Halifax "Phantom Over Limit" Shenanigans

Degenerate

I thought it might be useful to share this incident with my Halifax Clarity card:


May 25th:
1. Make payment to Halifax card from Halifax bank account by faster payments.
2. Wait a couple of hours for payment to appear on available credit.
3. Make cash withdrawal that takes me close to (but still within) credit limit.


May 29th:
Receive SMS telling me I am over limit. Check account. It seems for some reason they have processed the withdrawal and added it to my cleared transactions prior to the payment. Problem sorts itself out by end of day with no action from me.


May 31st:
Make payment to ensure there is enough spare limit to cover interest.


Today - June 2nd - Statement day:
Check account. Shows me over limit again. Cannot see transactions because Halifax's crappy system makes them invisible on statement day, but amount suggests that a £12 over limit fee has been added, and that is what's taken it over limit again. Call Halifax and they confirm this.


They reversed the fee without argument, but what's the betting that another one will be added next month, for the "over limit" today, caused by the over limit fee for the "over limit" (that wasn't) on the 29th? I shall also be keeping a close eye on what gets reported to CRAs about this.


Lesson: If you're running things close to the wire, watch the b*****ds like a hawk.

[Deleted User]

Degenerate wrote: »

Lesson: If you're running things close to the wire, watch the b*****ds like a hawk.

Or don't run things close to the wire without expecting there to be consequences.

Degenerate

camelot1971 wrote: »

Or don't run things close to the wire without expecting there to be consequences.

Would you expect a speeding ticket for 69MPH in a 70 limit?


EDIT: The statement is prepared and I can now see the transactions. The withdrawal made on the 25th is posted on the account dated the 28th (Bank Holiday Monday), whereas the payment made on the 25th is posted on the 29th. So this is possibly due to a quirk with how Halifax treat bank holidays.

shortcrust

Degenerate wrote: »

Would you expect a speeding ticket for 69MPH in a 70 limit?

Daft analogy. You can’t predict exactly when payments, withdrawals and charges will be applied. You need to wait until payment actually shows on the account, not just in the available credit.

Really daft way to run things.

[Deleted User]

Lesson learned - wait a couple of days for the payment to completely clear.

Also make payments when receiving the statement not in between payments.

Degenerate

shortcrust wrote: »

Daft analogy. You can!!!8217;t predict exactly when payments, withdrawals and charges will be applied. You need to wait until payment actually shows on the account, not just in the available credit.

Really daft way to run things.

Nothing daft about it. "available credit" should mean exactly that - available. That's a reasonable expectation, or they should not tell you the money is available.

I've had plenty of other credit cards, on occasion I've run them close to the wire in a similar way, and I've had no such problem. Halifax have no excuse for posting an internal payment from another Halifax account later than an external transaction that happened afterwards, and after they declared it "available". They themselves know this, which is why after examining the order of transactions, they refunded the charge without quibbling.

!!! wrote: »

Lesson learned - wait a couple of days for the payment to completely clear.

It's not a matter of "clearance". Faster payments "clear" immediately and irrevocably. Moreover, it was internal to Halifax, so shouldn't have needed to go through the payments system at all.

The issue is that despite this instant clearance of funds, there is still a delay between when transactions are made and when they are posted to accounts. I suspect this is related to banking systems still using batch processing on mainframes working on banking days only. I've never had a problem with this until now, and it appears to be because Halifax have a particularly !!!!!! set-up.

maxximus75

Instead of paying so much on the card wouldn't it be better to not withdraw cash from your credit card but from your current account to save on interest?

Degenerate

maxximus75 wrote: »

Instead of paying so much on the card wouldn't it be better to not withdraw cash from your credit card but from your current account to save on interest?

This is an unrelated topic, but anyway: Most of the time yes, in this case no. Halifax Clarity cards have no cash withdrawal charges, there was some limit left available to use, and the interest rate is lower than my overdraft. So I paid off some more to bring the available funds up to the amount of cash I needed, then withdrew from the card. This was the cheapest option and should have worked fine.

tastyhog

Degenerate wrote: »

This is an unrelated topic, but anyway: Most of the time yes, in this case no. Halifax Clarity cards have no cash withdrawal charges, there was some limit left available to use, and the interest rate is lower than my overdraft. So I paid off some more to bring the available funds up to the amount of cash I needed, then withdrew from the card. This was the cheapest option and should have worked fine.

In reality you were gaming the card to make it appear as though you were making the minimum payment you can't afford and then withdrawing cash.

Degenerate

tastyhog wrote: »

In reality you were gaming the card to make it appear as though you were making the minimum payment you can't afford and then withdrawing cash.

I probably shouldn't dignify this with an answer, but:

1. That month's minimum payment was covered weeks before.

2. Maximizing borrowings on those facilities that have lowest interest rates is not "gaming" anything.

WillyWonga

Halifax hasn't got a problem......... but if you dont like the way they operate then simple.... change cards. Pick up your dummies and move on.