Halifax overdraft charge help

lucyt13

Hi there,

Just enquiring after some help with the nightmare of my Halifax bank accounts!

I opened two accounts with Halifax in '08, a reward account and an Ultimate reward account with the proviso that the Ultimate account would help me get a student account (I was hoping to transfer from Lloyds).
They gave me a £250 overdraft on each, what with times being hard I spent, they then sent me a letter saying that the overdraft was free for 3 months only and I would be being charged £1 a day and £5 if I went over this. I then spent the next year and a half trying to pay this off and the massive charges that went with it, every time I got up to £0 their delayed charges process would hit me again and I'd have another month's worth added on.
I went into the branch after paying what I thought was all of the charges off and closed BOTH accounts at the same time. About a month later another letter came through demanding more charges but they had stopped adding charges as the account was closed apart from this outstanding balance which I planned on paying off ASAP, I paid off the reward account first which then closed the account.
I paid the remaining balance this September when I received my student loan, I received a phone call from them the following day requesting this money and I informed Halifax I had paid that amount and was under the impression that this account was now closed with no further charges and was this correct?
They confirmed this, and I went on with my life glad to see the back of Halifax.

Now this morning I have had a phone call requesting £170 with a further £150 being added on next month. I was obviously horrified to hear this and told them I thought the account was closed and did not understand why they were calling me, they said the account was still open and had been accumulating charges since September when I last paid into the account.
I have nowhere near that amount of money and am living payday to payday with no chance of being able to pay this off. This is the first phone call I have received and all they have suggested is contacting the cccs.
Is there anything I can do, is this my fault or theirs?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

jambosans

lucyt13 wrote: »

Is there anything I can do, is this my fault or theirs?

It's partially your fault, ultimately the charges are relatively easy to calculate, for example, if you're in an unarranged overdraft for 10 days one month, you can easily work out you've got £50 in fees due off at the end of the following month. Plus charges are detailed on your statement.

However, if you've been given misinformation, it may be worth making a formal complain in writing (sent recorded delivery), outlining your on-going attempts to close the account. If you can illustrate you cleared the balance plus £x to cover charges, they may give you the benefit of the doubt, waive the outstanding charges and close the account.

Just a few more points I'd like to pick up on:-

lucyt13 wrote: »

I opened two accounts with Halifax in '08, a reward account and an Ultimate reward account with the proviso that the Ultimate account would help me get a student account (I was hoping to transfer from Lloyds).

If you opened an URCA, you could have changed it to a Student Current Account at any point (providing you were/ are attending a qualifying course). If they fed you some line that you needed to open an URCA before changing to the Student Current Account, that's nonsense.

lucyt13 wrote: »

I received a phone call from them the following day requesting this money and I informed Halifax I had paid that amount and was under the impression that this account was now closed with no further charges and was this correct?
They confirmed this, and I went on with my life glad to see the back of Halifax.

Note the date and approximate time of the call in the letter of complaint. If someone has stated the account "was now closed" and the call was recorded, you have proof right there for assuming the account was closed.