Karen vs Halifax

[weedusmaximus]

Hi all,

 

I have been fighting Halifax for the past 3 months to receive a letter in the post last week advising me that altho they accept I am in hardship they will not be doing anything until the court case is finalised...blah blah..so I submitted a claim to the FOS and the the ICO as my list of charges have never been sent to me (and their 40 days is well over due now) and I did a Money Claim Online on Wednesday also.

 

I am owed £1700 inc Interest since 2001.

 

I checked online today on the staus of it and it says they accepted my claim and it has been passed to the defendent to respond within 14 days.

 

I was wondering when they will stay this claim though as everyone says it will be automatically stayed by the judge. Would this normally happen before the judge submits it to the defendent or once the defendent has responded?

 

Also somone else on the Money Saving Expert told me that I had submitted it to the wrong address in Halifax (I sent it to Customer Relations, PO Box 548, Leeds, LS1) as they are the ones that have been dealing with my case.

 

Surely it wont get thrown out just becuase of the wrong branch being put on the claim - isnt it Halifax's responsability to just forward it on to the correct branch?

[yourbank]

It won't get thrown out but it may get to the point that you can ask for judgement by default however if you then went to enforce it then Halifax would be able to overturn it on the basis of the address issue.

[weedusmaximus]

So should I correct the address it was sent to then and does anyone have the correct address for sumbitting a MCOL case against Halifax?

 

Has anyone actually done this so far and won a case against Halifax on here? No one on MoneySavingExpert seems to have so far - they have all either been stayed or not honoured?

[yourbank]

So should I correct the address it was sent to then and does anyone have the correct address for sumbitting a MCOL case against Halifax?

 

Has anyone actually done this so far and won a case against Halifax on here? No one on MoneySavingExpert seems to have so far - they have all either been stayed or not honoured?

It should be stayed automatically so don't worry

[weedusmaximus]

I just called and spoke to the Customer relations manager and advised her that I had served a court case on them and they now had 14 days to reply and she seemed baffled.

 

She didnt even know what a Money Claim online was! I had to explain to her what it was and she asked why I had done that?

 

I explained that I did it becuase Halifax had admitted I was suffering from hardship but they refuse to pay me out anything.

 

She said she would have to look in to it and come back to me as she has never heard of MCOL or anyone taking them to court to get a hardship payment?

 

Surely she is living in the dark ages and lots of people have done this recently?

[yourbank]

She isn't because you don't get paid out on hardship by taking a claim to court. A court doesn't change your case for bank charges even if you feel or are in financial hardship however you do get fee remission. So technically she is partially correct.

[weedusmaximus]

I am confused then? Why are all the people on here taking claims to court or lodging claims withe MCOL? Are they for something different?

[yourbank]

I am confused then? Why are all the people on here taking claims to court or lodging claims withe MCOL? Are they for something different?

 

I have no idea but some people are claiming back further than the FSA Waiver allows in anticipation of being able to go further back than the current 27th July 2001.

Some believe that 8% can only be awarded by the court in spite of the provisions in the FSA Waiver on Bank Charges.

Some people genuinely misread the information about and believe that financial hardship is dealt with by the courts when they only deal with fee remission on court fees.

Some file as a defence against any DCA taking their accounts on.

Some people believe that it gets them higher up an imaginary queue once the OFT test case is resolved(again it's a kinda futuristic idea since none of us know how the final resolution will occur).

And lastly, if you are receiving state benefits then I can't see a reason why you shouldn't file a claim in court because you won't pay to file the claim.

 

I am not a fan of this route to be honest but I don't have a problem with those that advocate going to a court with a bank charges claim in spite of the fact that it will be stayed pending the OFT test case issues being resolved.

[weedusmaximus]

Hey all - I got an online notification come through today to tell me my MCOL claim has entered into defense so I can now not take the case any further online and a questionnaire is being sent to me to complete.

 

It also says any further correspondence must be dealt with in person and not online?

 

What is this and does it mean it has not been stayed or is that the next stage?

[yourbank]

Hey all - I got an online notification come through today to tell me my MCOL claim has entered into defense so I can now not take the case any further online and a questionnaire is being sent to me to complete.

 

It also says any further correspondence must be dealt with in person and not online?

 

What is this and does it mean it has not been stayed or is that the next stage?

 

Allocation questionnaire link below

http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/48-bank-templates/125-allocation-questionnaires-a-guide-to-completion-

 

If you do not get fee remission then you have to pay according to the link £35 if it is over £1500( I think that might be wrong cos I think it is £100).

[weedusmaximus]

Morning all, I got something in the post today to say my claim has been stayed as the bank requested.

 

It is so frustrating tho that the bank agrees I am in hardship but will not offer me anything back towards it or to help me out. I have arrears with Council tax, rent, utility bills etc so all are priority debts.

 

From reading the forums on Money Saving Expert it seems a few people have been paid out by Halifax for hardship so it makes me wonder what criteria/guidelines they work to in order to decide who to pay out...or does it simply depend on which caseworker you get at the time?

 

So...what do I do now? Is there anything else I can do or is that it? Can I reclaim the £70 I paid to do the MCOL?

[jansus]

You have to make an official complaint to the bank in writing about how your case has been handled and then refer the case to the FOS . If you read the terms of the waiver - re-issued in the last few days the bank must deal with your case if they admit you are hardship but it does not say that means actually repaying the charges . So it might mean re-scheduling your debt or freezing interest - but they are supposed to help.

 

We have had several cases on another site where a percentage of the charges have been repaid , sometimes up to 80% - but it does depend on the banks interpretation of the waiver .

 

In some cases if there is a priority debt such as mortgage arrears it has helped if the claimant has offered for the funds to go direct to that debt.

 

Have you stopped using theHalifax account and opened a basic bank account or considered a credit union account? Just so you can get control of your monies back - we all know with these charges it can be a spiral difficult to get out of.

[yourbank]

Morning all, I got something in the post today to say my claim has been stayed as the bank requested.

 

It is so frustrating tho that the bank agrees I am in hardship but will not offer me anything back towards it or to help me out. I have arrears with Council tax, rent, utility bills etc so all are priority debts.

I am not sure if I am repeating myself so apologies if I am(I kinda go into mechanical mode at times).

Are the arrears being paid off at all?

Are you still using the account?

Do you still get bank charges on the account.

From reading the forums on Money Saving Expert it seems a few people have been paid out by Halifax for hardship so it makes me wonder what criteria/guidelines they work to in order to decide who to pay out...or does it simply depend on which caseworker you get at the time? I'm NatWestStaffMember on MSE and to be honest it is impossible for me at times to work out how someone necessarily gets a payout and who doesn't.

 

So...what do I do now? Is there anything else I can do or is that it? Can I reclaim the £70 I paid to do the MCOL?

 

You will get the MCOL back at the end of the OFT test case issues. If you want to revisit hardship then its letter to the bank and they have up to 8 weeks to respond before you can ask the FOS to look at the case, otherwise you gotta wait, unfortunately.