Whats the consensus here, halifax charges?

happymummy

I'm sure you are all aware of the ludicrous (sp) way the halifax have of administering bank charges, I'd just like to ask your opinions about it.

I have a cardcash account with them, I'm a single parent so on quite a tight budget, I had an unexpectedly high mobile bill to pay on mondy and I was £12 short so they didnt pay it, got my letter through today telling me the will charge me £35 in 7 days and if the charge makes me go overdrawn (unauthorised) they will charge me a further £28 and interest.

Why didnt they pay the Direct debit, then they would only have to charge me once for unauthoried OD (might I add I would've only been overdrawn 1 day) instead of twice for failed DD and unauthorised OD.

Fortunately (or is it unfortunatley) the day they apply the charge for the failed DD will be the day I get my benefit so I wont be charged twice, but I will be left extremely short of money next week as I still have the mobile bill to pay.

I hate the halifax!

grumbler

There is no reason to hate Halifax for this. To the best of my belief, any cashcard account does not have overdraft facility at all (either authorised or unauthorised).
Instead of blaming bank, is not it better to start budgeting and cut mobile bill?
Sorry for sounding a little rude.

Tony_H_3

This is one of the things that actually make me extremely angry. It has been decided that people MUST receive their benefits directly into a bank account. I am forever reading news storys where people have had their benefits consumed by bank charges. The vast majority of people whom receive benefits do not have disposable income, which effectively means they will go without until the charges have been cleared.

You have my absolute sympathy as do all those I read about in news papers etc. Banks should be forced by law NOT to be allowed to excessively charge in these circumstances. People have been forced into this situation by the goverment & something needs to be done about it. :mad:

happymummy

grumbler wrote:

To the best of my belief, any cashcard account does not have overdraft facility at all (either authorised or unauthorised).

But they will let you go overdrawn if they need to take a charge from you and charge you for the priviledge!

I know its my fault I'm not disputing that, what I am is, why didnt they just pay the DD and charge me the unauthorised OD charge?

It gets into a very vicious circle, you miss a DD you get charged you go OD you get charged, you are skint due to the charges you miss another DD you get charged again.......

I've not had a failed DD for over a year, like I said it was an unexpectedly high bill.

grumbler

happymummy wrote:

But they will let you go overdrawn if they need to take a charge from you and charge you for the priviledge!

My son has a cash card. Could you clarify this for me, pls. Does this mean that he can withdraw more money than he actually has on his account? I was sure that he cannot! Am I mistaken?

Tony_H_3

I would just like to add what I see would be a very valid excuse for a person finding themselves in this position!

When paid via orderbook / giro you would receive your money on a fixed day "Example - A Wednesday" today is the 9th of February so you would pay your bills on Wednesday 9th of February.

Now forced to use a bank account & direct debits for bills, your bills are paid on the 9th of a month. So that's:

Wed 9th Mar
Sat 9th April
Mon 9th May
Thu 9th June
Sat 9th Jul
Tue 9th Aug
Fri 9th Sep
Sun 9th Oct
Wed 9th Nov
Fri 9th Dec

75% of the time when a Direct Debit is taken the funds would not be there to cover them, the banks are onto a sure fire winner unless something is done about the way benefits are paid, perhaps they should be paid monthly?

happymummy

grumbler wrote:

My son has a cash card. Could you clarify this for me, pls. Does this mean that he can withdraw more money than he actually has on his account? I was sure that he cannot! Am I mistaken?

No, he cannot withdraw more money than he has, nor can he use his debit card if there isn't enough funds, what I am saying is, the halifax will not grant you an unauthorised OD unless it is them taking the money off you for a charge.

Quote the letter

"We haven't been able to pay the item below because there wasn't enough money in your account. To cover our cost, we make a charge of £35 (max 3 charges per day) for any itme we cant pay. We will take this money from your account 7 days from the date of this letter. If this causes you to have an unauthorised overdraft, we will also charge you interest at the unauthoried rate and a monthly unauthorised overdraft fee of £28. However if your unauthorised overdraft is £30 or less the unauthorised overdraft charge will not be applied."

I kinda wish I hadn't started this thread now!

Lucky you being in a position to meet every DD every time! and wo betide me for being £10 short once!

Tony_H_3

You are quite right to have started this thread. So many people have lost out finacially since benefits had to be paid directly into a bank account, i really do think it's disgusting. Your post mentioned the condition halifax apply to unauthorised OD's I notice the fee for them not paying an item is £35.00 & they will waiver the £28.00 charge so long as the UOD = < £30.00. Once again the odds are clearly stacked in the banks favour. :mad:

louise1234_2

The bank are quite upfront and clear about the charging policy.

Under the DD scheme, the mobile phone company have to give you I think it is 10 days notice of amount they are taking. You can also cancel your direct debit at any time with your bank.

So you knew you wouldn't have the money, but expected the bank to pay your mobile bill?? I'm sure you know you were in wrong, but you could have cancelled DD (instead of expecting halifax to pay it) and called mobile company. Thus avoid the charges you are complaing about.

If you are having problems managing your account, the best advice is to cancel direct debits (especially those that change amounts). This way you will never incur any charges, and you will be 100% sure you have the money before making any payments.

sunflower_2

i dont think the issue is regarding the budgeting of her account
its the ridiculous way that the halifax charge !

happymummy (as far as i am aware) appreciates the fact that she was £10 short and there wasnt enough to cover her DD (and it happens to most people at some point)

what she is upset about is the fact that they didnt pay the DD but charged her £35 for not paying it and then plan on charging more if she doesnt find the money to put in and cover her charges
if she didnt hav the benefit going in where would she find the money from?
so thats £63.00 in charges !
PLUS she still has to pay the mobile bill !!!

instead of them just paying the mobile bill and charging the £28 unauth o/d...

sunflower_2

i had a loan repayment coming out of my halifax account on the 1st day of the month for £130
on the 1st working day in Dec the money was in there (well i just say had enough overdraft to cover it anyway)

when i logged onto online banking at work (for some odd reason) i noticed it hadnt been taken

i rang halifax and they said it had been returned unpaid due to unsufficient funds, and that I would be charged £35 and the extra £28 etc etc etc
the loan company were also going to charge me £30 admin charge
and reapply in 14 days for the payment

this was because on the same day, they had debited my £8ish interest for my overdraft !

apparently i was notified, but to be honest i never checked the dates on my statements for when my interest will be debited (i do now tho)

its so annoying - i was only £6 short of the £130

:mad: