URGENT help needed Halifax stole my cousins savings

katinthehat

Hi all, really need some advice ASAP please. My cousin had an old credit carde debt with her ex-husband. She had previously made an arrangment and was paying it off but has been struggling (haven't we all) for a few months so has fallen behind.
Today she went to the bank Halifax and discovered they have cleared out her JOINT SAVINGS account that she shares with her 2nd husband (so it's in a different name) they just helped themselves to £1500 without a letter or court order or any prior warning.
Spoken to someone in the branch who said "They should have given her some sort of warning" and on the phone they keep saying it's in their terms & conditions.
Is this legal? How can she get her money back? Is it worth complaining to the FOS?

rb10

I think you'll find that they are perfectly entitled to do this, under the T&Cs of the account. If she had fallen into arrears, they can take money from another account held with the bank to make the payments.

Edit: Have found it now - in the Deposit Account Conditions, at http://www.halifax.co.uk/HelpCentre/pdf/1_336203-7.pdf (page 23), it says that:

7.2 If any money is overdue for payment on any other account you or (if your account is in joint names) any of you have with us, we may do the following, unless regulations do not allow us
• Take the amount you owe us out of your account.
• Or, if your account is a fixed-term account, we may keep enough of any money you ask to withdraw during the fixed term or which is in your account at the end of the fixed term to cover the amount you owe us at that time.
We can do this without giving you notice.

So what they have done is perfectly ok.

epsilondraconis

rb10 is absolutely correct - it is in the T&Cs.

So it turns out that Halifax didn't steal the money after all - oh well, I'm off to view another thread making unfounded claims.

dunstonh

Is this legal? How can she get her money back? Is it worth complaining to the FOS?

Yes its legal, no she cant get the money back and a complaint would be rejected.

The bank are quite sensible in doing this as well. She had a debt incurring higher interest than that was being paid on the savings. It was a bad debt which would do damage to her credit file as well.

A bad debt is similar to stealing so really your title should be that she was stealing from the bank and they have now taken their money back.

MoneySavingNovice

Not sure that some of the above comment are at all helpful to Katinthehat.

I assume that the Halifax have used the money to pay off the Credit Card Bill, however you should check that this has happened!

If so they are within their rights under their T&C's - you possibly could get this over-turned but in my opinion you would have a fight on your hands which most likely would take time and you would most likely lose.

In my view the Halifax could have done you a favour in that you will not be paying the large Credit Card interest rate (i.e. some thing in the order of 18% I guess) and receiving a poor rate in return (3%?) thus over the year you will be c.£236 better off! assuming your are a basic rate tax payer and maintain the outstanding amount of £1,500.

If you really don't like this, my suggestion would be simply to close your Halifax (and Lloyds) accounts and go somewhere else! For future reference all banks tend to have this sort of condition - hence keep you debts / mortgage in a different Bank (not just Brand) from you savings!


I hope that the above is of some help.

DON79

All I can add is that it may be possible to get some of the funds returned by negotiation with the Halifax - resetting the repayment plan and setting up automated payments in return for a partial refund given that the funds in the account were jointly owned - the OP's cousin could ask for 50% return - it is worth a try I think. I had this happen to me in that Halifax took money from my childrens accounts which I was the trustee of - I did get it all back but I believe because this is because I was acting as trustee only therefore the situation is slightly different.

Sorry that you have not met with the most sympathetic of responses but Halifax are within their rights to do this so my advice is be reasonable and attempt some negotiation with them.

dunstonh

Sorry that you have not met with the most sympathetic of responses

Why should the responses be sympathetic when the OP was wrongly accusing an organisation of theft?

katinthehat

It turns out the money they took was her husband's Christmas bonus so the money wasn't even hers. Halifax are tracking down the cheque and will fax the collection agency the necessary documents to return the money.
Thanks for the advice, my cousin was extremely upset as you can imagine so I just needed some guidance in order to help her out.

militantconsumer

Just because something is in the terms and conditions, doesn't make it legal (overdraft charges, late payment charges, etc, spring to mind!)

However there is the "right of offset" which seems to give banks the legal right to clear out accounts in credit to pay off arrears on accounts in debits. Lots of people have been caught out by this and it seems the only way to avoid it is to use separate companies for credit and debit accounts.

If you are getting the money back then fantastic.

DON79

dunstonh wrote: »

Why should the responses be sympathetic when the OP was wrongly accusing an organisation of theft?

Ok big deal, whats in the wording of title! :rolleyes: and as for wrongly accusing of theft, what have the banks done with money but used it for dubious purposes which is why they are in such a mess.

well a little compassion goes a long way and I am sorry that this is obviously an emotion you know nothing about! :rolleyes:

It is a big shock to discover that suddenly money you had hoped would be there to see you through any unexpected crisis or difficulty is all gone.

I am sure that you dunstonh would be equally as shocked and upset as the OP's cousin was.

Katinthehat - I am glad that it is hopefully going to get sorted out for you.