Halifax Overdraft - Changes to Accounts £1 a day

[sadsack]

only just joined this site today and already seem a little hooked here lol.

 

ive been a halifax customer for over 20 years, i have a £1,200 overdraft permonth with them. my salary normaly goes straight in to the account and auto repays the o/d every month leaving whatever is left over to play with in respect of the kids / grankids etc.

 

following a fall at work in mid august ive now gone from what you might call gainful employment for x amount of years to suddenly being on a little over £300 per month going in to the account.

 

with these new bank o/d charges im literaly at my wits end, my wages only ever realy paid the mortgage, bills etc with a very small a ount left over for treating the kids and g/kids now suddeenly i cant even afford to pay my bills.

 

how on earth is the halifax getting away with charging these amounts every month from december?, if someone else tried to they would go to prison for extortion, whats the difference?

just signed up to the downing street petition, what else can i ?

 

(oh yes ...very nice to meet you all lol)

[coolchris]

Look on this page http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank-bank-scotland/225535-halifax-overdraft-changes-accounts-3.html from the posts by "bookworm". Send the template to Halifax and tell them to stuff it, like the rest of us. Most of us have changed banks, so they cant automatically get their hands on our money...so then negotiate with Halifax to pay back the OD as to what YOU can afford, NOT what they dictate. If you only have a certain amount of money, then mortgage and priority debts get paid first...the OD is just a secondary debt and NOT a priority. Do NOT be intimidated by them, they will try to, but just ignore them and stick to your guns. The more people that stand up to these greedy bstards the better.

[shywazz]

Well for the last 7 mths now ive paid the £31 in intrest/charges to cover my £1,000 OD so ive paid £217.00 in charges/intrest but the account is still £1,000 in the red, and will always be £1,000 in the red, unless i win the lottery, i'm now with another bank for my daily banking needs with no od, and managing that well. living within my means. But the £31 per mth i put into the halifax could be better spent elsewhere, but feel at least paying that £31 per mth stops the figure going above to £5 per day = £155 per mth, which would indeed cripple me. i wish i could stop the £31 per mth altogether but feel trapped into paying it to prevent even higher fees.

Edited November 23, 2009 by shywazz
spelling

[Bookworm]

Well, I got the "sorry you have had cause to complain, we're investigating" letter today... What part of "CLOSE my account" don't they understand?

[angel_1]

HIYA all

 

i got my acknowledgment letter too and with the leaflet how they will deal with my complaint ,,, hmme this is going to be interesting to say the least

 

have fun laters angel x

[coolchris]

Well for the last 7 mths now ive paid the £31 in intrest/charges to cover my £1,000 OD so ive paid £217.00 in charges/intrest but the account is still £1,000 in the red, and will always be £1,000 in the red, unless i win the lottery, i'm now with another bank for my daily banking needs with no od, and managing that well. living within my means. But the £31 per mth i put into the halifax could be better spent elsewhere, but feel at least paying that £31 per mth stops the figure going above to £5 per day = £155 per mth, which would indeed cripple me. i wish i could stop the £31 per mth altogether but feel trapped into paying it to prevent even higher fees.

 

Yer, but you are gonna be paying that forever and still have the debt. Just try and negotiate with em to pay OFF the O/D instead of paying the crappy charges and STILL having the debt for eternity. Does not make sense to me to just pay em the charges, whereas if you arrange a repayment structure (even if its quids a week), then at least you are getting rid of it.

[coolchris]

Have you all noticed that our original concerns in our letters are not addressed, and I reckon will not be addressed until AFTER D-Day, and even then it most probably will be a F-Off letter! How bloody convenient for the greedy tossers. (You might have gathered I am loathing HBOS with vigour).

[angel_1]

hiya all

 

well im going to write again and im going to propose a weekly payment plan but am going to wait until the verdict of the charges as my charges claim could in effect clear 75% of the debt then i can see how i can get rid of the rest

 

we shall see what tomorrow brings

 

but above all, keep up the pressure everyone

 

laters all angel keep happy

[nigel_bytes]

Well i have today received my Second letter from these muppets which says more or less the same as the first !

 

What a shame i'm closing my account this week

 

So nice of them to mention not what my complaint was about !

 

I spoke to someone at the Dss who informed me lots on benefits are moving (heaven knows why)

 

[Undercover-Elsa]

I opened a parachute account many months ago after they suddenly, arbitrarily reduced my overdraft limit with 28 days notice, then charged me when DD's bounced.

Since then I moved my main income to another account but left one small monthly pension going in, to chip away at the OD. This increase will totally negate that payment and make the OD go up and up again, increasing it to a level when they can charge £5 per day within a few months.

They've effectively removed any incentive I had to struggle on with paying this.

 

Thanks Bookie for addressing this issue so thoroughly.

Elsa xx

[coolchris]

WE HAVE LOST THE COURT CASE FOR CHARGES, IN THIS ROUND, PEOPLE.

Supreme Court (House of Lords) have ruleD in favour of the bloody Banks. Well what a surprise that one is.

GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR SUPREME ARSES YOU OLD SPOON-FED CRONIES.

Edited November 25, 2009 by coolchris

[Undercover-Elsa]

The Consumer Forums - Announcements in Forum :

[shywazz]

I fully appricate your post in reply to mine COOLCHRIS however due to myself paying the £31 per mth in charges, means i have accepted them? doesnt it ? i have read the posts relating to these £1 per day charges, and have been tempted to write to the halifax to say i don't agree with them, but since i have been paying for 7 mths, albeit the od remains the same, i really dont fancy them charging me £5 per day if i did stop paying the £1 per day charge, ( £31 per mth ) i have indeed paid £217 in total now in these £1 day charges, which i agree with you is daft, i could close the account as i now have another up and running, for the last 7 mths. but the OD will still remain and the £1 per day charge will still remain ???

 

Also i note that charges are for unathourised ODs yet mine is a athurised OD yet still gets charged the same. funny that....

Edited November 25, 2009 by shywazz

[coolchris]

OK. Received the final letter from Halifax and as I suspected its basically a F_Off letter.

 

It does NOT answer ANY points of my original letter and therefore I shall be writing back to them to ask why they did not answer my questions specifically, but just skirted around and basically reiterrated the crap about the fee restructuring and that most people do not use the OD facility.

 

Anyone else got their final letter?

 

It says that we have 8 weeks from the date of the letter to reply or the file will be closed.

 

Need some help to structure a reply if poss please.

[180]

Although I have yet to receive a 2nd letter I am expecting it any day soon.

 

My concern is that I have contested the change in T&C and moved my account elsewhere but still have £1000 in an overdraft with the halifax which I have made an offer to repay at the current interest rate at a minimum of £50 per month (reasonable imo), and as of the 6th December they will automatically start charging £1 a day.

 

How am I supposed to pay back £50 a month and receive £30 a month in fees??? Also if it is decided that the Halifax are in the wrong, how do I go about calculating what I should have been paying in interest???

[bigyeti]

It appears that they're just going to start charging and move everyone over to the new T&Cs regardless if you agree or not.

 

However, seeing as contracts are meant to be negotiable, then I'm going to write to them with something on the lines of:

 

thank you for your irrelevant template letter. However, it does not address my refusal to agree to the new T&Cs, namely the £1 per day charge for the use of an authorised OD. If you do charge me the new OD fees without my consent, then you are binding me to a contract I have not agreed to and thus you are in breach of (some law regarding contracts etc). Unless it is legal to bind someone to new conditions without their consent, in which case if you do proceed to charge me £1 per day then you agree to credit my account the sum of £50 for each month you levy your charge.

 

Lets see them argue the finer points of that.

[reidnet]

Recieved the same Fob Off 2nd letter, I have 2 Accounts with the Halifax which I am going to close tomorrow.

 

Only way they will take any notice is if people vote with their feet so to speak.

[coolchris]

It appears that they're just going to start charging and move everyone over to the new T&Cs regardless if you agree or not.

 

However, seeing as contracts are meant to be negotiable, then I'm going to write to them with something on the lines of:

 

thank you for your irrelevant template letter. However, it does not address my refusal to agree to the new T&Cs, namely the £1 per day charge for the use of an authorised OD. If you do charge me the new OD fees without my consent, then you are binding me to a contract I have not agreed to and thus you are in breach of (some law regarding contracts etc). Unless it is legal to bind someone to new conditions without their consent, in which case if you do proceed to charge me £1 per day then you agree to credit my account the sum of £50 for each month you levy your charge.

 

Lets see them argue the finer points of that.

 

Yes I agree. I think we may need "Bookworm" to have a look at concocting another letter with the finer points included.

[coolchris]

Heres the first page. The second page is just saying that one has 8 weeks to reply if not happy and the signature.

 

[London000]

Well, I got the "sorry you have had cause to complain, we're investigating" letter today... What part of "CLOSE my account" don't they understand?

 

 

Hi Bookworm,

 

Do I have to pay anything if I after I am paying the Overdraft of £470.00 I am closing the account???

Should I tell them that I do not wish their services anymore once the balance is 0.

I have received a letter from Halifax following the template letter I have sent wih regards to the Curr. Acc.(charging the £1.00) and told me that "they can not uphold my complaint"..as most of customers do not use the overdraft:eek:. What A SURPRISE.

If I have to pay any fee once I am closing the account then I am thinking to have a £0.10 left in it....then years later I could perhaps reclaim the ineterst:D.

 

Many thanks,

 

DD:cool:

[bigyeti]

They do say to keep the account open. After all, it costs them money to keep it open and dormant. I opened an account wit LloydsTSB in 2007 and have NEVER used it all, and they send me an annual statement telling me I have a balance of £0.00.

 

I also have an account with Yorkshire Bank with about £1.30 in, but that's linked to Paypal so I'll transfer money to that if I'm buying off eBay etc.

[Undercover-Elsa]

If you're able to clear the overdraft then keeping the account open would make sense-providing it doesn't have a credit balance which could be used down the line to offset any other debts with the bank.

 

In my own case, I'm unable to clear the £2500 plus amount. My debit card expired a few months ago and although my OD is now less than my stated limit, they have not renewed my card. I can therefore not have use of the balance up to my limit (I don't want to, but it's the principle).

My current thoughts are that in view of this, it is no longer an overdraft "facility". I don't have access to any facility. Therefore its just a debt, end of, so why should they be able to charge me £2 a day for a "facility" I'm not able to use?

I'm so tempted to stop payments, let them default me then once it's a good old static debt with Blind Orrible and Stupid, agree a repayment plan to reduce the (now fixed) debt without their exorbitant £60 a month OD fee being added. Presumably as they've axed "interest" they couldn't apply it to the debt after default?

Elsa x

[coolchris]

Yes, thats what I am doing. Awaiting their red letters. My credit score is crap anyway thanks to them, so I aint losing anything. They can try and throw the book at me, but they can only get what I can afford..and on benefits, thats hardly sod all, LOL. Stuff em. They played the Joker, Ill play the Ace.

[Undercover-Elsa]

What's betting they'll drag it out as long as possible before defaulting and terminating, to keep those nice fat fees rolling in?

[bigyeti]

Ignore the fees. They've changing the T&Cs to something you've not agreed to, and they can't force you to pay them for that reason. No more than you can force them to pay you fees. Contracts work both ways. Write to them immediately saying you're not agreeing to the new T&Cs and that you'll pay back any overdraft at £10 per week or whatever you can reasonably afford. Don't leave yourself skint just to appease them either. I'm consistently in our £1500 overdraft and although the balance fluctuates between £-400 to the full £-1500, we pay about £16 per month. If we pay them £10 per week (which is more than reasonable given out income and expenditure, then the overdraft gets paid and they still get their interest (which would decrese over time). If they start piling on the charges, I'll just carry on paying what I've offered until they default. Once I've paid off the overdraft amount, I'll ask them for the true signed copy of the agreement that doesn't exist.

 

As far as I'm concerned, they can go forth and multiply.