DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

sickasachip13

I agree with BevieB. Also, we accidentally had some money paid into our Halifax account after we scarpered from them, it was housing benefit. I rang up Halifax, explained the situation and the person on the phone said that if this was money required for living on and that we were in the process of setting up a DMP that they would arrange for us to get this back. They sorted it out with the local branch and I went in and picked it up - they couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating.

(oh yes, it was a couple of hundred quid into an account that was 5k in the red)

mallyash

M_G wrote: »

I'm going to open a new bank account today, my DMP hasn't yet been signed or started, I'm thinking about making a couple of months worth of token payments to clear my priority debt first (blasted payday loan!), my credit rating is bad but not awful (yet!), does anyone think there's any point in going for some of the better bank accounts that offer benefits and high interest rates? The new account will always be in credit because I'm going to strictly request no overdraft.
Can anyone recommend any good bank accounts in this situation? Should I just open a basic one to be on the safe side?
Thanks all!

Connected banking is as follows:
(1) Lloyds TSB, Cheltenham & Gloucester
(2) Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Birmingham Midshires, Saga, The AA, Intelligent Finance
(3) The Co-Operative Bank, Smile
(4) Yorkshire Bank, Clydesdale Bank
(5) Royal Bank of Scotland, Direct Line
(6) Bank of Ireland, Post Office
(7) HSBC, First Direct
(8) Abbey, Cahoot, Bradford & Bingley
(9) Barclays, Woolwich
(10) Newcastle Building Society, BMW Savings
One exception to this rule is NatWest, which - although owned by Royal Bank of Scotland - runs as a separate institution. But I would not Trust any savings or money in either account if I owed money to them.

Hope this helps.

Em586

mallyash wrote: »

Connected banking is as follows:
(1) Lloyds TSB, Cheltenham & Gloucester
(2) Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Birmingham Midshires, Saga, The AA, Intelligent Finance
(3) The Co-Operative Bank, Smile
(4) Yorkshire Bank, Clydesdale Bank
(5) Royal Bank of Scotland, Direct Line
(6) Bank of Ireland, Post Office
(7) HSBC, First Direct
(8) Abbey, Cahoot, Bradford & Bingley
(9) Barclays, Woolwich
(10) Newcastle Building Society, BMW Savings
One exception to this rule is NatWest, which - although owned by Royal Bank of Scotland - runs as a separate institution. But I would not Trust any savings or money in either account if I owed money to them.

Hope this helps.

Should Santander be in #8?

BlushingRose

tintingirl wrote: »

Bad luck, that's really annoying :mad:

Is there any way BG can recall the payment for you?

No, Mr BR spoke to them last night, if it had been a cheque then they could have withdrawn and reissued but they just sent it vis bacs (bacs?)

tintingirl wrote: »

I spoke to them today to get a refund on my gas and eletricity account and they checked the bank details with me, but I initiated the refund, not the other way around. I'm surprised they just sent it without telling you first.

We're surprised as well. If it hadn't been for the bank statement we wouldn't have had a clue it had gone in. Mr BR didn't really push that point to them as strongly as I would have done....

BlushingRose

BevieB wrote: »

Hi BlushingRose, We started our DMP in October and was getting bank charges from the Halifax due to a creditor managing to take a DD out when cancelled. I wrote a complaint letter stating that the charges were unfair. This lead to the Halifax writing asking me to contact them.I managed to get over £200 refunded and no further charges. Its worth a go, write to complain and state that you are in hardship.

They already know we are. They know we're on a DMP as they've had the letters although, so far, that's not stopped the charges.
Earlier in the week, we got a letter from them saying that they'd charged us a 'return fee' as they couldn;t take their loan payment out by DD. We took advice from CCCS and then Mr BR wrote a letter asking for a refund of the fees as they shouldn't have been trying to take out the payment anyway as all DDs have been cancelled to that account.

BlushingRose

sickasachip13 wrote: »

I agree with BevieB. Also, we accidentally had some money paid into our Halifax account after we scarpered from them, it was housing benefit. I rang up Halifax, explained the situation and the person on the phone said that if this was money required for living on and that we were in the process of setting up a DMP that they would arrange for us to get this back. They sorted it out with the local branch and I went in and picked it up - they couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating.

(oh yes, it was a couple of hundred quid into an account that was 5k in the red)

Hmmm...interesting. I have a feeling, though, that too much time has passed for us to do that as it was paid in on the 9th Dec and we won;t found out about it yesterday.

sickasachip13

mallyash wrote: »

Connected banking is as follows:
(1) Lloyds TSB, Cheltenham & Gloucester
(2) Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Birmingham Midshires, Saga, The AA, Intelligent Finance
(3) The Co-Operative Bank, Smile
(4) Yorkshire Bank, Clydesdale Bank
(5) Royal Bank of Scotland, Direct Line
(6) Bank of Ireland, Post Office
(7) HSBC, First Direct
(8) Abbey, Cahoot, Bradford & Bingley
(9) Barclays, Woolwich
(10) Newcastle Building Society, BMW Savings
One exception to this rule is NatWest, which - although owned by Royal Bank of Scotland - runs as a separate institution. But I would not Trust any savings or money in either account if I owed money to them.

Hope this helps.

Also, Lloyds TSB and Halifax are linked - my OD with Halifax, moved from Blair, Oliver, Scott to Lloyds TSB to be managed.

sickasachip13

Actually, I've found this drop-down tool (for savings protection) that provides all the links:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/safe-savings#whatcounts

mallyash

sickasachip13 wrote: »

Also, Lloyds TSB and Halifax are linked - my OD with Halifax, moved from Blair, Oliver, Scott to Lloyds TSB to be managed.

Well spotted SAAC, dunno how I missed that.
It looks as though co-op is going to buy out all Lloyds high street branches this year. I'm not sure how this will affect us Dmp'ers.

mallyash

Em586 wrote: »

Should Santander be in #8?

Yes you are correct.
Apparently HSBC are having a sale according to their website. Unless they are selling 20 pound notes for a fiver I'm not really interested.