Some advice please - Unique situation

WRCGooseF1

Hi guys,

I would greatly appreciate some advice regarding my situation please.

I have a Halifax credit card and have recently opened a reward account to us as our joint account. All direct debits have moved to this new account and Halifax instructed me that my salary will then be paid into this new joint account and they would organise this. They did not organise it and as a consequence the minimum payment wasn't paid on time to the credit card. The 0% has been removed from my credit card and my limit reduced. I incurred a charge of £24 for missing this payment even though it was Halifax's fault!

I will pursue Halifax about this mess up but i needed to give you a bit of a background to my situation.

I now would like to change my credit card which has £3,600 of debt on it but cannot seem to find a balance transfer (if this is the correct type of card i require) large enough to accommodate.

I keep being pointed to a Barclaycard credit cards ranging from 37 months / 0% / 2.54% - 19 months / 0% / No fee

So my questions are:

What should i do regarding Halifax's muck up?
What credit cards are out there that will be good for my situation so i can pay this debt off?

I hugely appreciate any advice given to me and any further info i shall give if you feel its needed.

Thanks :beer:

grumbler

WRCGooseF1 wrote: »

I have a Halifax credit card and have recently opened a reward account to us as our joint account. All direct debits have moved to this new account and Halifax instructed me that my salary will then be paid into this new joint account and they would organise this.

Did you switch some other account to Halifax actually? If so, Halifax couldn't 'organise' anything. Your old bank could inform your employer (I wouldn't rely on this) and should have forwarded all incoming payments to the new bank, possibly with some small delay.
However, under the switching scheme, it's Halifax that gurarantees seamless switching and can be held responsible for all !!!!-ups.

I now would like to change my credit card which has £3,600 of debt on it but cannot seem to find a balance transfer (if this is the correct type of card i require) large enough to accommodate.

If you really were accepted and were given some limit(s) transfer as much as possible. Every little helps.
Or was it just some 'illustrative' limit before you applied?

What should i do regarding Halifax's muck up?

Demand all fees waived and 0% reinstated.

What credit cards are out there that will be good for my situation so i can pay this debt off?

There are many, but acceptance and limits depend on personal circumstances and credit history.
Barclaycard and MBNA are believed to give the biggest limits.

eskbanker

WRCGooseF1 wrote: »

I have a Halifax credit card and have recently opened a reward account to us as our joint account. All direct debits have moved to this new account and Halifax instructed me that my salary will then be paid into this new joint account and they would organise this. They did not organise it and as a consequence the minimum payment wasn't paid on time to the credit card.

Were you using the Current Account Switching Service to switch another current account to Halifax (which does indeed make them liable for ensuring that inbound payments reach the new account)?

WRCGooseF1

I have a personal account with First Direct which had my salary going into it and all DD's.

I did a 'Partial' switch at a Halifax branch which was just DD's and advisor at the branch who dealt with this said they will inform my employer of new bank account details.

Maximum_Saving

Hello there. I am sorry that Halifax are treating you like that. I suggest you look at credit cards that allow a good value balance transfer. As you have a debt of around £3600 you could have two or even three credit cards. You could try to snow ball your debt. Doing that pay off the lowest balance and then the middle one and lastly the highest balance. You would have to pay a little every single month. Good luck.

grumbler

WRCGooseF1 wrote: »

....Halifax instructed me that my salary will then be paid into this new joint account and they would organise this....

WRCGooseF1 wrote: »

...advisor at the branch ... said they will inform my employer of new bank account details.

So, what did they actually say and do you have anything in writing?

I don't think that with 'partial' switch you can hold them responsible for anything unless you have some proofs.

Personally, I would give the new account details to my employer myself instead of relying on some bank doing this for me.

Ben8282

I would suggest that you discuss this with the branch where you opened your new account. You have after all switched your current account to them and it is their own credit card that was paid late as a result. It seems a pretty clear case of sort this out or I will switch back to where I came from.
Having said that though, I agree with grumbler that in your place I would certainly have advised my employer of my new bank details myself rather than just assume some bank had done it. But more to the point, unless your credit card payment due date was the very same date as your salary was due, you should have known that the money was not in the account and taken some appropriate steps a the time to prevent the direct debit being bounced. Have you been charged for the bounced direct debit as well?

worried_jim

Can't see how the Halifax can contact your employer and ask them to send your salary to a different account, sounds like bollox to me. Only you can instruct your employer where to send your salary.

Now did the Halifax lie to you (unlikely) or have you got mixed up (likely).

bearcat16

If some supposed bank employee called my employer and said "please send the salary to this account now instead", I'm pretty sure (and I would hope) the payroll manager would say no, get lost.

Surely the instruction to do this can ONLY come from you personally.

grumbler

bearcat16 wrote: »

Surely the instruction to do this can ONLY come from you personally.

Well, under the new switching service the old bank apparently can inform the employer about the new account details using BACS - if this is the way the salary gets paid.

Of course, this is different from a phone call from nowhere.