How do I get Halifax to reply to letters?

Alanxx

Three months ago I discovered my aged parents had some £10,000 in a Halifax account offering 1.51% !!!!

My parents are both in their late 80,s and my Mother has dementia so they need every penny they can get.

11 weeks ago I wrote to the Customer Complaints division on behalf of my father at the address given on the Halifax website.....NO REPLY.........7 weeks ago I wrote again........NO REPLY.

Two weeks ago I wrote direct to the Managing Director of Halifax at their Head Office.........NO REPLY !!!!

Incidentally,all of these were handwritten letters and not emails.

They are obviously very happy cheating old people and ignoring letters so has anyone any ideas of what I can do next ??

Thanks

Alan

Stephen_Leak

As your first letter was sent over 8 weeks ago, threaten them with the Financial Ombudsman.

ctdctd

Alanxx wrote: »

Three months ago I discovered my aged parents had some £10,000 in a Halifax account offering 1.51% !!!!

My parents are both in their late 80,s and my Mother has dementia so they need every penny they can get.

Thanks

Alan

Have you got a Power of Attorney over your parents affairs that the Halifax have accepted? If not, the Halifax probably won't be able to act on your letters / instructions as the accounts are not in your name. Stilll no excuse for not replying though:mad:

Probably best to phone up the Halifax and see what is best to do. Make sure you get the name of who ever you speak to in case you need it later. Or you could take your Father into a branch and open better account if they have one?

dunstonh

Halifax cannot respond to you unless you have power or attorney or agreed instructions to act on your parents behalf.

Have you checked to see if the Halifax have written back to your parents? Often when a third party enquiry is made, the provider will respond to the owner.

11 weeks ago I wrote to the Customer Complaints division on behalf of my father at the address given on the Halifax website.....NO REPLY.........7 weeks ago I wrote again........NO REPLY.

What are you complaining about? Having accounts which pay low interest is not something where a complaint would be upheld. They publish their rates in accordance with the rules and it is up to the consumer to decide whether they accept those rates or not.

purch

Close the account and move the money.

They'll no doubt respond then !!!!!!!!!!!!!

oldagetraveller

Is the account branch/passbook based? If so and your father is mobile enough could you accompany him to a local branch and just close the account there?
That might depend on if both your parents' signatures are required though and how ill your mum is whether she is able to sign as well.
Also complain in branch about the lack of written response, now that is something to complain about!

olly300

The Halifax will reply to you if you have power of Attorney over your parents' affairs. I've written complaints to the Halifax in the past and received proper replies within 4 weeks.

The fact that they have not bothered to reply to you indicates that you, OP, don't have that power of Attorney.

I suggest you either move the money OR write a letter to the Halifax again but this time make sure that your Dad signs it and it's in his name. Then send the letter by recorded delivery.

oldagetraveller

olly300 wrote: »

.

The fact that they have not bothered to reply to you indicates that you, OP, don't have that power of Attorney.

Probably but that still doesn't excuse the lack of common courtesy of a reply? Even if that advised they (Halifax) have to correspond with the account holder(s) only.

dunstonh

Probably but that still doesn't excuse the lack of common courtesy of a reply? Even if that advised they (Halifax) have to correspond with the account holder(s) only.

They may have replied to the parents. They dont have to reply to the person sending the letter. A common response is to replay to the owners and ask them to pass the letter on if they wish to.

regularsaver1

If the complaint was received they usually acknowledge withing 5 working days, however, the above posts have picked up the problems with the names ect

What I don't understand is what you are complaining about. I agree with dunstonh The rates are advertised and its up to the account holder to move money into an account paying a higher rate. I've seen people with £80k in their sitting in their accounts, recommended they look at the rates, but they say they want to leave it as it is. Could this be what has happened?

http://www.halifax.co.uk/contactus/howtocomplain.asp

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Telephone Customer Relations on 08457 25 35 19*[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Write to us at: [FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Halifax, Customer Relations, PO Box 548, Leeds LS1 1WU[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Fax us on 08451 28 13 85*[/FONT]

Was it Andy Hornby who you wrote to? He is HBOS overall, but there is a different director for retail itself.
[/FONT]

MarkyMarkD

I agree with most of the other posts.

Paying a low rate of interest is perfectly legal and reasonable. Most branch-based accounts pay rubbish interest rates, but they give easy access over the counter whenever you like. That's what many old (and not so old) people like.

Your only ground for complaint is if they were recently advised to stay in that account, or move money into it. If they've had it sitting there for years and simply have failed to notice the rate getting less competitive, that's their lookout.