Halifax Online Service Down?

rb10

Lokolo wrote: »

Sorry the complaint was more aimed at the "having to go down to branch again because of wrong ID even though was told it would be sufficient" rather than "account being blocked for fraud" which I think would be quite useful in this situation.

In normal circumstances, then yes, that would be an appropriate course of action.

In this case, given what we are dealing with, they are very limited as to the information that they are legally allowed to give out.

Clearly I don't know the whole situation here, but I believe that the bank have acted properly, and I don't think a complaint will get the OP anywhere. A far better use of their time would just be to take in the documents requested.

Botany

Thank you all for taking the time to answer my post.

I apologise for the long rant yesterday but I was upset and yes (Lokolo), I am aware that I would need to keep any complaint sweet and short. I apologise again if I went on a little.

I also appreciate the argument (made by rb10 and in the thread suggested by jen245) whereby a large amount of small transactions would trigger suspicions of money laundering. But –there are two buts.

First off, I query the way they went on about freezing the account. They went ahead and did it in the middle of the day and when I logged on next all I could see was the error message I copied above. Even now, the error message suggests to me that there is a technical problem with the service and that I should try later. Any ‘normal’ person would do just that, trust that there is a technical problem with the Halifax service and he/she would just wait for the service to resume. It is just because I’m not normal (I’m paranoid) that I came here on this forum to ask if anyone had a similar problem, and the negative response led me to give Halifax a call.
I understand that they cannot divulge details online. Fair enough. They could however have written something generic on the online message prompting me to go to branch with ID etc. That way anyone in this situation would have been given the chance to know that some sort of action needed to be taken.
Luckily I have no DDs going out scheduled for these days (next one is in 2 weeks). Otherwise I could have seen a DD bounce and possibly hassle with my credit record all this de to poor communication from the bank.

Second point. I have been looking at my statements and reading the older post suggested here and I do not believe my situation is comparable to that of the person in the other post. The other person was moving £200 back and forth between 2 accounts up to 15 times on the same day of the month. I appreciate this does look odd and may trigger some sort of alert. I don’t do anything of the sort. My last monthly statement shows 20 transactions in total. One was the £5 Reward deposit so I didn’t even do this one. 19 were done by me; they are all for different amounts depending on the reason behind the transaction, eg from a small £20 I moved out (to buy some phone credit) to £675 moved out (because I believed I had a surplus on the account and wanted to move this surplus to a savings account which pays better interest). This kind of transaction looks to me pretty normal. Obviously I don’t know how you all bank because I can’t see other people’s statements but surely we all take money out of our accounts (sometimes little money, sometimes more), and all deposit money into our accounts (be it ‘new’ money or budgeting transfers from other accounts). The Halifax branch employee (who does see a fair few accounts details in her day job) also said my statements look normal to her. All in all, 19 transactions over 30 days doesn’t seem unnatural or unreasonable to me, but please do correct me if you think otherwise.


On a different note, I have a question. I have just received a letter from the Halifax (they must have posted it after I first called to ask what was going on) where they ask me to sign and return a ‘authority to release/receive information to/fro a third party’, stating that “this enables the Halifax to provide/receive information to/from a third party if required, for example a bank/employee”.

I understand the sentences reported above, but what does this actually mean? Any idea what the Halifax will actually do with this form?

opinions4u

The form will allow them to talk to any other parties in relation to suspicious activity linked to your account.

For example, you could be an unsuspecting victim of a fraudulent cheque. By talking to others they may find it easy to establish that you are victim and not criminal. This could be drawing bank, account holder of a stolen cheque, police or other investigatory authority.

Hopefully things will resolve themselves quickly. There is never going to be a good time for this to happen but cooperating will minimise the time it takes to resolve.

jambosans

Botany wrote: »

On a different note, I have a question. I have just received a letter from the Halifax (they must have posted it after I first called to ask what was going on) where they ask me to sign and return a ‘authority to release/receive information to/fro a third party’, stating that “this enables the Halifax to provide/receive information to/from a third party if required, for example a bank/employee”.

I understand the sentences reported above, but what does this actually mean? Any idea what the Halifax will actually do with this form?

Third party implies an entity or person out with Halifax/ HBOS/ Lloyds Banking Group, so I wouldn't have assumed it's related to a staff member.

On a more general note, a few points. Although your account activity may be different, your situation instantly reminded me of the thread jen245 linked to - one I subsequently made quite lengthy replies on, so won't bother to do so here.

There's one of two possible things going on:-

1) Halifax suspect money laundering.
2) Halifax suspect fraudulent* activity.

It's difficult to say, and Halifax are unlikely to divulge much beyond the idle speculation of staff members. When branch staff make comments like "everything looks fine" it should be taken with a pinch of salt because:

a) "Tipping-off" is a crime under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002; and/ or
b) They have very little true understanding of the mechanisms, procedures and security checks in place for such delicate issues.

Despite the sensitivity of the subject matter, there's no excuse for poor customer service, so, as Lokolo suggests, a letter of complaint is probably best.

Botany

I have just returned home after being in branch again. My husband took time off work to be there in person and were there until 5 pm.

We showed all the documents they asked (they did no longer want the transfer of authority form apparently), the staff member photocopied the docs and faxed them through then called them back to check that they had everything. At that point they were satisfied and told the staff member the block on the accounts would be removed immediately.

I could not believe it so I asked the staff member to let me speak on the phone to them also and the man I spoke to (not the same as the rude one I talked to yesterday) confirmed that he had himself just that second removed the block and he apologised for the inconvenience. I asked again why they did what they did and he said that it is because their systems automatically flag up accounts with many transfers back and forth because this could be someone trying to apply for further loans with them (?). Anyway, he also said that he had a look at my actual situation/statements after this automatic block was triggered and everything was fine and he was confident this should not have applied to me because my actual use of the account looked legitimate.

Now off to check if I can actually log onto the account as he promised....

Lokolo

Good luck

Botany

Yep, I logged in and made a transaction and it seems to have gone out FP as normal. :j

Lessons learned from this experience?

Always co-operate promptly and fully.

Now I', off to write a stern letter for asking for compensation for the time wasted for me and actually unpaid time off work my OH had to take today, parking charges for two branch visits etc.

jen245

Glad you got it sorted :beer:

Mikeyorks

Botany wrote: »

Obviously I don’t know how you all bank because I can’t see other people’s statements but surely we all take money out of our accounts (sometimes little money, sometimes more),

I find it a bit bemusing looking at your problem. As I have a Reward (joint) account and notice (it's summarised on the Statement) that the total credits average at least 3 times the net funds that flow into the account on a monthly basis.

That mainly stems from the fact I keep very little funds in the account - move virtually everything out to an external account at the start of the month. And then re-import funds every time there's a DD due etc. Add in that I move £1k to Lloyds and back to do the basic funding for the 4% accounts and similarly to the OHs Reward account .... and I've 'enriched' myself by a factor of 3. Last month (large item to pay for) the total credits to the account exceeded £60k. Yet the net credits were just £15k.

So I enriched / laundered to the tune of £45k ....... and Halifax are for ever pestering me to take out loans / credit cards!

To be fair I have been with them over 30 years - so perhaps their software has grown used to me!

Botany

Mikeyork- As far as I understand form what the barnch employee and the two people on the phone have told me and also repeated to my husband today, what you describe is exactly what they are trying to stamp out, as they mumbled something along the lines that this 'false enriching' is what triggers their offers for more loan/credit cards etc.

My husband told the man on the phone that if their computer systems are so stupid that they pick up 'good' candidates for credit based on that, then surely it's up to them to re-program their computer systems instead of pestering clients who never intended any harm. It's a bit like 'Minority Report': because this 'enriching' puts you in a situation whereby potentially a a later date you may perhaps decide to apply for a big loan I will give you a good slap now just in case. How about instead doing better checks on people who have actually applied for credit and monitoring retroactively their statements and they way they bank instead of assuming that everyone is a potential future cheater?

But well yes Mike, I hope their system 'got used to you'.... and let's hope it will get used to me!