Halifax ultimate current account charges trick

gidgoodman

Me and my wife have a Halifax ultimate current joint account and have been caught out quite a few times now, first of all I know that if I go overdrawn it is my responsibility to keep in credit. I have 4 children and a very busy lifestyle as me and my wife work so keeping track on spending can sometimes be very difficult, if you go over your overdraft you have the rest of the day to sort it out before being charged so my wife would log onto our account just before 12pm to check but when we awoke the next day it would show money had been taken out the previous day. My wife decided to stay up one night and track what was happening before 12 she deposited so money in to cover any monies going out and waited at 12.20 am nothing only at 12.45 money was took out and charges were applied. The money took out by the Halifax was now showing that it happened the day before and the money she paid was showing as the present day even though the money was showing in available balance the previous day. I find this practice underhanded, if you multiply this by the amount of people that are being misled by this practice it must be quite a lot of money being generated for the Halifax.

lee111s

Ensure you always have enough money to cover any outgoings is the answer you're likely to get...

bengal-stripe

Whenever you pay something by debit card, deduct that amount instantly from your balance, regardless of how long the actual money still hangs around in your account.

Archi_Bald

What did Halifax say when you complained, OP?

anna42hmr

gidgoodman wrote: »

Me and my wife have a Halifax ultimate current joint account and have been caught out quite a few times now, first of all I know that if I go overdrawn it is my responsibility to keep in credit. I have 4 children and a very busy lifestyle as me and my wife work so keeping track on spending can sometimes be very difficult, if you go over your overdraft you have the rest of the day to sort it out before being charged so my wife would log onto our account just before 12pm to check but when we awoke the next day it would show money had been taken out the previous day. My wife decided to stay up one night and track what was happening before 12 she deposited so money in to cover any monies going out and waited at 12.20 am nothing only at 12.45 money was took out and charges were applied. The money took out by the Halifax was now showing that it happened the day before and the money she paid was showing as the present day even though the money was showing in available balance the previous day. I find this practice underhanded, if you multiply this by the amount of people that are being misled by this practice it must be quite a lot of money being generated for the Halifax.

Just to ensure i understand what has happened, am i right in thinking that when you say the the money you say was taken out by halifax -it was bank charges? (overdraft usage, returned item charges etc? and then whatever these charges were they took you over the overdraft limit again (but the charges were dated the day before), i.e not giving you time to pay money in the end of the day they were dated?

If so, you would have had notice from Halifax prior to the charges being debited, as stated in their t&C's

"We will also tell you about interest, any daily fees or other fees for overdrafts on your statements. Within your statement we will also tell you the exact date any interest and daily fees will be debited. This may not be the exact same day each month. You will always be given at least 14 days notice before we take them"

therefore, you would/should have known (if you received your statement) that you needed to pay money in to the account to cover the charges due. If you've not put the money in and it took you overdrawn again, then you may need to ensure in future that there is enough money to cover the payments you make and the charges that are due to debit for previous overdraft usage etc.

Or was it the URCA account fee, if so that would come out the second working day of the month backdated to the first, therefore a charge for a fee you have chose to have and therefore need to account for each month prior to it debiting.

Also, if it was charges halifax believe run then as an overnight process, (same as when they pay credit interest, the reward's etc) and are back dated to night before.


PeacefulWaters

gidgoodman wrote: »

Me and my wife have a Halifax ultimate current joint account and have been caught out quite a few times now, first of all I know that if I go overdrawn it is my responsibility to keep in credit. I have 4 children and a very busy lifestyle as me and my wife work so keeping track on spending can sometimes be very difficult

Their text alert service is very good. It warns you.

if you go over your overdraft you have the rest of the day to sort it out before being charged so my wife would log onto our account just before 12pm to check but when we awoke the next day it would show money had been taken out the previous day.

Don't cut it so fine.

My wife decided to stay up one night and track what was happening before 12 she deposited so money in to cover any monies going out and waited at 12.20 am nothing only at 12.45 money was took out and charges were applied. The money took out by the Halifax was now showing that it happened the day before and the money she paid was showing as the present day even though the money was showing in available balance the previous day.

Crikey, you made that long winded!

I find this practice underhanded, if you multiply this by the amount of people that are being misled by this practice it must be quite a lot of money being generated for the Halifax.

It probably costs them more in staff time, refunds and ex-gratia payments.

Have you complained? What did they say?

(For what it's worth, they run their overnight processes after Lloyds who kick off at around 10pm. If the Lloyds stuff finishes early then off go Halifax. If this is before midnight it seems like you get the difficulty you describe - in other words act early and you won't have a problem).