Halifax and unauthorised payment

NCC-1707

The Halifax and their staff will breathe a sigh of relief when you leave.

meer53

You have to have a valid reason to cancel a CPA payment. Although the OP may not be able to afford the repayments, this isn't a valid reason to cancel it, therefore Payment Assist will pursue them by other means for the money. Refunds made by Halifax will probably be redebited, leaving the OP in the same situation as they were before cancellation. Asking Halifax to cancel was the wrong way to go about this issue, the OP should have contacted Payment Assist.

Willing2Learn

meer53 wrote: »

You have to have a valid reason to cancel a CPA payment...

Where in the rules does it say that?

Nowhere in the FCA guidance does it state that the customer has to give a 'valid reason' to cancel a CPA. I believe you are mistaken. Nowhere in the guidance does it say that the customer should contact the company taking the payment, so Hannah is not required to inform Payment Assist

jonnygee2

You have to have a valid reason to cancel a CPA payment. Although the OP may not be able to afford the repayments, this isn't a valid reason to cancel it, therefore Payment Assist will pursue them by other means for the money. Refunds made by Halifax will probably be redebited,

This advice is incorrect. Consumers have the right to cancel a CPA at any time for any reason. This is written in bold and in capitals on the FCAs website https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/continuous-payment-authorities-it-your-right-cancel

I think the OP is already aware that cancelling the payment doesn't cancel the legally owed debt. However, the loan issuers will not be able to debit it back off the card without authorisation - any attempt to do so could be charged back as they would be unauthorised payments. This is again stated in the linked FCA website.

If there is still a legally owed debt, then of course it still needs to be paid. But the debt issuer would need to take this through the courts to recover it if it remained unpaid, they couldn't just debit the card.

born_again

meer53 wrote: »

You have to have a valid reason to cancel a CPA payment. .

Only reason you need is no longer wanting to pay it going forward.

Yes. Any company can take their own action to reclaim funds, by what ever means they see fit.

Where it is something like a loan or fixed term payment schedule. Then they should be contacting the company the payments go to, to advise them.
As any declined payments can incur in house charges with these companies.

Flobberchops

You have to have a valid reason to cancel a CPA payment.

But importantly, this isn't at the discretion of the bank staff. That's not a judgement they're required or qualified to make.

Takmon

Hannahc1990x wrote: »

Takmon - I’m glad your such a savvy individual and have never had financial issues. No I have never had this before so I suggest you keep those kinds of opinions to yourself. I have reported your post. I hope you never have this situation and keep your nasty opinions to yourself. It’s a shame people like yourself and others who have commented have such down looking opinions and appear to know everything but actually know nothing. I came to this forum for advice. But it appears these forums are just a shaming game.

Hannahc1990x wrote: »

Also, I am not in a dire situation. I do have money and all my bills are up to date apart from that one. So do not make assumptions. I have a well paid job and friends and family. That’s all I need. I will no longer be replying to anyone else. The first few people who commented have good advice and thank you to them. Everyone since, shame on you and get a life.

Your saying you have a well paid job yet several times in the past you have had to borrow money to repair your car. If you had simply saved this money each month then you wouldn't have had to borrow anything. The fact that you had to borrow money for car repairs shows you have no emergency fund savings at all which is a dire financial situation.

So you can either continue to bury you head in the sand and live on the financial edge or you can decide to start budgeting and managing your finances better from now on.

My comments may sound harsh but you seem to think it's perfectly fine to borrow money for car repairs so you need to know that it's a big warning sign.

jonnygee2 wrote: »

I don't think it is excessive really. The OP is asking about a complaint situation with a bank (in which she is completely entitled to a refund). It's clearly inappropriate and potentially offensive to start criticising the OPs financial management skills and financial decisions, with no context on those decisions and when no advice was asked for.

Some of the best advice i have ever had was when i didn't ask for it.

meer53

It may not be in the regulations to have a valid reason but cancelling the payment because you are having a tough time isn't the way to go about it. You will just end up in a worse position than before. Chargebacks can be represented, it's more than likely this one will be.

eskbanker

meer53 wrote: »

It may not be in the regulations to have a valid reason but cancelling the payment because you are having a tough time isn't the way to go about it. You will just end up in a worse position than before. Chargebacks can be represented, it's more than likely this one will be.

But this is still ignoring the fundamental separation between OP's relationship with Halifax and that with Payment Assist.

As I understand it, the FCA regulations are unequivocal and mandate that Halifax cancels the CPA when requested to do so by the customer, with no reason required. If they fail to process this correctly and allow a further payment to be taken, they are clearly obliged to refund the customer. Surely you're not suggesting that this is just a temporary measure and that the merchant can still get that refund reversed?

I get that such reversal can apply for certain chargebacks such as non-delivery of goods where the merchant later provides evidence countering the claim, but in this scenario it's clearly a bank error to effectively allow an unauthorised debit, so I can't see how the customer can legitimately be impacted by any subsequent attempt by the merchant to reclaim the money via Halifax. I can see why Payment Assist will try that, but that's between them and Halifax.

None of this affects the fact that OP still owes Payment Assist the £243 that was erroneously deducted last month but that's solely an issue between her and Payment Assist and nothing to do with Halifax.

18cc

eskbanker and others on here are right - Halifax should not have allowed the payment through and should refund it immediately

The fact that you may or may not still owe payment-assist £243 is a completely separate matter and between you and that company