Action against Halifax

[carlih1]

Hi

 

I have taken the first steps in taking the charges back from Halifax.

 

I wrote regarding the charges levied on my account in the last 6 years, and they wrote back saying they could only supply missing statements for which there is a £5.00 charge.

 

I have written back asking for these, and am awaiting a response.

 

Funny how finding and duplicating past bank statements from up to 6 years ago only costs £5.00 but sending an email to advise of bank charges costs £39.00 and another £28 on top of that if your lucky.

 

Will keep you updated.

 

Carli

[stefanielouise79]

Hi, i have just took my letter in today asking for a list of my charges etc, i am half expecting them to come back with the same thing.

 

Let me know how you get on

 

Thanks

Stefanie

[MoneyBAGs]

How much money do you think you are talking about here?

[carlih1]

My charges for the last few years are £1400.00 i am awaiting statements for the remainder period so this figure may very well go up!

 

Carli

[Kevicho]

Owe me £430 (plus expenses if i incur any)

 

Am sending letters off monday now that i have paid off all my accounts with them!

[stefanielouise79]

From my statements it was 1398 (sorry my pound sign key isnt working)(will double check figures though) i have sent the letter for them to provide me with the information as i do have 4/5 statements missing.

[Guest]

Hi

 

I have taken the first steps in taking the charges back from Halifax.

 

I wrote regarding the charges levied on my account in the last 6 years, and they wrote back saying they could only supply missing statements for which there is a £5.00 charge.

 

I have written back asking for these, and am awaiting a response.

 

Funny how finding and duplicating past bank statements from up to 6 years ago only costs £5.00 but sending an email to advise of bank charges costs £39.00 and another £28 on top of that if your lucky.

 

Will keep you updated.

 

Carli

 

The Natwest said that to me. I'm making a request under the data protection act which is only chargeable at a maximum of £10. The trick is to make sure your request is expansive enough, because they'll try to interpret it in such a way as to give you as little as possible.

 

The wording I'm using is: "I hereby request any and all data stored on any computerised system by the bank about me and the running of the account which I have with Natwest, including but not limited to statements of account, full and accurate lists of transactions to go through the account even if these transactions were subsequently reversed (including the dates and times of said transactions), notes made about me by any and all NatWest employees and recordings made by computerised equipment of any calls monitored or recorded by NatWest where I have made contact with the Bank, together with a summary of dates and times applicable to each recording."

 

If I'm going to pay them another £10 of my hard earned cash, then they're going to have to work hard to earn it!

[missy]

This is a copy of the letter I sent to Halifax.

 

Re Account No XXXXXXXX Sort Code XX-00-XX

 

 

We are requesting a schedule of the charges and fees that have been levied from our account, for the last 6 years. We are entitled to this information under the Data Protection Act 1998. The schedule needs to include the date, reason, ie unpaid DD unpaid standing order, unauthorized overdraft etc, and amount of each charge and that we can be charged no more than £10 for this.

 

 

Notice I asked for a schedule of charges and not copies of statements.

[carlih1]

Hi

 

I have nad no responce to my inital letter to halifax claiming back charges, this was at end of jan, i dont have money to start proceedings until the end of the month, shall i send them a letter before action, and give them 14 days? would you word this differnetly from the ititial letter?

 

carli

[BankFodder]

presumambly you know how much you want and have told them - so:-

 

Express disappointment that they have failed to respond to your letter - a copy of which is enclosed - that they have now left you no option but to bring your claim in the county court for the sum plus interest if you do not receive full settlement within 14 days. Bye Bye.

 

 

[pixie1]

I only posted my letter last Monday, how long should i give them before I follow it up?

 

Any help would be fantastic

 

Thanks

 

Pixie

[BankFodder]

I only posted my letter last Monday, how long should i give them before I follow it up?

 

Any help would be fantastic

 

Thanks

 

Pixie

Please will you post about your claim in a new thread

[carlih1]

In your letter how long did u give them 7 or 14 days?

 

On the 8th or 15th day i would file a court case, i would have done this but don't have the money until the end of the month.

 

pm me if you want some more help

 

Carli

[pixie1]

I only posted my letter last Monday, how long should i give them before I follow it up?

 

Any help would be fantastic

 

Thanks

 

Pixie

Please will you post about your claim in a new thread

 

Sorry I didnt realise you had to do this, as it was just a general question I thought it would be ok to ask.

[carlih1]

Hi

 

got my reply from halifax after 4 weeks! they say their charges are in line with the terms and conditions i agreed to and the charges are applied manually!

 

Any suggestions for my court application

 

Carli

[carlih1]

Hi

 

got my reply from halifax after 4 weeks! they say their charges are in line with the terms and conditions i agreed to and the charges are applied manually!

 

Any suggestions for my court application

 

Carli

[BankFodder]

Have you got all of your statements?

[BankFodder]

Have you got all of your statements?

[carlih1]

Yes i do!

 

c

[carlih1]

Yes i do!

 

c

[BankFodder]

Hmm

 

An excellent suggestion from Whisperwolf elsewhere on this forum was to make a DPA request of all charges involving manual intervention and showing the comments or other evidence of the manual intervetion which has ben applied to your account.

The idea is basically that someone has accessed your records (say the banks) and have made decisions on what they have found there. They will have made some note or left some record of their manual intervention which could impact upon you. Therefore you have a right to see what is being said or the way that data held about you is being processed.

 

Of course, the very strong suspicions is that ther is no manual intevention - or very rarely. However, the banks are using this excuse to justify their high charges.

A well expressed DPA request should show whether or not what they are saying is true.

It would take a reading of the DPA to be able to make a really pertinent request.

 

Why don't you try searching on posts by Whisperwolf containing "data" and see if you can find it. It was very well put.

[BankFodder]

Hmm

 

An excellent suggestion from Whisperwolf elsewhere on this forum was to make a DPA request of all charges involving manual intervention and showing the comments or other evidence of the manual intervetion which has ben applied to your account.

The idea is basically that someone has accessed your records (say the banks) and have made decisions on what they have found there. They will have made some note or left some record of their manual intervention which could impact upon you. Therefore you have a right to see what is being said or the way that data held about you is being processed.

 

Of course, the very strong suspicions is that ther is no manual intevention - or very rarely. However, the banks are using this excuse to justify their high charges.

A well expressed DPA request should show whether or not what they are saying is true.

It would take a reading of the DPA to be able to make a really pertinent request.

 

Why don't you try searching on posts by Whisperwolf containing "data" and see if you can find it. It was very well put.

[carlih1]

Hi as promised i have typed out the letter from halifax as follows:-

 

Dear xxxxx

 

THank you for your recent correspodance regarding the problems that you have experienced with your current account.

 

Whilst i empathise with the level of charges that you have incurred on the account, i can confirm that these charges have been applied correctly in accordance with the terms and conditions of your account.

 

I am sorry that you are unhappy with the level of charges applied, however, the halifax incurs additional costs for every tsaction, when we pay an item against an unauthorise overdraft, or return an item unpaid. This is because we have to manually intervene in a process that is designed to be as automated as possible and so keeps our costs to our customer to a minimum. We believe that it is fair to pass these additional costs on to the accounts that generated them. To do anything other than this would mean these costs would be absorbed in other areas of our operation to the detriment of all other customers.

 

Whilst i can appreciate the points that you have raised, i must street that, regrettably, it is impractical to contact customers on an individual basis when a transaction is due to fail. It is the responsability of the account holder to ensure that are sufficient funds avalible to meet impending payments such as standing orders, direct debits and cheques.

 

Please note that you can now access your account through mediums such as telephone banking and our website, as well as being able to print a mini-statement from our cash machines. On that basis i do feel that sufficient information has been avalible to you to remain apprised of the activity on your account.

 

I assure you that i do appreciate your concerns. However, after giving this matter careful consideration, and the reasons given above i do not agree that an error has been made on the part of the halifax. On that basis i am unable to agree to your request to refund all the charges, and i am sorry that you may be dissapppoointed with this decision.

 

Although my responce is not perhaps the one that you would have wished for, i assure you that i have taken your complaint seriously and i hope you can understand the reasons for our decision.

 

If i do not hear from you within the next eight weeks i will assume matters have been concluded to your satisfaction and will close your file.

 

In the meantime i am enclosing a copy of our entitled leaflet "complaints - Heres what we'll do", which explains the stages involved in the process and details your options if you remain dissattisfied.

 

Our leaflet entitled " complaints - heres what we'll do" details your options if you remain dissatisfied. The next stage of this process would be a formal referral to customer relations as outlines under stage 2. I trust you will let me know your decision in due course.

 

ys

 

Mark south

 

hope this helps.

 

carli

[carlih1]

Yes i would, how would i go about this???

 

Carli

[SPARKY100]

I'd appreciate a skelton letter for this manual intervention. See the posting on the personal visit of the bank manager i posted earlier, They tell me that the costs they have charged are only partially covered by the penalties.

 

Could I ask for the true costs under the DPA concerned with my account?

 

Is this statement refering to me specifically or in general?

Thanks