Bank Accepts no liability for declining legitimate payment

g6jns_2

scootw1 wrote: »

it sounded as if the op had already complained to halifax which is why I said to go to the ombudsman. maybe i misread

Noted. However it is not clear if he has followed, and exhausted, their internal complaints procedure. If he has they will have sent him a letter to that effect with details of how to pursue it with the Ombudsman. If they have not done so the Ombudsman will reject the claim.

King_Of_Fools

Are you sure that it was declined just for possible fraud?

I had exactly the same thing happen to me but the reason was that the card details that had been stored were for my old expired card which had been replaced in the last year.

I got the same letter from my insurance company a week or so later but it was made clear that as long as I rang up and paid then the insurance cover would not be affected and I would have been covered for anything that had happened in those few days.

meer53

Halifax called the OP, the OP didn't respond (for whatever reason) so they declined the transaction. Normal procedure for security calls. They will have a record of any contact attempts.

The complaint probably won't be upheld by Halifax so the OP can go to the FOS. I wouldn't hold out much hope of them agreeing with the OP though.

callum9999

Rincewindwiz wrote: »

Thanks for your thoughts.
Yang . . . . Business will go elsewhere (because of other problems with the Halifax) - shamre really after 20+ years of reasonable service. Still I expect they think its progress!
Meer53. Contact. Not as far as I am aware. They claimed to have called. I did have a call (no message) from a withheld number (another complaint) so it may have been them.
Richard Sadly I dont know a 'twoflower!!
scootw1: Complaint in progress (which is how I come to have much of this information. Purpose of this post was to see if I was being 'unreasonable'. Now to fill out the Ombudsman's forms!!

If I ever get a response, I'll (try to remember to) post it here.

Thanks

Every single bank occasionally blocks payments that they think may be fraud (regardless of whether you think it obviously is or not). Every bank will call you when it's blocked to double check it. Every bank will then block the transaction if you don't respond to their call (though I would have expected Halifax to try more than once, and maybe follow up with a letter - they have for me before).

At the end of the day, if you've been sufficiently annoyed by this and it would make you feel better to move then do it. But Halifax won't remotely care (you're one of 4+ million) and this is just as likely to happen elsewhere, so it's ultimately futile. Unless you switch to the Co-op and get the £100 bonus.

chattychappy

Case in point. One of my company debit cards (Lloyds) has just got blocked. I had the audacity to spend about 2K on it (went through), then 80 quid via paypal (blocked). Won't work at all now for online stuff.

No big deal. But they didn't call me and it seems they can't sort it until Monday. I suppose I should be more miffed cos as a business debit card, it is "our money" (unlike a CC) and we pay charges for this "service" !! Life's too short...

InsideInsurance

Barclays used to block my debit card every time I pad my NatWest credit card bill. Similar set of reasonings that they had had a high amount of fraud on credit card payments but given I'd made the payment almost every month for 2 years before they started this trick they couldnt understand why the IT system had flagged it. Only occasionally did they call.


Unfortunately banks are a little bit damned if they do and damned if they dont. If they block legitimate payments they're over zealous and if they allow a fraudulent payment to go through they're being too lax.

I am surprised both that there was no contact from them to query the transaction but they say there was and you admit to not answering calls to a withheld number. Your own insurers should really have tried a little more than simply cancelling the policy on the assumption you've been with them for a couple of years

Rincewindwiz

I wouldn't have minded if they had told me under which of the t&c they had stopped the payment but hiding behind 'security' is just that - hiding.
Anyway, filled in financial ombudsman forms and we will see where that goes
(Oh and I see no reason why I should start answering withheld number calls just in case one of the is the bank!)

Bantex_2

Rincewindwiz wrote: »

I wouldn't have minded if they had told me under which of the t&c they had stopped the payment but hiding behind 'security' is just that - hiding.
Anyway, filled in financial ombudsman forms and we will see where that goes
(Oh and I see no reason why I should start answering withheld number calls just in case one of the is the bank!)

Any reason not to answer?

longforgotten

What's the point of having the ability of having a 'continuous payment' if you cannot trust the bank/credit card company to do just that.


I would be well miffed. Like mentioned before all the credit card company had to do was check for a previous payment about the same time ie annually, probably about the same amount........


Also one go at contacting OP is useless !