They won't let me pay off the balance!!!

marshmallow79

Bit of a long story but we moved house 2.5 years ago and I thought I'd contacted everyone we pay bills to to inform them of our change of address. Turns out I forgot about the halifax CC that my husband held and didn't realise until around a year later when I noticed a £5 DD coming out of our bank account monthly to pay it. On noticing I got my husband to call them to find out the balance so we could pay it off and change our address details with them. The guy he spoke to was very rude and very unhelpful and told my husband because the addresses didn't match that he couldn't tell him the balance. He also asked my husband his mothers maiden name which he apparently got wrong (uummmm how????) and his security word which he also apparently got wrong (we always use the same word so this isn't possible!).
My husband has never been one to push a matter further (it drives me crazy!!!) so just gave up and told me to let the minimum payments keep going until the balance was paid off! 18 months later I've finally cracked and I've told him he needs to try again as I'm sick of paying them interest.
My question is can I threaten to cut off the DD unless they help, and will it affect my credit if I do this? Also can they actually refuse to let us pay off our own credit card, surely they can identify us by our bank details?

CLAPTON

All credit cards/ banks have procedures to cope with people who forget their security details... why not follow them?

TotallyBroke

I'm not sure what to suggest with this.
Ring them again hopefully you will get a different person. The original person may have typed a wrong number somewhere which is why the security questions didn't match. But I suggest you change the address before then asking for the balance.

ldn-100

Write a letter to update your address and ask for a copy of your latest statement to be sent to you.

marshmallow79

CLAPTON wrote: »

All credit cards/ banks have procedures to cope with people who forget their security details... why not follow them?

That's what the questions on the maiden name etc were for! lol

Starbug

Can you not just change the direct debit amount to the full amount online or something?

normanmark

1 - Halifax didn't do anything wrong. If you don't know your security details then they're not going to give any details out. Or to turn it round another way, would you be comfortable if Halifax would give out the slightest bit of information to a stranger who was trying to access your account? They're not refusing to let you pay the CC, its just you cannot confirm that you're the account holder. Big difference.

2 - Don't cancel your DD. Knee jerk reactions like that only bring problems to yourself. Not the company. Leave the DD intact.

3 - Pop down to your local branch of Halifax and explain the situation. Take in 2 forms of ID. One being a passport or drivers license and another to confirm the address (utility bill should suffice). They will be able to reset any security details for you with the CC side & you'll be able to pay it off there.

Follow those steps & you'll get it sorted.

marshmallow79

normanmark wrote: »

1 - Or to turn it round another way, would you be comfortable if Halifax would give out the slightest bit of information to a stranger who was trying to access your account? They're not refusing to let you pay the CC, its just you cannot confirm that you're the account holder. Big difference.

If someone else wants to pay off the CC then Halifax can tell them whatever they like!:p

marshmallow79

Starbug wrote: »

Can you not just change the direct debit amount to the full amount online or something?

We tried to do that over the phone but they wouldn't let us. We also can't set it up online without the card details (forgot to mention that we cut up the card).
It also concerns me that we've told Halifax we've changed our address but I wouldn't be suprised if they are still sending our statements, new cards etc to my old address (new owner is denying they have anything but I know different), is there anything I can do to stop them sending out anything else?

normanmark

marshmallow79 wrote: »

It also concerns me that we've told Halifax we've changed our address but I wouldn't be suprised if they are still sending our statements, new cards etc to my old address (new owner is denying they have anything but I know different), is there anything I can do to stop them sending out anything else?

Like i said, you've got no chance of finding out until you go into a branch & get it dealt there.

anotherpaul_2

I think in the past Halifax have accepted change of address notification in a letter - for me at least. So you could try writting to change the address.

The card number is probably the reference for the DD. It may be displayed on your internet banking list of DDs (if you have one), or the bank may be able to tell you what the reference is.

If he really can't get the bank to talk to him, he could check his credit history. It should be on there and will tell you the balance a month or two ago, rounded to the nearest pound.

Then pay all but about £10 of it and the rest will clear with the minimum payments in a month or two.

If he's only paying £5 a month, the balance is unlikely to be very much.