Halifax Have Wrong Address

Shakin_Steve

The only situation I can think of, and the one the OP may have in mind, is when you change an email address with a company. They usually send an email to both old and new email addresses to confirm the change.

worried_jim

Why would you want paper letters from a bank? Get online and go paperless and join the 21st century, it's the future!

zerog

Does she have Lloyds accounts?

I have noticed that when I have changed some details on my Lloyds accounts, they are automatically changed on my Halifax accounts too.

Also, when my Halifax account was frozen because I did my monthly cycling on a train instead of at home, my Lloyds account was also frozen and nobody from Lloyds could figure out why it had been frozen though I knew.

There is something seriously wrong with the "integration" between Lloyds and Halifax systems.

In this case it could be something as silly as someone who had lived at her previous address also changing their address.

In other news, I went into a Santander branch yesterday and the cashier said his computer was asking him to update my details too. The email address on his computer was one I hadn't used for 5 years and I didn't recognise the phone numbers he read out either; I definitely had kept my details up to date on their website.

gingercordial

Yes Halifax are useless on this.

I've told the story elsewhere on the forums but I moved house and duly went into a branch with my new council tax bill as proof as they won't allow you to update your own details. The cashier typed in "Flat 2" rather than "Flat 28" (couldn't show me on screen as they don't swivel). And unlike some other providers they do not send anything to the old address to confirm the change to the new one (if they had it would have come through via redirection) or an e-mail/text with the new details. There may have been a letter to Flat 2 but of course I did not live there to receive it. So the first I knew of this was when the real occupants of Flat 2 returned my next statement as "unknown" and Halifax stopped my card for potential fraud.

I did get it sorted although it took another two branch visits to do so, and they still refused to remove the erroneous Flat 2 from their reporting to the CRAs ("simply not possible") so it looks like I had a random other address for a month.

I agree a letter to old and new addresses or a text/e-mail alert would be best practice.

Westie983

Letters for change of address are sent to the old and new addresses when you change an address for a joint account holder that is not present. Letters are not sent for a change of address but you do get a print out when address is updated, giving the new details and the date of the change, (as this can be up to 30 days in the future)

Westie983

drlabman

xylophone wrote: »

Has your daughter asked Halifax to explain?

Seems like someone just submitted a change of address form - that's all the bank would say. I guess this "someone" would have needed the old address and some account details as well as forging a signature. Getting credit card details and billing address is easy - for an online retailer, for example. I don't know if that's sufficient - the form asks for current account details but I don't know if you have to fill it in. Current account details would be harder to obtain because she never uses her current account except to pay the credit card online. Signature - well, who knows.

robatwork

Have you googled / 192.com this mystery address? Does it exist?

Perhaps she recognises the name of the person who is living there as someone she once shared a house with?

At least that may tell you if it's attempted fraud or an admin mistake

ICan'tStandIt

If the address held is nothing to do with the account holder, then log a formal complaint with the bank.

Halifax will pay £100s in compensation as they've broken the law.

Robisere

A similar event happened to me with Prudential Assurance some years ago. My Life insurance was with them and I had been paying in regularly for several years, when I suddenly received an Annual Statement for another Pru customer with the same surname and different forenames, addressed to the address where I used to live. On opening the envelope, it had the real customer's adddress, almost 200 miles northwest of my location. I attempted to phone Pru, but she just was not listening, nor believing my information. I resealed the envelope after writing a short explanatory note with phone number, and asked the other Pru 'victim' if he had my own Statement. No, he informed me, with thanks for the Statement I sent.

After many weeks of phoning and writing to Pru, my statement was "found" and sent to me: this time it arrived at the correct address. I eventually transferred my Life Plan and other insurances to another company. A few years later, this company was bought over. By - yes - the Prudential. Sometimes you just cannot win, but at least I am still in receipt of a small Private Pension associated with the Pru, and to date nothing bad has happened to that. Yet...

When I moved house, which I have done several times over the years, I either set up a Mail Redirection with the RM, or in the case of a house sale to someone I knew well, I gave them 2 sheets of adhesive Avery labels with my address. They redirected all of the mail that arrived after I moved. Before I moved, I had a Form Letter which I sent to all utility and other companies, with the information that I was moving. In later years, I used the internet and emails to do that. Moving is much less hassle if you prepare well and don't leave everything to the last minute, I have found.

glider3560

EarthBoy wrote: »

Why did you think that? None of the banks I've ever been with has ever done that. In fact, none of them have ever sent anything in the post to confirm a change of address, you just find that statements etc. start to come to the new address from then on.

I moved house last month. Every bank and building society (I have a lot of accounts) who bothered to write (most wrote, although a small number didn't write at all) wrote to both addresses, save for the Lloyds Banking Group (including Halifax).