Halifax £Nil available balance

MrHazard

Hi,


Bit of a strange one here and I'm after some advice.


I've had a Halifax credit card for a few years now, and a couple of years ago I got into some financial difficulty and this rendered me unable to pay. Unfortunately it was maxed out also at £2000. A couple or so months after being in arrears, I set up a repayment plan via Stepchange. Halifax paused the interest and fees and accepted this plan. My situation changed again unfortunately a few months ago and this cancelled the plan with Stepchange and a couple of months went by without a payment (at this point the balance stood at around £700).


Now, interest and charges started up again, and they started emailing me statements again as if I had the card as normal, stating my minimum payment is now overdue. Available balance on the statement was showing as around £1250, with a credit limit of £1950 (for some reason they reduced my credit limit by £50 a few months prior). I thought this was strange as I just assumed they had cancelled/closed my card or at least blocked it from use. I logged into online banking and the available balance on there was showing as £Nil, which is different to the paper statement. I can only assume Nil means I cannot use the card as it is currently blocked.


Anyway, I called them up to query all of this and hopefully set up a new arrangement and they told me explicitly that after making the minimum payment of ~£250 my card would be unblocked and available to use again. Knowing that I would have the use of credit for my day to day purchases (groceries, bills etc.) this was very appealing to me over the arrangement as I was currently using cash to do this.

I was very sceptical of this whole situation as I thought the card was blocked permanently due to my previous arrangements and such, so before I made payment I asked if they could check with their manager. I explained my situation and once again they explicitly said that no, once I make this minimum payment, the card would be out of collections, unblocked and able to use again as normal. So I made the payment of ~£250.


It's now been nearly a week and although the payment has gone through successfully, my available balance online is still showing as £Nil. Now I'm really worried that it's still going to be blocked, and the cash I needed for bills and living expenses this month is now gone (with the intention of using this credit card for such transactions).

Before I call them up again, I need to know where I stand if it is still blocked (I'm just guessing here from the £Nil). As far as I'm concerned, they lied to me, and got a large payment off me purely through deceit if this is the case.

It's important to note that the card has never defaulted. And it is still showing as open on my credit file.


Any advice? Thanks guys.

PeacefulWaters

As far as I'm concerned, they lied to me

Or they haven't followed up on what was said because somebody had other calls to deal with and forgot to follow up.

You're not in a strong position. Accusing them of lying won't help your discussion when you do call them.

MrHazard

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Or they haven't followed up on what was said because somebody had other calls to deal with and forgot to follow up.

You're not in a strong position. Accusing them of lying won't help your discussion when you do call them.

What's with the attitude? Hardly helpful. I clearly said "IF THIS IS THE CASE" it was a scenario, not an accusation. I'm just after some advice, I've not been in this situation before so I wanted to know if anyone has an experience with this.


I've not yet accused anyone of anything. Nor will I, unless the worst case scenario that's in my head is what has happened here.

MABLE

Before I call them up again, I need to know where I stand if it is still blocked (I'm just guessing here from the £Nil). As far as I'm concerned, they lied to me, and got a large payment off me purely through deceit if this is the case.
unquote

I would suggest you ask them to listen to the call and that will then confirm what or was not agreed. I know whenever I have held an issue with Lloyds and I complain they manage to dig out the recording of exactly what was said.

MrHazard

MABLE wrote: »

Before I call them up again, I need to know where I stand if it is still blocked (I'm just guessing here from the £Nil). As far as I'm concerned, they lied to me, and got a large payment off me purely through deceit if this is the case.
unquote

I would suggest you ask them to listen to the call and that will then confirm what or was not agreed. I know whenever I have held an issue with Lloyds and I complain they manage to dig out the recording of exactly what was said.

Thanks Mable, appreciate the advice.


So just to confirm, does anyone know if they are able to unblock it after this amount of time? I mean, I know they said they would after I made the payment, but it just seems strange to me considering the problems they have had with me.

[Deleted User]

They can block or unblock as they want.

MrHazard

Deleted_User wrote: »

They can block or unblock as they want.

Gotcha! Okay thank you.

IanManc

MrHazard wrote: »

. As far as I'm concerned, they lied to me

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Accusing them of lying won't help your discussion when you do call them.

MrHazard wrote: »

What's with the attitude?
................
I've not yet accused anyone of anything.

I think you're the one with the attitude.

And possibly amnesia. :rotfl:

MrHazard

IanManc wrote: »

I think you're the one with the attitude.

And possibly amnesia. :rotfl:

It really helps to read the whole post, or at least finish the sentence.

I don't appreciate being misquoted - you can make anyone look like they're saying anything when you remove chunks. Context matters.

As far as I'm concerned, they lied to me, and got a large payment off me purely through deceit if this is the case.

I clearly said throughout the post, I have no idea what the situation is yet. For all I know, £Nil is just an error and everything is fine. I'm asking. Isn't that the whole point?

I've only just joined this forum, and it's coming across as very unhelpful and very hostile...

PeacefulWaters

MrHazard wrote: »

What's with the attitude? .

You tell me. No attitude here. I merely highlighted what appeared to be your current thinking and suggested it wasn't a good idea to approach your next conversation that way.

You asked for advice. I gave advice. Feel free to use it or ignore it as you see fit.

(The words "if this is the case" don't really change the context of you saying "as far as I'm concerned ..." - you've stated your current thinking, which is that you believe they lied)

IanManc

MrHazard wrote: »

I've only just joined this forum, and it's coming across as very unhelpful and very hostile...

Yeah, right.

The first person who tried to help you - a person who is a regular contributor and someone who has given people sound advice on here for years - you accused of having an attitude.

You are the source of your own problems.