Halifax and unauthorised payment

18cc

You asked where you go from here. if it were me I would give them a short while to try and sort it out - for example you said they were going to listen to the phone calls again

If not sorted, you should then raise a second complaint because the first one has been closed

Depending on the outcome of that you can subsequently escalate it

eddddy

For info, based on what you say in your posts, the Financial Conduct Authority website discusses your situation almost exactly...
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/continuous-payment-authorities-it-your-right-cancel

And says:

What to do if payments are not cancelled

Any related payments taken after you ask for a continuous payment authority to be stopped are considered to be unauthorised transactions. Card issuers must refund these payments and any related charges immediately.

If payments continue, contact your card issuer to arrange a refund. If it fails to do so, you should make a complaint to the card issuer and, then, if you are not satisfied with its response, take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Find out more about how to complain.

Link: https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/continuous-payment-authorities-it-your-right-cancel

eskbanker

eddddy wrote: »

For info, based on what you say in your posts, the Financial Conduct Authority website discusses your situation almost exactly...
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/continuous-payment-authorities-it-your-right-cancel

....which of course is why that article was linked and quoted in the first reply last week!

Hannahc1990x

Payment assist is a perfectly legitimate company Takmon and thousands of individuals, well off or not, have used the company. It’s just like saying people on a phone contract should have saved the money to buy a phone outright or people have cars on finance or lease, people who buy a washing machine because they couldn’t afford it at the time but can easily afford the repayments. Or someone with a credit card may use that to fix their car or pay for a fault in their home. You’re basically saying people should do none of these and make sure they have thousands saved up. As I said, this was the only payment I wanted to reduce and I have no other financial issues. But I don’t need to defend that at all.

Halifax have said I have to wait the 15 days for them to make a decision but either way I will be leaving the bank once I have been paid from work. I have another bank account already and will use that going forward. I’m very disappointed in the Halifax, I have never had issues like this before and have known them to be good to my family in the past. My nana has her card cloned and nearly £10k stolen and they were brilliant on that. I have had CPAs in the past and cancelled them for Xbox memberships etc and the money has been taken but I always got a refund without them batting an eyelid.

Thank you for those who have given me good advice and defended me.

Willing2Learn

Hannahc1990x wrote: »

Halifax have said I have to wait the 15 days for them to make a decision...

I would definitely make an official written complaint to Halifax, regardless of their 'decision'. The FCA rules are pretty clear. The complaint would be about them ignoring the rules. When you make your complaint, I suggest you directly quote the rules. That money should be in your account. You should definitely get compensated for their error and misinterpretation of the rules. If they don't uphold your complaint then you should escalate to the FOS.

Hannahc1990x

Thank you Willing2Learn. I will do that written complaint this week.

born_again

Hannahc1990x wrote: »

Thank you Willing2Learn. I will do that written complaint this week.

Given that you have already complained over the phone that is enough. They would be compounding a breech in PSD regulations that they have already made if they had not logged your complaint already. While you did allow them to close the complaint with the £25. It should have been reopened when you were put through to the complaints team to listen to the calls again.
Maybe call them again asking for the complaints team. Making sure that you use the word "COMPLAINT" and you want it reopening if it is not.
They have already admitted a error that your request was not actioned. Since then failed to make a refund despite speaking to the complaints team....
In effect the FCA would have them over the barrel by the short & curlies.

jonnygee2

Chargebacks can be represented, it's more than likely this one will be.

This advice is also incorrect and chargebacks are irrelevant. As the payment was unauthorised (see linked FCA post) it is the bank that is liable to refund it. Any subsequent recovery of funds from the merchant is the bank's problem.

Takmon

Hannahc1990x wrote: »

Payment assist is a perfectly legitimate company Takmon and thousands of individuals, well off or not, have used the company. It’s just like saying people on a phone contract should have saved the money to buy a phone outright or people have cars on finance or lease, people who buy a washing machine because they couldn’t afford it at the time but can easily afford the repayments. Or someone with a credit card may use that to fix their car or pay for a fault in their home. You’re basically saying people should do none of these and make sure they have thousands saved up. As I said, this was the only payment I wanted to reduce and I have no other financial issues. But I don’t need to defend that at all.

I'm not saying it isn't a legitimate company. The point i was trying to make was that if someone can afford to borrow money and make a repayment of £200 a month then why were they not saving the £200 a month before that and building up some savings.

Phone contracts usually work out cheaper than buying the phone outright and a sim only deal separately so there isn't much wrong with that.
But people rely to much on finance and seem to be able to somehow convince themselves they can afford the repayments but have no spare money to make any savings.
I personally would describe my own financial situation as unstable if i had less than 3 months expenditure in savings and if i had nothing and was living month to month then it would be dire!.

You seem to be suggesting that having thousands saved up is somehow wrong?. Just think about your budget and how much money do you put away each month for car repairs, new appliances/repairs, new furniture. If you never budget to save any money your always going to be on the back foot by having to borrow, wouldn't it be nice to be ahead for once?

Hannahc1990x

I’m not saying that having savings is a bad thing but I’m not saying having expensive or needed items on finance that someone can afford is wrong either. It’s an individual choice and very well known that people do this. My car was on finance when I bought it and I never missed a payment. I needed a newer car as I was dong longer journeys but did not have the £8k in the bank to buy it. Some people try and save every month but are unfortunate that something happens and they use that money or they live comfortably by covering all their expenditures but doing have large amounts in savings. It depends on your outlook on life. I would rather not worry about money and don’t worry about money. It doesn’t keep me up at night. If things were to go down the toilet I have family I could go and stay with family whilst I got back up on my feet for example. Some people don’t have that and spend their lives worrying about what’s in the bank, I am not that person.

Trust me, it’s always someone wanting to borrow off me, not the other way round. I am always well within my budget but everybody has had the time when something has genuinely gone wrong such as losing their job to redundancy or being very ill in hospital or a loved one is unwell or dies. You just cannot plan for everything.