Halifax Credit Card Problem

Meh01

Hi all,

I am having a nightmare with Halifax, at the end of July 2011 I was offered a 13month interest free credit card from the Halifax. I took it thinking that I can handle it and that it would help my credit rating in the long run.

Well I was paying manually and at the end of October, although I made the payment in October it wasn't accepted until November so it was classed as a "missed payment" for october. My credit limit immediately dropped to what I had already used. I thought, thats fine, my mistake so I called them and I spoke to a woman on the phone and set up a Direct Debit and thought, that's it sorted.

How wrong was I!

They charged me for the late payment putting me over my credit limit. The following month after I paid in an amount (from my wages) to get it back down, they charged me interest and then charged me for being over the limit which put me back over the limit (this cycle continued). I've been charged interest on a regular basis since this point. I've also had my Direct Debit running although I am sure that for a few months it wasn't covering the minimum amount that was supposed to be taken out.

I e-mailed them through their complaints page only to get told at the end that they don't deal with Account Specific issues... and I ended up getting an e-mail telling me they wouldn't help me and I needed to call a number.

I don't like calling, I always feel like something gets forgotten or misunderstood over the phone, I prefer having a written copy of everything I have been told as well. Calling back in November was easy with my partner on maternity, I could step out of the room, we both work different hours now and I have little time to make the call.

Well, things seemed to get sorted last month. I just let things go, let the minimum payment come off by DD (seemed correct last month) and I also paid in extra to try and bring things down.

This month the Direct Debit hasn't come off and I just checked today and my available credit is 86p, the card hasn't been used so I don't understand how this can be the case, I cant check my statements online which is even more odd and the account says its in arrears.

So in a bit of a rage I went and tried to e-mail them again forgetting about the whole "no account issues" so I type out the problems I have been having only to be presented with the totally unhelpful message at the end of the whole process that they wont deal with account specific problems.

Does anyone have an e-mail address where I can contact someone at Halifax who actually wants to help me resolve this.

I work all day and my partner works nights so its very difficult to find time to make a phone call when I'm working or looking after the kids, plus the last thing I want to be doing in my spare time is trying to get my point across over the phone.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide, I Just want this resolved and this card to be getting steadily paid off.

bengalknights

You will have to call or send a recorded delivery letter to them unfortunatly.

Meh01

bengalknights wrote: »

You will have to call or send a recorded delivery letter to them unfortunatly.

Thanks, I've taken some time to write out a letter, figured if I could get an e-mail I could just copy and paste it. I'll print it off and get it sent.

Thanks again.

stephane_2

A letter is still not going to answer all the questions you may have or you may not get the answer you may want. Unfortunately a phone call is the only way forward if you want the issue to be resolved smoothly.

callum9999

Just call them. If something is missed, then call them again or write to them. I really cannot see the logic in letting everything slide just in-case the easy resolution to the problem accidently misses out some small component. Surely it being almost resolved is far preferable to it not being resolved at all...

You may not want to spend your spare time sorting it out, but that's your only option. If you just spoke to them at the time then you wouldn't have gone through all this (and would most likely be far better off financially - I dread to think what all the interest, over-limit and late payment fees you've racked up come to).

rb10

I am not clear from your post what you are trying to complain about. When you do contact them, do make sure that you are clear on what you want them to do about it.

As far as I can see, you missed a payment, and then didn't make allowance for the extra fees applied for this when they appeared on your statement. I may be wrong, but that is how your post comes across.

Macca83_2

Im not sure what the complaint is either...

What are you asking them to do? Stop charging interest? Stop charging you for breaching the credit limit? Raise your credit card limit?