Halifax let me use my debit card in 5 shops and then charged me £35 each transaction

MarkyMarkD

If you cannot trust yourself to control your spending, you may request that you bank withdraws your debit card and instead gives you an Electron (VISA) card or Maestro (I think) (Mastercard) which requires the availability of funds to be checked before each transaction and does not allow you to go overdrawn.

Obviously, though, this will then be very inconvenient on those occasions when you are desperate to buy something and don't have the money - which may be more often for you than for other readers of this thread, I might surmise!

dunstonh

Funny thread. Blaming a bank because you decided to go on a spending spree and effectively steal their money.

natweststaffmember

true_blue wrote: »

We discovered the same thing yesterday, spoke to them on the phone and they do not seem to care they have charged £35 for each use of the debit card, we used our card around 11 or 12 times before realising. Now waiting for customer services to call us back as we want the charges refunded, with the addtional unauthorised overdraft charges now to be taken out at the end of May & June the charges will total over £500. If theses cahrges were paid back in we would NOT be over our overdraft limit. How can they justify charging £35 per transaction, when asked what the breakdown of those charges was they couldn't tell us, just said it was a standard charge. Anyone had the same experience?

Whilst I would agree with regards to the issue of Responsibility, I still think you should reclaim the money back from the bank. 11x£35 = £385. I agree with regards to the amount charged that it is an unfair amount. Personally, I think floor limits should always be set at £0.00.
I got tired of the rest of the lectures you were being given but worth checking online/ATM machine or keeping a written diary of spending. I don't but I kinda do online banking so keep tabs on accounts. Keep the chin up and start the reclaiming. As I know all of the other guys were about to give you the link, I have saved them the trouble
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

OrkneyStar

natweststaffmember wrote: »

I got tired of the rest of the lectures you were being given but worth checking online/ATM machine or keeping a written diary of spending.

Not lectures but statements of fact!
The spending diary is a good suggestion, as is checking online every so often, this saves the problem of overspending unintentionally (also the embarassment of having your card refused in a shop if they do check the funds available!).

natweststaffmember

Is the rest of the advice ok about reclaiming bank charges?

Torby

I'd be curious to see how much the individual transactions were...for example...if you were running low on milk and you knew you were near your limit...a couple of quid might make all the difference...but if you purchased a number of higher value items , say average £50 each...and that put you over your limit (about £300 worth of purchases) you should really have known better...

having said that, we'll possibly not get a response ...one of the problems with MSE's popularity, you get lots of people asking a question...but they don't hang around too often...and even more weird...we get people registering on the forum to specifically post on a thread endorsing a post.

butler_helen

I have mobile banking, so if im in a shop and want something I 'might' be able to afford, I can quickly check- it's great! I'd recommend it to people and perhaps the OP so the charges don't happen again...

Also, it stops me spending when I realise half way through a month that I have less than half my earnings left!

simon_templar_2

I think Halifax should log this as an abused account and withdraw debit card facility and only let them have a cash card. There are many ways to keep tabs on your account - bank statements, atm, telephone banking, internet banking, mobile phone banking, the branch itself. No excuses at all.

Fishingtime

I received a letter yeaterday from the Halifax.
They said I would be charged 2 x £35 for 2 transactions that put me over my overdraft limit.
I phoned them up and they cancelled the charges for me.

simon_templar_2

Overdrafts should be used as a buffer. They are an expensive way to borrow money especially when you dont have an agreed overdraft. Even if you go over by a couple of quid you are still borrowing money that is not yours and without permission. Hence £3 overdrawn costs you £35 in charges is obviously an expensive way to borrow that £3.

If a person is still way into an overdraft after pay day then they are not using an overdraft in the way it is intended and really are in a difficult position.