Halifax - allowed to go over overdraft then penalised again and again and again..

Cat695

It quite clearly states in the T&C of halifax that they MAY give you an unarranged overdraft and that they WILL charge you a fee.....enough said

whitewing

kamheed,

I understand the point that you are making, and I agree with you that the bank's system should not allow it to happen whereby the bank benefits from charging you multiple times. (Surely from a fraud point of view it should look suspicious).

I do think that you should be liable for one charge as you are partly responsible .

I think that you should be able to reclaim your other charges, and you should put in a complaint. It is entirely unreasonable and completely ridiculous for the bank to charge the amount they have.

kamheed

whitewing,

thanks for the comment.

i agree - im happy to pay 1 or some of the charges, but it surely cant be right to have to pay over 300 in total charges? especially given that im within my overdraft limit now!

thanks for the encouragement. i;m going to make an appointment to see a bank manager and hopefully they will reason in a similair way.

thanks again

lukiesgirl

kamheed wrote: »

thanks sandie.

i appreciate the helpful, and non judgemental, contribution.

sincerely appreciated (i feel slightly less cynical than i did 2 minutes ago)

Hi kamheed

There but for the grace of god go any of us. I have had continued problems with the Halifax. I am a full time carer of my severly disabled son and get about £46 a week. I use online banking to keep an eye on my account but I have had charges on a number of occasions because according to Halifax the balance on screen does not always correspond with their records???? On one occasion I was charged £35 but going over my limit by £1.18 and a further £28 for the letter. I have had a couple of charges cancelled as a 'gesture of goodwill' but I will not be questioning any more charges until I hear about the legal ruling. I dont think my local branch manager was too impressed when I suggested that he might want to take care of my son as he was the one getting nearly 2 weeks carers allowance!
Just for the record I do not agree with gambling but I do agree that the banks have everything weighted in their favour.
Good luck with your fight but dont get your hopes up.

amg1712

Hi, I've similer experience with Halifax Bank. In my case my charges have been mounting up at £35 at a time. I agree that the bank must do better to comuicate with customers about going over thir limit. To let them continue through small print or un-highlighted notices I believe borders on criminal behaviour by the bank.

Since finding out this past few days, I've manage to get a money programme and start sorting through all my banking. If thier notifications are so much in order then I wonder how some statements have been posted incomplete, missing and out of sequence. while all thier charges haven't.

The other argument is how do they justify these charges? I' would have no problem with 1 or 2 possibly even 3, if they done something to earn the amounts in question. A telephone call or recorded delivered letter pointing out that theres a problem, even dragging you down to the branch to explain yourself? At least you would know about it. Like what you said, why do payments continue by debit card. Again why did they honour the card rather than refuse it. You would definately know you up to your max.

I wish you good luck in your fight with them. I suppose there might be light ahead of us as Halifax are changing there accounts and charging structure. Perhaps they realise, like many other banks out there that people are getting fed-up with them.

KimYeovil

I don't know. An authorised overdraft seems a very simple concept to me. Why do so many people seem to have so much difficulty understanding what they are for?

If you can exceed a £1250 overdraft you must be going crazy with a ridiculous amount of spending and debits. That's an enormous balance to lose track of.

bunnygirl007

I thought this forum was for people to discuss claiming back bank charges not to receive lectures on how stupid they have been and get told off about messing up their overdraft.

We all make mistakes, non of us are perfect and yes i agree we have a responsibility but the banks do too. They could quite easily trip the button that prevents your DD card being used once you hit your limit but they don't - no they just let you carry on - why? becasue every time you make a transaction they charge you £25. If they didn't make this charge you can sure as hell bet they would be tripping that switch the very second you hit your limit!

So don't tell us what we already know, we know we've messed up, what we're on here for is help and advice and answers to our questions not lectures - that doesn't achieve anything. :mad:

nickmack

kamheed wrote: »

i have no argument if id wrote a cheque, or if the interest had carried me over.

my problem is with the fact they have allowed me to make a purchase which in all other cases previously they havent.

furthermore, the explanation they have given me does not prove to be the case.

a helpful answer to this question may benefit many more, who may be discouraged from appealing against bank decisions in instances where the charges do not seem justified. i also dont see how any of the issues related to my posting have anything to do with 'charges for others'!!!?? this is muddying the issue even more so than it has been so far.

You're encountering two issues here.

The first is the question of why the bank allowed you to exceed your agreed overdraft limit. The answer is usually because you have used a Maestro/Visa Electron debit card, the authorisation is not always made online. This means the amount of the transaction is not always checked against your balance by the merchant.

Even if the transaction amount is checked against your balance, banks usually have a buffer zone that allows you to exceed an agreed limit by a certain amount. Being slightly cynical, this means they can authorise the transaction and then charge you for exceeding the limit.

Your second issue is of the charges themselves. I would refer to Martin's guide to see if you wish to start the process of reclaiming. The reason for incurring the charges and reclaiming doesn't actually matter. Although irresponsible, even if you deliberately exceeded your agreed limit, the principle of the reclaiming charges is the same.

sophie21

Very well said bunnygirl, i totally agree. Who are these 'strangers' that think they can judge people , I reckon people with a very low esteem that enjoy to feel important sitting behind a screen, very sad..... This is a forum to help people, we all know our mistakes and don't need to be judged and lectured.

bunnygirl007 wrote: »

I thought this forum was for people to discuss claiming back bank charges not to receive lectures on how stupid they have been and get told off about messing up their overdraft.

We all make mistakes, non of us are perfect and yes i agree we have a responsibility but the banks do too. They could quite easily trip the button that prevents your DD card being used once you hit your limit but they don't - no they just let you carry on - why? becasue every time you make a transaction they charge you £25. If they didn't make this charge you can sure as hell bet they would be tripping that switch the very second you hit your limit!

So don't tell us what we already know, we know we've messed up, what we're on here for is help and advice and answers to our questions not lectures - that doesn't achieve anything. :mad:

flatbroke49

hi I am new to the site but was a bit disheartened by some of the moralistic responses . It dies not matter why people over spend or get into debt, as long as they take responsibility. Would I have received a better response if I had said that i had bought a dress as opposed to the person who spent her money gambling?