50/50 Goodwill gesture from Halifax

Mrsmoneypenny

On the morning of the 1 April this year I went overdrawn by 131.47 on my Halifax account.

As soon as i saw this i transferred money from one of my Halifax accounts to the other to cover the amount plus 35 to cover the unarranged borrowing fee.

I then faxed them to say that I had made a genuine mistake and ask if they could look into whether they could perhaps not apply any charges.

I got a letter back today to say that as a gesture of goodwill they would not apply any further fees and the 35 would be refunded 31 May.

Result!

On the 19 February my husband went overdrawn by 4.17, as soon as I saw this I transferred enough from his other Halifax into the account to cover that and any fees that might be incurred.

He wrote to them, asking whether they could perhaps not apply any fees as it was a genuine mistake.

He got a letter today from the Halifax. It says NO!

Both our letters are signed by the same person, both written on the same day, but apparently they dont appear to be in a position to show any goodwill towards my husband, which seems a little odd.

Emmzi

might depend omn
- if he had done it before
- how profitable the relative accounts are
- how well he wrote his letter compared to yours
- which letter was opened after a nice cup of tea and a biccie

Mrsmoneypenny

Never done it before
Usually at least a thousand pounds in there
Practically the same letter
Must have been the tea and digestives that clinched it.

Mrsmoneypenny

I have been trying to word a letter to the bank about my husbnd not getting his fees back compared to myself getting my same fees back as a "good will gesture".

I am struggling because however I put it, it sounds argumentative! And I dont want that!

The best i have come up with is

thank you for your letter date ............. your wrote to my wife on the same date regarding the same charges her references ............. and have elected to refund all charges as a "goodwill gesture"

Could I ask what criteria there is when deciding which accounts are worthy of a "goodwill gesture" and which are not?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Any suggestions

natweststaffmember

Mrsmoneypenny wrote: »

I have been trying to word a letter to the bank about my husbnd not getting his fees back compared to myself getting my same fees back as a "good will gesture".

I am struggling because however I put it, it sounds argumentative! And I dont want that!

The best i have come up with is

thank you for your letter date ............. your wrote to my wife on the same date regarding the same charges her references ............. and have elected to refund all charges as a "goodwill gesture"

Could I ask what criteria there is when deciding which accounts are worthy of a "goodwill gesture" and which are not?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Any suggestions

It's not relevant the decision they made over your husband to the decision they made on yourself, unless your accounts are operated identically, ie same pay, same purchases, etc,etc,.Some banks work on a first time GOGW(Gesture Of GoodWill) which usually means they log a complaint, sometimes though, when that is done but not logged it can lead to further GOGW's.
If you simply write in and say, my OH got a refund why can't I, you will get nowhere. I think you need to escalate the complaint to their head office based on why you were charged and not on whether your OH got a refund. The FOS will never uphold the complaint based on that premise.

Mrsmoneypenny

I have since reworded my letter completely.

In a previous letter to them i informed them that they had not given me any notice by my preferred method of correspondence (email) that any charges would be put on my account.

In their reply yesterday they state "You will have been notified of the fees on the day following the transaction that occurred for the fees to be incurred. In order to comply with the Banking Code all our customers are pre-notified of any fees incurred".

I have written to them today to restate that I was not informed.

I checked again before sending the letter and I had not been sent anything to inform me of the charges.

19 February - overdrawn - faxed letter to them
20 February - date which they should, but did not inform me of charges
28 February - normal paper-free statement sent out.

It appears that they have not followed their own Banking Code

Mrsmoneypenny

Last week i got a letter to say that all the fees charged for going overdrawn would be refunded as a gesture of goodwill and that they letter of notificiation was probably "lost" because of the email being undeliverable due to a filter on my computer.

Funny, all statements arrived before and after the "Bank account charge notification" letter should have arrived.

I have thanked them for the refund and asked them to check their records and tell me what date the notification letter was sent out to me.