Urgent Halifax Bank Account Problem

chrislewski

I'm hoping someone can help me! Around 18 months ago my brother got into debt with his Halifax Credit Card (Approx. £1,200 balance). This was passed from one debt collection agency to another, for which he had received numerous letters, although he never really did much about it!

He also has an active current account with Halifax that he uses for wages etc.He received a letter from an agency on 26th August asking him to contact the agency within 14 days to arrange a reduced payment. Yesterday (1st September) £1,200 was taken from his Halifax bank account unaware to him. He was not given any notification and upon ringing Halifax telephone banking, they informed him that this was taken by a debt agency although they could not give him any further info and he would have to ring them directly. Is this legal?

Any advice you could give would be very much appreciated.

M_Thomson

chrislewski wrote:

I'm hoping someone can help me! Around 18 months ago my brother got into debt with his Halifax Credit Card (Approx. £1,200 balance). This was passed from one debt collection agency to another, for which he had received numerous letters, although he never really did much about it!

He also has an active current account with Halifax that he uses for wages etc.He received a letter from an agency on 26th August asking him to contact the agency within 14 days to arrange a reduced payment. Yesterday (1st September) £1,200 was taken from his Halifax bank account unaware to him. He was not given any notification and upon ringing Halifax telephone banking, they informed him that this was taken by a debt agency although they could not give him any further info and he would have to ring them directly. Is this legal?

Any advice you could give would be very much appreciated.

Hi, there is probably a clause in the terms and conditions that they can take money from one Halifax account to pay off another. He must have been ignoring every letter they sent for them to have taken the full amount.

kenshaz

We are talking about a third party removeing funds from your bank account,it must be in TCs,they would not be that silly,but I would check ,because who are these people,and it is rather unethical

regularsaver1

If he has left it and left it - it would have gone from halifax collections to an outside debt collections agency on their behalf (that is why Halifax can not talk about it) - they can take the money if owed. they had made contact and he didn't respond.
He would now need to phone the agency to make an arrangement

Turning_into_scrooge

Are you sure its not Halifax collections that took the money. Most banks put the clause into the T&C stating they will take money from your account if you do not pay your debt with them. Never ignore a debt as this is what happens. Your brother either needs to accept the debt is now cleared or he needs to contact them and discuss it and see if he can have the money credited back to his account and a debt management plan set up for an amount they both agree on. Also he needs to get a copy of his credit file to check whether a default has been filed against him or not. Good luck.