This topic was closed on 09 March 2019. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 03/06/19. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 03/06/19. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

Many thanks for that advice. It grieved me to pay the bastards. Any more crap from them and I shall act as you suggest. I have been kicking myself regularly for being such a prat as to join their so-called Club.

Some time ago, I very stupidly agreed over the 'phone to join World Books. I found their books to be rubbish and returned the first two they sent me. They have now charged me £17.99 for "Unfulfilled Commitment Charge". Reading around about this mob of tricksters, I have paid the charge, rather than have debt collectors harassing me, and I have asked them to cancel my membership. My question is, will this be the end of the matter; if not how should I proceed?

I have drafted a letter to Halifax saying that I do not propose to accept the repayment yet as I need something clarified. I will say that I agree that any costs incurred by the bank by paying items against an unauthorised overdraft or returning items unpaid should indeed be passed on to the accounts affected. If they give me an itemised account of the extra charges they can take them out of my repayment. If, on the other hand, the charges are greater than their costs, then they are applying penalties, which are unlawful under contract law. I will also claim interest on the excess of charges over costs. I have eight weeks to claim the money, so I have time to get the Acceptance Form re-worded as suggested above.

I today received a letter from Halifax (Ray Bredavs, Customer Relations Manager) together with an acceptance form for me to sign. The form states: " Confirm that we accept the offer of £93 from Halifax/Bank of Scotland in full and final settlement of our complaint regarding bank charges made on any of my Halifax/Bank of Scotland accounts". That seems fair enough. The letter, though, is bullying and threatening. I quote; "I must stress that future valid charges will stand and we reserve the right to close your account if you do not manage it correctly." I have decided not to accept the offer yet, but to write and ask Mr Bredavs "to itemise the extra costs involved in paying an item against an unauthorised overdraft or returning an item unpaid?" If he can itemise the costs I would be willing to have them deducted from my repayment. If, however, he cannot or will not itemise the costs, we can assume that they are a penalty, and not a repayment. Does this sound reasonable? Advice please.

It doesn't on the PDF document, but I think I looked at the HTML page and saw it there. But perhaps he has left Halifax. His bonus should allow him to retire to the Bahamas!

Well, I don't know who is fooling who. If you Google the Chartered Institute of Bankers combined with Garry R D Kettle, you will be taken to a list of the Fellows of the Chartered Institue of Bankers, one of whom is Garry R D Kettle, who is listed as working for Halifax plc. That's a lot of effort for someone who doesn't exist. Methinks the lawyers are having a bit of fun!

I received a telephone call from Halifax this morning offering to pay me back the charges provided I signed a letter agreeing that "this would be the end of the matter". I agreed. My claim was only for £93, my account had only been overdrawn on this one occasion, and the overdrawn state had existed for only a few hours, so I not claiming any great legal victory. However, if it were not for moneysavingexpert.com and for this site I would still be in ignorance. You CAN get your money back! Thank you! Good luck to everybody who is trying to get justice.

Halifax has now replied to my recorded delivery letter, even though the Royal Mail computer tells me that the letter is still in their system. Their reply is the standard one in these circumstances. ("We will let you know")As I was getting negative responses from Royal Mail, I assumed that the letter had not been delivered. Looking again at my statements, I noticed that there was no entry which showed the account overdrawn over the agreed limit. It was close, but funds transferred from another account were posted in on the same day that the letters were issued. The Halifax computer was obviously too quick off the mark. I therefore sent another letter by normal First Class mail asking for the charges to be repaid as I was not overdrawn at the time. This should cause confusion which I have no intention of resolving yet.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be clever.

I have googled about a bit and discovered that the venerable Garry R D Kettle is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, and he is Manager, Personal Banking Services at Halifax plc. He probably has a big office at Halifax HQ. So it is obvious that there is no manual intervention with "his" letters, which every Branch computer system churns out automatically.

My letter sent on Monday 13 March has not, according to the Royal Mail computer, been delivered. I am told by my local Post Office that this could be because there was no-one to receive it at the time that the postman tried to deliver it. ("They just leave a card") The fact that two large, modern organisations cannot not get their backsides sufficiently in gear to have a letter delivered says everything about Britain in the 21st Century. I have now sent the letter by normal First Class to Halifax complaints division.

My bank's website (Halifax) makes mention of the Banking Ombudsman in the description of their complaints procedure. Is there any point in referring a case to the Ombudsman?