Halifax Overdraft New Charges

rb10

opinions4u wrote: »

rb10, do you have a link / reference to this information to confirm it, or is this merely a concession that isn't mentioned in the T&Cs?

While I have no reason to disbelieve a reliable poster such as yourself it would be good to see an official confirmation from HBOS.

Sadly I have seen nothing mentioning this concession in the public domain.

I think that you can have every reason to doubt what I am claiming. You don't have a clue who I am, and I cannot back up what I am saying in any way, other than that I have been informed of this directly from Halifax.

I am sorry that I cannot in any way substantiate what I am claiming, but it is true!

never-in-doubt wrote: »

rb10 - do you work for HBOS or just an avid fan?

I think you know the answer to the first bit, it's probably fairly obvious.

I wouldn't call myself an 'avid fan', the fact that most of my posts on here are about HBOS is purely because I know a fair bit of info about them.

blueberrypie

logie28 wrote: »

just swapped to alliance and Leicester. got £100 for opening new account plus £25 to me and partner because she referred me.. not bad!

Things to be aware of - differences between what you're used to with Halifax and what you'll find with A&L:

- A&L on-line banking is not real-time. It will not show any of today's debits or credits until tomorrow. FPs into your account will be reflected in your available balance, but will not show on the list of transactions.
-A&L requires there to be enough money in your account to cover all debits by the close of business on the day before those debits occur. With Halifax, you could go overdrawn, but as long as you brought your account back into credit by the close of business, you wouldn't be charged. With A&L you cannot do this - indeed, even if you make the credit at 10 a.m. and the payment at 4 p.m., if the payment would have made you overdrawn without the credit, you will be charged.
- A&L does not transfer payments between A&L accounts (even in the same name) instantly - if you transfer from one of your accounts to the other, the money will not be available in the second account until the following day.
- A&L has a £250 per account per day limit on Faster Payments, and unlike Halifax, which tells you before the payment is sent whether it will be FP or not, A&L does not tell you at all. The only way to know is to check afterwards with the receiving account.

Perhaps some of the above information will be useful to you.

exessexmum

blueberrypie wrote: »

Things to be aware of - differences between what you're used to with Halifax and what you'll find with A&L:

- A&L on-line banking is not real-time. It will not show any of today's debits or credits until tomorrow. FPs into your account will be reflected in your available balance, but will not show on the list of transactions.
-A&L requires there to be enough money in your account to cover all debits by the close of business on the day before those debits occur. With Halifax, you could go overdrawn, but as long as you brought your account back into credit by the close of business, you wouldn't be charged. With A&L you cannot do this - indeed, even if you make the credit at 10 a.m. and the payment at 4 p.m., if the payment would have made you overdrawn without the credit, you will be charged.
- A&L does not transfer payments between A&L accounts (even in the same name) instantly - if you transfer from one of your accounts to the other, the money will not be available in the second account until the following day.
- A&L has a £250 per account per day limit on Faster Payments, and unlike Halifax, which tells you before the payment is sent whether it will be FP or not, A&L does not tell you at all. The only way to know is to check afterwards with the receiving account.

Perhaps some of the above information will be useful to you.

That's really helpful and has convinced me to stick with Halifax despite the fees. To be honest, it will force me to sort our finances out and not use the overdraft as a "What the hell, I'll buy it anyway" spare pot of cash. Will upgrade to the reward acount, change some of our direct debits to later in the month and just keep a beady eye on things.

I check the account online daily anyway, and have a number of linked web savers for different pots of cash, so Halifax is definately the most convenient for us. Hopefully the £5 a month will offset some of the fee for the first few months until we get ourselves sorted.

nickyhutch

rb10 wrote: »

First, try the easy way. Go onto internet banking, and for each account check what limit they are happy to give you. (On the 'Take me to >>' menu, choose 'Apply/change overdraft' and see what the Guaranteed Overdraft limit is.

If either of these are >£1800, then you can just apply for this new limit online - it will be available straight away - and transfer money to bring one account into credit.

If that doesn't work, then you would have to go into a branch or do it by phone to get the combined one put on. The only thing is, I don't think they'll let you combine the overdrafts of accounts in two different names (I may be wrong - check this with them). If that is the case, then you could always add your name onto your OH's account. That way, they will be able to pay off one overdraft with the (newly increased) overdraft on the other account, even if your guaranteed limit online is less than this.

If you need to speak to them by phone, then put in your number here, and they will call you back instantly: http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/callback.asp

Thanks very much for that. I don't hold out much hope though! I checked online and it tells me I can't apply online because I hold a "specialist product" (??) and OH is apparantly up to his guaranteed limit. I will give them a call though.

Other than that, I think I'm going to move my DDs to just before payday so I'll only be overdrawn for a few days at the most. Don't know why that didn't occur to me before to be honest.

rb10

nickyhutch wrote: »

I checked online and it tells me I can't apply online because I hold a "specialist product" (??) and OH is apparantly up to his guaranteed limit. I will give them a call though.

Other than that, I think I'm going to move my DDs to just before payday so I'll only be overdrawn for a few days at the most. Don't know why that didn't occur to me before to be honest.

A 'specialist product' normally means that you have a Student account - and so you will not be affected by the new charges. The Student account does not change at all.

It'd still be worthwhile seeing if you can shift your DD dates around, it's definitely good to reduce the amount of time that you are overdrawn.

nickyhutch

rb10 wrote: »

A 'specialist product' normally means that you have a Student account - and so you will not be affected by the new charges. The Student account does not change at all.

It'd still be worthwhile seeing if you can shift your DD dates around, it's definitely good to reduce the amount of time that you are overdrawn.

Nope, not a student account (never had a student account). I wonder what it is then?

kriss_boy

blueberrypie wrote: »

Things to be aware of - differences between what you're used to with Halifax and what you'll find with A&L:

- A&L on-line banking is not real-time. It will not show any of today's debits or credits until tomorrow. FPs into your account will be reflected in your available balance, but will not show on the list of transactions.
-A&L requires there to be enough money in your account to cover all debits by the close of business on the day before those debits occur. With Halifax, you could go overdrawn, but as long as you brought your account back into credit by the close of business, you wouldn't be charged. With A&L you cannot do this - indeed, even if you make the credit at 10 a.m. and the payment at 4 p.m., if the payment would have made you overdrawn without the credit, you will be charged.
- A&L does not transfer payments between A&L accounts (even in the same name) instantly - if you transfer from one of your accounts to the other, the money will not be available in the second account until the following day.
- A&L has a £250 per account per day limit on Faster Payments, and unlike Halifax, which tells you before the payment is sent whether it will be FP or not, A&L does not tell you at all. The only way to know is to check afterwards with the receiving account.

Perhaps some of the above information will be useful to you.

Thanks.

I think Im going to pass on transfering my direct debits over to the A n L.

Instead Ill take advantage of their 0% OD and stick it in my savings account for a year.

chrisrmartin

About a month ago, with out my requesting it, hbos increased the amount that I could automatically set my over draft, by £4300. I typically only have an arranged over draft of £1300 and don't want to borrow any more.

I wondered if this has happened to anyone else?

I find it suspicious that hbos would do this. I suspect it may be have been an attempt to get customers further dependant on their overdraft facility, prior to announcing the new charging scheme.

Or it could have just been a one off....

opinions4u

chrisrmartin wrote: »

About a month ago, with out my requesting it, hbos increased the amount that I could automatically set my over draft, by £4300. I typically only have an arranged over draft of £1300 and don't want to borrow any more.

Don't borrow more then.

I wondered if this has happened to anyone else?

There was another poster recently who had an increase in available limit. That said these boards have been plastered with posts from people complaining about reductions in overdraft limits in recent weeks. So it works both ways.

I find it suspicious that hbos would do this. I suspect it may be have been an attempt to get customers further dependant on their overdraft facility, prior to announcing the new charging scheme.

Their risk v return ratio is better if you only owe them £1300 (£1 a day) rather than £5600 (£2 a day).

If this had been about pure profit and return on capital they'd have left things the same.

simber71

If the bank can charge me a £1.00 a day for using my overdraft then surely I should be able to charge them a £1.00 a day for using my savings and making themselves money then scale it up depending on how my savings grow.

I have a current account with Lloyds TSB and they even charge me £8.95 a month for the account. The only benefit I can see is my £400.00 overdraft is free (right... £8.95 is certainly not free), other benefits I don't need but at least it is better than about £30.00 a month.

I am now looking into another financial institution not associated with HBOS and Lloyds. Considering Northern Rock as at least all my savings will currently be covered and not just upto the 1st so many thousands.