HalifaxOne Credit Card - Interest freeze

dazza4074

Hello,

Just want to know what do i have to do to get halifax to freeze the interest on my account, for the last 5 years i have been paying them through baines and ernst, but it seems Halifax keep screwing me over, I keep getting £12 late payment charges and am paying about £11 interest on the account, whilst i am paying them £5 a month. at the beginning of the year, the balance was about £350 ( i did do 'token' payments, but was told to stop that by b & e), now its £480.25 and it looks like its about to cross over into my credit limit (£500) and i will start getting Overlimit fees. what can i do? do i call them? do i get b & e to contact them?

Darren

ICan'tStandIt

If it was me, I would start by getting rid of B&E so you can put the money that they charge in fees towards my debts and deal with the Halifax directly. DMCs don't do much you can't do yourself to be honest.

It doesn't sound like there is any kind of formal arrangement on the account whereby the Halifax would freeze/reduce interest and accept the amount you are paying them - or it could be that what you are paying them isn't enough to meet their hardship payment plan criteria.

Call them yourself and speak to the collections department dealing with your account and find out from them what is going on and then speak to B&E. Halifax will probably ask you to try and increase your payment proposals to meet their bare minimum criteria for a hardship payment plan - which would be around 1% of the balance of the account.

Even at this stage they might only reduce rather than freeze the interest.

They may only freeze interest if it gets to the period when they are at the possible court proceedings stage.

dazza4074

well, with b & e, i pay them £100 a month (i also have another credit card, 2 loans and an overdraft) i have been thinking about get rid of them just recently. would you recommend payplan? i'm not sure if i am confident that i can deal with them directly. i aslo forgot to mention that i owe halifax a minimum payment of £160.72.

ICan'tStandIt

dazza4074 wrote: »

well, with b & e, i pay them £100 a month (i also have another credit card, 2 loans and an overdraft) i have been thinking about get rid of them just recently. would you recommend payplan? i'm not sure if i am confident that i can deal with them directly. i aslo forgot to mention that i owe halifax a minimum payment of £160.72.

Payplan, CCCS and CAB are worth trying as they don't charge, however, for this reason their waiting-lists are going to be quite long. Also they don't do anything magical and you could probably do it yourself. You can insist on having all contact in writing if you don't want to speak to your lenders directly.

How much of your £100 to B&E is deducted as their fee ? If you only have £100 to go across five creditors, you can't afford to be paying a DMC management charge as well.

You need to speak to Halifax as soon as possible to try and negotiate your arrears with them. What is your total balance with them ?

fozmcfc

I would get Baines and Ersnt to have a word with them as they should be dealing with such things.

My mate is under debt management with Churchwood and they are at least helpful when he gets hassle. If he gets a letter from them, he basically just passes it on to them and any phonecalls he gets he tell them to contact Churchwood.

Just recently he has been receiving letters from companies telling him, that his debt with them is now clear.

I daresay he could have sorted things out himself, but I just think if he tried, he would have just continued to disappear up his own backside. This way he knows how much each month he is going to pay each month.

PNPSUKNET

not sure if people know companys frown on people paying for debt mgnt as the fees can go towards the debt

dazza4074

Current balance is £480.25, i think with next months interest and a possible late charge fee, i will be in the red.

i pay a management fee of about £35 a month, its very steep, i have contacted them about it, will contact them again i think. also, is it better off is i pay off weekly as supposed to monthly.

ICan'tStandIt

dazza4074 wrote: »

Current balance is £480.25, i think with next months interest and a possible late charge fee, i will be in the red.

i pay a management fee of about £35 a month, its very steep, i have contacted them about it, will contact them again i think. also, is it better off is i pay off weekly as supposed to monthly.

You can pay weekly that is better for you, but it needs to total the monthly amount that your lender has agreed with you.

One month's minimum payment on your Halifax card is £9.60 (most minimum payments are 2% of the outstanding balance so that is where I got that figure from) and most lenders should offer to "re-age" your debt if you can go back to normal payments.

A "re-age" means that you will still owe the money, just it would no longer be regarded as overdue and you would go back to your contracted monthly payments. The main downside of this is that they probably wouldn't touch your APR as they are doing this to get you out of collections and back to being a normal customer.

£35 out of £100 is way too steep for a DMC management charge. Either negotiate a significant reduction or try and bin them off. Did you DMC make you sign a contract ?

dazza4074

I believe i signed a contract, but that was over 5 years ago. i have spoke to them about a cancellation and they have been trying to call me, but i have missed those calls. when i originally signed up, i was pay about £220 a month, but over the years it has gone down due to other financial commitments (rent, council tax, gas, water etc) when i first started this up, i was about 20 and still living with my parents.

are you suggesting "re-age" is a good thing then? my apr on the account is 21.9%, is that reasonable. what if i just go back to being a normal customer but not use the account until its paid up then close it, would that work. I'm calling Halifax on Monday after work, arrange something with them.

ICan'tStandIt

dazza4074 wrote: »

I believe i signed a contract, but that was over 5 years ago. i have spoke to them about a cancellation and they have been trying to call me, but i have missed those calls. when i originally signed up, i was pay about £220 a month, but over the years it has gone down due to other financial commitments (rent, council tax, gas, water etc) when i first started this up, i was about 20 and still living with my parents.

are you suggesting "re-age" is a good thing then? my apr on the account is 21.9%, is that reasonable. what if i just go back to being a normal customer but not use the account until its paid up then close it, would that work. I'm calling Halifax on Monday after work, arrange something with them.

You were with a DMC when you were just 20 and still living with your folks ? I take it you are learning money management the hard way ?

A re-age would be a good thing if you were able to overpay your minimum payment. With a 21.9% APR you must be paying about £9 a month in interest on your current balance. Your £35 management fee would cover this plus the minimum payment and your balance would start to come down, albeit very slowly.

I don't know your situation, so this may not be possible, but if you have a job that offers overtime, I would suggest doing as much as you can stay awake for and throw every spare penny at your debts. Whatever you do for fun, do a little less and put the money saved towards your debts too.

If your Halifax card has the lowest balance and the highest APR, try and clear that one first.

21.9% APR is high, but not as high as some. I've seen some at 30%. 21.9% is too high however for it to be sensible to allow a balance to build up as you will never shift it unless you can afford to pay it off in large chunks as the minimum payment barely covers the interest. A good APR is 14% or less.

Call Halifax and discuss your options with them, but don't offer anything more than you know you can afford as that won't help anyone, least of all you, in the longrun. Always stick to any arrangement you agree, because if it fails there is less chance of them wanting to help you in the future.

I think Baines & Ernst are !!!!!! bags for taking £35 from your £100.

DMCs should be regulated and should not be allowed to charge this kind of money. I'd like to see them all closed down. They make matters worse more often than not and profit from the misery of others. They're no better or fairer than the banks they're meant to be helping people deal with !

exsquaddiegirl

Dazza,

My advice would be to go to contact CAP UK. Christians Against Poverty are a charitable orgnaisation, and debt management experts. Don't let the religious angle worry you - they help anyone regardless of faith. They will do everything your DMC does for you, without charging you a penny. They'll also offer you help with budgeting and any other specialist advice you ask for appropriate to your situation. There are no call centres, every client is assigned their own caseworker, who buddys up with you as a friend. They'll deal with your creditors and, for people who need to go to court for any money reason, they'll come with you and make sure you're OK.

I've never used their services, but I have family who work for them, both as paid staff and as volunteers, and I'm a financial supporter of theirs when I can.