Halifax - Charged for going over overdraft limit - Can't see where on statement

le_boswell

I received a letter from the Halifax notifying me of charges for exceeding my overdraft limit, when I looked at my statement online, I could see four transactions for that day, one Direct Debit two payments and one transfer into the account.

There was nowhere on the statement however that states that I exceeded my limit.

I spoke to the Halifax about this who told me that the charges were for a Direct Debit which was paid in the early hours of the morning, which consequently sent me over my overdraft limit, after that a transfer was made which took me back within the boundaries of my limit. I was also told that my statement would reflect this.

My statement for that month has now arrived and it basically says the same as my online banking. ie. I did not exceed my overdraft limit.

It seems to me that the staff at the Halifax seem to be loking at one system and then the information displayed to the customer seems to be coming from another. I have written a letter, spoken to customer services and even closed my savings account and credit card in protest but they will still not refund the charges.

I am extremely reluctant to pay the fees when the only means offered to me by the Halifax of monitoring my account are telling me that what they are saying is false.

I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else, and also, where do I stand legally as, if they are indeed correct, they are giving me a false representation of my finances.

Thanks in advance.

rb10

opinions4u wrote: »

You could transfer to their 'Reward' account which does, apparently, have a same day concession - but make sure you are happy with the Reward payment and other overdraft fees first.

They don't have a concession for direct debits, only for payments made during the course of the day (e.g. debit card payments). So, depending on the amounts, the OP could have been ok on the Reward account, or could have been charged £5.

SUPERJULES

le_boswell wrote: »

I received a letter from the Halifax notifying me of charges for exceeding my overdraft limit, when I looked at my statement online, I could see four transactions for that day, one Direct Debit two payments and one transfer into the account.

There was nowhere on the statement however that states that I exceeded my limit.

I spoke to the Halifax about this who told me that the charges were for a Direct Debit which was paid in the early hours of the morning, which consequently sent me over my overdraft limit, after that a transfer was made which took me back within the boundaries of my limit. I was also told that my statement would reflect this.

My statement for that month has now arrived and it basically says the same as my online banking. ie. I did not exceed my overdraft limit.

It seems to me that the staff at the Halifax seem to be loking at one system and then the information displayed to the customer seems to be coming from another. I have written a letter, spoken to customer services and even closed my savings account and credit card in protest but they will still not refund the charges.

I am extremely reluctant to pay the fees when the only means offered to me by the Halifax of monitoring my account are telling me that what they are saying is false.

I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else, and also, where do I stand legally as, if they are indeed correct, they are giving me a false representation of my finances.

Thanks in advance.

This kept happening to my friend at the Halifax and they do keep refunding her, but I think possibly as a good will thing. I bank with the yorkshire bank and they do let you pay in up to 3 o'clock for any payments coming out the same day.

Money_maker

This happened to me - once. I was refunded after protesting to head office. My arguement was that the direct debit and the funds added to my account both occured on the same working day.
Am a bit more careful in future though...

This may have been the occasion when I went in to branch to complain. I had a bad experience with a deputy manager who absolutely refused to refund despite me creating a bit of a scene in front of other customers (love that bit, lol). Head office sorted everything in one call. Also he still doesn't know that I mystery shop that branch...

jambosans

le_boswell wrote: »

My statement for that month has now arrived and it basically says the same as my online banking. ie. I did not exceed my overdraft limit.

Double check your statement, if you take away the amount you transferred in would that have meant you were over your limit? Credits will tend to show first, then debits, however this is not necessarily the time order in which the transactions took place during the day. This applies to both your online and statements. The DD's would have left before you transferred money into the account.

If, even with the transferred funds deducted, you were still within the overdraft limit then you may have received a charge due to there not being funds available. This means, if you had spent on your card and the funds were pending (therefore unavailable to spend) when the DD's left, this will have caused a charge. Just to clarify, for example: if you spent £100 on your debit card in Tesco on Monday; the funds go pending against your available; the DD's come off Tuesday; and then, finally, Tesco debited the £100 on Wednesday. Even though Tesco did not debit the account till Wednesday, the funds would have been pending on Tuesday. When something is pending your Available Balance tells you how much before you reach your overdraft limit minus pending transactions, uncleared cheques, etc. If think this is the case you can ask Halifax when the debit card transactions were made, and this will confirm that there were pending transactions when the DD's left.

You may argue that neither reasons for incurring charges are fair but ultimately if you had checked your online banking after the DD's had left, and before you transferred money in you should either have seen a balance over the overdraft limit or a £0 available balance.

Point taken that the statement and online erase the exact history in terms of transaction's order but that's not really an argument as Halifax can prove beyond reasonable doubt that you incurred the charges. It would not have made a difference if you could have seen the way you incurred charges after they had been incurred. The real time information provided online is sufficient to keep you up to date and unless you can prove that before you transferred money into the account you were not overdrawn or had an available balance then you don't have a leg to stand on.

To correct a previous poster, you do not have until close of business to credit the account to avoid charges - this only happens with the new Reward Account. HBOS charges are incurred as soon as a payment is made or refused when funds are not available.

The same thing happened to me, but I new it happened, and also transferred money in on the same day. Bank of Scotland (HBOS, same as Halifax) reversed the charge as a goodwill gesture and the matter was closed. Have you tried asking Halifax for it to be reversed as goodwill? I would keep in mind you're only allowed one goodwill per account for all the charges on one day.

le_boswell

Cheers everyone for the replies. Looks like I've not really got a leg to stand on as the situation is as detailed in jambosan's post above.

Luckily I have started the process of transferring my account to First Direct who offer an interest free overdraft and only charge interest on any unarranged overdraft rather than obscene fines.

I'm then going to lodge a claim for ALL fees that I've incurred.

Thanks again.

sscott5581

Chech the following section of your statement for charges, if charges were going to be incurred if would safe to assume money in would be less than money out.

rb10

sscott5581 wrote: »

Chech the following section of your statement for charges, if charges were going to be incurred if would safe to assume money in would be less than money out.

No, that doesn't work at all.

Here's an example (assuming no overdraft arranged):

1st April: balance £100.
5th April: Direct Debit out for £500 - new balance: -£400
10th April: pay in £1000

Money in is more than money out, but charges were still incurred.

*******************

What you need to do to is look at the closing balance for the day before Halifax claim the charges were applied.

Then subtract from this figure the amount of all the direct debits, standing orders, and any other payments that had been arranged in advance to leave the account (e.g. if you'd set up a bill payment previously to go out on that day). This would give you the balance in the account in the early hours of the morning.

Is this figure less than your overdraft limit? If so, then that's why you've been charged.

pimento

I left Smile over this. I get paid on the 15th so had my mortgage also come out on the 15th. Smile would take the mortgage out before crediting my salary and then charge me £10 every time. Yes, it was in the small print, but it took me a few months to twig what they were doing.

I joined First Direct and they actually advised me to call the C&G and ask them to take my mortgage payment out on the 16th. I didn't realise you could change your payment date. Why didn't ethical old Smile do that?

opinions4u

pimento wrote: »

I joined First Direct and they actually advised me to call the C&G and ask them to take my mortgage payment out on the 16th. I didn't realise you could change your payment date. Why didn't ethical old Smile do that?

I really do think people should take control of their own finances.

It isn't your bank's job to know the policies of other mortgage lenders.

The question here is "why the hell didn't it cross your mind to talk to C&G yourself?".

pimento

opinions4u wrote: »

The question here is "why the hell didn't it cross your mind to talk to C&G yourself?".

It did, eventually. We're not all as clued up and clever as you are.