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

RobertoMoir

jodcai wrote: »

Halifax allowed me to use my debit card in five shops and have now charged me £35 for each transaction. I only realised that I had gone overdrawn when I tried to take money out of the cash point.

Surely they should have refused the payment knowing there was insufficient funds.

I know my husband has been refused payment at the till before.

Well I think £35 per transaction is too high so good luck appealing that.

I will say though that the banks are between the devil and the deep blue sea to some degree - there are plenty of posts from people moaning that their bank refuses payments and are "unhelpful" because they won't budge an inch on that even when "they know salary is paid into that account the next day" or something. Seems that they really can't win.

jamesd

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.

They definitely care. That's almost £400 in revenue for the bank. Good luck with persuading the bank to give up that revenue, though.

People asking for extra overdraft facilities with ad hoc requests like those is a big part of how they expect to make money from us and our job is to avoid giving them the opportunity so we get free banking. Our main defences are:

1. Knowing how much money we have available (where possible, sometimes incorrect direct debits can make it difficult, for example)
2. Using credit cards instead of debit cards, and keeping well within the credit card limit, so there will only be one transaction for the credit card bill, not many, if you go over your balance and overdraft facility limit.
3. Having an overdraft facility agreed in advance so all you pay is interest, not the ad hoc overdraft increase charges. Overdraft facility is not the same as an overdraft in use, it's what an overdraft is for, temporary use for protection and very short term borrowing.
4. Using accounts with good charging plans if the previous steps aren't available or sufficient. No reason you can't have several current accounts.
5. Possibly using text messaging services that tell you when you go overdrawn so you can stop spending immediately it happens and fix the problem.

natweststaffmember

Explain the free banking bit, JamesD and £400 revenue for a breach of £10-£20 in totality?
I do agree with the five points mentioned.(albeit credit card useage is probably a sign of spending more than is really needed or rather an issue with budgetting)

OrkneyStar

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Explain the free banking bit, JamesD and £400 revenue for a breach of £10-£20 in totality?
I do agree with the five points mentioned.(albeit credit card useage is probably a sign of spending more than is really needed or rather an issue with budgetting)

Not in all cases. We, and many others I know, will use a credit card for large purchases (to save carrying cash), to book online/by phone. Whenever I use my card I then pay it as soon as convenient online (often before the transactions even reach the stage of being due on the statement). I work out how much I can spend and then do not spend more than that.
Some people misuse credit cards, spending more than they can afford to pay off, but some people use them properly!

natweststaffmember

OrkneyStar wrote: »

Not in all cases. We, and many others I know, will use a credit card for large purchases (to save carrying cash), to book online/by phone. Whenever I use my card I then pay it as soon as convenient online (often before the transactions even reach the stage of being due on the statement). I work out how much I can spend and then do not spend more than that.
Some people misuse credit cards, spending more than they can afford to pay off, but some people use them properly!

The latter point is what I was getting at which is why I mention it in the context of JamesD's post. For large purchases I do agree with the additional protection it gives, as well as internet purchases. However, I have been there where you spend on your credit card cos you don't have the money in your current account. That was where I was coming from.

jamesd

natweststaffmember wrote: »

I have been there where you spend on your credit card cos you don't have the money in your current account. That was where I was coming from.

That's cheaper than lots of transactions and related fees on the current account. Neither is good but one is less painful than the other.

natweststaffmember

jamesd wrote: »

That's cheaper than lots of transactions and related fees on the current account. Neither is good but one is less painful than the other.

Yet bank charges/fees are hardly fair are they? I don't mind paying interest on my credit card and I don't mind using my credit card, but being charged 10 times the amount I paid in a shop is hardly fair.

true_blue

I've now read all the replies, thanks for that. The point of the matter is not that the Halifax have charged for using a debit card when over the od limit but the fact it is £35 per transaction. I would think £5 would be a fair amount, in that case we would still owe £60 or so but that is much better than the level it has reached in a couple of weeks. We did credit the acount ensuring it was within the overdraft limit but didn't realise at that time there was a charge lurking round the corner, so as a result the charges they incurred in one day amounted to £105 which took the account back over the limit. Hence when using the card after that we were charged £35 per transaction. These transactions we all for small items £8 or £10 a time, milk & bread etc so the problem happened very quickly. we spent what we beleived was in the account. The initial mistake of going over the limit just before we credited the account has become a very very expensive mistake and I believe this to be an unacceptable level of charges. Some banks only charge a one off monthly fee if you go over your overdraft, £35 a time is not an acceptable charge in my opinion.

MarkyMarkD

I guess that you walk into Tesco, true blue, and say "I don't want to pay £1.57 for that bottle of milk. I think that £1 is a fair price and that's what I am going to pay". :rolleyes:

jamesd

true_blue wrote: »

We did credit the acount ensuring it was within the overdraft limit but didn't realise at that time there was a charge lurking round the corner, so as a result the charges they incurred in one day amounted to £105 which took the account back over the limit.

Did they give you at least 14 days notice of that impending charge? If not, you have a good argument to use, since at least 14 days for normal account charges is specified in the Banking Code.

true_blue wrote: »

Some banks only charge a one off monthly fee if you go over your overdraft

For most people it's easy enough to open a new current account at a different bank, so one possible solution is to move the day to day spending to an account that has lower charges if things go wrong. That is: reward the bank whose service you don't like via market forces, going elsewhere.

Switching your main income to the new account before the overdraft on the first one is cleared could cause the first one to withdraw the overdraft facility entirely and demand immediate repayment, so take your time over that step if you want to take it.