Halifax Locked my Account and will not Unlock it

pawlala

Is this thread a wind up?

System

Go to https://www.saynoto0870.com and look up Halifax (or Bank of Scotland)
Find a 0800 or 0808 number - this will work without credit on Skype.

noh

Johnstone101 wrote: »

Hi,

I have moved overseas, which the bank are aware of and all of my details have been updated to reflect this. Every two weeks they decide to block my account due to transactions being made overseas, despite the transactions being made to the same place from the same IP.

The only way for me to contact Halifax is via Twitter. Apparently they will only call three times before they will no longer call. As I have already used up my three calls, they have told me that I have the following options:

1. Fly back to the UK and visit them in branch to sort it out.

Aside from this being ridiculous, it is not possible to book a flight due to my account being blocked.

2. Make a reverse charge call to them.

They do not accept the reverse charge call.

3. Call them via Skype.

I cannot purchase Skype credits due to my account being blocked.

They have told me that they will not provide any further assistance and I will remain unable to access my own money.

What can I do now?

You only have one UK bank account?
Use a credit card or paypal to purchase Skype credits. Surely you must have one or more of these?

Johnstone101

For what it's worth, I managed to resolve the situation by creating a new Twitter account and pretending to be somebody else until they called.

Anthorn wrote: »

I don't see the problem. You have an address in the country you reside in so you just walk into a bank branch with ID and open an account. Of course the account is designated in the local currency but transfers to your U.K. bank should be automatically converted into GBP.

Conversion fees are the problem. Especially when Halifax take over 10% on the exchange rate as well as charging £9.50 for every transaction.

eDicky wrote: »

I'm guessing it's because you want to avoid talking to Halifax about your transactions.

Here's a quick tip for when you try winding up somebody else on this website. Use your brain to think things through before posting. The posts I have made on this website would do nothing to help me if I was trying to avoid talking to my bank. The posts I have made were about trying to find a way to talk to my bank. The complete opposite of what you were suggesting.

There is also nothing dodgy about any of my transactions.

It's not credible that you have left yourself completely without any means to make the phone call.

I am over 70 miles from a city and around 50 miles from a town that's not tiny. Nobody has a landline where I am and there are certainly not any payphones anywhere near here. Even if somebody here had a landline, I would then be asking a complete stranger if I could use their phone to make an overseas call. What do you think the likely response to that would be?

pawlala wrote: »

Is this thread a wind up?

No. Unlike yourself and eDicky, some of us have better things to do with our time than to try and wind people up on the Internet.

jonesMUFCforever

Halifax charge £9.50 for international transfers.
Is this what you are talking about?
10% on exchange rate - there are alternatives are there not?

If you were a fraudster you would be making the same argument - can't come into a branch , unable to make phone calls etc etc - your actions make you look suspicious whether you like it or not.

eDicky

pawlala wrote: »

Is this thread a wind up?

Perhaps not, a good wind up usually tends to be more convincing and/or less likely to portray the writer as an idiot.

Johnstone101

Can a moderator please close this thread now? I have managed to solve the problem myself and the thread is only attracting unnecessary posts.

@Jones
Of course there are alternatives. That's why I never use Halifax for transferring money. All international transfers and currency exchanges are going to involve fees no matter which service you use. Using a bank account here is going to involve international transfers and currency conversions for every transaction. That would cost me so much money that it would take a huge chunk out of my income.

Halifax aren't questioning whether or not I, the account holder, am using my money for fraudulent purposes. They suspect that somebody else is making transactions using my account. I would have no reason to create a thread here if I was a fraudster as there is nothing that I could gain.

@eDicky
You seem to realise that your wind up has failed and that you have portrayed yourself as an idiot, so why are you still posting here? Try trolling in another thread. I can't believe that you have made over 1000 posts trying to troll people on Money Saving Expert. It's about time you found something better to do with your life.

NotRichAtAll

So what is the big secret? Where are you based

Am gonna guess he's in Thailand

pawlala

Johnstone101 wrote: »

I have managed to solve the problem myself

by flying back to the UK?

djpailo

Wasn't there an app based bank which had no conversion fees or something along that line? I can't remember what it was called though