Halifax, what a joke

Dave101t

So my wife tries to transfer money to me online, under £20. transfer blocked, account suspended.
Call them, they dont ask any security questions she has the answers for, instead ask a random question she didnt even have an answer for.
account locked, need to go to branch to unlock it, preferably with photoid but not essential.

go to bank, they dont understand why telephone banking said to come to branch, while on phone to themselves i ask if we can just close the account, she says thats fine as dont need internet banking unlocked to do that.
turns out whole account blocked, cash, isa, matured funds, and so they call THEIR OWN people to ask 'why?'. they put the assistant through to supervisor, who puts her through to fraud dept who dont want to give a reason but eventually say they might of randomly picked the small transaction and because she didnt answer a non-security question correctly its all locked and we need photo id. we dont have any as its with border agency, however i took in the border agency letter, a hm revenue letter, halifax statements, hsbc statements, a photocopy of passport and of course our own wedding certificate.
none of that matters to the morons at halifax.
the branch staff are fine and apologetic, its the people on the phone im having a go at.
are they 'just doing their job'? in light of what we took in with us there was no doubt as to our identification, they simply want to hold onto her money. if i didnt have my own cash she would be stuffed.
now she is applying for a driving licence just to get a photo id to get her own money.
i am also cancelling my halifax account and adding them to my list of companies never to use again due to p1ss poor customer service.

someone out there cheer me up and say they never had a problem with the halifax telephone banking/fraud dept.

System

Its annoying but the "none security question" must have been a question she set.

I suspect its unlikely they set random quiz questions and then lock the accounts of customers who don't know the right answer!

At least you know they have strict security controls!

catmc

i am with the halifax i got a call asking me if i had tried to buy a laptop / computer as my card had been tried to be used this was last year i hadnt tried to use it but would have had to wait to be given the money back i am glad they do this otherwise a lot more people would be scammed

Dave101t

we have no less than 6 different security codes, questions etc. and the one they asked, she couldnt remember setting up. they wouldnt ask any others, simply refused to discuss anything over the phone. i can appreciate strict security but when a genuine account holder cant gain access you can despair! /endrant!

madvixen

I detest the Halifax. I was recently defrauded to the sum of £2400 over 3 day because the Halifax didn't check any of the transactions despite admitting that they were "obviously fraudulent". As soon as the investigation is completed, I will be, moving banks.

Ich_2

We were done for about £3000 a few years ago, contacted by bank, agreed about the fraud, offered free overdraft until monies replaced which took 2 weeks.

Though they did mess up on my using my card in the Caribbean, a call sorted it and about £20 refund offered

bargainbetty

Halifax blocked my card while I was in the USA, despite my having called them to advise them of my location while there. They only blocked cash withdrawals though, so I could still use it as a card, incurring a £1.50 fee each time. Believe me, I got that money back.

I then applied for their Clarity card to avoid future fees overseas, and was rejected. In asking why, I was asked to answer security questions from my credit report (which I had not set up, or checked in a year) and they decided to include details about my brother, which I am not legally obliged to give with his consent.

They then added erroneous negative markers to my file leaving me unable to get a current account elsewhere for a month until Nationwide gave me a basic account. My account with them is empty, and as soon as the FOS investigation is complete, I will be closing it.