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Honeymoon ruined by CC (Not overspending)
djkaizen
Posts: 176 Forumite
in Credit cards
Four line summary:
Bank gave us wrong information, meaning we had no money or funds for a big part of our honeymoon. Customer service was outstandingly terrible (negligent even) and we ended up paying £300 in phone bills plus having to pay charges for every transaction made.
What should we do?
Long Version:
Hi all,
I wasn’t sure where to put this, but it’s definitely credit card related, so here goes. It’s long winded but I hope you can help me out as it has caused us serious distress.
A few weeks ago, I was preparing to go on honeymoon (back yesterday) and I called in to my bank (Halifax) to get money out to be changed into dollars & also to confirm what is the best way to take money (in card form) to the USA.
**This question was the reason I got a credit card in the first place, as I also asked the person signing me up**
I have a moderate credit limit and so asked whether it was better for me add credit to the CC so we would have the money + the card limit to use on honeymoon, or just use them money within my debit account.
The answer on all occasions was “Credit card as you don’t pay fee’s on transactions”. I transferred the funds £5k to the credit card to pay for our hotel & the bulk of our spending money.
This is where the problems start.
On arrival at the hotel, my CC was declined. There wasn’t enough money in the debit account to pay for the hotel and so we had to use all our cash ($3500) to pay for the room. Our debit card was used to hold $150 (per day totalling $2100) for room expenses etc. Sorted, but highly embarrassing & draining, especially after travelling for 18+ hours.
First things first, call the 24 hotline on the back of the card. Its says reverse charge the calls. But on every occasion even when we paid (at a phone booth) it wouldn’t go through. Eventually, we rang via the hotel and got through.
An hours conversation led to nothing other than we don’t know why your account is blocked, it should work fine. So we went down to the ATM & tried to take out cash. No joy.
Back on the phone with another call: Result, we knew our card was blocked as the money hadn’t been approved in the bank transfer (which happened a week prior: I may add that the transfer was between two Halifax accounts). It would take ten days to clear, a few days before we were due to come home.
I was told they would try and speed things up, but as it was during the night, this would have to be done in during the working day. Fine, we waited up and called later, only to be told that this couldn’t happen. I then asked if the money could be returned to the debit account, so I can use that card. Yes, only when its cleared. At this point, I was advised to use the Ccard anyway as I had a credit limit.
I put money on this card to pay for trips/shopping/eating, that my limit wouldn’t cover (of which the trips had to be cancelled) but I explained my card couldn’t be used.
Answer: Because I put the CC in credit, even though it hadn’t been authorised, the Halifax CC won’t allow you to use the card for anything as all transactions would be blocked.
In asking what happens next, we were told that the person would “put a note on the system” and see what can be done, but that we should call back tomorrow to confirm if the money is to be pushed back or confirmed in the CC more quickly.
Next day: Nothing can be done and the person you were speaking to yesterday palmed you off, but we can give you a number where you can call and borrow money. (Yes that’s what they said).
At this stage I asked to speak to a manager. But none would speak to me as its not policy to speak to a customer instantly but to call them back. So I gave them the hotel name, the number, & room number. And waited….. for 4.5 hours, but no one called.
In the meantime I was checking our online hotel bill $500 spent on calls to the bank.
So we phoned again: No they can up our overdraft on the debit card, no they cant transfer the money, but they did put a manager on.
A lady who was sympathetic to our problems (unlike anyone else we had dealt with) and would see what could be done, but she couldn’t do anything until the morning (and she wasn’t on shift), so another note to the next manager on would be written).
I’d like to add that we had little money, little clothes (as we were buying everything when we got there) and we were on day 3 of our ruined honeymoon. Unable to sleep or even go for a drink, as all faith of getting our money, even after the 10 days had gone. In fact our faith in the bank had gone also.
Last resort: Phone the parents and get them to transfer money across. Couldn’t contact them, so I emailed my Dad to his work address. Turns out his long term working partners sister is the manager in our own local branch.
Everything we requested from the hotline was sorted within the hour. I mean minutes!!!!! It was decided by the bank that using the Debit card was most practical as it was working.
This lady saved the rest of our honeymoon. I’d like to name her, but as we have a meeting with them next week I wont.
Because of this mess, we are now out £300 on phone bills, were unable to go on trips we’d saved up to go to (shows and to the grand canyon) and we incurred charges for every transaction made.
Other than that, it nearly had us divorced over money worries (slight exaggeration).
As mentioned we’re meeting the bank next week, but other than air our greavances, I’m unsure what to do and so your help would be appreciated.
Bank gave us wrong information, meaning we had no money or funds for a big part of our honeymoon. Customer service was outstandingly terrible (negligent even) and we ended up paying £300 in phone bills plus having to pay charges for every transaction made.
What should we do?
Long Version:
Hi all,
I wasn’t sure where to put this, but it’s definitely credit card related, so here goes. It’s long winded but I hope you can help me out as it has caused us serious distress.
A few weeks ago, I was preparing to go on honeymoon (back yesterday) and I called in to my bank (Halifax) to get money out to be changed into dollars & also to confirm what is the best way to take money (in card form) to the USA.
**This question was the reason I got a credit card in the first place, as I also asked the person signing me up**
I have a moderate credit limit and so asked whether it was better for me add credit to the CC so we would have the money + the card limit to use on honeymoon, or just use them money within my debit account.
The answer on all occasions was “Credit card as you don’t pay fee’s on transactions”. I transferred the funds £5k to the credit card to pay for our hotel & the bulk of our spending money.
This is where the problems start.
On arrival at the hotel, my CC was declined. There wasn’t enough money in the debit account to pay for the hotel and so we had to use all our cash ($3500) to pay for the room. Our debit card was used to hold $150 (per day totalling $2100) for room expenses etc. Sorted, but highly embarrassing & draining, especially after travelling for 18+ hours.
First things first, call the 24 hotline on the back of the card. Its says reverse charge the calls. But on every occasion even when we paid (at a phone booth) it wouldn’t go through. Eventually, we rang via the hotel and got through.
An hours conversation led to nothing other than we don’t know why your account is blocked, it should work fine. So we went down to the ATM & tried to take out cash. No joy.
Back on the phone with another call: Result, we knew our card was blocked as the money hadn’t been approved in the bank transfer (which happened a week prior: I may add that the transfer was between two Halifax accounts). It would take ten days to clear, a few days before we were due to come home.
I was told they would try and speed things up, but as it was during the night, this would have to be done in during the working day. Fine, we waited up and called later, only to be told that this couldn’t happen. I then asked if the money could be returned to the debit account, so I can use that card. Yes, only when its cleared. At this point, I was advised to use the Ccard anyway as I had a credit limit.
I put money on this card to pay for trips/shopping/eating, that my limit wouldn’t cover (of which the trips had to be cancelled) but I explained my card couldn’t be used.
Answer: Because I put the CC in credit, even though it hadn’t been authorised, the Halifax CC won’t allow you to use the card for anything as all transactions would be blocked.
In asking what happens next, we were told that the person would “put a note on the system” and see what can be done, but that we should call back tomorrow to confirm if the money is to be pushed back or confirmed in the CC more quickly.
Next day: Nothing can be done and the person you were speaking to yesterday palmed you off, but we can give you a number where you can call and borrow money. (Yes that’s what they said).
At this stage I asked to speak to a manager. But none would speak to me as its not policy to speak to a customer instantly but to call them back. So I gave them the hotel name, the number, & room number. And waited….. for 4.5 hours, but no one called.
In the meantime I was checking our online hotel bill $500 spent on calls to the bank.
So we phoned again: No they can up our overdraft on the debit card, no they cant transfer the money, but they did put a manager on.
A lady who was sympathetic to our problems (unlike anyone else we had dealt with) and would see what could be done, but she couldn’t do anything until the morning (and she wasn’t on shift), so another note to the next manager on would be written).
I’d like to add that we had little money, little clothes (as we were buying everything when we got there) and we were on day 3 of our ruined honeymoon. Unable to sleep or even go for a drink, as all faith of getting our money, even after the 10 days had gone. In fact our faith in the bank had gone also.
Last resort: Phone the parents and get them to transfer money across. Couldn’t contact them, so I emailed my Dad to his work address. Turns out his long term working partners sister is the manager in our own local branch.
Everything we requested from the hotline was sorted within the hour. I mean minutes!!!!! It was decided by the bank that using the Debit card was most practical as it was working.
This lady saved the rest of our honeymoon. I’d like to name her, but as we have a meeting with them next week I wont.
Because of this mess, we are now out £300 on phone bills, were unable to go on trips we’d saved up to go to (shows and to the grand canyon) and we incurred charges for every transaction made.
Other than that, it nearly had us divorced over money worries (slight exaggeration).
As mentioned we’re meeting the bank next week, but other than air our greavances, I’m unsure what to do and so your help would be appreciated.
David James aint got nothing on me
0
Comments
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Advice I've seen over and over on these forums is that you need to decide what you want the bank to do about the problem. Then you say to them, I want you to do this, if you do this I will be satisfied, and then you go from there.
In this situation, you certainly want reimbursement for the phone bills, all the transaction charges and any other out of pocket expenses that you wouldn't have had to fork out if their advice had been correct. Then decide on a per-day amount to make up for the compensation for the huge inconvenience suffered. If you don't know where to start with this, consider the time spend trying to sort it out (including the 4.5 hours waiting for phone call) and pick an hourly rate for your time. Hopefully it comes to an amount that would mean you can take another honeymoon to replace the days of this one which were basically ruined. (How long into the holiday did it get sorted?) Emphasize the once in a lifetime nature of this holiday, its not just a week in Majorca is it, its your honeymoon.
Keep calm in the meeting, hopefully easier if it is with the woman who did eventually sort everything, try and be dispassionate, don't get wound up. A note of what happened on each day might be useful if you can remember. The hotel phone bill might help with that if it was itemised!
Really hope you get it all sorted out.0 -
I work for halifax and you wont get anywere
Your account was dealt with within the correct procedures, you shouldnt have paid your account into so much credit and they went out their way to assist you in getting money urgently, which they didnt need to do
as for your calls, you may get some back as a gesture to avoid the cost of an ombudsman complaint, but the call charges seem to be extremely high and tbh i wouldnt expect them all
Lessons to be learned
Never pay your account into credit, and secondly if making large or irregular payments give additional clearence time as they will likely see an extended authorisation time added
As for the number, it worked eventually so Id suggest either an error with the foreign network or yourself
As frustrating as it was, the banks did nothing wrong here, and a read of the T&C in depth would have likely avoided this0 -
No you're right-the bank will try and weasel out of it most likely however the small claims court are likely to view it far more sympathetically so go through the motions with the Halifax and put in a reasonable claim for reasonable costs (supply the copy of the hotel bill to show the telephone charges) and loss of enjoyment (basically try and pro-rata it for lost days and show the breakdown). Before you can take it further you need to show you have given the bank the chance to put things right.
And good luck !I Would Rather Climb A Mountain Than Crawl Into A Hole
MSE Florida wedding .....no problem0 -
you carried $3500 in cash! I mean that is a lot of cash to carry is your hand luggage
I got back Monday from 2 weeks in Jamaica and used my debit card (US $)(although there is £1.50 plus 2.75% conversion charge) and used my credit card. Halifax too, I had to speak to them as they wanted to check where i was and asked me security questions. The merchant could have tried to telephone for you when intial decline
you say you used your debit card in the end, are you not going to be happy about the charges then?0 -
But from OP's post it seems Halifax specifically advised the OP to pay credit onto the credit card!knowledgeman wrote: »you shouldnt have paid your account into so much credit0 -
You're ever so loyal to your employers RS1. Most other moneysaving mavericks (with 1000's of posts to their name) would have used Nationwide products.regularsaver1 wrote: »I got back Monday from 2 weeks in Jamaica and used my debit card (US $)(although there is £1.50 plus 2.75% conversion charge) and used my credit card. Halifax too...
OP,
Setting aside what the CSA told you, this (from your T&C's)...
...should have been enough to disuade you from loading the card up before you travelled.7.6 You must not make payments or transfer funds from another credit or store card to your account that would leave a credit balance on your account.
Creating (large) positive balances on most credit cards means specialist AML procedures are launched by the providers. As you have found, they do not resolve these issues quickly.0 -
The one thing that puzzles me is why a friend can sort the problem in minutes, but a heap of staff at a customer helpline are unable/ unwilling to do anything. Proves that the technology is there, and it can be done easily. Given the circumstances, this should have been done as the customers needs were rather more important than adhering to T&C 7.6 (A copy of which should always be packed for your honeymoon!).
Knowledgeman - You state that 'correct procedures were followed', and yet it could be sorted very easily with just a little bit of effort. Clearly it was an emergency, in those cases do 'procedures' really take precedence over customer service and common sense. Not having a dig, I am genuinely wondering if Banks really have ditched all of the emergency procedures that we used to use in my banking days.0 -
Firstly,
Thanks everyone for your response.
The staff (both the person who signed me up for the card and the counter staff) at the Halifax recommended that I put the money on my credit card for use in the US. This was solely for the reason of avoiding transaction charges.
Whether or not this is in breach of T&C’s I am not concerned, however this should have been flagged up by the staff members or I should have been informed of the delay (10 days) in transferring money from one halifax account to another, as well as the Freezing of the card until it has been cleared.
I have a recorded of all calls and their outcome at home as well as times & an itemised billing from the hotel. All bar the last call to the CC hotline was treated terribly, with no answers or options to help. Staff on the hotline were at best unhelpful, and no one in a position of seniority was available to speak to directly.
We got things sorted 4 days into the honeymoon (14 days long), but we never slept for this period due to worry and certainly didn’t get the relaxation we were hoping for.
The admission by one CC hotline staff member that we had been told lies and palmed off, is surely not representative of “the correct procedure” for handling international CC emergencies.
Being completely honest, when the only person you have on the other end of the phone, (while your on the other side of the world penniless), doesn’t present options, or as you find out later “palms you off”, it doesn’t lead you to have faith in anything they (bank) say.
Other than the stroke of luck, that my branch managers sister works with my dad (which I previously didn’t know), we don’t know what we could have done. Which then poses the question:
Why was she able to refund the money into the account & increase my overdraft within an hour? Which when I asked; this could not be done until the money had cleared and returned to my account (which I did not believe would actually happen. See faith lost above).
We (my wife & I ) appreciate all your help folks, as we really want to put this stressful matter behind us.
P.S The $3500 came from personal savings in USD bought when the rate was good & USD cash wedding presents. Both my wife and I planned things meticulously, right down to our food budget per day (so we could keep on top of things), but this was all thrown up in the air by this matter.
P.P.S7.6 You must not make payments or transfer funds from another credit or store card to your account that would leave a credit balance on your account.
The transfer was from a current account within the Halifax, not a credit or store card. Thefore non-applicable? (setting aside the fact that the transfer was on the banks recommendation)
knowledgeman
it took 4 days to do something that was easily done in minutes & that I was told couldnt be done.they went out their way to assist you in getting money urgently, which they didnt need to doDavid James aint got nothing on me0 -
regularsaver1 wrote: »I got back Monday from 2 weeks in Jamaica and used my debit card (US $)(although there is £1.50 plus 2.75% conversion charge) and used my credit card.
you say you used your debit card in the end, are you not going to be happy about the charges then?
I didnt know about the 2.75% charge. I'm less happy now.David James aint got nothing on me0 -
I think you need to get yourself to a one hour free solicitor appointment, or to the CAB and see what can actually be done here, before you go to the branch, if you go 'clued up' with your rights they are less likely to palm you off.
I think the fact that you were misinformed is key here, but you will have to watch that they don't wriggle out of it, but they should have told you of any fees, transfer times etc, and they may well say they did even though its not the case.
Good Luck - and don't let this drop, you and your wife deserved to be having a great time, and it was ruined, you need to take this as far as it can go.I believe that I have the strength to make my dreams come true:T September Challenge £5 per day - £0/£150 :T0
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