Grr! What is wrong with Halifax?!

sacha28

To cut a long story short, Halifax made a payment to a credit card company despite knowing that they were named on a DRO (they have a copy of the documents) then refunded when I pointed out the company were not entitled to the money (company informed by official receiver of DRO but failed to cancel payment plan). They then contacted company as part of their 'investigation' who lied and said I had been in contact to arrange a payment plan AFTER the DRO was put in place (really? why would I do that?) so Halifax ruled the payment was valid and took back the refund, leaving me hideously overdrawn and deeply in the crap as it was nearly 2 months after the refund.

FSO contacted them on my behalf and they said they would reinvestigate and put the refund back into my account (with me so far??). Today I have had yet another letter from Halifax stating that they still believe it was a valid transaction and will be taking the money back AGAIN. I have emailed, hand written, telephoned these people and provided proof of the DRO with the company highlighted and yet they have chosen the fabrications of this company and have potentially initiated my DRO being revoked as I will be seen to be prioritising this creditor over all the others.

WHAT DO I DO NOW?! I have spent a fortune on phone bills trying to get this sorted and am tearing my hair out!!! I have since started placing my wages into my partners account as I don't trust these cowboys and have just cleared out the funds but is it advisable to close the account before the FSO have concluded the complaint I have just lodged?

Sorry for epic post:cool:

grumbler

sacha28 wrote: »

....They then contacted company as part of their 'investigation' who lied and said I had been in contact to arrange a payment plan AFTER the DRO was put in place (really? why would I do that?)....they have chosen the fabrications of this company ....
WHAT DO I DO NOW?! ....

Instead of starting numerous threads on the same matter it would be nice to explain at last what actually Vanquis fabricated that Halifax are that impressed with. I don't think it's not just Vanquis' word.

opinions4u

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/61767847#Comment_61767847

One of the responses to your thread last month pointed you in a helpful direction.

pmduk

I'm not going to suggest that Halifax are the best at customer service, but you keep posting on here without any new info. What did the OR say? How has the Halifax justified it's latest debit?

sacha28

Grumbler they have posted me a copy of the fax that Vanquis sent to them claiming that I had contacted them in March so yes, it is just based on what Vanquis have said. They asked Vanquis if the payment was valid and they said it was as I had phoned them. Total crap. Halifax have told me in writing that this is based on communication they have had with Vanquis. I'm failing to see what you're getting at here?

I have spoken to OR who advised me to speak to Vanquis to ask if they had received the notification, which I did and they had, but with regards to Halifax they can't help as it's an issue with them.

As for creating numerous threads, what am I supposed to do when my other threads barely get looked at? I don't have the time to sit trawling through pages of previous threads to get them bumped up.

sacha28

PMDUK what info would you like? Ask away and I will tell you, I have nothing to hide regarding this.

sacha28

Grumbler I apologise, I wrote without reading your post properly. It was the fax that Vanquis sent to them stating I had made a phone call on 26th March this year and set up a payment plan. My DRO was put in place in January and I have had no contact with Vanquis since October last year (it transpires after speaking to them). Apparently this was evidence enough for them to honour the payment.

dalesrider

sacha28 wrote: »

To cut a long story short, Halifax made a payment to a credit card company despite knowing that they were named on a DRO (they have a copy of the documents:cool:

No the credit card company TOOK the payment. Not Halifax sent them the money.
There is a real difference in that.

It amazing how many people think that a bank can stop a single company from taking a payment.
Its not a simple thing to do....

If you want personal banking where someone monitors your account in situations like this. Then you are going to have to pay the big fee's that these banks charge.

There must be some real good evidence from the CC co against the DRO and the timescales involved.

Did you tell the CC co or Halifax that you withdrew your authority, to allow further debits before that payment was taken?
If you did then this falls under PSD 2009.
Given FOS have already stuck their nose in and Halifax are more than happy to redebit then I can only take it that the evidence from the CC shows they were not informed before they took the payment and also Halifax had not been advised of your withdrawal of authority to allow funds to be taken by the CC co.

sacha28

dalesrider, when I contacted Vanquis the first thing the customer services advisor said to me after all the checks was 'you have a debt relief order in place' to which I replied 'oh so you do know? Do you realise you have been taking money off me despite this?' and she said 'yes I'm very sorry we knew but for some reason have not acted on it, I will cancel it now'. As for telling Halifax to cancel any payments to them, no I didn't as there were no payments set up with them cancel.

Also Halifax originally told me to ask Vanquis to refund the money re-debited from my account but, during yet another phone call, they said they hadn't received a payment. Phone Halifax again and get told by the advisor that the money wouldn't have gone to Vanquis as they first refund out of their own funds so it is Halifax that have the money, not Vanquis.

dalesrider

sacha28 wrote: »

As for telling Halifax to cancel any payments to them, no I didn't as there were no payments set up with them cancel.

Under PSD (payment services directive) you have the right to contact Halifax and advise them that you no longer wish payments to go to the CC co.
I can only guess that they were using your card details to take the payments and not a DD.
If that is the case than had you spoke to Halifax they could have delt with this a lot easier. As the CC co have no right to come back under PSD.

sacha28 wrote: »

Also Halifax originally told me to ask Vanquis to refund the money re-debited from my account but, during yet another phone call, they said they hadn't received a payment. Phone Halifax again and get told by the advisor that the money wouldn't have gone to Vanquis as they first refund out of their own funds so it is Halifax that have the money, not Vanquis.

Halifax will have refunded you upfront themselves (PSD requirement) and then claimed the money back for the CC co. So in effect Halifax get the money back from the CC co and the CC co are left chasing you for the debt.
Halifax will be redebiting you because the CC have rejected the chargeback on the basis that they were not informed to stop taking payment till after it was taken.
There has to be one clear day between cancelation and a payment being taken.

BTW. I'm not defending either party here. Just trying to show how they have come to their decision.

grumbler

dalesrider wrote: »

No the credit card company TOOK the payment. ...

How have they done this? I know only two ways: DD and card payment. Both require authorisation from the account holder (assuming that if there was an old DD it was cancelled).

ETA: I posted this before seeing your last post above. And I've never heard of CC companies using CPAs for collecting payments, but I can be wrong.