M&S Bank - switching problem - credit rating affected?

bairn7

Hi all

To be brief, I recently switched from Halifax to M&S Bank. At some point between Halifax advising of the balance and the switch taking place, a direct debit came out of my account. As a result, too much was transferred to M&S and I was left in an "unplanned overdraft" with Halifax.

I've spoken to Halifax twice to make payment and twice I have been told that they cannot take a debit card payment and that I need to speak to M&S. I've spoken to M&S this morning and they have said that they can't transfer the funds from my new account as it "doesn't work like that". They are however going to speak to Halifax on Monday but the long and short of it appears to be that I'm going to have to go to a Halifax branch in person to clear the balance :mad:

I'm just wondering, as I am now in an "unplanned overdraft", although no interest or charges have been levied, does this affect my credit rating?

And who is at fault here? Is it Halifax, M&S or me!?

Thanks

YorkshireBoy

bairn7 wrote: »

At some point between Halifax advising of the balance and the switch taking place

It doesn't work like that. No balance is "advised". Whatever balance is in the account is switched on the switch day.

The fact a DD was called between the switch day -7 and the switch day itself is irrelevant.

M&S are responsible for correcting any errors, so that's who you should be speaking to.

All assuming you've used the CASS of course.

bairn7

Thanks. Yes, I used the switching service. I was advised by a member of the M&S switching team that they request the switch with Halifax and Halifax advise of the balance at that time. This then forms the basis for the switch. All responsibility is with Halifax apparently.

I can't find anything in writing to say that M&S are responsible for this. They did advise at the time to make sure that I conduct no transactions in the few days before the switching date but I assumed that direct debits are automatically transferred and any coming out a few days before will reduce the balance transferred.

Should I be pursuing this further from a credit rating perspective? If I can get it resolved on Monday I'm happy to leave it but if my credit rating is likely to be affected by the overdraft at Halifax I will complain further.

Thanks

badger09

All set out in M&S T&C

Extracts:

WHAT IS THE CURRENT ACCOUNT
SWITCH GUARANTEE?
The guarantee sets out the key benefits
of the service and specifies that you will
be refunded any charges and interest
incurred on your old or new bank account
as a result of a failure of the service.
All banks and building societies that
display the Current Account Switch logo
offer the Current Account Switch Service
and abide by the guarantee


WHAT HAPPENS IF THERE IS
A MISTAKE OR UNNECESSARY
DELAY IN MY SWITCH?
The Current Account Switch Service is
backed by the Current Account Switch
Guarantee. This guarantees that any
charges or interest incurred on your old
or new account, as a result of a failure in
the switching process, will be refunded
when you bring this to your new bank or
building society’s attention.

http://bank.marksandspencer.com/pdf/CACass.pdf#page=8

YorkshireBoy

bairn7 wrote: »

Should I be pursuing this further from a credit rating perspective?

Again, any derogatory mark left by Halifax on your credit files should be removed. M&S will ask Halifax to remove it. A bank employee on here has previously stated that this is the way it works, and (from memory) backed it up with evidence. Hopefully she'll see this thread and comment.

You may wish to make a formal complaint at this stage with M&S just to show you mean business, and so you have something to show to the FOS should it get that far. The trouble is though, that at this stage you're complaining about what might happen, rather than what has happened. For example, you might not get a £5 charge (and then £5/day) from Halifax, and you might not get a mark on your credit files. However, on balance, I'd still make the complaint formal.

LBG, in my experience, are notoriously late reporting to CRAs (I've known them to be 3-4 months late), so this might not go away soon...unless you have something in writing from M&S (and also Halifax, but I doubt it) stating no derogatory information will be passed on.


I'm still struggling to see how this has happened though, having completed literally dozens of switches without a problem myself. What was your switch date, and what date was the DD called from Halifax?

bairn7

Thanks

I saw the interest/charges point but Halifax are not charging me interest or charges. The only concern I have is therefore any credit score rating. I'm also confused as to how it happened (I'm a bit of a banking tart so I move regularly where the cash offers appear).

On reviewing my correspondence, it appears that the problem does arise with Halifax. I received a letter which states that a direct debit was called but there were no funds in my account (presumably because of the transfer) but they made the payment anyway, resulting in an unauthorised overdraft. It appears that the funds were transferred but the direct debits not cancelled/transferred at the same time? I'm so confused!

To make matters worse, I can't login to my Halifax account anymore as it has been removed from my online account! Only my Halifax credit card shows now when I log in.

To quote my Halifax letter (dated 19 July) - Switch date was 9 June:

"This is to let you know we have made all of the payments you requested to come out of our account today. However, as there wasn't enough money in your account to cover all of those payments, your account has gone into an Unplanned Overdraft".

To clarify, the only active payments I had on this account were 2 x MBNA direct debits and 1 x tesco credit card direct debits, both for the minimum amounts.

So it turns out this happened almost amount after the switch. Isn't the old account supposed to be closed after switching.

Sorry, I got my facts wrong in my first post.

bairn7

Just to follow up, I decided to phone up Halifax again. Despite the letter previously referred to dated 19 July, they confirmed that a direct debit went out of my account on 31 May which apparently put me into overdraft. This is clearly incorrect as the substantial balance of the account was transferred to M&S on 6 June and there was no money deposited or withdrawn in the interim period!

The lady I spoke to at Halifax advised that she only had limited access to my account details and what she saw didn't make sense. On that basis she agreed to credit my account with the overdrawn balance to close it.

Basically, there has been a monumental !!!! up somewhere but I suspect we will never get to the bottom of it. M&S got off lightly here I think. Not overly impressed with my initial few weeks with them.

Anybody able to confirm if this will have had an effect on my credit rating? May not be over just yet.