Astounded at Bank Charges (HBOS) - £230

MikeyBhoy

I have 3 accounts with HBOS, a saving account, current account and a recently opened joint account with the missus for shopping and utilities.

I got a letter today from Halifax saying the account (joint account) had gone overdrawn without agreement. Sure enough, the annual House insurance DD had come out, leaving us £95 quid in the red. As a result, they were intending to charge us 3x£35 = £105 for three (low value) transactions which happened the next day. I spoke to them via telephone banking, the guy took a look and agreed that he would refund those charges.

I asked what other charges we could expect (e.g the interest on the overdraft), as the account didn't go back in to the black until 2 May. He put me on hold and then came back to say that there would be a further £126.00 in charges as a result of us being overdrawn - that's £231 in total.

I'm gobsmacked, absolutely gobsmacked.

I'd heard of the "35 quid for a letter" stories and always though these were a rip-off, but £231!!!!!!

I'm writing to their head office now to query the remaining £126.00, any tips on how to word it? Between myself and the missues we've got about £35k banked with HBOS (though for how much longer??).

Should I play it softly softly, or threaten to close all the accounts? They haven't actually taken any of the money yet, so I'm not exactly reclaiming it, just asking them not to take it (or take as much)

Cheers

Gobsmacked Mike

MikeyBhoy

Oh, the missus also want to know why the card wasn't declined when she went to Morrison's for the some groceries if there was no money in the account. It's a VISA debit card.

natweststaffmember

MikeyBhoy wrote: »

Oh, the missus also want to know why the card wasn't declined when she went to Morrison's for the some groceries if there was no money in the account. It's a VISA debit card.

There may have been funds at the point in which the transactions were made.

MikeyBhoy

Thanks for the reply NatWest. We were £90 in debit on the 28th when an annual DD came out.

On the 30th she spent £9 in Homebase (£35 charge), £17 in Morrisons (£35 charge),

then on 1st May she spent (£42) in B&Q. I'm presuming we have a charge for that coming soon.

Luckily on the 2nd of each month we automatically transfer money or god knows how much the charges would have reached.

I would have thought the card would have been declined since we don't have an overdraft facility?

In fact I would have preferred the £35 quid letter saying they had been declined, rather than the £35 charge per transaction.

willo65

Have you checked the actual transaction dates? quite often you will make a transaction on say the 20th of the month but it won't debit account until 22nd - Not sure about halifax but Natwest statements how date debited on statement and the narrative shows last 4 digits of card used, date transaction made and the time the transaction was made.

MikeyBhoy

Hi Willo,

yep, no doubt about it, I'm looking at the transactions online in the tab next to this one.

Hard to believe this period might have costed me £231 in charges, but there you go. I've got half back so far and hopefully I can get the remainder waived (or reduced).

I think I've worked out where the remaining £126 charge comes from.

2 * £28 for being in debit in 2 successive months (28 Apr - 1st May)
2 * £35 for transactions while in debit.

Mike

natweststaffmember

does it say next to the transaction that was authorised(not the charge itself) the date of the transaction. On natwest transactions it has something like this

POS 1234 05may09 1110
Blogs and son
£12.45
So we have point of sale switch/last four digits/date/time(last four digits and time might be other way round).
I hope the above makes sense?

MikeyBhoy

Hi Nat,

no, I don't see that on the online version.. We went to B&Q on Thu 30th Apr and bought £42 of door trims. This shows up as

01 May 2009 Debit Card B&Q Plc 42.00 -183.00

in the transactions. The account was overdrawn from 28 Apr and we are now surprised the card wasn't declined. I'm trying to read up on Visa Debit on the internet but not getting far.

Mike

natweststaffmember

MikeyBhoy wrote: »

Hi Nat,

no, I don't see that on the online version.. We went to B&Q on Thu 30th Apr and bought £42 of door trims. This shows up as

01 May 2009 Debit Card B&Q Plc 42.00 -183.00

in the transactions. The account was overdrawn from 28 Apr and we are now surprised the card wasn't declined. I'm trying to read up on Visa Debit on the internet but not getting far.

Mike

In that case it maybe the dreaded floor limits then. ie there is an amount which the shop does not check for funds which is usually low transaction amounts.

helsbels79_2

Hi,

We are in a similar position with Halifax regarding charges heaped on us for going slightlyoverdrawn and then having direct debits fail - we are going into the branch on Saturday to discuss our account anyway - does anyone have any tips regardng what we should be saying to try and get these charges back? They're totalling about £200

natweststaffmember

helsbels79 wrote: »

Hi,

We are in a similar position with Halifax regarding charges heaped on us for going slightlyoverdrawn and then having direct debits fail - we are going into the branch on Saturday to discuss our account anyway - does anyone have any tips regardng what we should be saying to try and get these charges back? They're totalling about £200

Yes, don't deal with the branch verbally on a bank charges reclaim unless there has been bank error.