Lloyds and Halifax change credit card repayment rules - make sure you don't overpay - MSE News 28 September 2018 at 3:52PM in Credit cards 60 replies 11.9K views

Nasqueron

NorthEast23 wrote: »

I recently transferred money from my Halifax Clarity credit card to another card. I always pay the full amt via DD each month and was unaware that the payment rules had changed, so was expecting the DD amt to be the statement amt less the balance transfer amt. The transaction was after the statement date and before the payment date. Imagine my surprise then when I saw that the full DD amt had been taken resulting in my current account being £3000 overdrawn.
I rang Halifax as I thought it was an admin error but was told that payment, credits and refunds are no longer factored into the amount due, even if this takes the account into credit. I asked whether the transaction could be cancelled as it would result in my credit card being £3000 in credit, but was told it wasn't possible.
Instead, I was advised to wait until the pyt reached the credit card account and contact Halifax again to request a refund, which I did, only to be told it could take up to 5 working days to be processed and reach my current account.
I was also advised that, should I wish to make any future overpayments I should cancel my DD, make a manual payment over the phone and then reinstate the DD, making sure that this was in place prior to any further payment date and to continue to make manual payments until the DD was reinstated.
I raised my concerns with Halifax and have just received a response, the details of which I won’t go into. In summary, it would appear they aren’t interested in the inconvenience that this change is causing its customers.
As Martin says, vote with your feet and so it’s time to look for a new bank! I might take advantage of the switching offers available.
It’s Halifax’s loss really as we have our current accounts, credit cards and insurance with them.

If you ignore all the communication from the bank then there is little they can do to help you. I work around it, I like my cashback card and have no interest in closing it so perfectly happy to stay with Halifax as they refunded the credit balance to me the same day when I had this issue - it was my fault, not theirs

sarahlpick

Could someone please advise........am I better off withdrawing cash via a halifax clarity card once i am in France, or going to a travel money place and exchange sterling for euros before I leave?

Thanks

MallyGirl

sarahlpick wrote: »

Could someone please advise........am I better off withdrawing cash via a halifax clarity card once i am in France, or going to a travel money place and exchange sterling for euros before I leave?

Thanks

Hi - you should start your own thread for this query as it is unrelated to this one.

Penelopa.Pitstop

Nasqueron wrote: »

If you ignore all the communication from the bank then there is little they can do to help you.

I learned about changes from the forum. Only got text message just before it was implemented. So it's possible, someone could have missed it and not receive letters at all.

Nasqueron

Penelopa.Pitstop wrote: »

I learned about changes from the forum. Only got text message just before it was implemented. So it's possible, something could have missed it and not receive letters at all.

Not a lot they can do if you don't read the emails or letters they sent out or indeed, check on the online banking

NorthEast23

Nasqueron wrote: »

If you ignore all the communication from the bank then there is little they can do to help you. I work around it, I like my cashback card and have no interest in closing it so perfectly happy to stay with Halifax as they refunded the credit balance to me the same day when I had this issue - it was my fault, not theirs

To ignore something infers you are aware of it in the first place. No letter (paperless?), no secure message, no text message (no mobile number). I did miss the paragraph on the statement which was introduced in October, but I hardly count this as clear communication.

Notwithstanding the communication issue, applying a blanket change to all accounts is just lazy in my opinion. The change makes no sense for those customers who pay the full amount each month as any additional payments (refunds, overpayments, credits etc) after the statement date will result in a credit to the account, which will only be refunded if you ring up and ask and then it takes up to 5 working days to reach the account. In my case, the refund took 3 working days to reach my Halifax current account.

Penelopa.Pitstop

I don't get any emails from Lloyds and I didn't get letter. Problem doesn't concern me, just pointing out, it's possible someone could have missed the info. And if someone had zero balance on the statement when they added the info, there was no need to read it. Actually, are statements even generated when there's zero balance?

Nasqueron

Penelopa.Pitstop wrote: »

I don't get any emails from Lloyds and I didn't get letter. Problem doesn't concern me, just pointing out, it's possible someone could have missed the info. And if someone had zero balance on the statement when they added the info, there was no need to read it. Actually, are statements even generated when there's zero balance?

NorthEast23 wrote: »

To ignore something infers you are aware of it in the first place. No letter (paperless?), no secure message, no text message (no mobile number). I did miss the paragraph on the statement which was introduced in October, but I hardly count this as clear communication.

Notwithstanding the communication issue, applying a blanket change to all accounts is just lazy in my opinion. The change makes no sense for those customers who pay the full amount each month as any additional payments (refunds, overpayments, credits etc) after the statement date will result in a credit to the account, which will only be refunded if you ring up and ask and then it takes up to 5 working days to reach the account. In my case, the refund took 3 working days to reach my Halifax current account.

As I said, the credit card changes were detailed in:

Letter (even when you are paperless it was sent)
Email
On the front page of online banking (I can't remember if they did secure messaging that as well but it was on the promotion screen you get when you first login)

If you somehow managed to miss all these, when you make a manual payment (e.g. a balance transfer) you also get a text message telling you this. It says:

Mr <xxx> REMINDER: If you make extra payments to your credit card at any time this will not reduce your Direct Debit

If you ignore or miss ALL these steps, there is not a lot they can do to help you is there?

You get a monthly statement with a zero balance yes, but if you have no balance then it doesn't matter does it?

NitinParmar

Good heads-up, I completely understand why this is the case but wonder is they inform customers or do they need to find the information before or after the fact themselves.

paulsad

Just got caught by this on one card - paid card off fully then set payment of £80 went out too - I do still use this card so it's not a biggie. I've got a Lloyds card that I have just settled (well transferred -77p) and that was set to take out my usual set £100 as well; I've changed it to min payment and once I see its settled I'll manually pay off the remaining .77p and hopefully be in time to cancel the dd. I think its a bit naughty and will put people off DD or using their cards.
Needs to be said it'll only apply to the current issued statement but it does lead to faffing about if you need to get your money back on a card you no longer want to use.