HBOS aka Halifax Bank of Scotland

Gadget-guy

Hi Guys, got the shock of my life a few days ago, I do not have a joint account with my wife and have nagged at her for a while. Money has been getting tighter every month for about 9 months and I have just found out how bad it has got. My Wife has informed me that we are 3 months behind in Mortgage payments and also behind in lots more, this I found out has been caused by my Wife edging over her overdraft by £10 here £20 there every month incurring a £35 charge every time that happened, my wife insists she new nothing of this and was not informed until it all got out of hand and is now at a total of about £3,500 (this includes about £500 from previous problems concerning another matter).
My Wife has gone from being a very upbeat person to a nervous wreck. I can not believe Bank of Scotland has charged £35 for every transaction over the overdraft, never trying to stop you, speak to you, or help you. I am at home looking after a baby and a toddler while she is out working and sometimes we need that extra £20 for essentials so this has caused the charges. I am sorry for going on but I am very worried about my Wife and I am struggling to cope also. I got her to make an appointment to speak to the bank but they were not intersted. What do we do now , we have requested all statements but have been told not to expect them soon. Again sorry for taking up you time but any help would be great.

lucky1667

I went 30p over my overdraft limit yesterday and they have charged me £35 today and are refusing to refund any charge now under any circumstances until the ruling...

How crap is that...

Gadget-guy

Gadget-guy wrote: »

Hi Guys, got the shock of my life a few days ago, I do not have a joint account with my wife and have nagged at her for a while. Money has been getting tighter every month for about 9 months and I have just found out how bad it has got. My Wife has informed me that we are 3 months behind in Mortgage payments and also behind in lots more, this I found out has been caused by my Wife edging over her overdraft by £10 here £20 there every month incurring a £35 charge every time that happened, my wife insists she new nothing of this and was not informed until it all got out of hand and is now at a total of about £3,500 (this includes about £500 from previous problems concerning another matter).
My Wife has gone from being a very upbeat person to a nervous wreck. I can not believe Bank of Scotland has charged £35 for every transaction over the overdraft, never trying to stop you, speak to you, or help you. I am at home looking after a baby and a toddler while she is out working and sometimes we need that extra £20 for essentials so this has caused the charges. I am sorry for going on but I am very worried about my Wife and I am struggling to cope also. I got her to make an appointment to speak to the bank but they were not intersted. What do we do now , we have requested all statements but have been told not to expect them soon. Again sorry for taking up you time but any help would be great.

Please any help would great.

sidi_2

Was charged £35 bank charges and then £28 unauthorised overdraft fee for being £1.46 overdrawn for less than twelve hours.

Was told that they were not resolving cases until after the the judgement and when I said that I only became overdrawn after spending according to what the telephone banking service told me what I was allowed - the rather snotty woman said as I didn't have written proof of what the automated system had told me I would be charged and it wouldn't matter if I was £1.46 or £1046 over my over draft limit that I'd still be charged.

If they aren't resolving anything until after the judgement does anyone know if I can still complain?

BallerinaGirl

My DH has been charged £28.00 this month for a bank charge with Halifax.

We are really not sure why this has happened as due to the type of account we have, if the money is not in your account, the card won't authorise. By a slight error on our behalf, we used our card, it authorised, but making the account overdrawn slightly and them resulting in applying this charge which has never happened before and we were assured that this could not happen with a electron card!

I have wrote a letter once, but they are standing their ground at the mo but I am not letting this rest.

Can anyone please help me word a a second letter to them, or link me to a thread which may help?

nickmack

BallerinaGirl wrote: »

Can anyone please help me word a a second letter to them, or link me to a thread which may help?

If you have otherwise operated the account well and this is the first charge, I'd be a little suprised if a phone call could not get this refunded.

If they are standing firm, you will need to continue the process in the Reclaim Guide. The link is in my signature.

cybersquatter

Hi everybody

I was looking at my online banking yesterday and I noticed a £35 charge, listed as "Charge as notified". I haven't been notified of any charge, but I suspect it's related to a direct debit that was returned unpaid a couple of weeks ago due to an insufficient balance.

Before I phone up the bank, I have two questions: firstly, does my assumption make sense? I.e., do banks charge for direct debits being returned unpaid? And secondly, does this charge fall into the "unenforceable/legally dubious" category, and if so, what is the best way to go about getting it refunded? Will it work to simply phone them up and demand it back?

carrie.1985

hi cybersquatter, the charge is probably relating to the direct debit which was unpaid on ur account. even if a direct debit/standing order/cheque isn't paid there is still a charge, known as an unpaid item charge. i would call the bank as they may be able to stop it for you. the bank is within their rights (at the moment) to charge this amount and for this reason but sometimes they do stop the charge if you've not had any stopped before.

good luck
take care xXx

carrie.1985

hi gadgetguy, sorry to hear about your situation. is the bank account the account which your bills get paid from? if so i would suggest opening an instant saver (this account can't go overdrawn so there are no charges whatsoever) or an easycash account (the charges on this account are £15 for both paid and unpaid items) in joint names and transfer all direct debits and standing orders over to this account and have this as just your bills account.
i would then open another account which i would use for "spending money" this way you know the money which you are spending isn't going to affect the bills as they are coming from another account.
your wife would then need to speak to the bank and arrange some kind of repayment plan with them (it doesn't have to be a huge amount each month/week, i think as long as they can see you are making some kind of effort to reduce the arrears it should be ok), i would then stop using the account completely and focus on paying it back. you need to ensure that you stick to the repayment plan as if you miss a payment but have money in another account they can take the money from the account in credit to pay the account in debit.
i would then apply for online banking, that way you can view all accounts and know exactly how much you have available.

i completely understand what your saying about spending £20 here and there on essentials however if this payment is going to take you overdrawn, what costs you £20 in the shop is going to turn into £55 if theres not enough in the account to cover it so when you think of it like that are the items really that essential?
sorry if i've rambled on a bit but i was once in a similiar situation and i know how tough it can be.

good luck lets us know how you got on.
take care xXx

lil_miss_sunshine

What should i do? Send another one..