Halifax charging me £98 for going £8.59 over my overdraft!

sam84uk

I was wondering if anyone could offer me any advice regarding my current situation please?

I received a letter (dated 26th June) from my bank saying that they were increasing my overdraft limit from £400 to £700 (I hadn't asked for this). The letter said that this would apply from 17th July.

I get paid every 4 weeks and the way my payday fell at the beginning of this month a direct debit of £10 went out 2 days before I was paid which I hadn't accounted for. Thinking I had money available in my account I used my debit card twice on 2nd July but as the direct debit had gone out a day earlier this put me over my overdraft by £8.59!

I got paid on the 3rd July and when I checked my account online I realised that I'd gone over my overdraft and I expected to receive a bank charge (expecting it to be around £30).

However I received a letter today saying that I was going to be charged £35 each for the 2 debit card transactions and another £28 unauthorised overdraft fee!

This seems beyond excessive to me for being less than £10 over my overdraft (especially when I recently received a letter telling me they were increasing it to £700 anyway). I rang them and they refuse to waiver any of the fees and will not budge on the matter even though I explained that it will cripple me for the month. I never had any intention of using the new £700 overdraft and was going to ask them to keep it at £400 but now I'm going to be forced into using it.

Is there anything at all I can do? I don't understand why they didn't just decline my card when I used it?

Thanks in advance

natweststaffmember

Was it the first occasion you had been charged?

mrcow

Halifax are a bunch of thieves.

The problem you have is that you get paid every 4 weeks so it can make it harder to budget. You can write and complain about the charges inthe first instance. Or go into branch - but I wouldn't expect too much.

The only other option is to go down the reclaiming route.

cannylass_2

afraid my daughter had almost identical problem with them, we have had numerous meetings/letters to no avail. vote with your feet and move all accounts from them. we have taken our isa and will move current account too.

troublefree

there are alot of instances where halifax do this kind of thing, if it is the first time you have been charged go to the branch and demand to speak to the manager and dont leave until they remove them, it literally only takes the manager 30 seconds to do.
hope you get on ok

sam84uk

Unfortunately it's not the 1st time. Just over 4 years ago I had a problem with British Gas when I was changing suppliers. When I received my final bill from them I went and paid it straight away but a week or 2 later British Gas also took the payment form my account by direct debit with made me incur charges. Halifax waivered some of the charges at the time (bar one which they said I should get back off British Gas but I never did). So that has gone down as my one time that they'll waiver the charges.

Quo_Vadis_2

Halifax are unbelieveable ..... Due to a misunderstanding between my wife and I our account went over overdraft limit by less than £5. When I spotted the issue I immediately paid cash in through one of their automated tellers (beware paying cash in the 'hole in the wall' with Halifax - it can take days to credit your account) and so the error was rectified in less than 12 hours. Result? Total charges of £63 ! I tried telephoning and was told it was a fine ! I have written, to no avail, and their Scottish based customer services have all the graces of a Rottweiller chewing a wasp. I've now compained to the FOS.

natweststaffmember

Quo_Vadis wrote: »

Halifax are unbelieveable ..... Due to a misunderstanding between my wife and I our account went over overdraft limit by less than £5. When I spotted the issue I immediately paid cash in through one of their automated tellers (beware paying cash in the 'hole in the wall' with Halifax - it can take days to credit your account) and so the error was rectified in less than 12 hours. Result? Total charges of £63 ! I tried telephoning and was told it was a fine ! I have written, to no avail, and their Scottish based customer services have all the graces of a Rottweiller chewing a wasp. I've now compained to the FOS.

On the basic facts that the account went over the overdraft as a result of a Direct Debit being taken on its due date, I can't see a basis for your complaint to the FOS. The FOS are mediators in disputes between financial institutions and banks. I can't see that the basic facts are in dispute.

ben_and_elly

I used to work for the Halifax (sorry!!) and we were told that we at Call Centre could use our own discretion to refund fees up to £50.00. The reason being it was cheaper for Halifax to deal with immediately, rather than have to deal with possible complaint, etc. etc. I think it depends, therefore, on the person you get that answers the phone. You just used common sense approach really, but unfortunately, customer service and common sense appears to have fallen dramatically in our banks lately!

I would ring again, be over nice (grit your teeth on this one!) and hope that you get someone who cares! It used to take about 5 seconds to reverse a charge so it should be no hassle at all. Obviously, Halifax have got much stricter but don't give up - just keep on - even go to customer relations if necessary, but stay calm.

Good luck