Halifax have taken £500 in charges in one month!

Muffy0

Hi,

This is a strange one. I had enough money in my account to cover a cheque but a few days after it had gone through I had a letter. This letter said that they had put the cheque through with not enough money in my account (my statement and online banking clearly show that it didn't take me over my overdraft limit) and also two debit card transactions have gone through and they are charging me £35 for each of them plus £28 for using unauthorised overdraft. This set off a cycle where I have now ended up with £500 of bank charges in one month (on top of the £800 I've had over the last 18 months)

I have moved my weekly money (child benefit and tax credits) into my nationwide savings account but am totally stressed out by Halifax.

They want to charge me for my statements and the last few big charges aren't due out for a few weeks -is it best to wait until they come out to reclaim?

I am sorting out a basic account with a maestro card - Ive had my fill of premium current accounts etc...

Also what is the timescale for reclaiming charges?. My account is seriously in the red but I had to get my money out and break the cycle. I feel like they have robbed me!

natweststaffmember

Can I apologise for the first response you got on this thread. It is certainly not something that I would expect for you to hear especially as you clearly need HELPFUL advice. I'm sorry that unfortunately I didn't come onto the forum earlier.

Muffy0 wrote: »

Hi,

This is a strange one. I had enough money in my account to cover a cheque but a few days after it had gone through I had a letter. This letter said that they had put the cheque through with not enough money in my account (my statement and online banking clearly show that it didn't take me over my overdraft limit) and also two debit card transactions have gone through and they are charging me £35 for each of them plus £28 for using unauthorised overdraft. This set off a cycle where I have now ended up with £500 of bank charges in one month (on top of the £800 I've had over the last 18 months)

I have moved my weekly money (child benefit and tax credits) into my nationwide savings account but am totally stressed out by Halifax.

They want to charge me for my statements and the last few big charges aren't due out for a few weeks -is it best to wait until they come out to reclaim?

I am sorting out a basic account with a maestro card - Ive had my fill of premium current accounts etc...

Also what is the timescale for reclaiming charges?. My account is seriously in the red but I had to get my money out and break the cycle. I feel like they have robbed me!

I think you need to write to Halifax under Financial hardship. They should send out an income and expenditure form for you to complete and send back.
"2.
In making an assessment of financial difficulty the firm will take into account:
a.
evidence of changes in lifestyle, including loss of employment; disability; serious illness; imprisonment; relationship breakdown; death of a partner; starting a lower paid job; parental/carer leave; and starting full-time education;
b.
evidence of the following events:
i.
items repeatedly being returned unpaid due to lack of available funds;
ii.
failing to make loan repayments or other commitments;
iii.
discontinuation of regular credits;
iv.
notification of some form of insolvency or court proceedings;
v.
regular requests for increased borrowing or repeated rescheduling of debts;
vi.
making frequent cash withdrawals on a credit card at a non-promotional rate of interest; and
vii.
repeatedly exceeding a credit card or overdraft limit without agreement (and, in this regard, where a complainant has incurred over £500 in unauthorised overdraft charges in the previous 12 months, that is to be treated as indicative of financial difficulty)."
This is the criteria for financial hardship. You certainly fit into it on the last point anyway, and there may be other points where you do as well. Good luck and hopefully Halifax will come back to you with an offer.

angelflower_2

best idea is to move everything into your other account as soon as possible.

Treat this as a debt in the meantime whilst you apply under hardship rules (if you qualify)

From what I see, under hardship claims, it can take anything from a few days to about 8 weeks typically depending on what further information they require from you. In your initial letter, I would enclose your SOA and any proof of priority debt as a starting point.

Hope that helps

Muffy0

Thank you for your advice guys, you have been really helpful. I will do everything you suggest - I was in a bit of a panic earlier, this whole bank charge thing has really upset me.
I didn't read the first reply but I guess it wasn't too nice. C'est la vie
Big thanks again
M xxx

sharon4444

Hello everyone,

My husband and I wrote to Halifax about a month ago requesting that our bank charges be dealt with under hardship. Halifax took over £800 in charges in two months from us and we got behind on our mortgage and other priority debts. We sent them the arrears letter from our mortgage and a monthly expenditure form and explained how I had to take a much lower paid job.

Finally today we received a reply saying their charges are lawful and they will not refund anything and if we go over the overdraft again these charges of £35 a time for paying or not paying a bill will keep being applied to the account.

They have also said in the letter that they will get a member of the Money Management Team to contact us to help us manage our money better :mad: I am furious at this. We have a 2 year old daugther and I can't even remember the last time we went out or bought anything other than essential foods etc.

Can anyone advise on what we should do now as I will be ignoring their pathetic reply of making us speak to a Money Management person? If they didn't charge us the amounts they do then we wouldn't have been in this mess. Do we go straight to claiming via court, do we contact the OFT or Financial Ombudsman?

Totally stressed....
Thanks in advance.

natweststaffmember

sharon4444 wrote: »

Hello everyone,

My husband and I wrote to Halifax about a month ago requesting that our bank charges be dealt with under hardship. Halifax took over £800 in charges in two months from us and we got behind on our mortgage and other priority debts. We sent them the arrears letter from our mortgage and a monthly expenditure form and explained how I had to take a much lower paid job.

Finally today we received a reply saying their charges are lawful and they will not refund anything and if we go over the overdraft again these charges of £35 a time for paying or not paying a bill will keep being applied to the account.

They have also said in the letter that they will get a member of the Money Management Team to contact us to help us manage our money better :mad: I am furious at this. We have a 2 year old daugther and I can't even remember the last time we went out or bought anything other than essential foods etc.

Can anyone advise on what we should do now as I will be ignoring their pathetic reply of making us speak to a Money Management person? If they didn't charge us the amounts they do then we wouldn't have been in this mess. Do we go straight to claiming via court, do we contact the OFT or Financial Ombudsman?

Totally stressed....
Thanks in advance.

Did you complete an income and expenditure form? Were there any other priority debt arrears? Without seeing the I/E form it is impossible to make a determination of hardship. If you claim via court the case will be stayed. You can ask the Financial Ombudsman service to look again at the case but they may or may not state the same.

EDIT: has the arrears got worse since the initial letter you sent?

sharon4444

Hi natweststaffmember,

Thanks for you speedy reply.
Halifax never sent us any forms to complete so we used the income/expenditure form which our DMP company did for us and sent that to them.
We were being threatened by our mortgage lenders for repossesion so we stopped paying out credit cards to pay the mortgage arrears. We now have huge arrears on our credit cards and struggling to make even the minumum payments due to being overdue and interest and charges mounting up. We thought we should pay our secured debts first and then try and sort out the unsecured ones.

natweststaffmember

sharon4444 wrote: »

Hi natweststaffmember,

Thanks for you speedy reply.
Halifax never sent us any forms to complete so we used the income/expenditure form which our DMP company did for us and sent that to them.
We were being threatened by our mortgage lenders for repossesion so we stopped paying out credit cards to pay the mortgage arrears. We now have huge arrears on our credit cards and struggling to make even the minumum payments due to being overdue and interest and charges mounting up. We thought we should pay our secured debts first and then try and sort out the unsecured ones.

I think the DMP is possibly one reason they are not paying out. Have you looked at reclaiming charges on your credit card? £12 is not a legally enforceable amount.

tiggersue

Hi I just wrote out our story and posted it but can't see it anywhere, I am new to posting although not to reading everything on here. Our story is as follows. We had a current account with Halifax with an arranged overdraft of £1000.00. In November 2008 I wrote asking for £2500.00 of charges to be repaid as my Husband had become permanently disabled and his S/employed business was no longer. I explained to them that he was also suffering from severe depression and Ithought he had been dealing with things only to find out he hadn't hence the exceeding overdraft limit. At that time the current account stood at £1500.00 and still does. I requested charges only back to when Hubby was no longer able to work They said no. So I wrote again under F/H and again they said no but if I would like to send in an I/E form to feel free. At some point they changed the current account to a cardcash account without notifying us. So I sent the I/E form and also another covering letter explaining circumstances and £1600.00 of priority debts etc. I didn't here from them for many weeks so I rang them to be told that some of the entries on the I/E form needed clarifying (although they never asked for this prior to my call) which I duly sent off. I had a letter last week saying that we are in F/H and the charges are fair blah, blah but offered me £470.00 as goodwill gesture because of our circumstances. I rang them and asked how this would help as it is less then our amount exceeding our overdraft limit only to be answered by silence. I then asked if they would pay this into our card savers account so I could pay some priority debts with it only to be told they wouldn't do that and that I just had to put up with what they had offered. I then said I would go to the FOS, I rang them to start the ball rolling and then rang Halifax back to say I had done so and would they reconsider to be met by another negative!! So I now have the FOS paperwork but wonder what anyone thinks should I try Halifax once more or get on with the FOS. Their offer does nothing to alleviate our hardship and I thought that was the ideal! Any thoughts/ advice. Many thanks.

tiggersue

Hi I just wrote out our story and posted it but can't see it anywhere, I am new to posting although not to reading everything on here. Our story is as follows. We had a current account with Halifax with an arranged overdraft of £1000.00. In November 2008 I wrote asking for £2500.00 of charges to be repaid as my Husband had become permanently disabled and his S/employed business was no longer. I explained to them that he was also suffering from severe depression and Ithought he had been dealing with things only to find out he hadn't hence the exceeding overdraft limit. At that time the current account stood at £1500.00 and still does. I requested charges only back to when Hubby was no longer able to work They said no. So I wrote again under F/H and again they said no but if I would like to send in an I/E form to feel free. At some point they changed the current account to a cardcash account without notifying us. So I sent the I/E form and also another covering letter explaining circumstances and £1600.00 of priority debts etc. I didn't here from them for many weeks so I rang them to be told that some of the entries on the I/E form needed clarifying (although they never asked for this prior to my call) which I duly sent off. I had a letter last week saying that we are in F/H and the charges are fair blah, blah but offered me £470.00 as goodwill gesture because of our circumstances. I rang them and asked how this would help as it is less then our amount exceeding our overdraft limit only to be answered by silence. I then asked if they would pay this into our card savers account so I could pay some priority debts with it only to be told they wouldn't do that and that I just had to put up with what they had offered. I then said I would go to the FOS, I rang them to start the ball rolling and then rang Halifax back to say I had done so and would they reconsider to be met by another negative!! So I now have the FOS paperwork but wonder what anyone thinks should I try Halifax once more or get on with the FOS. Their offer does nothing to alleviate our hardship and I thought that was the ideal! Any thoughts/ advice. Many thanks.

tiggersue

Guess I found one of the posts I lost as I am here twice, very sorry to all the competent posters!!!