Halifax Harassment

northbay

Hi,
I have been helping a friend claim back her charges from the Halifax using the info from this site, she is at the stage where she has sent the 'Threaten Legal Action" letter. Now Halifax have ignored this and have not returned the copy of charges form she was told to sent in (and unfortunately did not copy) Halifax have also cancelled her overdraft facility and she is currently about £1000 overdrawn, they have also sent her a letter threatening legal action to claim their money back, they are also phoning her about 7 times day or until she answers the phone asking for their money. The money they owe her for charges is about £1100. She also suffers with ill health having has cancer twice and now has another problem which is not helpful, she has also been told by doctors that it is important that she does not have any stress in her life as she also has a heart condition! She has to resort to unplugging her phone as the constant badgering by Halifax is stressing her out!!

Reading the site it looks like the favored next move would be the Ombudsman, would people on this forum agree and is there somewhere else she can go to complain about the HARASSMENT?

My bank...Abbey National offered me a £250 settlement for £350 worth of charges and tyhey did all this within 6 weeks, so well done Abbey. But as for the Halifax who I had my own run in with many years ago, they really stink and I will be telling all my friends, family and colleagues this story and suggest they use someone else if planning to go to the Halifax.

Big cheer for Martin, your a star!!:eek:

hooby_groovy

My experience with Halifax is that they will pay, but will take as long as possible before doing so. In my case I took the matter to court, they initially defended the claim but then settled.

With regard to your friend, I suggest she writes to them and gives them a full history of her problems, asks for all future communication in writing and to make an offer of partial payment (if she can). Continue to expedite the claim for charges and when paid it will counter the overdraft.

Please let her know that while Halifax may 'demand' repayment of the overdraft there is little that they can do in reality. They are bound by laws that say when they can call and how often. To even get someone like bailiffs involved they will have had to take the matter to County Court. If you proceed with as much speed as you can with your charges claim you will stay ahead of them and be able to clear the matter in full.

When my father had similar problems I got his doctor to sign me a letter asking the debt collectors to stop calling (he didn't even charge) and this did the trick - after all, the banks don't want to go to court with someone thats got a health problem and offered to repay in small amounts - the judge would lambast them.

Tell you friend not to hide from the calls, to take them head-on, explain in a polite but firm manner her position and they will back-off. The worst thing is to ignore them, it gives them a stronger position and winds them up.

Finally, tell your friend to try not to worry, Halifax deal with thousands of debts a day and its nothing personal. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

kellymundy

Maybe be someone who knows this site a bit better might be able to give a link to this, but a little while ago there was a report posted on here about a woman who went through exactly the same thing with her bank. She took them to court for compensation and won, so it's well worth looking into it.
Edinburghlass maybe able to help you find the link if you send her a message, she helps out with the site so if you look on a few of the threads you should see her name:D.
Good Luck.

Crying_over_spilt_milk

northbay wrote: »

Hi,
I have been helping a friend claim back her charges from the Halifax using the info from this site, she is at the stage where she has sent the 'Threaten Legal Action" letter. Now Halifax have ignored this and have not returned the copy of charges form she was told to sent in (and unfortunately did not copy) Halifax have also cancelled her overdraft facility and she is currently about £1000 overdrawn, they have also sent her a letter threatening legal action to claim their money back, they are also phoning her about 7 times day or until she answers the phone asking for their money. The money they owe her for charges is about £1100. She also suffers with ill health having has cancer twice and now has another problem which is not helpful, she has also been told by doctors that it is important that she does not have any stress in her life as she also has a heart condition! She has to resort to unplugging her phone as the constant badgering by Halifax is stressing her out!!

Reading the site it looks like the favored next move would be the Ombudsman, would people on this forum agree and is there somewhere else she can go to complain about the HARASSMENT?

My bank...Abbey National offered me a £250 settlement for £350 worth of charges and tyhey did all this within 6 weeks, so well done Abbey. But as for the Halifax who I had my own run in with many years ago, they really stink and I will be telling all my friends, family and colleagues this story and suggest they use someone else if planning to go to the Halifax.

Big cheer for Martin, your a star!!:eek:

I am in a very similar situation as your friend both health-wise and with the horrible halifiax. I have used a company to claim my charges and interst back. THey charge (either 25% or one-off fee of £199) BUT they do it all for you AND on an no-win, no-fee basis. I'd rather pay them and not have the stress!
2ndly, I too have been harrassed by many companies and found the info I got from National Debtline extremely helpful. (I also found the Office of Fair Trading's guidelines very helpful. Not sure of their URL but they'll be easy to find doing a search.) ALthough both these methods are DIY at least it's a start!

3rdly I also found out (through the above) that (although they charge) you can get BT to block calls from cos/numbers which are harrassing you. THis could be more/less successsful with the Halifax as they have so many different geograhpical and non, to ring you from, but it's worth trying and certainly better than having to unplug the phone!

Hope this helps; let us know how you get on - it'd be useful to know!

Crying_over_spilt_milk

northbay wrote: »

Hi,
I have been helping a friend claim back her charges from the Halifax using the info from this site, she is at the stage where she has sent the 'Threaten Legal Action" letter. Now Halifax have ignored this and have not returned the copy of charges form she was told to sent in (and unfortunately did not copy) Halifax have also cancelled her overdraft facility and she is currently about £1000 overdrawn, they have also sent her a letter threatening legal action to claim their money back, they are also phoning her about 7 times day or until she answers the phone asking for their money. The money they owe her for charges is about £1100. She also suffers with ill health having has cancer twice and now has another problem which is not helpful, she has also been told by doctors that it is important that she does not have any stress in her life as she also has a heart condition! She has to resort to unplugging her phone as the constant badgering by Halifax is stressing her out!!

Reading the site it looks like the favored next move would be the Ombudsman, would people on this forum agree and is there somewhere else she can go to complain about the HARASSMENT?

My bank...Abbey National offered me a £250 settlement for £350 worth of charges and tyhey did all this within 6 weeks, so well done Abbey. But as for the Halifax who I had my own run in with many years ago, they really stink and I will be telling all my friends, family and colleagues this story and suggest they use someone else if planning to go to the Halifax.

Big cheer for Martin, your a star!!:eek:

PS I forgot to say:


It is perfectly ok to ignore their phone calls because she is not ignoring the issue as a whole. I haev been advised to do this by the CAB, National Debtline (0808 808 4000) AND our county council debt adviser. We are perfectly entitled to demand that communications be in writing and to turn the tables on them and stop them bullying us!:mad:

metalmuttversion2

northbay wrote: »

Hi,
I have been helping a friend claim back her charges from the Halifax using the info from this site, she is at the stage where she has sent the 'Threaten Legal Action" letter. Now Halifax have ignored this and have not returned the copy of charges form she was told to sent in (and unfortunately did not copy) Halifax have also cancelled her overdraft facility and she is currently about £1000 overdrawn, they have also sent her a letter threatening legal action to claim their money back, they are also phoning her about 7 times day or until she answers the phone asking for their money. The money they owe her for charges is about £1100. She also suffers with ill health having has cancer twice and now has another problem which is not helpful, she has also been told by doctors that it is important that she does not have any stress in her life as she also has a heart condition! She has to resort to unplugging her phone as the constant badgering by Halifax is stressing her out!!

Reading the site it looks like the favored next move would be the Ombudsman, would people on this forum agree and is there somewhere else she can go to complain about the HARASSMENT?

My bank...Abbey National offered me a £250 settlement for £350 worth of charges and tyhey did all this within 6 weeks, so well done Abbey. But as for the Halifax who I had my own run in with many years ago, they really stink and I will be telling all my friends, family and colleagues this story and suggest they use someone else if planning to go to the Halifax.

Big cheer for Martin, your a star!!:eek:

from what you describe here is indeed harrassment which is illegal, they cannot do what you have indicated as this falls under the harrassment act 1997? i would recommend she sees a solicitor or the CAB as soon as possible and put accross to them what she has experienced so far! i think you will find this behaviour is looked down upon in the courts!

devil26

Halifax telephoned me every single day asking for £50. I told them that when they had the courtesy to answer my letter re; bank charges I would deposit the £50 in the account ( Incidentally this £50 was charges ) I kept telling them the same every day . In the end they phoned me and asked if I had anything different to say
, I replied " How does Magistrate and restraining order sound ?" They then put me through to their complaint centre in Belfast who immediately refunded me £200 to bring me back in to credit . I then had to go through the process to get my final £2000 back off them

I just used the same tactic on Nationwide and they have stopped phoning me, pending the outcome of my MCOL claim

Crying_over_spilt_milk

devil26 wrote: »

Halifax telephoned me every single day asking for £50. I told them that when they had the courtesy to answer my letter re; bank charges I would deposit the £50 in the account ( Incidentally this £50 was charges ) I kept telling them the same every day . In the end they phoned me and asked if I had anything different to say
, I replied " How does Magistrate and restraining order sound ?" They then put me through to their complaint centre in Belfast who immediately refunded me £200 to bring me back in to credit . I then had to go through the process to get my final £2000 back off them

I just used the same tactic on Nationwide and they have stopped phoning me, pending the outcome of my MCOL claim

Well done you!!

Unfortunately my state of health makes it virtually impossible to maintain the level of strength and stiff upper lip required to take the necessary assertive stance. (Last week I tried it with the NHS which is driving me insane in a similar vein and I ended up collapsing after the phone call and an ambulance had to be called... so you see I envy your toughness, which I lost some considerable time ago!) I used to be good at it. I can at least write letters to defend my corner, though of course they don;t like that. As national debtline said... it's easy to bully you when you're on the phone!

Had you received a default notice from them? THey froze my account back in January and now have the audacity to tell me that I have misused my account! I'm just not sure whether to tell them that I am claiming my charges back in case they turn nastier... I'm not in a strong position I feel!