Halifax & Withheld Telephone Numbers.

Steve_xx

Traveller11 wrote: »

Lets not forget that when we call them, before we can get to talk to a Human Being about 'the problem' you have to enter all your account and personal details using the keypad, then when you finally get connected we are expected to go through even more security questions with the person you are eventually connected with.

Yes, and it is right and correct that you do have to do this, otherwise security would be compromised. Though I do accept the argument that a call in the reverse direction is very open to security lapse in that the bank does expect that you will believe that they are who they say they are.


It should be the case that when a bank calls you that there are a predefined set of questions that you can ask them in order to verify that they are who they say. I'm sure that this will happen at some point in the not so distant future as fraudsters become even more adept at finding holes in security.

BMN

Traveller11 wrote: »

In following the 'process' as defined by Halifax Bank while any transfer under £25,000 is supposed to be acceptable on the last 3 occasions over a 6 month time frame each one has been 'referred', while all 3 transfers were well under even £5k.

That 'referral process' is supposed to take just 24hours to make a decision from which you are required to log back into your account where there will be a message in your 'In Box' as there was also a message left when the transaction was 'referred'.

In looking at the transfers Halifax could see if they bothered to look that the transfers are being made to a UK based bank, but don't bother to do so.

I do understand your frustration but if don't answer their calls or call back quoting the reference they gave you is it really any surprise that they didn't carry out the payment and also stopped access to your online banking?

The £25,000 is a daily transfer limit. It doesn't mean that any transfer under £25,000 will automatically be approved.

Also, just because the transfer is to a UK bank doesn't mean it will be automatically approved.

brokeinyorkshire

Just because your payment was to another UK Bank, doesn't mean it wasn't fraudulent or will automatically go through.

The team that picks the transactions up make checks to see if they can deem that the transaction is genuine. For example. If the customer has paid the beneficiary before or if the receiving account is Lloyds, Halifax or BOS they check to see if its a relative or somebody at the same address.There are also other checks that can be made. If they can't confirm it and approve the payment for the customer they try to make contact and send a text if not.When you make the transaction you are told that it is under review and that this may take up to 24 hours.If its urgent or you don't want to wait you can ring the team giving a reference provided to you. The customers Internet Banking is suspended as a precaution if the team can't get hold of the customer in case of any fraud because this does frequently happen. If you're not happy you can always change banks. I myself am with Nat West and to set up a payment you need a card reader which in my eyes is so much better than messing about with automated phone calls etc. It IS your money but the system is in place to deter fraud and as such it does work quite well albeit at a slight inconvenience to yourself.

The line to ring for Lloyds accounts is a freephone number so you could always ring that and then if the colleague can't deal with it they can put you through to the Halifax line at no cost to yourself.The number is 0800 917 7017.

Traveller11

After I sent a letter to Halifax Bank last Friday regarding this matter I received a telephone call (Number Displayed!) from their Customer Services Department in Glasgow, and after a very long and at times difficult discussion with their representative he agreed that using 'Withheld Telephone Numbers' by their Fraud Department was unacceptable and would be changed (But I am not holding my breath for a date of 'when').

However after that he did not feel that the Fraud Department had done anything incorrect in their 'Review Process' at which point I asked him to consider if I had after putting the transfer request in then went into hospital for a 1 day operation, assuming that by the time I returned home I would have a decision in a message waiting for me in my account messages after I logged in, he had no answer at which point I then re-iterated my concern based on the information on their website that their claimed 'Referral Process' was not being followed.

Their is now a follow up letter on it's way to the bank.

colsten

Their is now a follow up letter on it's way to the bank.

There is now a follow up letter on its way to the bank.

bouicca21

I very nearly ran into the same problem a month or so ago. Fortunately I contacted halifax to be sure that a 25k transfer would be ok. In branch said yes it would. Belt and braces, contacted the online too. Got totally ridiculous answer to the effect that any transfer might be subject to security checks and the amount that triggered such checks varied from day to day. I then complained because that meant I had no certainty whether the transfer would go through since it was subject to being held up/account suspended on a whim. I too got a phone call purporting to be from halifax complaints person, asking me security questions. I refused to answer such questions over the phone to a total stranger and we agreed that he'd prove his identity by sending me a pm through halifax's secure system. Which he did.
The upshot was that any transaction that was out of the ordinary is likely to flag up security considerations. So if you shuffle 25k around as a matter of course it's all fine and dandy. If like me you do it out of the blue, then they get antsy. We eventually decided that the safest way for the transfer was to do it in branch.

I did ask him to flag up the way in which the text on the website is misleading, since it clearly indicated that large transfers were perfectly possible without any sort of hoop jumping. I take it it hasn't changed ...

Stevie_Palimo

Traveller11 wrote: »

Yesterday I tried to carry out an online transfer for considerably less than the £25,000 advised on their website, and having clicked on the 'Confirm' icon having previously got the green light for the payments to be transferred this request was BLOCKED pending a 'Review' which according again to the website would happen within 24 hours and I would be advised of the outcome by a message left in my account, frustrating to say the least as this has happened for the third time now.

A couple of hours later I received a call on our Landline from a 'Withheld Number' and then 5 minutes later the same thing on my Mobile, both of which I was unable to answer, then 2 minutes later I get a text message also asking me to call Halifax Bank and quote a reference number.

When I returned home I went online to try and see what had happened only to then find that my account had been suspended and the 'Outside of the UK' telephone number was incorrect!

While I then had no option but to call I went through Customer Service while stating for the second time as this 'problem' has occurred before, that I was not prepared to answer calls from 'Withheld Numbers' which they totally agreed with even though I asked for that to be 'noted' on my account from the previous occurrence which doesn't seem to have happened.

While I also bounced this off a couple of Police Officers in view of the number of SCAM calls coming from 'Withheld Numbers' and they were in complete and total agreement.

I also asked Halifax Bank to open this as a Customer Complaint and was advised that while it has been, it has also been passed to the 'Customer Experience Platform' and will only be acted upon to improve the service when more customers make formal complaints.

So I am hoping that there are a number of Forum Members out there that have been through the same totally frustrating experience and are prepared to call in and complain, as it seems to be the only way to make this organisation sit up and take notice.

Thanks

I hold some Halifax accounts and the same thing happened to me while trying to move £2500.00 from my account to a new payee account, The actual cocking sign was the same and this is done to prevent fraud and can be for an unusual amount being moved ie:- No payments for 6 months then trying to move £10.000 will throw up suspicion.


Or the case as with me was due to a virus on my pc being flagged up when I logged into my online account thus causing the payments to be cancelled, Run a full system scan and also run a Malwarebytes scan from a free download, It solved my issue and I can now pay where and when I need hassle free.

Traveller11

Stevie Palimo: Appreciate the tip about a virus free PC which has not been a problem for me for a very long time due to the levels of protection currently used.

bouicca: Exactly correct Halifax, have not changed their webpage.

brokeinyorkshire: Thanks for the Freephone Number.

Now for contents of my response after the call with the Halifax Customer Service Rep who offered to refund the cost of my call, even though he called me?!

While I understand that and I quote, after my visit to the Branch.
"Head Office are taking your complaint very seriously and are looking into it"

[FONT=&quot]Further to my letter of 8th October 2014 and the long telephone conversation with the Glasgow based Halifax Customer Services Representative on 14th October 2014, who while agreeing that the use of ‘Withheld Telephone Numbers’ was wrong and needed correcting, while in his view the ‘process’ when a financial transaction had been ‘Referred’ was correct and had not caused any inconvenience in being carried out, and on which we failed to agree, even when in this case the Customer’s Account had been completely suspended within a very short time of the transfer request being made.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]While I was also surprised that having repeated what I am presented with on the Halifax Bank website having logged into my account, namely:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1) [/FONT][FONT=&quot]1) I am allowed to carry out a financial transfer of up to £25,000 each and every day after performing and confirming all the security checks when setting up the details of the recipient.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] 2) If the subsequent transfer request is ‘referred’ then I am provided with a secure message in my account which advises me that my request will be reviewed and an answer provided within 24 hours as to whether that request will be allowed or not.

[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]3) The secure message to which I cannot reply as unlike a number of other organisations Halifax are unable to provide a reply facility, does not advise me that I will also receive either telephone calls to discuss that request and confirm its authenticity or ‘correctness’ or text messages asking me to contact Halifax again to confirm the authenticity or ‘correctness’ and most importantly that the transfer request was actually made by the Customer.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]It seems to be the case that talking to a human being in the Halifax Fraud Department is the one and only way to get any ‘Referred’ transactions approved.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It then begs the question as to whether this department has the necessary or any tools in place, and can use them to ‘verify’ a transfer request without having to rely on the Customer to provide their justification in a conversation?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]For example, confirming that the request came from the same ISP Address that has been used by the Customer for some considerable time as they use the same PC.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I also wonder what would have been the situation had I made the request and then gone into hospital for day surgery, or had for some other reason been incommunicado for the time advised ‘online’ when a reply was expected in my account, assuming that my account was not suspended as someone had tried to contact me within 3 hours of my transfer request using my Landline, Mobile Phone and Text Message, and not carried out their own checks but were relying on a ‘chat’ with the Customer, which having not been contacted led to the Account Suspension.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I remain convinced that the ‘verification’ process that should be followed by Halifax Bank Fraud Department without the immediate expectation of getting in touch with the Customer is not happening, especially when I am greeted by the ‘On Hold’ message that they are receiving a high number of telephone calls and I will be on hold for some time.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]While I fully expected to receive a message in my account advising me that:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1) [/FONT][FONT=&quot]My transfer request had been approved and could be ‘activated’ by entering my password.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot] OR
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2) [/FONT][FONT=&quot]I needed to contact the Halifax Fraud Department for a friendly ‘chat’ and to justify my request as even with all the security checks and balances in place there was still an element of uncertainty regarding MY money.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]This expectation as part of the ‘online notification process’ was not met or achieved by Halifax Bank.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The result of which as it is the third and worst case that has occurred I will not hesitate in moving my account elsewhere in the future if Halifax Bank & its Fraud Department fail to follow the process and limitations that they clearly identify on their website, even though I understand their concerns on my behalf.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Please also be aware that any final letter which you reply with along with a copy of taking this matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service is useless as the FOS is not interested in any ‘process’ matters with a financial institution unless a financial loss by the customer has occurred. [/FONT]

mgdavid

I strongly suspect Halifax will be perfectly happy for you to move your account elsewhere. TBQH I'm surprised you haven't done so already.

meer53

I love the posts from people who think any bank would be bothered by the threat of them closing of their account !