Halifax 'sending me around the houses' to close my account down?

Jlawson118 · 12 October 2016 at 6:00PM

I opened a student account with HSBC earlier this year, and I was unhappy with the way they treated me (a second time

) So I used the switch service to claim £100 and also the £5 a month with Halifax Rewards.

Around July, I upgraded it to their Ultimate Reward as I was buying a car and wanted the breakdown cover. I've had it for a few months, but they kept rejecting me for a credit card and overdraft, and the car deal I got has a year's breakdown cover anyway, so I don't really need it anymore, and I've decided to move over to Barclays anyway as I found a better deal.

I went into Barclays today to use the switch service and Halifax rejected it. So I phoned them up and Halifax kept me on the phone for about 50 minutes on hold, then making me downgrade my account back to just Halifax Reward, and then when asking when I can cancel it now they've downgraded it, I have to wait another week to wait for my new card and terms and conditions to arrive!

I wanted rid of this account and I can't believe I'm being dragged through all of this just to close down an account. I've never had this problem before..:mad:

jonesMUFCforever · 12 October 2016 at 7:02PM

Did you ask the obvious question? Why was the switch rejected?
Could it be that the account is overdrawn? Did you provide the correct 16 digit card number - is your address exact with both banks??

Downgrading is a red herring in my book just mudding the waters.

Doctor_Duke · 12 October 2016 at 8:29PM

I thought you were a fan of First Direct.... &#55357;&#56832; http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5540020

Jlawson118 · 12 October 2016 at 8:50PM

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Did you ask the obvious question? Why was the switch rejected?
Could it be that the account is overdrawn? Did you provide the correct 16 digit card number - is your address exact with both banks??

Downgrading is a red herring in my book just mudding the waters.

It just stated on their system that the particular account could not be used on the switch service

Jlawson118 · 12 October 2016 at 8:51PM

Doctor_Duke wrote: »

I thought you were a fan of First Direct.... �� http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5540020

I am, but after the fraud incident that I mentioned, I was left without money and so I opened up another account to avoid it happening again. And since then I've been here, there and everywhere trying to find another account, and well Halifax wasn't the one

Alter_ego · 12 October 2016 at 8:56PM

Why phone Halifax? Switching is done by the new bank without any help from you provided your old account is in credit.

Jlawson118 · 12 October 2016 at 9:08PM

Alter_ego wrote: »

Why phone Halifax? Switching is done by the new bank without any help from you provided your old account is in credit.

Well this is the problem, I've used the switch service before so I know how it works, so I had accounts with Halifax and Lloyds. But I wanted to move them both over to Barclays. The lady in Barclays entered the Halifax details and it popped up something like "This account is unavailable on the Switch Service" so she did the Lloyds one with no problems.

So I had no other option but to phone Halifax, because if I don't cancel it then I'll have to pay for another month of their service that I don't need anymore

KJSmith · 12 October 2016 at 11:26PM

Jlawson118 wrote: »

Well this is the problem, I've used the switch service before so I know how it works, so I had accounts with Halifax and Lloyds. But I wanted to move them both over to Barclays. The lady in Barclays entered the Halifax details and it popped up something like "This account is unavailable on the Switch Service" so she did the Lloyds one with no problems.

So I had no other option but to phone Halifax, because if I don't cancel it then I'll have to pay for another month of their service that I don't need anymore

So the switching process was never started which means it wasn't actually rejected by Halifax.

Mr_Goodkat · 13 October 2016 at 2:12PM

I wonder if it is technically possible to switch a packaged bank account to either another packaged account or like in this case a packaged bank account to a non packaged bank account?

Westie983 · 13 October 2016 at 4:16PM

Was the account a URCA? or was it a basic bank account? The former can not be switched.

You can cancel your account in branch, and you will get any credit back, if you are overdrawn or you will need to pay this back before the computer allows you to cancel.

Reading the thread the URCA, has been downgraded to the reward account so the pro rata fees have already been paid, so you should be able to close the account in branch.

If you still require to switch then you need to keep the account open and let Barclays initiate the switch, if you are overdrawn then the switch will fail as you are required the account to be in credit before switching.

hope this helps.

Jlawson118 · 15 October 2016 at 12:28AM

Westie983 wrote: »

Was the account a URCA? or was it a basic bank account? The former can not be switched.

You can cancel your account in branch, and you will get any credit back, if you are overdrawn or you will need to pay this back before the computer allows you to cancel.

Reading the thread the URCA, has been downgraded to the reward account so the pro rata fees have already been paid, so you should be able to close the account in branch.

If you still require to switch then you need to keep the account open and let Barclays initiate the switch, if you are overdrawn then the switch will fail as you are required the account to be in credit before switching.

hope this helps.

I wasn't too bothered about the switch, although I had one Direct Debit on my Halifax that I wanted to move over, but when I get a minute then I am just going to contact the company and have them move it over.
I wrote a complaint to Halifax after the way they've treat me, and the lady dealing with it said it was due to it being ultimate reward and them wanting to take the fees for the month, which I explained to her that I thought it was. So anyway, she said that it's not usually her place to shut such an account down, but this time she would do, and she took about a £4 payment for the month I think, closed the account down and the remaining balance of about £5 will be sent to me in a cheque

Halifax 'sending me around the houses' to close my account down?

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