Halifax Overdraft New Charges

opinions4u

simber71 wrote: »

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.

This is possibly one of the more baffling posts that I've seen.

Firstly, your current account with Lloyds isn't affected by this in any way by the new Halifax charging structure.

Secondly, you imply that you have more than £50,000 to save. If you charge them £1 a day for the use of your savings that would be a rate of 0.73%. I think they'd be quite delighted to attract savings business on your terms.

Finally, running to Northern Rock for 100% protection outside of the FSCS seems a little futile when today's news seems to make it quite clear that there's a plan to return the bank to the private sector.

YorkshireBoy

simber71 wrote: »

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

Only if your T&Cs, as amended from time to time with notice, say you can...surely?

Be warned though, they may refuse to accept your proposal and ask to terminate the relationship...as is also your prerogative under said T&Cs.

Extant

simber71 wrote: »

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.

Although opinions4u has pointed out where this might be futile, I still think you should try this.

Their answer will be a polite version of a popular phrase starting with "Go fuc..."

They're the service provider, not you - they're the ones who get to set the terms.

Mother143

nickyhutch wrote: »

OH and I have an account each, with a combined overdraft of £1800 - how do we go about combining? Would they let us keep that overdraft total?

I have only signed up today to try and answer this as I have just done it. I had three OD's with Halifax and they total £2900 but I phoned up and merged the allowance of the overdrafts into one account. I will still need to try and reduce this by £400 for the 6 December but it means I am not paying at least £90.

It really has given me the incentive to try and reduce the OD were I had taken for granted that it was available.

I am already having financial diffs and this just adds to it. The good thing to come out of all this credit crunch will be that I will teach my children better. If they don't have the money to buy save for it.

Hope this helps a little.

nickyhutch

Thanks Mother143, and glad for you that they could sort that out - that's a fair amount you'll be saving. Our problem is that the accounts are in each of our names so I can't see that they will merge them for us - but your reply has reminded me to ring up and ask!

chris_m

Could you not pay one from the other? Obviously, that is assuming that one has sufficient "spare" overdraft facility to accommodate the other A/Cs overdraft amount.

nickyhutch

If only! No, we're up to the limit on both. Thanks though :-)

scooby359

rehab_101 wrote: »

Especially as the reason behind it is so they can abolish/reduce charges for unpaid items etc. Well thats fine for people that incur charges for unpaid items, who will now be charged £5 as opposed to £35, however, i am not one of those people who incur charges.

People complained about unauthorised charges being too high and it was warned that losing them would come with big changes, and it's happened. If the banks can't make their revenue from those fees, they're going to make it somewhere else. Other banks will follow, I'm sure.

rehab_101 wrote: »

Especially since it has become apparant to me that HBOS staff are being charged at half of this rate, at 50p per day.

Yes, it's a staff benefit. Or pehaps you disagree with companies doing that? Shall we queue outside Asda and complain there too? I'm sure staff there save more than £15 a month with their discount..

I've got an overdraft with Halifax, so it's going to cost me to use it, but I can see from their side of things, they're a business out to make profit. If people are going to borrow off them, they want to charge, and as they're losing the revenue from ovd fees, it's a lot to make back.

Complaining won't change much - this was due to come in July 2008 but was postponed, so it's been in the works for a long time. The £10 buffer was also in place when the plans were announced to staff back in September.

Branches have been advised (whether they've read it or not is another matter) that customers can merge their overdrafts to pay fees on just one account rather than several. Otherwise special offers have been set up for existing credit card customers to transfer overdraft balances on to their card at a reduced interest rate, or to take a small personal loan at a lower rate than usual.

Ultimate Reward account holders will also get the £5 reward from December if the account is funded with over £1000 per calendar month. So if you use the benefits and a small overdraft, it may be worth considering.

Pinklepurr

I have an Intelligent Finance current account. IF are part of the Halifax banking group. Does anyone know if these new charges apply to IF account holders? I haven't received any letter.

opinions4u

Pinklepurr wrote: »

I have an Intelligent Finance current account. IF are part of the Halifax banking group. Does anyone know if these new charges apply to IF account holders? I haven't received any letter.

No change to IF at this point in time.