When exactly is Halifax 'paid item' charge incurred

henben

My partner inadvertantly wrote a chq on her Halifax current account that took her into unauthorised overdraft territory. She noticed this on-line on the day it went through her account, and so I immediately transferred some money to her account to cover it. (Most of this was from my own Halifax account which was instant - the rest from First Direct which, like Halifax, is a party to the 'same day' scheme; the 1st D bit showed up in the account after about an hour).

So my transfers took her back into the black that same day. But Halifax have still applied an unpaid item fee of £35. Wouldn't 'unpaid items' work the same way as most overdraft charges these days ie they are only triggered if the account is in the red at the end of the day? Halifax told her that not only is this not the case, but the money has to be in the account 24 hours before it is drawn on, even on an electronic transfer. I've never heard this before. Has anyone else come across this? And would an 'ask nicely' approach be likely to succeed?

willo65

The decision to pay or not to pay an item is often made earlier in the day so when you transferred money in to cover halifax had already started the process of returning the item unpaid. The terms and conditions of the account will state that funds need to be in by the close of the previous working day to a payment leaving the account.

Also if you were looking for an answer to your question in the title this would be if they decided to pay the item even if you didn't have the funds available.