Halifax Current Account Change

Kreeba

Hello. For months now Halifax have been pestering me to change to thier all new current account. It basically gives you £5 a month if you pay in over £1000 (I do) but you then get no interest and any day you are in your overdraft, no matter how slight, you are instantly charged at £1 per day.

I did the maths and given I only usually go into my arranged overdraft by a few hundred pounds for a few days (usually costing me about £4-5 in interest per month) I decided to stick with my old one and not move.

Well, to my suprise, they seem to have got bored asking me and last month moved me automatically to the new stlye of acount. This cost me £20 in overdraft fees for Jan.

I am going to go and demand that I be refunded this amount, with the threat of legal action and moving my accounts to another bank.

So 2 questions:

1) Do I stand a good chance of the in-store bank manager refunding this? Or is it a longer letter/phone call process.

2) What is a decent bank/currnet account now? I have been with Halifax for 17 years now, but after this I am looking for a change. Any suggestions?

MarsdenCuckoo

Pardon me if I'm misunderstanding your post but if you're being charged £20 a month in overdraft fees, doesn't that mean that you're overdrawn for 20 days i.e. rather than 'a few days'?

Each to their own and emphathise with the change in your costs but seems to me that the Halifax are wanting to attract people to stay in credit - formerly their High Interest Current Account attracted approx. 6% for balances up to £2,500 That, of course, is now history so being paid £5 a month for paying in £1,000 and staying in credit seems a good deal to me (considering that you can take it back out again..... ). Don't actually know of a savings account that matches that - does anyone?

noh

The new charging structure applies to all accounts except student and easycash accounts. It wasn't optional.
You would have received a letter in October informing you of the change which happened on the 6th December.
Your options are to pay off your overdraft and move to another bank or stay where you are and manage your money better.

I would think you have next to no chance of getting the charges refunded.

natweststaffmember

I would agree with what has already been said. I don't think there is any chance of a refund but I would pay off the overdraft and probably look for another bank.

Ansu

They will usually refund the first £35.00 of the new charges as your 'first refund under the new structure' if you ask. This is of course assuming you're a good customer and did not get regular charges prior to the change.

As said above, Halifax are aiming to attract customers who stay in credit more often than not. For people who do stay in credit, this is a very good account, though for those who are constantly overdrawn, it's VERY bad.

As far a better account, I doubt you could find a better account in terms of interest...but for a standard charging structure the rest of the large banks still offer £30-£35 per failed Direct Debit/Paid Item when you have no money and £20-£28 for overdraft charges. I believe Natwest have recently reduced their charges if this is a concern.

Remember there are no item charges on the Halifax account for failed direct debits etc, so if you are one who is charged regulary, the amount possible to be charged for multiple failed direct debits, or switch transactions is much higher on other accounts.