Some advice required over mis-selling of Halifax Ultimate Reward Acc please :)

cat04

Hi,

I've had a look around the board but can't find anything that matches our situation exactly. Before I start I must say that financial matters have never been OH's forte and in our house I definitely wear the money boots!

OH spent a year in Spain with his ex and on moving back to the UK in 2004 opened a Halifax Cardcash account and was given an Electron Visa card. He's not in now so I can't double check this next fact at the mo but I think it was a while later when he went in to the branch where he was persuaded to open an Ultimate Reward account (in addition to his cardcash acc), their main reason being that it would be a full Visa card rather than Electron so could be used in more places.

He was perfectly fine with his original account and in fact still has it now using it mainly for ebay/paypal. It wasn't anything he particularly needed or wanted but I think they bigged up the Visa element and made it sound essential from what he's told me. He never used any of the benefits he was paying for, never registered details of his mobile phone with them for the insurance etc etc, basically paying out for, well, very little benefit in his eyes.

The Ultimate acc was closed when we opened a joint Halifax Reward account in 2009. We have since moved house and after looking in all the paperwork files today I have a suspicion that if we still have any paperwork relating to this account it may be in the loft. If not and we shredded it we have no statements and possibly not even the account number.

Basically it comes down to this:

1) If we do have the paperwork does he stand a good chance of claiming mis-selling of the Ultimate account and getting the fees back? I know a bit about PPI claims etc from helping a friend but not much about account fee claims unfortunately, which is why I'm asking you clever people

or

2) If we don't have any paperwork and/or account number is it just a case of tough luck?

Thank you in advance for any replies

[Deleted User]

cat04 wrote: »

Hi,

I've had a look around the board but can't find anything that matches our situation exactly. Before I start I must say that financial matters have never been OH's forte and in our house I definitely wear the money boots!

OH spent a year in Spain with his ex and on moving back to the UK in 2004 opened a Halifax Cardcash account and was given an Electron Visa card. He's not in now so I can't double check this next fact at the mo but I think it was a while later when he went in to the branch where he was persuaded to open an Ultimate Reward account (in addition to his cardcash acc), their main reason being that it would be a full Visa card rather than Electron so could be used in more places.

He was perfectly fine with his original account and in fact still has it now using it mainly for ebay/paypal. It wasn't anything he particularly needed or wanted but I think they bigged up the Visa element and made it sound essential from what he's told me. He never used any of the benefits he was paying for, never registered details of his mobile phone with them for the insurance etc etc, basically paying out for, well, very little benefit in his eyes.

The Ultimate acc was closed when we opened a joint Halifax Reward account in 2009. We have since moved house and after looking in all the paperwork files today I have a suspicion that if we still have any paperwork relating to this account it may be in the loft. If not and we shredded it we have no statements and possibly not even the account number.

Basically it comes down to this:

1) If we do have the paperwork does he stand a good chance of claiming mis-selling of the Ultimate account and getting the fees back? I know a bit about PPI claims etc from helping a friend but not much about account fee claims unfortunately, which is why I'm asking you clever people

or

2) If we don't have any paperwork and/or account number is it just a case of tough luck?

Thank you in advance for any replies

I think the reason you can't find an article that matches is because it doesn't sound like you were mis-sold.

The account was fully explained, what it included and what it cost.
You say the only reason your OH was enticed to take it was for a Visa card, but he said he didn't need a Visa card at the time.

His decision to take the account was therefore his own decision and I cannot see any evidence of mis-selling, just a possible bad decision on his part.
(A full Visa card would generally be more beneficial to most compared to an Electron card - but your OH obviously knows his own requirements best)

See the MSE guide for more details:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-packaged-bank-accounts

cat04

Thank you for your reply Starline. After hearing bits about mis-selling recently I just wondered if it fit with my OH's account as I remember when I found out he had a fee paying account wondering why he signed up to it!

Thanks for clearing that up, will tell him he's been relieved from a trip up into the loft!

Unhappy_Camper

Hi CAT04,

You should try down the 'sold not suitable for your needs' route, as it seems nothing was used with the payable account, so paying for what was never going to or was used. I had the same kind of thing with another bank and they have returned my paid fees + interest.
Hope this helps

cat04

Ah thank you Unhappy Camper, I think we will try that route then and even if OH doesn't get anything back then at least we know we've tried and nothing's been lost.
Pleased to hear it worked for you