Direct Debits - Is this right?

Kourosism

My wife and I have a joint account with Halifax, where we put money to pay the bills, or fund the odd treat for the two of us.

We've recently opened a new joint account with Halifax, and want to transfer the old account over. I telephoned Halifax to do this and was told that it was impossible to transfer Direct Debits automatically within the same bank. Instead I would have to contact each business separately and advise them of the change.

Is this right?

jonesMUFCforever

Not at a real bank no .
If your account was held with LTSB part of the Lloyds banking group as opposed to the old building society side then they could transfer D/D s from one current account to another for you.

stclair

Im not sure with the halifax.

However I know natwest and rbs can transfer a DD from one account to another in the same bank at the press off a button.

I cant see no reason why it couldnt be done within the Halifax unless its due to system restraints.

vicki1986_2

Hi,
I work for Bank of Scotland/Halifax. We don't currently offer the service of transferring DD's from 1 account to another within our company unless there is fraud on an account or we close old bill accounts. System will decline our request when we try.
Sorry!

Kourosism

vicki1986 wrote: »

Hi,
I work for Bank of Scotland/Halifax. We don't currently offer the service of transferring DD's from 1 account to another within our company unless there is fraud on an account or we close old bill accounts. System will decline our request when we try.
Sorry!

Vicki, thank you for this. Would you think that there would be anyway around this if I went into a branch to ask, considering the other option for us is to simply open an account elsewhere, taking away our business?

vicki1986_2

You can go into a branch and ask but this unfortunately is likely to be declined by the advisor you talk to. I have myself had problems where the system refuses this.
Another option is to make a complaint to customer relations. This may result in staff in another department managing to override the system. It is not a normal option but always worth a try.

Kourosism

vicki1986 wrote: »

You can go into a branch and ask but this unfortunately is likely to be declined by the advisor you talk to. I have myself had problems where the system refuses this.
Another option is to make a complaint to customer relations. This may result in staff in another department managing to override the system. It is not a normal option but always worth a try.

If they manage it, fantastic. If they don't, well never mind, we'll go elsewhere. Its not worth the hassle.

Thank you for your advice.

vicki1986_2

No problem at all.
Glad to try and help

Joe_Bloggs

It is sad that the staff of Halifax are not empowered to help their customers pay bills from the accounts that they wish. Such obvious poor management should be a target for the powers that be, to lend a hand in encouraging 21st century banking.
J_B.

yelf

Lloyds can transfer the DDs - but some companies charge for changing the DD details (I've just made a thread about this)

dlk

Pretty much any bank would be able to do this for you however Halifax although classed as a bank still have predominantly the methods and systems of a building society and aren't capable of offering a lot of the services offered by the other older banks such as Lloyds, HSBC or Barclays.