Hi Everyone. I have sent a Subject Access Request (SAR) letter today with a cheque for £10. The address and fee request was given to me by the Complaints dept and is below should anyone need it: HBOS pls DSAR PO Box 791 Leeds LS1 9LR While I wait for that info to be sent I have contacted David Nicholson the Group Director by email and by letter (recorded delivery) as per the details below: Halifax PO Box 548 Leeds LS1 1WU Here is the letter below with some details removed: I am writing to request that you repay all charges and fees applied to my account since it was opened on xxxxxxxx as I was both mis-sold the account initially and due to financial hardship (which the bank was aware of yet continued to treat me unfairly and inconsiderately contributing to my hardship). I have been your customer for nearly 20 years, opening a basic Cardcash account at 16 years old. In 2001 a separate Current account with an overdraft of £xxx was opened for me in my local branch despite me not being eligible for the account or the overdraft. The account was reverted back to a Cardcash account in 2002 without my knowledge, but the overdraft remained. In 2009 the account was 'upgraded' back to a Current account - again without my knowledge and despite the fact that I was in receipt of benefits. In 2011 I was mis-sold an upgrade to an Ultimate Reward account presented to me as 'my only option'. This year when I explained I was going to be a student, I was not offered the opportunity to switch to a fee free Student account. I believe I was mis-sold this account for the reasons given below: I did not request the Current account or the overdraft. It was offered to me by the branch manager at the time who did no checks on my income and expenditure or any credit checks to see if I was eligible for this account. It was not explained to me what an overdraft was. The account was later changed to a Cardcash account without my knowledge in 2002 The account was later 'upgraded' to a Current account without my knowledge in 2009 I visited my local branch and advised that an upgrade to an Ultimate Reward account was 'my only option' when I discussed my concerns regarding the affordability of the overdraft fees in 2011 I visited my local branch and was NOT advised that I could switch to a fee free Student Account when I discussed my concerns over the affordability of the overdraft fees in 2014 I did not even know I had been sold a Current account until 9 years after I opened the account when I was in my local branch requesting information about the account. At a time of financial hardship which I advised the bank of, they not only refused to help, but mis informed me. I have had various meetings in the bank and conversations with branch staff at the desks over this period including a particularly disturbing phone call when I explained to the customer services agent that I was in financial hardship and could not afford to pay the overdraft charges. I specifically asked if they could freeze the charges on the account for a period of time to help and was told that I would need to go over my overdraft limit repeatedly for a number of months with all of the fees being added to my account for doing this and only then would you even consider freezing the charges! This left me so terrified of adding to the spiral of debt I was in that I borrowed money from family every month to help avoid the over limit charges. There have been numerous opportunities for your staff to resolve this issue as I have been very proactive in addressing it over the years. They have also taken annual reviews of my account independent of me and still not picked up anything being amiss. The account was upgraded in 2009 despite me having no income other than benefits, the overdraft was reviewed in 2010 and 2011 and was not reduced even though my income was less than the value of the overdraft. If my complaint is upheld I require a refund of all the fees I have paid for this account from the date it was opened plus the standard 8% interest that the court would allocate. I would also like you to take into consideration the amount of time I have taken over the last 13 years to resolve this and make the appropriate good will gesture for my time and the considerable distress this has caused. In the last 13 years I have dealt with numerous staff in branch, over the phone and in writing to resolve this and at all levels from team members to management, but have never received a satisfactory response. Therefore, I do not want this complaint to simply be passed to another department. Due to the serious nature of this complaint I request it be dealt with at a senior level. Please note this has been sent both by email and by letter to the above address. As a customer of nearly 20 years who has received appalling customer service with an outstanding issue spanning 13 years, I am sure that you will want to resolve these issues to my satisfaction and restore my faith in your bank. I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Hello. Have you had any success or further replies from Halifax regarding your case? I am in the process of contacting David Nicholson for similar reasons and am interested in anyone dealing with this type of issue.

Thank you. Yes in my draft letter I have led with the account being mis-sold in the first place. I appreciate the info about the OFT and bank charges. I will still include the cost of them in my letter to further my point to them that If I hadn't have been sold the account I wouldn't have paid x amount in charges. Thank you for giving me All help appreciated if others have anything to add.

Thank you. I will do that re signed for post and delivery date. I always keep paperwork and I generally make a note of any phone calls. Do you know if I am on the right track with my claim (as per the details in my first post on this thread)? Mine is different to what I am seeing on other thread and websites, although I'm sure many people will have had the same problems. I am going to claim for the overdraft and the Current account being mis-sold in the first place as well as the later upgrade to a packaged account. All of the info I can find to being mis-sold an account relates solely to packaged accounts. Also, I am not just reclaiming any fees for going over my overdraft limit (there are only a few), but all of the charges that were made for using my overdraft, but staying within the £250 limit. This includes the monthly interest fee the account first had, the later daily £1 overdraft use fee and the latest packaged fee of £15 per month. I feel I'm starting something new here as all claims I can find relate solely to packaged fees and fees for unauthorised overdraft use. Anyone???

Can anyone help with any of the above? Thanks v much.

Thank you. I am intending to reclaim the insurances - they are part of the 'benefits ' on the account which I pay £15 per month for. I only have a few charges from going over my overdraft limit. The majority of my claim is for the daily overdraft fees (£1 per day for using your overdraft). Most claims seem to be for being over the overdraft limit. Has anyone else made a claim as I want to - for the fees charges when in the overdraft but not over the limit. Also does any one know I I should email the CEO or if it's better to send a letter? All assistance appreciated with all of the points noted in my post.

Please help. I am currently in financial hardship and have been working with a debt management charity who have advised me that my overdraft is a debt and should be included in the token payment plan we have agreed. This prompted me to start re-investigating my overdraft and due to the info on this and other sites I think I have a case. There is a possession order on my property (suspended) so I would like to start working towards this banking issue quite quickly. I believe that I was mis-sold the overdraft in the first place then later mis-sold upgrading to a packaged account. I also believe that I should be refunded fees due to financial hardship (on 2 occasions) and that the bank has misinformed me on numerous occasions when I have attempted to resolve this in the past. I have already requested a list of transactions which they have provided me with. Some were missing so I have requested them again. I am going to complete a Subject Access Request for the notes on their systems relating to these issues and they have given me the address details of where to send it. Please find below summary of events: Opened basic Cardcash account (no overdraft or benefits) as a teenager Opened a Current Account in Aug 2001 with an overdraft of £250 in branch with a manger at his suggestion despite me not meeting any of the eligibility criteria (such as income) and no credit checks were done Account reverted back to Cardcash in Feb 2002 (as I shouldn't have had the Current Account in the first place) but overdraft left in place Account fees from when the overdraft was taken out to 2009 were an interest rate % and worked out between £1 - £3 per month In early 2009 I was assaulted on the way to work by a lunatic who (I later found out) had attacked 3 other women. I was truly traumatised for quite a long time afterwards, left my job and was in receipt of benefits until 2012 when I became self employed. End 2009 I received a letter stating new Current Account overdraft charges of £1 per day. My account details were on the letter, but as my account was a Cardcash I was confused. The bank advised me they had upgraded my account (without my knowledge) and that the new (and much more costly) fees were correct. During this period I visited my local branch and phoned them and got no help - i.e. in branch one person told be I wouldn't be paying the new charges another told me I would (and I have). I made a complaint. They responded in writing refusing to uphold it (very badly written) A meeting I had with a manager was never noted on their system when I tried to refer back to it in a later phone call. In one phone call I explained I was in financial hardship (in receipt of benefits, unable to pay my mortgage etc) and could the interest charges be frozen to assist me in paying of the overdraft. I was told that I would have to keep going over my overdraft limit repeatedly over a period of months and accumulate lots of additional fees and then they would consider freezing the charges! I was left feeling humiliated as the woman was rude and had no customer service skills. I borrowed money from family during the time I was claiming benefits to help stop the account going over the overdraft limit as I was so concerned by the phone call In 2010 and 2011 they wrote to me and told me they had reviewed my account and they overdraft would remain the same (despite my 'income' being a small amount of benefits) In 2012 they sold me an upgrade to a packaged account as being my 'only option' as I was concerned about the £1 per day fees spiralling (although now self employed I was and am in receipt of Working Tax Credit due to my low income) The package is an Ultimate Reward Account @ £15 per month with no overdraft fees, but the only reason I took it was because they told me it was my only option if I was concerned about the daily overdraft fees In the last few months I am again in financial hardship due to a drop in my income (loss of business from a client) and taking time off due to illness of a close family member followed by bereavement In the last couple of months I have started going over the overdraft limit and believe this may be ongoing They have refunded the first set of over the overdraft fees and waived the second lot (I phoned up their cust services and requested it) I have been in branch to discuss my overdraft concerns and now realise they should have offered me a fee free Student Account as I explained to them I am going to Uni this year (as a mature student) They could have removed the packaged account and the £15 a month and the benefits like insurance etc and switched it to a Student Account with no overdraft fees. I now have the details of the CEO but should I write an email or a letter? I was going to merge the mis-sold packaged account template letter and financial hardship template letter I have found online - is that correct? Any advice would be much much much appreciated!

This is my first post to assist anyone cancelling their credit report trial or monthly fee with Equifax. I started a 30 day free trial in April with the intention of cancelling before the trial period ended. Due to unexpected personal circumstances I forgot. I started being charged £9.95 per month and cancelled in August. I requested a refund of the latest month's charge and they also offered a refund of £29.95 for the previous charges. I cancelled via their website as I prefer to have a written record of communication. I think they prefer you to cancel by telephone as it's a little tricky to navigate doing it online. However, it does work and I've done it a few times over the years. Login as usual and make a note of your credit report number. At the bottom of the page click on FAQs. It will take you to another page and ask you to log in again (if you have not used this part of their service before I think it will ask you to create a login for it). Then click on 'ask a question'. Click on 'product' and pick an option - I chose 'Equifax credit Report'. Click on 'category' and pick an option - I chose 'I have a question' ('I have a question' is listed 3 times and I picked the 3rd one on the list). I then clicked on 'other'. Enter your credit report reference as requested. Enter your message in the box and submit. It will then bring up some 'auto responses' and ask if they answer your question. Submit your question again so that it is sent to a real person who can respond. If you don't hear back in a couple of days login again and resubmit (this only happened once throughout my communication with them). Be persistent and don't accept anyone telling you no. Here is the transcript of mine and their emails: Me: Please cancel the £9.95 per month charge with immediate effect. Please do not charge me for the amount debiting my account today as I will not be using the service - if you have already debited this from my account then please refund. Thank you for your assistance. Equifax: Thank you for getting in touch about your Equifax subscription. I've reviewed your request for a refund, along with your membership history with Equifax. I can see you signed up online to our Free Credit Report in April 2014. Your first 30 days' access to this product was free but there are monthly charges after this unless the service is cancelled. I've cancelled your product now so you won't be charged again and in light of your comments about how we subscribed you to this product, I've also refunded your previous payments. You'll see this return to your account in the next 5-7 working days. I hope you find this useful. If there’s anything else we can do for you, please let us know. Me: Thank you for your email. Please be advised that I have only received the latest payment of £9.95 refunded. As your email states 'I've also refunded your previous payments' please ensure that the remaining payments are refunded too. Me again: Thank you for your email. Please be advised that I have only received the latest payment of £9.95 refunded. As your email states 'I've also refunded your previous payments' please ensure that the remaining payments are refunded too. Equifax: Thank you for getting in touch. As you were charged £9.95 on the day you cancelled as a good will gesture we refunded you this £9.95. We cannot refund you previous charges as you did not contact us to cancel. I hope you find this useful. If there’s anything else we can do for you, please let us know. Me: Thank you for your email. Please be advised that I have only received the latest payment of £9.95 refunded. As your email states 'I've also refunded your previous payments' please ensure that the remaining payments are refunded too. The original response from Tiffany clearly states that 'previous payments' will be refunded. Therefore, please ensure that the previous payments (plural) not just a singular payment are refunded. Equifax: Your enquiry has been passed to myself for further investigating. I have taken on board your comments and have authorised the refund of 3 months payments. The amount of £29.85 will return to your account in the next 5-7 days. If there’s anything else we can do for you, please let us know.