Reduced my overdraft without notice

mbaz

:mad:

Halifax have reduced my overdraft from £600 to £200 without any sort of notice. Surely they can't do that? I am currently £479 overdrawn. I phoned them and I asked can they put it up to £500 so I at least don't start getting charged while I sort this out and they have upped it to £400. I said but I'll still get charged and she said "you will indeed"...What an absolute joke! She says I need to check the letter when I took the overdraft out as it would have said when it expired. My latter says...

"I am pleased to tell you that your recent application for an overdraft of £600 has been successful and you can use this overdraft facility straight away. The limit will remain until 10th November 2008, we will review your requirements shortly before this date."

They haven't contacted me to review my requirements. What can I do???

mbaz

This could snowball massively and I'll end up up to my neck in it. I had just started to get control of my finances too.

withabix

mbaz wrote: »

They haven't contacted me to review my requirements. What can I do???

Put your £10/day savings into your current account?

Are you SURE they haven't written to you or attempted to contact you by telephone? Do they have your daytime contact number?

Also, if you have regularly exceeded your limit, there will be something in the terms and conditions that states they can (and will) do this.

mbaz

I have already used £10 a day that I have received to pay cards etc. I have about £4 in savings.

They say they would have written to me 30 days before but I have paperless letters and not received it (nor through post) and they do have my telephone number.

PS. Do you work for them or something???!

mbaz

...I wouldn;'t mind but been waiting for 5 weeks for a refund from their credit card dept for £730! So Halifax actually owe me money but they're going to start charging me!

Rabbit-in-headlights

Hi mbaz, this seems like sharp practice to me, they should've warned you in time for you to comply with the new limit, it looks like they just want to start charging you for the sake of it!

The only thing I can think of is to phone one of the debt charities, or call in at your local CAB and see if they can help?

imho this is unfair and immoral behaviour by the bank, even if it's not illegal:mad:


RiH

withabix

mbaz wrote: »

I have already used £10 a day that I have received to pay cards etc. I have about £4 in savings.

They say they would have written to me 30 days before but I have paperless letters and not received it (nor through post) and they do have my telephone number.

PS. Do you work for them or something???!

Sorry, that was a tongue in cheek comment and probably wan't called for!

No, I don't work for them or any other bank - I have a proper honest job!

If you are on paperless, it is possible that the letter was captured by your spam filter or they have the wrong email address?

I've had plenty of stress with banks in the past, before I got everything sorted out.

Barclays have just reduced my overdraft limit by £1850 this month - fortunately this is a 'relic' from my debt-laden days...once upon a time I was £3700 overdrawn (and more!!), however I fortunately don't dip into it any more and was hoping to keep my £3700 limit as a 'personal reserve'.

If you haven't stuck within your overdraft limit, in the current financial climate, they will shoot first and ask questions later, given that they are financially incompetent and unable to run their own business without a bail out and rescue.

Jesthar

mbaz wrote: »

This could snowball massively and I'll end up up to my neck in it. I had just started to get control of my finances too.

Hey mbaz,

How annoying! *hugs* Now, deep breaths, step back a little, maybe make yourself a cup of tea.

Then take a look at your sig. Remember how much you owed when you started out, as opposed to what you owe now? Yup, this is a vicious little ambush on your quest to be debt free, but you've survived worse, and you can survive this, too. They might have moved the goalposts, but you still have possession of the ball!

Not really sure what to suggest, as I have no experience of overdrafts. You've already done well to get them to give you an extra £200, though - I suppose you could always try calling them again, see if you get a more sympathetic call handler this time who will give you the rest? If you genuinely didn't receive any warning from them, you should definitely complain about that!

Your £10 a day money - does that go on meeting minimum repayments on cards, or overpaying them? If overpaying, and you have more arrive before the end of the month, it might be be prudent to switch your paying the extra off your overdraft for now - disappointing, I know, but better than charges.

Hang in there!

~Jes

musclesza

Barclays kindly phoned me yesterday to indicate I owe them around 250 - apparently there was an opt out letter sent to my wrong address stating there is now a personal reserve of 150 on my account (after overdraft) and I took out 40 (about 2 months ago never been in debt with them yet no one thought lets alert him) when I had about 5 quid and only a 10 overdraft - so it wouldnt have worked before hand

However they charge 22 every 5 days and since this account was dormant and they persuaded me not to close it I now have this hassle to sort out!!!

Good luck with Halifax, just changed to them and found them good so far - easiest is to go in a bank and get them on your side they only human at the end of the day

themagics

Hetymbaz hsbc did that to us on a regular basis hence loads of charges which excalated into us borrowing more to pay od off. Seems to be common practise with banks we had no letter to review our needs either and when we phoned to have it put back up we were also refused and so the charges began i'm looking into reclaiming them cos back then it was 30 quid a time!

Broken_hearted

It seems to be a sign of the times. Barclaycard did this to me a couple of months ago with no reason, when I asked they said its because I was over my current limit twice in the last 12 months. Which I accept I was but still well within my limit at the time. On a positive note they are getting less interest and thanks to one of the challenges on here I was way under my limit when they cut it so I didn't end up with charges.