halifax

ket1306

Hi,
I am new to this and was not sure where to post this so please accept my apologies if its not in a suitable place.
so...
I had a halifax current account when i was a student and ended up with an overdraft of around £1300 i am now entering a payment plan with one of their debt recovery companies. I also have an instant saver account with them and i am wondering if it is safe to have my wages put in to this account or can they take any money i put in there out to pay my debt.
Please help me.

74jax

I would say it's fine as long as you don't miss any payments with your payment plan.

ajharris

If you are entering a payment plan then I assume that you are agreeing to pay a regular amount to this company. As far as I know this technically means that the debt is now nothing to do with the Halifax as they have sold it on.

However I would advise you to open an account elsewhere and start afresh. To be honest the Halifax are not the best bank in the world. I hope that this helps you. All the best.

onlypaddy

Halifax have the right to set off the debt, that is to take positive balance from one account and use it to pay off the debt on another.

general rule is never to bank where you have debts

MoodyBlues

Definitely switch your pay to a different bank. I know people that have had their linked accounts frozen and moneys seized to offset other debts.

jambosans

onlypaddy wrote: »

Halifax have the right to set off the debt, that is to take positive balance from one account and use it to pay off the debt on another.

general rule is never to bank where you have debts

MoodyBlues wrote: »

Definitely switch your pay to a different bank. I know people that have had their linked accounts frozen and moneys seized to offset other debts.

Agreed, however if the debt has been sold on to an external debt collection agency, they cannot use the right of set off.

If the account is with either Halifax collections/ head office/ arrears or Blair, Oliver & Scott (who appear external, but are in fact in an internal DCA) then the right of set off does apply.

I would suggest (as onlypaddy and MoodyBlues have) that you open another account with an institution outside the Lloyds Banking Group (i.e. anyone but Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, or Intelligent Finance) just to be on the safe side.

jennifernil

A student O/D of £1300 is not huge, how come they did not let you roll it over into a Graduate Account?