Can Halifax do this!!!!

Stazie04

I few years ago me and my partner decided to get a Joint bank account, mainly because he was with Halifax (and not very good with money and staying on top of things) and we was fed up with the £35.00 bank charges. In the process of moving accounts my partner was late with informing his car insurance company of his new bank account details for his monthly direct debit (he had informed his employer so his wages were going into the new account).

So the car insurance company took the monthly direct debit out it was for about £30.00 roughly, when we had noticed a couple of days later we transferred the amount in which it he had gone over drawn. In the meantime we had got a letter from Halifax informing us that there would be a £35.00 charge. So when Halifax went to take this charge there was no money in there again and basically this spiralled out of control in which Halifax kept trying to take a new bank charge, adding another bank charge on when there was no funds in the account until the account ended up over £500.00 overdrawn. At which point my partner phoned Halifax and said can you please stop this as it was endless in which they agreed but said that he had to pay back the £500+ which we couldn't afford to do and we agreed a monthly repayment plan of £7.00 a month.

Now I probably know what your thinking 'why didn't you just pay the first bank charge, and you wouldn't be in this mess' which in hindsight I couldn't agree more, but we got ourselves in a mess.

But what I'm wondering is, surely Halifax can't do this?! I mean its not like we have borrowed £500.00 from Halifax and not paid them back, we paid the original monies from the direct debit that bounced and I agree we should probably pay back the first bank charge of £35.00, but to be £500.00 in debt which is made up entirely of bank charges seems completely ridiculous.

Little_Mo_70

Stazie04 wrote: »

I few years ago me and my partner decided to get a Joint bank account, mainly because he was with Halifax (and not very good with money and staying on top of things) and we was fed up with the £35.00 bank charges. In the process of moving accounts my partner was late with informing his car insurance company of his new bank account details for his monthly direct debit (he had informed his employer so his wages were going into the new account).

So the car insurance company took the monthly direct debit out it was for about £30.00 roughly, when we had noticed a couple of days later we transferred the amount in which it he had gone over drawn. In the meantime we had got a letter from Halifax informing us that there would be a £35.00 charge. So when Halifax went to take this charge there was no money in there again and basically this spiralled out of control in which Halifax kept trying to take a new bank charge, adding another bank charge on when there was no funds in the account until the account ended up over £500.00 overdrawn. At which point my partner phoned Halifax and said can you please stop this as it was endless in which they agreed but said that he had to pay back the £500+ which we couldn't afford to do and we agreed a monthly repayment plan of £7.00 a month.

Now I probably know what your thinking 'why didn't you just pay the first bank charge, and you wouldn't be in this mess' which in hindsight I couldn't agree more, but we got ourselves in a mess.

But what I'm wondering is, surely Halifax can't do this?! I mean its not like we have borrowed £500.00 from Halifax and not paid them back, we paid the original monies from the direct debit that bounced and I agree we should probably pay back the first bank charge of £35.00, but to be £500.00 in debt which is made up entirely of bank charges seems completely ridiculous.

In answer to your question, yes they can do this. And the reason lies within your posting I'm afraid - you should have paid up!

It's so easy to get in a mess because of a small amount but at least you faced up to the debt and entered into a dmp with them to keep the dca's from the door. It's a hard lesson to learn but it isn't the bank's fault. Hope things are a bit easier for you now and your partner a bit more money savvy.

Mo