Halifax £1 per day charge for using authorised overdraft? Will others follow?

deadthings

I think this is also one step too far for me. I got the letter and I think having an overdraft with a small fee for occasional use is useful. The problem with this is that with my small overdraft if I go a few pounds overdrawn, just a few pounds then I will get charged £1 per day until I can get back in credit.
The fact is only two weeks ago I knew O2 Broadband were due to take their payment on the Monday, so I went in to pay in the £7.34 on the morning. I got a statement and it was fine. However the O2 payment went later in the afternoon (I logged on to net banking to check a few times during the day) and of course the money was in to cover it.
Sadly I got a letter a couple of days later telling me they were charging me £35 for going overdrawn, even though at no time was I overdrawn! I printed out a new statement and went into the branch and the woman on the desk checked this, and her computer, and then told me I had to have paid in the money the day 'before' it was due.
So even though money was paid in before it went off, I still got charged!
So now I'm going through a complaint process about this, and no doubt it will end up with the Ombudsman.
This new set of charges is the final straw for me too. I know someone has said there is a buffer zone, but even that never stopped me being charged, as even though I wasn't actually overdrawn, if I had not paid money in, it would have only left me a couple of pounds in excess of my overdraft and even that didn't stop me being charged.
It shows how much I could end up getting charged if I go only a tiny amount overdrawn. I mean what if I'm on holiday, or ill and I forget or am unable to cover it in time and it lasts a couple of weeks? I could be down quite a bit of money.
The lady in the branch told me Halifax have become very strict now and are doing anything they can to get money from customers.

With this last change, once my complaint is heard and settled then I will try another bank.

Sorry Halifax, you've made plenty of acceptable money from me in interest payments in the past, but you've certainly lost me as a customer due to this.

I would urge any other Halifax customers in here to ignore those who obviously work for this bank and are trying to con you into not leaving, and ignore their smugness.

Remember, these are the morons who destroyed our economy and caused this 'credit crunch' by their greed.

Don't listen to these greedy people, change banks to one that respects you!!

D.

opinions4u

deadthings wrote: »

I think this is also one step too far for me. I got the letter and I think having an overdraft with a small fee for occasional use is useful. The problem with this is that with my small overdraft if I go a few pounds overdrawn, just a few pounds then I will get charged £1 per day until I can get back in credit.

That's right. It would seem you have clearly understood their clear charging message.

The fact is only two weeks ago I knew O2 Broadband were due to take their payment on the Monday, so I went in to pay in the £7.34 on the morning. I got a statement and it was fine. However the O2 payment went later in the afternoon (I logged on to net banking to check a few times during the day) and of course the money was in to cover it.
Sadly I got a letter a couple of days later telling me they were charging me £35 for going overdrawn, even though at no time was I overdrawn!

The T&Cs of the account tell you to fund the day before. Quite clear.

I printed out a new statement and went into the branch and the woman on the desk checked this, and her computer, and then told me I had to have paid in the money the day 'before' it was due.
So even though money was paid in before it went off, I still got charged!
So now I'm going through a complaint process about this, and no doubt it will end up with the Ombudsman.

While you have the absolute right to go to the Ombudsman after exhausting the official complaints procedure, he will rule against you.

The web site even clarifies this for you. "Check your balance and make sure you have enough money in your account by 5pm to pay everything due to be paid out the following day. The money in your account must be available to withdraw (for example, you must have waited for any cheques you have paid into your account to be available)."

This new set of charges is the final straw for me too.

Ironically the new charges abolish the £35 fee that you object to and, if I have understood correctly, allow same day funding.

It shows how much I could end up getting charged if I go only a tiny amount overdrawn. I mean what if I'm on holiday

Organise you finances properly before you go on holiday. Take responsibility for YOUR money.

or ill

I would expect a more sympathetic view from a bank.

I would urge any other Halifax customers in here to ignore those who obviously work for this bank and are trying to con you into not leaving, and ignore their smugness. Remember, these are the morons who destroyed our economy and caused this 'credit crunch' by their greed.

That is possibly the funniest thing I've heard since Gordon Brown said he'd "saved the world".

Jambo matey, it was all your fault!

Nothing to do with politicians feeding on the back of inheritence tax and stamp duty revenues. Nothing to do with a regulator who was more interested in issuing 13 pages of paperwork with an insurance quote rather than ensuring banks had a sustainable business model. Nothing to do with Mr Brown encouraging people to invest their pensions in buy-to-let. Nothing to do with American politiicans telling their lenders to lend to the poor. (I don't defend the banks for many of their actions that led to the credit crunch - but there were far wider factors at work).

I would urge their customers to work out how best to benefit from the changes. If that is best served by leaving then they are right to do just that. Most people can make small tweaks to the way they budget and benefit from it though.

Don't listen to these greedy people, change banks to one that respects you!!

:rotfl:Go on. Who?

(Has it not crossed your mind that they may actually want to lose some of those customers who currently operate with overdrafts? Surely the lack of funding for lending caused by the credit crunch makes this a sensible business policy).

jambosans

deadthings wrote: »

I would urge any other Halifax customers in here to ignore those who obviously work for this bank and are trying to con you into not leaving, and ignore their smugness.

Let me just address you with one point: I am not an airhead in any respect. Be that a bank worker airhead who blindly follows policy, or an MSE airhead who has an "everyone's out to get me" mentality. I'm quite good at making up my own mind, and much of the counter-argument on this thread has come from personal experience with my Bank of Scotland Reward Current Account, and personal views on overdrafts.

I will forgo the courtesy of addressing the other points you have made, as opinions4u has covered everything off. Plus for a second time, I'm responding to a poster with an ill-informed preconception of myself, who I've already wasted enough time responding to.

sabretoothtigger

I told the cashier at my local halifax she destroyed britains economy and she just laughed, thats how evil they are!:mad:

jambosans

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

I told the cashier at my local halifax she destroyed britains economy and she just laughed, thats how evil they are!:mad:

Did you expect her to apologise?

PROLIANT

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

I told the cashier at my local halifax she destroyed britains economy and she just laughed, thats how evil they are!:mad:

No she did not; the economy was jointly destroyed by dishonest politicians, greedy directors and other associated senior financial industry staff and of course the selfish consumer.

Ignorant_Greedy_Consumer wrote: »

I want a credit card, I want a car, I want a house, I want, I want, I want! me me me me me me me mine mine mine

rattla

deadthings wrote: »

I would urge any other Halifax customers in here to ignore those who obviously work for this bank and are trying to con you into not leaving, and ignore their smugness.

The funniest thing is that there is this view that a member of staff at a halifax branch or whatever would actually come on to an independant forum and CARE to try to encourage people to stay. Unless they are the Head of marketing or something, I guess 99% of bank staff would NOT want to encourage people to stay with something that was a bad idea for. Especially annonmously on a private forum, they are not going to care!!

sabretoothtigger

:rotfl::p

My sister works for a bank, I was just joking. Someone who is just employed to take cash and total the bank branches books every day is clearly not responsible, anyone who thinks so is very silly

rattla

btw....

I'm like most of affected users on here and just end up using the overdraft because its there and means I dont have to watch my balance every day, or worry about it too much. If I go over a few ££'s so what I'll get a few pence interest charge this month.

Will I leave now.... Hmmm... No, I don't think so. But only because the grass is never greener on the other side, there will always be other little niggly things that will bug you. I'll just have to make sure I have a little more leway in there to avoid these issues.

Was interested what 'Overworked' said about combining accounts to avoid interest. How does this work as I have 2 Halifax Current account? Do you still have 2 seperate accounts with seperate balances? And is this something that you can just phone up an ask for?

pebbles88

rattla wrote: »

The funniest thing is that there is this view that a member of staff at a halifax branch or whatever would actually come on to an independant forum and CARE to try to encourage people to stay. Unless they are the Head of marketing or something, I guess 99% of bank staff would NOT want to encourage people to stay with something that was a bad idea for. Especially annonmously on a private forum, they are not going to care!!

unfortunately there are some strange employees that would do that, spesh the ones that dont have anything better to do than troll on here, :rolleyes:

same as there are companies that keep an eye on these threads for people asking for help with debt etc and identifying them through the amounts/details/circumstance etc that they post.