My wife received a similar reply, she is claiming £552 and they told her they would pay £39 back into her account in full and final....... I guess that this is a new strategy from the Crapifax. If you let the money go in, it will be deemed that you have accepted their offer and will not claim any more! Needless to say the reply they got was the LBA which also reminded them that I had already successfully gone to the small claims court and got £4700 from them and my wife is quite willing to do the same.

I too am about to claim for a second time as in the last month since full settlement, of £4699, Halifax have levied £390 in new charges. Although I wrote to propose a way for us to avoid charges in the future, they ignored my letter. When I wrote to chase up that letter and proposal, sugesting that I would be claiming for the new charges and would go to claims court if necessary, I got the response, "As you know we have already refunded £4699.34 to you in full and final settlement of your claim, and this was on the understanding that no further charges will be reclaimed" I double checked the wording on their letter offering me full settlement and nowhere does it say "on the understanding that...... ". I will be sending them a formal LBA again for a new amount as they have demonstrated their unwillingness to help me.

Just in case this was missed anywhere else. Notice of Issue 02 October Halifax offer letter dated 03 October offering full amount - £4699 in total!!!! With usual cr*p about closing the account if we incur charges in future. This month alone charges are over £250, so I reckon that in another couple of months I will be claiming again. I politely wrote back to thank them for their kind offer (arf, arf) and suggested that they reinstate the account back to full cheque status, from cardcash, and increase the overdraft limit - that way we will not go over the limit and no DD's or cheques will bounce, therefore no charges. Let's see what they respond. Power is such a wonderful thing!

"In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes" Andy Warhol I believe. Too right I'd have gone to court, with every national newspaper, every news channel and probably a large number of placard carrying protesters outside. Remember they are the defendant, they are on trial - not you - and they have to prove that those charges are fair etc etc (arf, arf). How you conducted your account is not relevant, you are not on trial. Having said all that, so far no Bank seems to have gone to court to fight a claim and I don't believe they will. They know that the days of punative charging are coming to an end and probably within a year, maybe less, something else will replace their current charging system. In the meantime they will keep trying to put us off going all the way to court but when we call their bluff, they will pay up. The total amount refunded so far hasn't really scratched the surface of the money they make from the charges and it probably never will. Unless we all keep spreading the word to everyone that will listen and take action. "Power to the People!" Citizen Smith I think you'll find.

Having just successfully won against Halifax, £4699 in total, for our joint account, my wife has today asked her HSBC branch for her statements for last six years. Yes they said, the first year is free and then we want £1 per sheet after that! Although my wife quoted the DP Act and the max £10 charge they wouldn't budge. So in the branch she sat down and wrote the DPA letter, asking them to send it to the correct dept. From others experience is this how the HSBC operate?

There seems to be a new pattern emerging. MCOL submitted 02 October, Notice of Issue received 03 October, Halifax letter offering full amount (£3640+£939.34+£120) within 5 days received 04 October. Usual rubbish about no admission of liability, will withdraw the banking facilities if we incur future charges..... :o (same day, letter with new charges for £79!) I now feel like a customer again and not a victim. Going to tackle my wife's Halifax account next, bring it on.

First letter opened this morning, from Halifax: "As a gesture of goodwill we offered to refund six months worth of charges to your account, which you do not want to accept. I confirm that we will not refund all charges you have incurred on your account over the last six years." If I remain unhappy I can go to the Ombudsman. Second letter opened this morning: Notice of Issue of my claim from the court to the Halifax. Some days it is worth getting up in the morning!

Today completed MCOL by paying my £120. A strange mix of elation, power and fear. The first because I have finally reached this point in the process, the second because I am kicking them back but the third because I have just spent 120 on my wife's credit card and we can't really afford it at the moment and what if something goes wrong! I was stunned when I brought the claim up to date and calculated the interest to add to find that my original £3363 claim has now grown to well over £4500. Just thinking what that could have paid for over the last few years is heartbreaking! MCOL is really simple as long as you pay attention to all the boxes and YES/NO buttons, but it tells you if you do something wrong or forget to tick something. It took no longer than 15 minutes. I had already prepared the details of the claim, based on others' posting, and simply copy pasted it in place. Once this is completed we are going to tackle HSBC and my wife's account there. Last month £200 in charges, which is 1/3 of her part time monthly income!!

On the subject of cardcash accounts. When our joint account was downgraded from cheque account to cardcash account, we already had an £850 overdraft limit, which the Halifax didn't remove. We now have a cardcash account which has an overdraft facility. So now whenever they refuse a DD and levy the £39 they always levy a £28 as well. Why do we now have a cardcash account when our combined income is way way above average, thats not boasting it's just a fact, because instead of increasing the overdraft limit temporarily to a workable level to help us through a difficult time, the Halifax demoted us to a cardcash account because that way they make more money out of us. 5 more days to moneyclaim application. Claim is £3363 and rising.

LBA sent 14/09/06 claim for £3363 Halifax respond 20/09/06 offer £708 (where do they get these numbers from?) they remind me blah blah blah about managing my account....and enclose another Ombudsman leaflet (there goes another rainforest). Don't think so! Money claim here we come.

The staff at my local Crapifax are the most miserable, unhelpful bunch in town. The only time they smile is when they ask if I would like a credit card or want to move my mortgage! If you ask them to do something which involves getting up to go away from the counter, they give one of those wonderful withering looks. Wish I could be positive but I'm sorry I can't.

Just as a side issue, I've noticed in a couple of other postings mention of the Halifax Cardcash account and current account holders being relegated down to this from a normal current account. The usual reason being continually going over an overdraft limit. Generally, in a Cardcash account no overdraft is allowed thus pretty well guaranteeing that the account holder will go overdrawn and incur charges. Twice now our account has been relegated down to Cardcash level, giving us the dreaded Visa Electron card ('nothing says more about you than your Visa Electron card' - to misquote an old ad) and in both cases our bank charges have increased dramatically. Is this just another cynical way for the Halifax to generate revenue, by exploiting those they deem more vulnerable? Has anyone any experience of trying to fight and reverse the relegation to Cardcash? (if this posting is in the wrong forum, someone let me know and I'll post it correctly:o )

On this the 14th day after sending my claim letter (£3363), I received a reply from Clare Dobler, Redress Assessor, Core Business, Customer relations.(08457 253519) To quote in part: these (charges) are applied to recover some of the extra costs we ourselves incur as a result of paying an item against an unauthorised overdraft or returning an item unpaid. we believe it is fair to pass these costs on to the accounts affected, rather than absorb them into other areas of our operations and penalising all our other customers as a result. ....In addition, we are committed to complying with the Banking Code, which sets standards of good banking practice for banks and building societies to follow when dealing with personal customers. Then, if I remain unhappy, she has kindly enclosed info on contacting the Financial Ombudsman. What is interesting here, is that they must recognise that I am following a templated process, one that they must see many times a day. Therefore they must realise that my next step will be the Small Claims Court. Why do they continue to play silly games when they know that eventually they will pay out? Just off to the letter box with my Claims Court letter!

Having just printed my letter to the Halifax threatening the small claims court, amount being claimed £3363, I decided it was time to join this merry band. It is heartening to see so many success stories about claiming from the Crapifax, as we call them in my house. Wanted to share a story from this week to highlight the stupidity of the Halifax and their lack of customer care. We received a letter from the Retail Bank Collections section (whatever that is) informing us that we were £117 over our overdraft limit and inviting us to contact them. I did so, only to end up speaking to a normal advisor, having navigated thru at least 3 automated choice menu's. I told her that this amount was entirely bank charges and so it wasn't really our fault. She responded that we had been notified about the charges in advance in order for us to pay in sums to cover those costs. If we had spare money just sitting around to pay in whenever needed, we wouldn't have the problem in the first place, I told her back. Furthermore every time we get hit with massive charges we have less money the following month to pay all the DD's and so get hit with more charges! This viscious circle just kept on going. The advisor offered to put me thru to the Arrears dept, that sounded like fun. The man I spoke to told me that no-one at head office could reverse the charges and I should go into my branch. Laugh! All Halifax branches want to do is sell loans, mortgages and credit cards. They tell me that they have no authority to do anything about reversing charges, I know because I've asked, more than once. I gave up on the phone call. Can't wait to get into next round of battle with the Halifax.