Credit card charges out of control.

lilisave

hello everyone

i am new to this forum but been reading you for a while and i find this site very useful.

i have being trying to sort out my debts. however i've got a halifax credit card i haven't used for more than 8 months and i established a direct debit to pay it off. however i missed a few payments du to insufficient founds in the account and here we go i am back to square one.

all the effort done to pay seems like nothing i am now £400 pound over limit
to be paid by 19 of november which i can't afford+ they going to keep charging me until the account is back to is normal amount. PLEASE Help me don't know what to do. to at least stop all the charges.

any suggestion will be very much welcome..

mbaz

Take a look at the reclaiming section of the site. You can still claim back credit card charges along with PPI if you have it on the card. You may find this brings back below the limit or even clears it completely. Reclaim for all your credit cards if appropriate.

bathgatebuyer

The Halifax have a pretty well established pattern for paying back the cash too - keep asking using the template letters on here or on the CAG website and you'll get every penny plus 8% interest back for the price of a few recorded delivery letters (and you must send them recorded or they'll just say they never got them - voice of bitter experience!)

RAS

I would also suggest you post an SOA, so we can help you sort things out on a wider scale?

halight

hi mate,

id phone them up and tell them that you are having trould paying and you would like to set an amout each moth to pay.
Say that the last arangment did not work out nut you promis that this one will and you are sorry about the last one.
At the same time ask them if thay can frezze the intrsta nd charges on your account as you can not aford them.

At the same time take a look at the reclaiming peat of this site to claim your charges back...
While you are still paying off your card start to claim your charges back.

Good luck mate and all the best

lilisave

Thank you all for you replies and advice i will call them first thing tomorrow and try to come out with some sort of agreement. and i will also prepare and post reclaim letter. RAS could you please explaise what s a SOA. not to familiar with some terms..

once again thank you i can have some sleep tonight

lilisave

Good morning all,

i am so stressed :mad: today... i spoke to halifax credit card today.. and my card went to retail collection. i spoke and pleaded to the man to refund the charges and he said they could not do it and they not going to do it.

i explain to the man that i know i defaulted on my direct debit and sorry i won't happen again since and i want to set up an other one.

he said that fine however he could not refund the charges. i explain to him that i have not been using the card for a while because i want to pay it off.

he agreed saying that the last time i used the card was december 2006 and my account is overdrawn because of charges for miss payments. and when being overdrawn they where only taking the minimum payment on direct debit instead of covering the full amount.....which put me even more charges

and he asked me to make the full payment and i told him i could not i have not got £400 pound but i will make some payment today.

i also told him i am going to write a complain letter to the financial ambusman but he was not impressed... what do you think should be my first step.

Knowing that they being taking the minimum payment out my child benefit for a couple of time:eek: ...

your responses will be very much appreciated

bathgatebuyer

Do you have 6 years worth of statements? If so, go through them all and highlight the charges that have been applied to your account (yes, you an claim back 6 years worth PLUS 8% interest).

On both the CAG and this websites, there are ways to calculate the charges plus the interest and the letters you need to send to ask for them back. I absolutely guarantee that by following this process, you WILL get your money back. It will take 3 or 4 recorded delivery letters (so only about £4 of your money if you have your statements) but they WILL pay you back. If you don't have your statements, you will have to pay £10 and make a subject access request which is you askig for copies of all statements and correspondence that relate to your account with them. They HAVE to supply this to you within 40 days (and they usually send it in 39 LOL!), but if they don't, they are breaking the Data Protection Act. The law is on your side.

Use the process on the tab at the top marked 'reclaim 1000s' and everything you need to know is there. Everything must be in writing as they will deny receiving letters if you don't send them recorded, and they will not give you anything just by phoning them.

They refunded me my crdit card charges after 3 letters. I told them I would take them to court otherwise and they gave me the £600 I had asked for.

Retail Collections within the Halifax are a horrid, difficult department to deal with and they will do you no favours at all. They used to phone me about 10 times a day. Send everything to Customer Relations (I think they are called) at the Head Office and they will concede and give you every charge back - they have with everyone else. Just be persistant and follow the formula that is on here and the consumeractiongroup website and you will get it back.

ANy questions, just ask.

lilisave

Thank you Bathgatebuyer dor you help..

i am actually going to this letter and post it today i keep you informed of the developpement.

lilisave

again i had this card only since 2005 so i believe i can only claim for the past 3 year does this also works???

RAS

Hi

You can only reclaim the charges you have paid, so if you only opened the account in 2005, you can only claim from that date.