MSE News: Reaction to Halifax's changes

kayjay1809

I'm currently £524 overdrawn, with no income to repay it. So for this I am going to pay £365 a year in charges. I don't think so! I have frantically been selling things and have managed to transfer £300 over today, leaving me £224 to find before they implement this. I don't work due to ill health and sometimes need an overdraft facility. I do realise I shouldn't use it as I need to either wait for Christmas or birthday money to come in to pay it off as my husband doesn't earn sufficient to cover it. However my son has a few thousand pounds left to him which is currently with the Halifax, which I will certainly move when they mature. This is one customer they've lost and one potential customer for the future in my son. I am/was happy to pay charges but not these, they are astronomical!

opinions4u

tomasfoley wrote: »

I'm not paranoid, but if you came here to defend the banking sector in upping charges from £1.30 to £30 Per month surely you have no interest in consumer protection.

So the abolition of £35 and £28 fees is nothing to do with consumer protection?

You have totally missed the point as to why these changes in charges have happened.

In which case I smell some infiltration by the banks around here?

It's an open forum. There will be consumers, bankers and ex-bankers offering their views. Having existing bank employees on the board does help people to better understand how to maximise benefits / minimise costs from accounts and changes to accounts.

While it is possible that banks could organise themselves in a way to post on these forums to make their actions look favourable I think it is highly unlikely that this is happening. There are far better ways to utilise the resource of the press office.

There are winners and losers as a result of these changes. It's a shame that the losers are those who tend to manage their accounts properly within their overdraft limits, and the biggest winners are those who will no longer be paying fees for managing their money badly.

It was always fairly obvious that the bank charges campagin would end up with something along these lines. Banks are not charities.

bristolleedsfan

tomasfoley wrote: »

, but if you came here to defend the banking sector in upping charges from £1.30 to £30 Per month surely you have no interest in consumer protection. In which case I smell some infiltration by the banks around here?

QUOTE]

Nah, Many of us are defending ourselves as Savers, Us Savers often get a rotten deal, I will use my last post on this subject to say a big big thanks to :money:and the other Bank Charges reclaimers as it is due to people like them that Halifax launched its Reward Account in February 2009 and its change in charging structure which has applied to the Reward Account since February 2009.

Since February 2009 "many" MSE members have pocketed 5.00 x 3 x 8 = 120.00 with another 5.00 x 3 payment due early November merely for funding 3 reward accounts with 1000.00 a month during a period of extremely low saving rates. :T :T :T In addition Halifax branches have been paying 50.00 for switching payments and credits into the Reward Account (s), since February 2009 ive received 2 instant payments via 2 different branches totalling 100.00, other MSE members have received such 50.00 payment(s) as well. :T :T :T

BTW, Low Income Groups could have funded three reward accounts with 1000.00 per month being as the same monies were able to be transferred to and from the three accounts throughout the month(s) :T :T :T

In reply to post 49, nope I was responding to the apparent charge of coming here to defend the Banking Sector, as per the quoted part of the post.

noh

tomasfoley wrote: »

I think you'll find Halifax isn't the only bank doing this as I pointed out in my post. PS I notice alot of defending the banks goes on around here. That we should all know about this, that overdrafts are a privilege, that the majority of accounts are savers so the low-income customers aren't a priority, that overdrafts can be withdrawn at any time so that justifies total account transformation.

I'm not paranoid, but if you came here to defend the banking sector in upping charges from £1.30 to £30 Per month surely you have no interest in consumer protection. In which case I smell some infiltration by the banks around here?

The last poster is absolutely correct there was very little pre-warning. And an obscure article on the BBC does not mean it was common knowledge. We can't expect to follow all the actions of all the companies we deal with.

The information has been in the public domain since 12th December 2008 when Halifax issued a press release. That BBC story was one of many based on that press release. So thats the best part of a year pre warning.

These changes in T+Cs by Halifax were undoubtedly formulated to satisfy the outcome of the bank charges test case and the desire of the OFT for charges to be more transparent.
I believe consumer protection is necessary and clearly it is effective as it has caused Halifax to change their T+C's so as to comply with what the OFT and consumer lobbyists required.

I do not work for a bank or in the finance industry but I do follow the actions of the financial institutions I deal with, after all it is my money, and my responsibility.

kayjay1809

Basically the Halifax are acting no better than loan sharks

tomasfoley

opinions4u wrote: »

There are winners and losers as a result of these changes. It's a shame that the losers are those who tend to manage their accounts properly within their overdraft limits, and the biggest winners are those who will no longer be paying fees for managing their money badly.

It was always fairly obvious that the bank charges campagin would end up with something along these lines. Banks are not charities.

This cannot be layed at the door of the bank charging campaign. And its quite clear they are about as far from charitable status as could be imagined, read the post above your own. We are not talking on a forum about "winners and losers". But the destruction of peoples personal circumstances with 60days notice. I'm lucky its £100, though even that much given I plan my spending ahead will mean alot of changes.

I think we have forgotten what's acceptable in this country I dont expect firms to be a charity, but there is a reasonable expectation of financial institutions to behave in a reasonable manner. Right now they exercise their business practices like clamping firms looking at every opportunity to catch us out and justify huge charges. That was never the way in the past. I personally hate to see people suffer in the way explained above. Its not winners and losers its alot more meaningful than that.

opinions4u

tomasfoley wrote: »

This cannot be layed at the door of the bank charging campaign.

The new charging structure would not have been considered without the bank charges campaign. Simple as that.

tomasfoley

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

tomasfoley wrote: »

, but if you came here to defend the banking sector in upping charges from £1.30 to £30 Per month surely you have no interest in consumer protection. In which case I smell some infiltration by the banks around here?

QUOTE]

Nah, Many of us are defending ourselves as Savers, Us Savers often get a rotten deal, I will use my last post on this subject to say a big big thanks to :money:and the other Bank Charges reclaimers as it is due to people like them that Halifax launched its Reward Account in February 2009 and its change in charging structure which has applied to the Reward Account since February 2009. Since February 2009 "many" MSE members have pocketed 5.00 x 3 x 8 = 120.00 with another 5.00 x 3 payment due early November merely for funding 3 reward accounts with 1000.00 a month during a period of extremely low saving rates. :T :T :T

So its quite clear your interest in an article about rip-off charges is the fact that your happy to see your wallet stuffed at the hardship of others and instead of just being humble about that fact you decided to post to the forums to be some kind of anti-consumer revelling that all those who complain about banking charges are in fact scroungers in some fashion and that the institutions are doing well for you. Sounds like you could do with a dose of "Trading Places" and I'll applaud you for the wonderful attitude that brings our country to this mess in the first place, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer :T

noh

This cannot be layed at the door of the bank charging campaign.

It can.
It almost certainly is one of the reasons it has been bought in.

As I have posted elsewhere I believe it was formulated as a response to this OFT report from July 2008.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/financial_products/OFT1005exec.pdf
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/financial_products/OFT1005.pdf

linzp_2

I think it's absolutely disgusting. I'm fed up with the government using tax payers money to bail banks out, only for the bank to then take more money through ridiculous bank charges. I'm a Halifax customer and I can't believe they have done this. :mad: What a rip off. Do they think we are all stupid?? I'm off!!!