'warning Halifax Credit Cards'

sarahwebb79

Just to let everyone know. I received my Halifax statement today and they have reduced the minimum payment to 1% of the balance. This now means my payment has been reduced from £115.00 to £85.00. This may be great news to some but when the interest applied each month is £88.00 i will never see my balance reduce. I rang the Halifax today to be told 'We are trying to help customers', but this is making everyone's situation worse. I asked them to increase my direct debit to the normal payment only to be told it cannot be done and the normal direct debit of £85.00 will be taken and i have to make the addtional payment by cheque or standing order. I have now registered to deal with my account online that way i can manage the payments myself.
DONT BE FOOLED THAT THEY ARE HELPING AS THEY ARE JUST HELPING THEMSELVES..MAKE SURE YOU ADJUST YOUR PAYMENTS SO YOU CAN SEE YOUR BALANCE REDUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

normanmark

Why do you not just calculate the old minimum payment percentage & then make manual payments?

Why you'd sit there & let the CC company spoon feed you in telling how much to pay is beyond me.

Take some control & just make manual payments on top of your DD.

_Andy_

Lenders can't win can they - you get people on here moaning when the minimum payment goes up, and when, as in this case, it goes down, they're not happy with that either.
As normanmark says above, this isn't a big deal - just pay more manually and stop whinging about nothing.

YorkshireBoy

This is at least the second post I've seen re Halifax's new minimum payment calculation method.

Halifax wrote to customers back in August regarding this change. In the same letter were several other changes under a formal 'notice of variation'.

If you've missed the minimum payment calculation change, how many other changes have you missed?...and will they come back to bite you?

sarahwebb79

In actual fact i do not let credit card companies 'as you say spoon feed me as i pay well over and above...i was simply warning people in case people think its a great benefit thats all.... they change the DD automatically so get off your high horse!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sarahwebb79

Thats what i was trying to say to the Halifax as i have not received anything otherwise i would have made sure my higher payment was in place sooner

normanmark

sarahwebb79 wrote: »

In actual fact i do not let credit card companies 'as you say spoon feed me as i pay well over and above...i was simply warning people in case people think its a great benefit thats all.... they change the DD automatically so get off your high horse!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're still paying the minimum though aren't you? Well they're still spoon feeding in my opinion.

As for high horse, i think thats a bit unfair. You've come here ranting about the problem & im passing on the easy advice on how to beat it. I'm sure we'd all like to bury our heads in the sand once in a while, but some of us like to deal with things a bit more 'head on'. I guess some people just don't like being told the harsh reality sometimes.

sarahwebb79

normanmark wrote: »

You're still paying the minimum though aren't you? Well they're still spoon feeding in my opinion.

As for high horse, i think thats a bit unfair. You've come here ranting about the problem & im passing on the easy advice on how to beat it. I'm sure we'd all like to bury our heads in the sand once in a while, but some of us like to deal with things a bit more 'head on'. I guess some people just don't like being told the harsh reality sometimes.

I was purely letting people who were not aware of the changes know...its not really going to bother me as my bonus pays the balance off completely next month anyway but as far as i am concerned i think under TCF there needs to be a little bit more responsibility from them thats all....dont particularly like your manner and not particularly pleasant to talk to or deal with i suggest you leave it there!!!!!!!!!!!

nzseries1

As Andy said above, the lenders can't win.
Surely, lower minimum payments are better, because then people are free to make up their own mind about how much they pay.
Absolutely nothing is stopping you paying 3% of the balance each month.

FairyElephant_2

We noticed that the min payment was a lot lower this month - don't think we had a letter about it....but we were actually pleased as we have ours interest free until Feb 09 - maxed out of course! - so the lower payment is actually better for us.

If you want to pay more at any time, it is easy to do a manual payment via online banking......

hazzard_2

I, too, Have a Halifax card and noted what Martin said last week about the minimum payment being half what it was, so you end up paying more interest. I came home today to find my Intelligent Finance bill. They, too, have halved the minimum payment. I am continuing to pay what I was paying on both cards.

Of course, they could say that they're only helping out in the credit crisis, but my cynical mind says they're trying to get more interest in the longer term.

cheers

Tony