Halifax took all my savings!! £600's worth of money!

Omid

Hi all,

Last week i went into halifax to draw some money from my savings account which i hadn't used since 2001.

Been having some family problems.

Account was a Young Savers with my mum (who i no longer see) as a trustee. I am now 17 as of last November.

When the book was updated head office had taken all the money out!!

Apparently this was done because she owed them money, but this account was mine!! She was only a trustee, can they do this?? I was furious. I really needed that money too! Same has happened to my younger brother who had roughly £350 pounds.

Thanks!

Omid

bump

squaremouse

Hi,

Had a similar problem with them couple of years back, had a joint halifax account with an ex, and we both had our own personal Halifax accounts. She got into some issues with owing money to Halifax from her own personal account and they removed money from my personal account to pay for it (£1500).

However, good news is that after I pointed this out to Halifax's head office they put the money back, plus interest charges and all the other carp they put with it, so you should be ok (they did do it again once, but they refunded and then I closed the accounts).

The problem is where the accounts are linked, Halifax will try and reclaim money from any accessible account (in my case because I had a joint account). Make your case to them, they should re-imburse you and chase your mum for the money directly.

Good Luck!

regularsaver1

Omid - even if the money was still there you would not have been able to do the withdrawal as she had full power over the account. She would have had to do the withdrawal

In this case this would have showed on her account profile

katecheshire

What age were you when they took the money out? There may be some bank regulation that says when you are over a certain age the account should be transferred to your name. It may be worth asking that. Does anyone know about this? My daughter says she was about 14 when her Bradford & Bingley trustee account was transferred to her.
If that was the case they would not have been entitled to take your money

regularsaver1

The parent is wrote to when the child is approaching 16th birthday - obviously in this case there is no contact

It won't transfer automatically as the child would need to open an account in their own name and the parent would sign to close the existing account and transfer funds

Edinburghlass_2

As this is not a Reclaim Bank Charges matter I'll shift this across to the Budgeting and Current Account Board.

katecheshire

The fact that it is a 'trustee' account implies that the money does not belong to the trustee but is held for someone else. The mother did not take the money (and may have had no intention of doing so - especially if OP had the book) but the bank did. I think it is well worth approaching the bank and asking to be reimbursed - and your brother as well.
You should write them a letter stating what has happened and asking for your money back. They will have to give you some explanation. If you are not happy with what they say, post back on here and ask for further advice.

PS you could try asking for lost interest as well!!

regularsaver1

I'd say maybe write - but at the end of the day it did have the mum's name

Unfortunately - some parents keep their money in childrens account to avoid tax.

The OP would not have been able to withdraw from the account, but can write in and ask about it. The OP will not be able to do this for bother due to data protection, but can mention it

Generali

It's your money, nobody else has any rights to it.

Write to Halifax and tell them to give you your money back - it's yours.

That your mother was the trustee on the account doesn't make it her money. This is a disgraceful breach on the part of the bank. I work for a bank (not in this sort of area admittedly) and I would expect to be in big trouble if I took money from one account to settle another's debt.

Omid

I am 17 now as of november, the money was took in 2003 but i have not had access to this book. I know the money was taken by head office and this was a savings account used for my birthday money and all that sort of stuff. I think i will have to write in to them and see what they have to say because by the sounds of it they had no access to touch this money. Thanks alot guys!! Will keep you posted. :)