MSE News: Reaction to Halifax's changes

Inactive

tomasfoley wrote: »

Your next door neighbour has provided you a warped sense of what low-income means I'm afraid. Either that or your own definitions are warped, would you say the people posting RL impact examples are all loaded up with Sky TV and a double garage. Hardly I'm sure.

Possibly not, but I bet there are a lot that could easily manage life without an overdraft if they stopped spending money that they do not have.

opinions4u

tomasfoley wrote: »

I never said an overdraft was risk free

Then I have misinterpreted:

"if you have managed your overdraft for the time you have had the facility, no removal is justified (except as a deliberate money maker) because you have shown no evidence of financial negligence and risk to the bank. "

Sorry, but having an overdraft is evidence of risk. Whether you maintain it well or not.

It really does not matter how many people you quote as using an overdraft to the overall rights and wrongs of such an increase. Since when is penalising a minority justification, especially as you know the affected are in the low-income bracket.

Most people who are granted an overdraft facility are not low income.

And "cost neutral" again is absolutely no justification, you are speaking of taking from one group for the benefit of another.

An inevitable outcome of the wishes of the OFT and Martin Lewis.

Besides I still am entirely convinced that the overall beneficiary is the bank.

I don't know how the reality has panned out. But the changes weren't intended to increase profits. They also weren't intended to reduce them either.

Finally "Making charges clearer" is just rubbish, we are not stupid I know what a percentage is. I learnt measurements weights etc at school it does not take a genius to realise what your charges will be

I would hazard a guess that more than 50% of the population wouldn't have the faintest idea how to work out the amount of interest they would be charged on an overdraft. Ask them how much they will be charged for being overdrawn for 30 days at £1 a day and you'd get an immediate answer.

tomasfoley

Inactive wrote: »

Possibly not, but I bet there are a lot that could easily manage life without an overdraft if they stopped spending money that they do not have.

I would not disagree with you. But if your low income in the first place and something comes up and im not talking a burning need for an Ipod, or Flat Screen TV, but perhaps the car you use to get you to work, or a deposit for a flat you need. Or funeral costs for a loved one, I'm sure you can imagine the scenarios. You will need an overdraft and don't forget you took that at 1.5% and you didnt get it for free, you paid the bank a fair rate to borrow that money. Your not going to pay that back overnight are you. Otherwise you would never have needed it to begin with, you dont have spare cash available you can throw at an overdraft.

But for the bank to then throw you 30-60days (bearing in mind its postal chaos) notice, just before xmas. Will totally destroy you financially. How can they afford to clear that in this time?? and where will the surplus that was there before to slowly wittle it to zero come from. Its a trap and the bank takes from you with no right whatsoever.

noh

Originally Posted by tomasfoley
Finally "Making charges clearer" is just rubbish, we are not stupid I know what a percentage is. I learnt measurements weights etc at school it does not take a genius to realise what your charges will be

Clearly you and the OFT have different opinions as they are actively working to make current account costs more transparent and this is part of the Halifaxs response to that.

opinions4u

tomasfoley wrote: »

Your not going to pay that back overnight are you.

When an overdraft is agreed they send you a nice letter stating that "overdrafts are repayable on demand". So you should be prepared to.

But for the bank to then throw you 30-60days (bearing in mind its postal chaos) notice, just before xmas.

The postal strike came after the mailings were planned.

How can they afford to clear that in this time??

By reading literally hundreds of postings on this board giving people suggestions and ideas on amending direct debits, using a credit card (if available) for a month, using a one-off mortgage payment holiday, switching to an Ultimate Reward current account to mitigate the impact of charges on smaller overdrafts, moving their business to another bank, taking out a personal loan, spending less for a couple of months, deferring a major purchase until after the overdraft is cleared.

It might not work for everybody, but most people (if they put their mind to it) can mitigate the impact to one degree or another.

tomasfoley

Haha

Sorry, but having an overdraft is evidence of risk. Whether you maintain it well or not.

Dont be ridiculous, perhaps you don't know how credit scoring works?? The more credit you take, gives you the chance to demonstrate your risk factor, that demonstration translates to an increase of credit, in other words it indicates trust, as opposed to risk.

"Most people who are granted an overdraft facility are not low income."

The offer of an overdraft is usually a dormant factor of an account, only taken when circumstances change, that circumstance is likely to be that a low-income situation arises

"An inevitable outcome of the wishes of the OFT and Martin Lewis"

We have covered this ground. One of you sat and watched the PP presentation, what its someone else's fault that you approved?? Come on lets at least show some personal courage to say yes I took from you to give to another. No-one told me to jump, I chose to

"I don't know how the reality has panned out. But the changes weren't intended to increase profits. They also weren't intended to reduce them either."

That does not change the 3000% increase now does it??

"I would hazard a guess that more than 50% of the population wouldn't have the faintest idea how to work out the amount of interest they would be charged on an overdraft. Ask them how much they will be charged for being overdrawn for 30 days at £1 a day and you'd get an immediate answer."

Hey I have an idea, why not do a graph for your customers, you could use all the money spent on the mailshots, to inform the customers how to calculate percentages. Wow it might even be useful in some other walk of like, I don't know like mortgages. But hey they seem to get by ok.

YorkshireBoy

@tomasfoley

Where did your post containing "I did percentages, weights and measures at school" and "it doesn't take a genius to work the interest out" go?

I'd hit 'quote' and was just about to give you an example to work out, so that we could see which was the more clearer...

paid item/unpaid item/paid referral/overdraft usage/card abuse fee/19.9% authorised EAR & 29.9% unauthorised EAR (both of which will of course need to be converted to a gross p.a. rate before using) = £x

or

4 days at a quid and a day at a fiver = £9

---

PS, have you any proposals to put forward yet?

opinions4u

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

@tomasfoley

Where did your post containing "I did percentages, weights and measures at school" and "it doesn't take a genius to work the interest out" go?

Post 70 me thinks.

luscious_liz

Hi folks, quick question here! I live permanantly from one month to the next in my overdraft, so like many others am considering changing to another account, however, i obviously have an overdraft to now consider, but, is the Halifax Reward Account not the one where they charge £12 a month for you to get certain 'rewards', ie mobile phone insurance etc., and then they give you £5 a month back? Im a little confused by it!

YorkshireBoy

opinions4u wrote: »

Post 70 me thinks.

Thanks. I'll hold fire with the example, and let the poster answer my earlier question first. Don't want to throw a curved ball just yet.