Neil L v Halifax the begginning

[neilisnuts]

Until I got divorced I was very good on the old finance front (honest), however what with one thing and another things slipped and having changed to a single account with Halifax I seemed to be doing ok, money was tight etc but I was alright until Halifax charged me for going over an overdraft by £1.25 and thencharging again for not paying money in within 7 days etc even though I had called them to ask to increase my overdraft by £50 before they let me go over my original OD........subsequently the following month I was always £60 or so in arrears and yes you guessed it Halifax charged me accordingly! ok so some would say deal with it and get on with it (which is what I have done) but had Halifax been somewhat flexible in the first place charges can be avoided.......

 

I have now started the ball rolling with trying to claim the money I am owed back (estimated £3450) I made the request (using the FOI act as a lever) and was promised that this can be done "but it is a lot of work for our business centre who will have to go into the archived system Mr Langford" (my heart bleeds).........and I will receive the statements within the post within 4 weeks....Ok so that just fits in with their obligation under the act.......so I agreed to pay £5 to have the statements........then a letter arrives 5 days later saying if I agree to the payment of £5 then they will proceed.......ok so I called again to say I had already agreed this..........."thats fine we will process that now for you and you will hear from us in 4 days"........wow 4 weeks is now 4 days, I like consistency..........7 days on I call back (today) spoke to Ian Farmer from leeds, very helpful, the £5 has not been charged, but they will put the request through AGAIN as there is no record on my account (even though i have a letter confirming the request!) but they will waive the £5 on this occasion for the inconvenience.......oh thank you halifax.........I reminded Mr Farmer that Halifax is in breach of its obligation under the FOI if i do not receive my documents within the next 7 days, he assures me I will have "a nice big brown envelope with 6 years statements by Thursday next week at the latest".......

 

 

Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

 

Advice and assistance in anticipation........I will keep you posted on developments..........8)

[alanfromderby]

This is always the difficulty with arrangements made verbally. Since you have a promise that they will be with you on Thursday I would perhaps wait until then - but certainly no longer.

 

Use the time to go through the FAQ's and the step-by-step guide. If the information does not reach you on Thursday, I would advise you to start a DPA information request, as per the template. I would also send it by recorded delivery and enclose the statutory minimum £10 fee.

 

I would then add the £5 they have charged you for not providing the statements to your claim.

[neilisnuts]

Thanks.

 

I take on your point about making a verbal request, however given that I also deal with such requests in my profession, verbal ones have to be treated as any other under the FOI Act - Halifax are clearly not aware of that....... I will now prepare the template request as advised for when the information does not arrive by next week!. many thanks.

 

[neilisnuts]

So the Halifax have not turned up with the goods.....the statements have yet to arrive even though these have been promised to me by a very pleasant "Karen from Motherwell" - who wont give me her surname who is speaking with Glasgow Business Centre whilst I hold......they have waived my charge for request, I have insisted they take it anyway.......More conflicting information from "Karen from Motherwell" though, they should not have told me that the statements should have been with me by this week as they normally take up to 10 days to process.....funny that, I have explained that my intital letter was sent over 10 days ago and I had a letter (standard) acknowledging the request a week ago............Just been told that I will have them by next Thursday now (an additional 4 days wait - excluding the weekend!) their excuse: they are extremely busy with similar requests right now! funny that!

 

Question: without knowing a figure how do I tackle them once the deadline is "missed" next week?? advice please:cool:

[Guest Lueeze]

Nothing you can do, they have 40 days to complay and provide the statemets.

 

Im still not sure without writing a letter and sending the £10 that they have to comply, Im just worried they are fobbing you off!

 

Dont give up, keep hassling them!

 

Lou x

[BBB]

Yeah, come on fella

[alanfromderby]

A bank can claim that a DPR information request has not been legally lodged if you cannot prove they have received it, and you have not sent payment or identification if required.

 

There is no point threatening action through the IC or the Court for non-compliance if the DPA request was not properly lodged - the IC will throw out the complaint, and court action would end in defeat.

 

In this case you can hassle as much as you want - and it may produce a result in the end, but without proper ly lodging a DPA request you have no real ammunition to fire at them.

[neilisnuts]

UPDATE

 

well the door was wedged with 10 envelopes today, statements have arrived, some from 2004, some from 2006, some from 2005, but its a start, I am a bit disappointed I didnt get my envelope with all of them in, is this delaying tactics? or should I expect the rest in the next few days? I am just about to start calculating what I have to date, fingers crossed the rest arrive in the next 2 days (as promised) but I will not hold my breath.

 

onwards and upwards

[neilisnuts]

in total 15 months worth arrived totalling £341 in charges excluding interest for that period Oct05-May06...........I guess I have a few envelopes left to arrive!!!

[neilisnuts]

so no additional statements have arrived today, so a phone call has been made to Halifax, spoke to a nice, confused man, who said the letter acknowledging my request has been posted yesterday, erm no I received 19 months statements already..............so he says, "oh I see so , oh what I mean is the statements are all posted yesterday, ALL 6 years worth........ok so why have I received the last 19 months worth this week? ........ "not sure sir, admin error"

 

sigh..........and I have still got hope of getting my money back? I guess on a positive note at least its being dealt with.

[neilisnuts]

Just checked my online banking today, they have taken the £5 for the statements out (which is ok i prefer them too) but this has sent me over my overdraft limit by £2.23 (I pretty much use the account as a bills account so most of the monthly income is accounted for) I wonder if they will charge.....?

 

They had originally said that the charged would be waived.......at least they accept the original request now......once the remaining statements arrive its action time!

 

happy hunting people.

[neilisnuts]

Monday 22nd May 2006

 

I have received yet another Letter from the Halifax.........Thank you for your recent request, blah blah blah.......yours sincerely Janelle Birnie (oh please) printed signature......

 

anyway they are acknowleging my request again, I am now getting p'd off with them......its my third.

 

I have already received some statements!

 

onwards and upwards.:-|

[neilisnuts]

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