Bookworm v Halifax - Round 2 **SETTLED**

[Bookworm]

£ 60.00.

 

They charged me £30 for going over by 12 PENCE, then their £30 charge took me over again and they have charged me another £30.

 

Prelim sent.

[boogie80]

We went overdrawn for about 2 and a half minutes after paying for our holiday - transferring money to cover the offending transaction straight afterwards. However, we still are now being charged £58 in total. I succesfully completed a claim earlier in the year and have threatened to do so again. However they quote that they warned us if we went over our limit again they would consider closing our account and are saying they can't refund the charges. Has anyone else experienced the threat of account closure? Don't really want the hassle of moving all the bills, mortgage payments etc to a different bank but want my money back - do you think I should just cal their bluff and put a claim in anyway?

[Bookworm]

Yes.

 

They threatened me too, but I am certainly not going to let that deter me!

[Tinkerbelle]

LOL... Go get em!

[Bookworm]

Well, I certainly didn't get a standard repsonse this time!

 

Dear Mrs Bookworm,

 

Thank you for your recent letter.

 

Having reviewed your account, I accept the apllication of these charges will not have a positive effect on the maintenance of your account. [no sh*t, Sherlock!] However I note that you accepted a sum of £xxxx in full and final settlement of your complaint regarding account xxxx [er, yeah, for the PREVIOUS lot of charges, duh!] and this was credited to your account on 10th April 206. Therefore I cannot agree to refund the recent charges we have applied or are due to debited to your account. [sic]

 

As stated in our previous letter of 10th April 2006, we reserve the right to withdraw banking facilities from any customer and full details of this are explained within our terms and conditions of your account. I enclose a copy of the terms and conditions and our previous letter for your information.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

xxx

 

Now, they haven't actually SAID they are closing my account, but am I the only one to read a thinly veiled thread of "give it up, give it up now, or else"?

 

Well, I think my LBA is going to deviate a tad from the usual too, since it seems I have their attention.

[Bookworm]

LBA going out tomorrow. My own deadlines are all over the place, some fine example I'm giving here!

 

Ah well, at least, it's given me a chance to update the letter, as they've added another £30 charge...

 

We're now standing at £90.00, with a monthly charge of £28.00 due to go on the 30th December as well. All this, I remind you, for going over by 12 pence. Tut-tut.

[tezviper]

Amazing really that after a succesfull claim against them they go and take more charges knowing full well how far you will go to get back your money. I have been fairly lucky in that I struck up a friendship with the assistant manager of my local branch and I had 2 charges taken from me totalling £78 which they took after I had filed my MCOL. She was really pleased for me when Halifax settled and I spoke to her yesterday about refunding those 2 charges and she is doing them 4 me today.

My experience is that a lot of the staff in the branches are on your side.

[Bookworm]

Neglecting my own thread here. Ok, here's what I sent as my LBA on the 11/12/06:

 

Dear xxx,

Thank you for your letter dated 16th November. Although the answer is not satisfactory, it is nevertheless nice not to receive a standard template response for once.

 

I shall now address the points raised in your letter:

 

Yes, I accepted a full and final settlement in April for my County Court claim. So? How exactly does that justify a refusal to refund the charges levied on my account since? The logic behind your reasoning escapes me. If you insist on levying unlawful charges to my account, obviously I am going to keep on reclaiming them!

 

As regards the right to withdraw banking facilities from any customer, you haven’t actually stated that this is what you are going to do, could you please be kind enough to clarify this? You see, my reading of your letter seems like a very thinly threat of closure if I carry on with my claim, and since it could then have legal and human rights implications, I would be grateful if you could elaborate on your sentence. If I have misunderstood the intentions expressed in your letter, then I would be grateful for an explanation of that sentence in a response to a request for repayment of charges.

 

Meanwhile, this is my final letter to ask for repayment within 14 days of the unlawful charges levied on my account, which at the moment, stand at £ 90.00, although your levying those charges is actually increasing the level of the unauthorised overdraft on a regular basis and I have had notification of more charges to come. It is my duty to remind you that should I have to issue legal proceedings against you, you will become liable for my court costs and 8% statutory APR.

 

Yours truly,

 

Mrs BW

 

Well then, xmas, no answer... Anyway, I didn't have the money to file claim, so I was waiting for payday. Lo and behold, this morning, came a letter with an apology for taking so long to "address my complaint", and offering me £176 as a GOFW and full and final settlement. Yaye!!!

 

So I need to call them on Monday to make sure they also remove anything in the pipeline and make sure the refund matches the total of the charges they've piled up, but it looks like we're just about sorted!!!

 

Woo-hoo!!!

[GaryH]

Well done BW! Congratulations! I can't believe they piled on £176 for the sake of 12 bloomin pence! That surely must be some sort of record for downright ridiculousness.

 

So no closure then? They closed mine the second time around and it wasn't even on the same account, the second claim was against a Visa account. Might of had something to do with the contractual interest though - it did get a bit nasty:rolleyes:.

[Boobaby]

Ok, here's what I sent as my LBA on the 11/12/06:

like a very thinly veiled threat of closure if I carry on with my claim, and since it could then have legal and human rights implications, I would be grateful if you could elaborate on your sentence.

 

Woo-hoo!!!

 

Well done BW - fab letter too, any chance you could post it in the library template section, I think a lot of people would be interested? Especially the section quoted above

[djgordyp]

They closed mine the second time around and it wasn't even on the same account, the second claim was against a Visa account. Might of had something to do with the contractual interest though - it did get a bit nasty:rolleyes:.

 

This and a previous post has got me thinking (doesn't happen too often ), can the banks not be challanged on these closures on the grounds that in some cases their unlawful charges made it almost impossible to run the account 'properly'.

[selizabeth]

I've just being refunded my claim money today in the Bank. Unfortunately, I missed the fact that a £28 charge is due to come off at the end of Jan. Can I claim even although I signed an acceptance form for the account? Is it easier to ring customer services to speak to them about removing the charge or ring the number given at the top of the letters regarding my last claims? I thought it maybe better to ring before starting the whole palava again.

 

Appreciate your advice.

[Bookworm]

Yeah, I'd ring them, but make sure it is on the number at the top of your settlement letter, if you go through "normal" customer services, they'll probably just blow you off... ALso make sure there isn't other charges due to come off end of February, get them to check their system so it can all get cleared. If they play silly buggers, tell them you will have no hesitation in starting all over again, and don't let them intimidate you with threats of closure. ;-)

[Didge]

Well done BW!

That's spurred me on to go for my second lot - been charged £90 since my N1 filed and settled, know that there'll be at least a £28 coming out this month and next month, so that's another £150 almost that's going to come back to me! Think I'll hang on until mid-Feb though - know there shouldn't be any more charges by then, but the LBA will have my final overdraft charge on it!

[selizabeth]

Thanks for your advice.

 

I called the number at the top of the letter as suggested. The lady I spoke to said because I'd settled my claim the 28 would be looked upon as a new claim and she was unable just to take it off. I told her i wanted to close my account and wanted this sorted out but i'd go through the whole process again if need be. She put me on hold then said that i should go in to my branch to close my account and ask them to remove the 28 charge. If they refuse or can't do it then I'm to ask the Bank to call (number at top of letter), quoting my ref. no. and they will make sure it's removed. So, i'm off to the Bank tomorrow. Seems to be a long winded way of doing things.

[22under]

Hi everyone,

 

I am new to the site. I have found myself in the same situation with Halifax. Can someone offer me any advice please...

 

Basically Halifax has charged my approximately £150 upto now for going £7.00 overdrawn because of a direct debit. I do not have an overdraft with them and each time the direct debit was due they have charged me £35 and on top of that they have charged me £28 for carrying a negative balance at the begining of each month and the whole amount comes upto £150 at present. I wrote to them and had a reply back saying that they are going to take 8 weeks for the case to be investigated but I doubt that I will get my money back. As it is a very basic account I assume they will threaten to close my account down.. I wrote to them saying that if I do not get a full re-fund within 14 days I will be taking court action and since then I have not had any reply. I just have a very bad feeling that at the end of all this waiting the reply I am going to receive from them is not going to be very satisfactory.

 

what shall I do? and how do I make a claim against them , what is the procedure? Any helpful advice welcome,

 

Thanks

[volvo51]

Hi, ive been watching with interest whats been happening to you all. I am with the Halifax and have sent them the second letter 10 days ago. I did receive a reply to the first but this was their pre-written computer letter. They stated that they will take their standard 8 weeks although it could be four. We are now into week 5 and no further forward. Im looking at the court forms as we speak, but my claim is for £5100, but the cheeky gits have taken another £210 in charges since the letters. Remains to be seen what this week brings, but will keep you informed. D-Day is Thursday.

[filthygorgeous]

Hi guys, i've only just joined this site as i was looking for a template of a letter to claim back charges on my halifax account. Please can someone suggest a good template?

cheers

[Ded]

Regarding the threat of your bank closing your account. Halifax threatened me and I promptly informed them via telephone that I would display a large printed sheet in the rear windows of my Volvo estate stating that Halifax have closed my account because I claimed re-payment of their un-lawful bank charges. That was two months ago and my claim is going fine.

At the end of the day there will still be millions the bank will keep due to the gutless...not you though eh?

[brummie]

hi was just wandering, the halifax replied to my first letter which included the terms and conditions, if this was to go to court would i be screwed because i didnt keep all the documents sent to me, i threw the terms and conditions away. thanks