with normal terms and conditions which makes them irrellevant to your current account.

 

Do any of the charges relate to the loans?, if not

 

Its unlikely that it will make any difference

 

Any retaliation of the banks due to action by you would not be well received.

 

Do you have your loan agreements?

Is this link any help?

 

 

Terms and conditions

 

Regards

[jezza5986]

Cheers for the replies

 

The loans are standard Halifax ones. Both are unsecured, one was opened in a branch, the other was opened via the internet.

 

I'll have a look through the terms and conditions link supplied, but I reckon you're both right, they wouldn't want it to jeopardize their other business area's

 

I'm almost ashamed to admit I used to work for the Halifax, do I need to let any of the Mod team know? I haven't worked for them for over a year now and my only ties to them are the bank account, a small savings account, and the two loans.

 

I left when it became more important to them to bully the staff under the aegis of maximising sales to supposed benefit or customers, which, in reality was usually to the detriment of the customers.

 

Jezza

[jezza5986]

Received a letter from Tuesdi Graham in customer services today stating...

 

"Thank you for your enquiry requesting information on your account for the last six years.

Copies of bank statements can be provided with this information in, there is a £5 charge for this service. Please can you contact us to confirm that you wish for us to proceed with this request, and that you are willing to pay this fee".

 

I'm guessing this is a standard letter they have now started sending out?

 

Should I reply and reiterate my original letter, asking for a full disclosure of all my information held by them under the DPA or write back and tell them to go ahead? Just a bit confused because the cynical part of me thinks it'll be £5 per statement, which could get a bit painful

 

Cheers

 

Jezza

[hillards]

OK - looks like you've jumped aherad of yourself a little as you've only asked them for the statements?

 

If you follow the http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/faqs-please-read-these/31460-step-step-instructions.html and send off the http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/516-1-data-protection-act.html with the £10 fee then they have to supply all your statements for that one fee.

 

This site contains a lot of useful information, but you need to spend time reading it to be sure of what you are doing.

[jezza5986]

Cheers for the reply mate, Dont think my earlier post from today was worded very well. I'd sent off the letter shown in your first link (the data protection Subject Access Request letter) after reading through the FAQ's and forum posts pretty thoroughly.

 

I'm doing night shifts at the moment so my brain doesnt work well enough to come up with my own letter when a template is available

 

It was sent off after being copied word for word from the template shown on here(http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/516-1-data-protection-act.html), with the only changes being my name, address and bank details. Other than that, everything was done as the site suggests it should be done.

 

I think where I've gone wrong is to send it to the customer relations people, rather than the Data Controller, so I'll re-submit it to that address and start over

 

Jezza

[hillards]

If you sent it to Leeds then they will have passed it on - the request should have been accompanied by a £10 fee, which is probably why they're asking for £5 now - some get charged a fiver, others send £10, some seem to get them for nothing...

 

Check with them on Monday, call the head office on 01422 380880 and ask for the data controllers office?

[jezza5986]

Cheers mate

 

Will let you know how I get on!

 

Jezza

[jezza5986]

Morning all, just a quick update for you regarding my claim against the Halifax. Taking the advice above, as well as making good use of the previous posts and the 'Search' button, in order to make sure all my bases were covered, I started over and sent the S.A.R, Preliminary Letter and LBA to the Halifax, after using the templates supplied on this website and giving 14 bank working days as and where required.

 

This morning I received a letter stating they would not be refunding any charges. It looks to be a standard letter they send out and has the reference CR FF1 on it if anyone has received a similar one.

 

I phoned Customer Relations to say I did not accept their explanation and that the charges were disproportionate to their loss - ie, going over the overdraft by a few pence somehow merits a charge of £39

 

The lady I spoke to in that department said that if I was going to go to court to request a refund of all charges then she would escalate the complaint to a 'Senior Review Manager'. She explained that they would still work to the 8 week deadline but as my Prelim letter had been received nearly 4 weeks ago, she expected me to be contacted soon:?

 

Want to be seen to be reasonable by the courts, (f I have to go that far) on this so I'm going to give them a bit longer before I file online

 

Any and all advice would be very, very welcome!

 

Cheers,

 

Jezza