£50 buffer on halifax account, wont let me use?

bradztheman

So what does a £50 buffer mean exactly?
I did shopping which come to £30 and only had £25 in my account, so i assumed my card would get accepted and the buffer would kick in and take my into a minus figure of £5, but no, the transaction was declined, so how exactly does the buffer work?

grumbler

"Your buffer is the amount you can go overdrawn by without incurring any daily overdraft fees or interest"

"A planned overdraft is an agreed amount we allow you to go overdrawn on your account, which you arrange with us in advance of doing so."

Do you have the latter?

bradztheman

I upgraded to the reward account which gave me a £50 buffer.
I dont have an agreed overdraft at all. So whats the point in the buffer? Is the buffer not valid if i dont have an agreed overdraft?

Superscrooge

Are you sure it was declined due to insufficient funds?

I had a purchase declined on my Halifax card a few weeks ago, because Halifax thought it might be fraudulent and I had to confirm it was a genuine transaction

grumbler

Planned overdraft is the amount you are allowed to borrow relatively cheap (free within the 'buffer').

However, even without a planned overdraft you can sometimes get overdrawn (unplanned overdraft). Bank can either allow the transaction or not or it's beyond its control sometimes. In your case unplanned overdraft less then £50 is free too.

bradztheman

Well in morrisons the transaction was declined
Also tried purchasing online which would take it overdrawn by a couple of quid but that transaction was cancelled too. So i dunno

Shakin_Steve

Doesn't the Halifax have a customer services telephone number?. It might be best if you asked them.

YorkshireBoy

bradztheman wrote: »

Well in morrisons the transaction was declined
Also tried purchasing online which would take it overdrawn by a couple of quid but that transaction was cancelled too. So i dunno

I would have thought with your past issues with defaults, CCjs, and payday loans (seem to remember you were also bankrupt?...apologies if you weren't), I'd have thought you'd want to try and get back on the straight and narrow and protect your credit file. As such, you'd have put a fiver's worth of shopping back on the shelf and not tried again online!

JuicyJesus

The buffer is an amount you can go overdrawn by without getting charged fees... IF Halifax want to let you go overdrawn. They don't have to, buffer or no buffer.

MyOnlyPost

It's a case of, very small transactions don't need approval from the bank, if you made a £5 purchase with your card authorisation wouldn't be requested and if you had a £0 balance the payment would come out of the buffer

GingerFurball_2

You need to have an agreed overdraft for the bank to approve a payment that will take you overdrawn.

Halifax's buffer simply means that your account balance can go to -£50 without being charged daily overdraft fees. It doesn't mean you can try and spend £30 when you only have £25.