Halifax offering refund

Nicfaz92

Hi

I'm very new to this and just after a bit of advice. A few years ago when I was younger, and sillier, I decided to apply for an overdraft on ny bank account online. I was approved £1000. I believe this is only because my account also had my sister's student loads being deposited into it (as she has no current account) as my fill time wage alone was less than £1000 a month

However as I said I was young and silly and didn't really understand the meaning of an overdraft. Long story short for 18-24 month I ended up paying around £90-110 a month bank charges (authorized and unauthorized overdraft charges). Now I have a son and I am out of work I have been considering requesting a refund on these charges since recently realising just how astronomical they were but I didn't get around to requesting the refund.

I have received a letter from Halifax stating they will be refunding charges from a very specific date (10 September 15 - 7th jan 16). The letter states along the lines of "recently undertaken a review of our internal collections processes and identified between this period, following an assessment of your financial circumstances, we did not always take the appropriate course of action dealing with your account" and are therefore refunding me £251 including interest.

Again I haven't asked or had any correspondence regarding this refund previous to this letter/cheque and of course I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. However I find it a cosinsidence that the period they have chosen to refund is over a time at which my charges were lowest £60-80 a month before stopping in January (as I had called up at that point and they put a good on my account stopping any charges for 6 months). Nothing else significantly changed in my circumstances over that time, I had a son in July 2015 and was out of work around 7 month previous to that. I have a niggling feeling they are offering me this minimal cheque in hope of settlement before I request charges of over £1000

Does anyone have any experience with this? I can't seem to find anything regarding the bank contacting you before you contacting them? Like I said I'm happy with the £250 but I just wanted some other opinions if there are any?

Many thanks :j

[Deleted User]

It seems they are being proactive and generous. Up to you if you want the money or not.

[Deleted User]

You're just fortunate the Bank are refunding your charges without any action by yourself. Bank charges have not been refundable since 2009, unless the were somehow wrongly applied.

Clearly the Bank have identified faults with the charges applied to your account and have refunded accordingly.

Nicfaz92 wrote: »

I was approved £1000. I believe this is only because my account also had my sister's student loads being deposited into it

I wouldn't be pursuing a refund on that basis. Only you were at fault for not informing the bank that a significant part of your "income" was not your own.

Nicfaz92

I was simply explaining my circumstances, as I have said I'm new to this. I would have attempted to claim a refund cases on the fact that my bank charges made my financial situation worse by charging me £30pm authorised over draft charges and over £100 unauthorised charges in addition to £20 a month fees for benefits on a current account that I never received.

The most I have managed to do about that is have them take control of my account for 6 month over which no charges were added, and I now pay £30 a month charges in total.

As I said I was young and silly when I applied for my overdraft and I have regret it ever since, but being out of work with a disabled son makes it difficult to get out of. Their letter took me by surprise so I just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing before cashing it is all

-taff

Cash it and pay it off your overdraft. And go to the debt free wannabe forum for more help with your budget.