10 bank charges in 1 month

marcb47

Hi

I am new and hoping for some help.
This month I did not have as much money paid into my account as I thought, and stupidly did not check. I received a letter from Halifax stating that I had a £35 charge plus £28 for going above my overdraught.
I realised I had used my card countless times since, but I thought that would be the maximum charge. I phoned my bank to up my overdraught for a few months, only to be told that there were 10 x £35 charges being added to my account :eek: . Is this allowed!!! Please advise as I am distraught, as know it will be months before I will be able to get back on my feet. I have never had a charge before in the 8 years I have banked there. I would be grateful for any advice given.

Marc

esmerellda

grrrrr Did you tell them that its the first charge you have had ? £378 is ridiculous how the heck are you meant to come back from that.

I would ring and ask them to refund them to your account, if they won't then I think a letter to them expressing your disappointment at their treatment of you, a long term customer who made one mistake in not cheking the account is being so heavily penalised. If you take a look at the preliminary letter templates for reclaiming charges on this site then you can nab a couple bit of legal stuff about the test case and lawfulness (or not!) of these charges and note your intention to claim them back in full.

Did they increase your overdraft when you asked btw ?

marcb47

Hi Esmerellda, Thank you for your reply and helpful advice.

I have just spoken to someone at Halifax, they have reduced the charges from 10 to 5!! (£175) Still way excessive in my opinion for the cost of sending 2 letters, and I still intend to write a letter of complaint.
At least I will still have enough to pay next months DDs without any more charges being added, although I will be eating toast without the beans for a month :rolleyes:.

They did increase my overdraught for 3 months.

Just been on to BOS and spoke to a very nice lady who has wiped all my charges . I explained the length of time I had been a customer and my disappointment at the treatment & charges I received, considering it was my first time in the red (thanks Esmerellda x). I was angry but polite and admitted I did not understand fully how my debit card works.

Thanks to everyone for the advice, I am very grateful.

marcb47

Hi,
I have already posted about having 10 bank charges applied to my Bank of Scotland account this month, (this has been reduced to 5). These charges were not for DD payments, but for when I used my card online.
Can anyone advise exactly how a debit card should work?
I always assumed that if there were not enough funds then any card transaction would be declined, my friend has a Halifax debit card and says that hers would definitely be declined.
Am I wrong in thinking that BOS & Halifax were now one?
Any advice would be gratefully appreciated, also if anyone knows the phone number for customer relations please, as I only have an 08457 no. and could not even get to speak to a supervisor.

esmerellda

Debit card transactions are sometimes held by the company takes them before being processed through the bank - so they come out like 4 days or so later than when you used the card. Makes it awfully hard to budget unless you are an obsessive genius lol.

Natweststaffmember has done some good posts about this will see fi I can find one.

esmerellda

Here - posted by Nattie in a guide to bank accounts

Debit Card transactions

This is where you pay a provider either online/over the phone or at a shop for goods. The transaction should be collected within 3 working days of the payment amount, however i have know it to take up to three months to debit an account(although this is not the norm). This is the most difficult to write becuase there are so many anomalies that could occur. I have read that all solo card transactions are checked, but yet the reality is that supermarkets operate floor limits and transactions are authorised automatically without any checks being made apart from the correct pin number. There is a way of automatically authorising a transaction with the terminals themselves by pressing a button.
With regards to refunds onto cards, the retailer has up to 21 days to put the transaction through even if there is a gap of only minutes between the debit and refund.
There is cases of what is called 'ghost' transactions. That means that the company has appeared to debit the account and yet the money reappears in your account. This means that the transaction has not been done properly and usually will mean it being debited a few days afterwards.
There is cases of transactions being authorised but the individual being told it has been declined. There is a third party in this transaction which is the merchant. Transactions authorised usually will drop off the system within 3 working days as that is the timescale they have to process the authorisation code.



from http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?p=23897&highlight=debit+card+transactions#post23897

(sorry if its on here too I dont know my way around that well)

hattiefats

marc I did something similar when I was on maternity leave from work and underestimated my bills. I was refunded all but two charges after telephoning my bank. I argued about the charge being proportionate and they accepted this. I also went in and overhauled my finances with the bank recently to avoid it happening again! We have all done these things so just learn from it and move on!! Good luck.

mummytofour

Hi,
I have a solo card and find that goes out of my account stright away. I NEED to know how much money I have at any one time so check my account at least once a day. With my solo card if there is no money my card is normally declined, that is with a nat west solo card.

strungup

ive just been reading wish astonishment about card transactions appearing 3 days after i/we made them on-line,ive just been charged 6x25 for when they hit my account but i was within my limit when i made them!.This has completly wrecked my finances and face weeks trying to repay this. in the mean while the bank continues to add 5 pounds per day for being above my limit.

THANKS A BUNCH ALLIANCE LEICESTER!

marcb47

Hi, Sorry to hear you are having the same problem as me.
I am certainly not going to leave it, I intend to contact the customer services dept tomorrow. I won't even disagree with being penalised, but not to the extent of £175 after being with them for over 8 years and never having a bank charge.
I will let you know the outcome.;)

Ex-Spendaholic

The number I use for Halifax customer relations is 01977 627358. Fair enough that number is supposed to be for existing complaints only but I wouldn't be ringing an 08 number when I have access to a normal number which is free when my mobile free minutes.

Good luck in sorting this out.

For the record when I try to use my Halifax debit card online even if there is a penny short of the amount I'm trying to pay it is declined.