halifax

[sean frampton]

hello every one.glad i stumbled onto this site for that i have Martin Lewis to thank.Iam just about to send a letter off to HALIFAX concerning my charges of which there are quite a few.how they can say that they. can not pay a direct debit because I will go overdrawn but they can take their charge and put me overdrawn and charge me for the privilige.I have banked with thm for over 17years that was when it was the LEEDS building society i had a liquid gold account.My gold has flowed their way for too long.I shall let you know how I get on.Thanks everyone on this forum.

Included in my letter i gave the Halifax a £5 postal order just to get things going smoothly.I have read most things on this forum and i hope it goes from strength to strength.

P.S if i doget money off of these i will help to pay for some law books as requested.

[Russe11]

sorry, what was the £5 p/o for ?

[sean frampton]

they normally ask for £5 for copies so rather than return of post i included it stating that it can always be seny back.Just want to speed things up and give them nothing to hang on gripe about.yhey were going to ask for it werent they,or have i wasted money?

[Russe11]

often it can be 5 pounds each !

 

with your postal order you can get your money back so long as they don't cash it.

 

Dpa requestsare £10, if you are lucky and hit a department that has not had "the memo" goes somthing like this.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MEMO - all staff

 

Where a customer is making a request of statements take either or both actions.

 

1. Charge the maximum amount for each statment, delaying till they send payment.

 

2. Where they are making DPA requests, make out the statement information is not covered, forb them off, give them an obsqure address and tell them the DPA is to stop silly customers getting their data, Not entitiling them to ask us for it.

 

please ask your supervisor if you have not had the special "charges" training.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

On a serious note, statments may be sent to you.

 

though data will probally not, if they can avoid it.

 

 

Note : I think the DPA template needs updating, its not conforming as best it could.

[sean frampton]

thanks i shal bear that in mind when they reply.i shall keep everyone posted as to how i get on and post any replys i get.

[sean frampton]

hello again.

I have just received the standard reply from Halifax.

 

Thank you for your recent letter

You will find enclosed acopy of our leaflet......how we will handle your complaint........

Have forwarded your letter to customer relations who will be in contact...........

 

the thing is i have not complained i have just asked for my list of charges and or statements.I need these so i can complain.

 

will keep everyone posted.

[LisaMcT]

I too have just received this letter from the Halifax and they are "looking into the matter" and will get back to me shortly. How long do I wait?

[BankFodder]

Can you run your claim on your own thread please.

Don't hijack other people's threads.

 

How long do you have to wait? How long did you give them?

[sean frampton]

Just to keep you posted as to how things are going.

I have just over half my statements which i filed before i moved and the figure is alredy £1440.I shall be surprised to see the full figure when i have all my statements.

Have just sent this:

 

 

Sean Frampton

xxxxxx

xxxx

xxxxxxx

xxxxxxx Date 19/03/2006

 

Stuart Allston

Halifax plc

22 Commercial Road

Totton

Southampton

SO40 3BY

 

Dear Mr Allston,

Please find enclosed a copy of the reply from the Data Protection Act request which I forwarded to you on 01/03/2006.

 

In this letter you have stated that one of your Customer Relation teams will be in contact with me. This is just a courtesy letter I am sending you to remind you of your responsibilities under the Data Protection Act to supply me with the details that I requested in the 40 days that you are given. This deadline runs out on 12/03/2006 this is taking into account my receipt of your letter dated 03/03/2006 and not from 40 days that I sent the request to you, which I think is more than fair.

 

If a failure to reply to me within this timeframe and providing me with all the necessary information I have requested I will have no alternative but to contact the Information Commissioner of your failings under the Data Protection Act.

 

I have already issued you with a Postal Order for £5 but I do understand that a maximum fee of £10 is in place so as a show of good faith I shall issue you with another Postal Order for £5.

 

You are able to contact me on xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Sean Frampton

 

 

Keep you posted!

[sean frampton]

Hello again.

Trawling through my archives; my statements that i have filed run from 15/01/2000 and start at number 18.

The last statement i have is on 18/02/2006 and is number 106.

 

All in all i am missing 49 statements in total.

Using the spreadsheet i have calculated with interest that i am owed £1,697.26.

If i do not receive my statements in time can i make an estimated claim.

 

i.e £1,697.26. being 57/106 of statements then i am owed another 49/106 making a total of £3156.

Would this be a reasonable way of calculating what i am owed?

 

Just have a funny feeling i wont be hearing from them.

[rivendale0506]

Hi Sean

I am sure a mod will come back to you about whether you can make an estimated claim (I am in the same boat, have heard jack s**t from the Halifax despite making a request on 3rd March) However, I note you sent them a letter on 19th March saying that their deadline runs out on 12th March??!! If their deadline was the 12th March you should already be reporting them and making a complaint to the IC.

[sean frampton]

Just realised my mistake and I dated it wrong.

I meant 12/04/2006.

Apologies to them and another letter on its way.

Thanks for pointing it out.

[sean frampton]

Hello again.

I have just received my statements from the Halifax with my fee returned:

 

I now enclose copy statements which will provide the necessary information you requested.You also required information regarding manual intervention by any member of staff or any other person.We are under no legal obligation to record this information and thus are unable to assist further with this part of your request.I have refunded your account with the £10 which you have forwarded in respect of the Data Subject Access Fee.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Kenneth Graham

Senior Customer Relations Manager

Final Review Team

 

 

Do I work out now my costs and send a Letter Before Action without the information in respect of manual intervention.Is it true they do not legally have to record this?

[mas101]

Don't worry about the manual intervention at this stage. This seems to be a standard letter that they have produced in response to the number of DPA requests they are getting. If it gets to court and they have not recorded manual intervention then they cannot rely on it later.

 

Meanwhile, send your first letter asking them for a full refund of charges. Give them 14 days and if they do not comply send a letter before action on the 15th day.

 

There are template letters for this in the library.

 

Best of luck and be sure to let us know how you get on.

[sean frampton]

Thanks.

I have just been through library and will send Preliminary Approach for Repayment.

Will carbon copy to my bank manager where it started just to keep him in the loop.

 

Keep you posted.

[mas101]

Best of luck, but dont hold your breath just yet. It may take a while!!!

[sean frampton]

I have just worked through my statements and the grand total including interest amounts to £2,677.40.

The preliminary Approach for Payment is on its way.

 

Whilst going through the statements I noticed that my account has been renewed twice. Once in Dec 2001 and again in Jan 2003. What is the meanining/reason for this and how come I did not know about it.

[mas101]

Account renewal is a procedure that the Halifax use normally every 12 months. I think it is just there way of archiving historical information. If you have online banking at the point they "renew" your account, all the history disappears.

 

Clever eh?

[sean frampton]

Thanks for clearing that up.

It just makes you wonder ehat else they do without informing you.

[mas101]

your welcome.

 

WRT to what else they do without informing you......

 

1. Lets take 10 days to clear a cheque when electronically we can do it in seconds.

2. Lets Charge £39 for returning a £1.25 DD unpaid. But lets make the charge at the point where he can't afford it.

3. Charge taken from account. Oh dear, he is more than £30 overdrawn. Sorry your going to have to pay our unauthorised overdraft fee of £28.

4 Lets write to our customer and inform him of the above, but lets make sure the letter doesn't reach him until after we have taken the charges.

5. Lets register the poor conduct of this customers account with the credit reference agencies. After all he never has enough money for our charges and we are forced to charge him more for the overdraft. The customer doesnt deserver credit.

6. Lets charge overdraft interest on the outstanding balance.

7. Oh dear the £2.25 debit interest has taken his account to £30.01 overdrawn. Hmmm, we better charge him another £28.00 for that.

8. Oh look this customer has another account with us thats got some money it. Lets take that money to pay off his overdraft on this account. But lets not do it until we have taken some more charges. We will do it the day after we bounce a couple more cheques.

9. Oh look this months debit interest has only made him £29.99 overdrawn. I know lets change the interest rate. There now he is £30.03 overdrawn. Lets charge him £28.00 again.

10. Oh dear this customer wants copies of 6 years bank statements. I know lets tell him its £5 per statement copy.

11. Oh dear he wants to take us to court. Lets repay the charges but tell him if he conducts his account like this in the future and forces us to obey the law we will just close his account.

 

Of course they do tell us all of the above, but usually after they have done it.

[richardc]

Thank you mas101 for the most succint explanation of the banks' charging policies

[mas101]

ooops Sorry!!

[sean frampton]

If someone could help me clarify a point:

Have sent preliminary letter but have not asked for any defaults to be removed.Will there be any defaults against my name for being overdrawn or payments not being made without me being aware of them or would i have been notified by the bank.

 

Thanks

[sean frampton]

Hello again everyone.

 

Just getting myself a bit confused after reading some more cases.

The prelim letter has been sent with a total plus interest.I worked this out using the spresdsheet provided.

 

Where this lists charges and an interest fee of 8% showing days since charge was taken-is this for them having the money for that period of time with the interest being charged at that rate for them owing me the money?

 

I have a card cash account with no overdraft facility and I just hope i am not trying to claim for something i shouldnt.

 

Can someone help me with my sums please.

[nij4t2]

Hi Sean,

 

I'm newbie at this too, but I think you should not try to claim 8% interest, as per the spreadsheet, until / unless you get as far as a claim through court.

 

But it depends, would you settle with the bank if they offered to pay you all the money they had taken in charges, but no interest? I for one would! BUT you might think they owe you the interest that you might have accrued on the money they took (if they hadn't taken it!)

 

It doesn't matter that a Cardcash account is not interest bearing and does not allow overdrafts - had you had the momey you might have chosen to move it somewhere you did get paid interest!

 

Please remember, all the above is a newbie comment though!