Unfair charge by Halifax for original statements?

virgin_moneysaver

I may be wrong but I was under the impression that even if you had an internet run account, the bank /building society had to provide you with a printed statement at least once a year

anewman

gazza975526570 wrote:

Do you generally receive statements though and its just these 3 months your missing for some reason as you dont make it clear if you have ever received any.

Well going back a while now I used the online banking to pay bills manage money etc etc. Received an e-mail from Halifax sayig if you switch to online statements you could win £x. I have now used the online service to switch back from online to postal on a monthly basis - so this problem cannot occur again.

I feel the real issue is I have saved the Halifax money by receiving my statements online (with e-mail notifications) and when I need the original statements for purposes such as this (and Barclays will not accept online printouts or the basic printout the halifax will give you for free) they like to charge either £5 or £10. Last postal statement I have is dated January 2006 - I think there is some banking code or something that says they have to send postal ones every so often?

virgin_moneysaver wrote:

I may be wrong but I was under the impression that even if you had an internet run account, the bank /building society had to provide you with a printed statement at least once a year

Needs to be 3 consecutive months no older than one month so I need to have received within a month so that doesn't help unfortunately. That could explain why the last one I got was in January - perhaps if I had not changed my online options to monthly postal I would be waiting until January again.

regularsaver1

Yes it costs for duplicate - but you have to key in dates so say you key in 1st march to 1st june - this may have covered 3 statements but will only charge £5
They have to be ordered and can take 7 days plus to come through by the way

i am suprised they will not take internet now though

gazza975526570

seeing as you have therefore chosen to receive online statements instead and now require hard copies i cant see where your argument lies.

They will be run off automatically in the normal case and if you require some by exception as there will be some manual intervention (all be it pressing a few buttons!!!) then i think its fair enough to charge in line with their T&C's.

anewman

gazza975526570 wrote:

seeing as you have therefore chosen to receive online statements instead and now require hard copies i cant see where your argument lies.

Fair enough - but I do happen to need original statements now. No doubt there are other people who have and will be in the same circumstances as me - be it for a mortgage or a personal loan.

It is a way of making money by the back door if they do charge. It's a double whammy for the Halifax - they lure you in to having online statements instead by making it easy to do so and saying you will be entered into a prize draw - they then save money on postage and paper costs - and when you do in fact need original bank statements they can charge for you. I think the last bit is wrong particularly when (to my memory) there was no mention when signing up to receive online statements that you would have to pay to receive original postal statements. If there was I would not have signed up. And I am not getting duplicates if I do not have the originals...

It could also be argued that Barclays should realise not all people will have oiriginal statements given that many banks now provide online statements - and when they are being so stringent with ID they should accept online printouts.

regularsaver1

Cardcash only receive statements once a quarter and if there are not many transactions this will then be made quarterly or annually - could this be why? current account is monthly

i know that i can go online now and change my paper-free banking back to postal

have you actually spoken to a manager?

anewman

regularsaver1 wrote:

have you actually spoken to a manager?

No. Didn't really think to and guess it wouldn't make much difference.

regularsaver1

it may well do - as the £5 fee has to be collected separately and paid to an account number - so they can authotise it - if you explain what you need it for

Compound_2

From the Lloyds TSB website:

Reduce your paperwork by opting to stop postal statements – free copies can be ordered at any time and if you miss the old paper statements you can always choose to receive them again

It would be worth checking Halifax's promotion of online statements for something similar. I’m very surprised to hear Nationwide charge as they go on about how they don’t charge for things like the banks do. Clearly, prize draws for going paper-free should be ignored like the scam prizes draws we hear about regularly – the chances of winning are so remote that they don’t justify the cost of entering.

virgin_moneysaver

virgin_moneysaver wrote:

I may be wrong but I was under the impression that even if you had an internet run account, the bank /building society had to provide you with a printed statement at least once a year

sorry - what I was trying to get across was that you were under the impression that as it was an internet account you weren't entitled to a postal statement but as they have to provide one at least once a year, surely they can print and post you an up to date statement detailing at least the last 3 - 6 months