Freezing Halifax bank account

isbarber

Hello,

I'm writing this post on behalf of my mother. She is overdrawn on her Halifax account. We have set up a new Natwest account to get her out of the red, and the plan was to freeze Halifax to stop the charges, and therefore allowing her to pay off a little every month (which we were told we could do, when we previously spoke to a Halifax manager in person).

My mother has recently rang up Halifax to freeze the account, and has been told that she can not freeze it, but have put her on some kind of credit check where they wont charge her for 6 months, then after which they will charge £1 per day.

Is it correct that we can't freeze her account? Or are they fobbing her off.

Thanks.

grumbler

Would it not be far to simple just to take money then to "freeze" the account and "pay off a little every month" for ages without any interest and charges added?

Frozen interest is definitely not something that you have a right to and the bank is obliged to offer.

For a better advice ask on the Debt-Free Wannabe board.

Hominu

If she's not looking for further credit over the next couple of years, she could allow the account to go to collections and then offer an "Arrangement to pay". This will freeze the interest, but it will significantly damage her credit report and Natwest may not look at it favourably.

Don't forget that an overdraft can be collected on demand, so if you stop paying money into it, they might request paying it off within a set period, and if you can't, will default the account.

So the best option might be to simply keep using the account and paying off the interest and a little of the balance each month.

dalesrider

isbarber wrote: »

the plan was to freeze Halifax to stop the charges, and therefore allowing her to pay off a little every month

but have put her on some kind of credit check where they wont charge her for 6 months,

Is it correct that we can't freeze her account? Or are they fobbing her off.

Thanks.

Seems to me they have done you mother a favor by doing it this way.
What you were hoping they would do, would see halifax close the account once it was paid off and markers on your mothers credit file.
This way she gets 6 months interest free to get herself out of the mire.