Halifax say Ultimate Reward A/C fees are 'not PBA' so won't accept complaint?

buel10

Hi all.
The 'Halifax Ultimate Reward' fees were charged on my brother's account since 2011. He definitely did not agree to this and made a complaint to Halifax saying they were mis-sold. He did this by using Resolver. They only option they had as a header was 'Packaged Bank Account',
Halifax have replied to say being as this was not a 'PBA', they will not be looking in to the complaint.

Is this just because he used the 'packaged bank account' header or should they have looked at this complaint regardless?

WillPS

Halifax Ultimate Reward absolutely is a packaged bank account.

eskbanker

buel10 said:

Halifax say Ultimate Reward A/C fees are 'not PBA' so won't accept complaint?

If it's not seen as a packaged bank account then perhaps worth asking exactly what the account fees did buy then?

Why has he been paying fees for eleven years if he believes he didn't agree to this?

[Deleted User]

 Halifax did not just randomly put people on paid for accounts (obviously people would notice they were suddenly paying a monthly fee and complain and the bank would be fined), he will have 100% chosen to switch to it and simply forgot

He'll most likely be time barred anyway, 6 years from account opening and 3 years from when he knew, or could reasonably have known he had cause for complaint. The banks have been sending out annual statements of benefits and advice on free alternatives for years which triggers the 3 year rule.

More likely they dismissed him as a chancer doing a try it on complaint

I suspect as ever, using a third party like Resolver has needlessly complicated matters and resulted in an incorrect response. As ever a reminder NEVER USE THIRD PARTY SITES, always complain directly stating the facts and your complaint reasons.

WillPS

Deleted_User said:

 Halifax did not just randomly put people on paid for accounts (obviously people would notice they were suddenly paying a monthly fee and complain and the bank would be fined), he will have 100% chosen to switch to it and simply forgot

He'll most likely be time barred anyway, 6 years from account opening and 3 years from when he knew, or could reasonably have known he had cause for complaint. The banks have been sending out annual statements of benefits and advice on free alternatives for years which triggers the 3 year rule.

More likely they dismissed him as a chancer doing a try it on complaint

I suspect as ever, using a third party like Resolver has needlessly complicated matters and resulted in an incorrect response. As ever a reminder NEVER USE THIRD PARTY SITES, always complain directly stating the facts and your complaint reasons.

Banks can't dismiss complaints with completely bogus reasoning; if the complaint is meritless it is incumbent upon them to prove that.

Daliah

buel10 said:

Hi all.
The 'Halifax Ultimate Reward' fees were charged on my brother's account since 2011. He definitely did not agree to this and made a complaint to Halifax saying they were mis-sold. He did this by using Resolver. They only option they had as a header was 'Packaged Bank Account',
Halifax have replied to say being as this was not a 'PBA', they will not be looking in to the complaint.

Is this just because he used the 'packaged bank account' header or should they have looked at this complaint regardless?

In addition to the comments from others: why doesn't Resolver resolve this for your brother?

kaMelo

WillPS said:

Deleted_User said:

 Halifax did not just randomly put people on paid for accounts (obviously people would notice they were suddenly paying a monthly fee and complain and the bank would be fined), he will have 100% chosen to switch to it and simply forgot

He'll most likely be time barred anyway, 6 years from account opening and 3 years from when he knew, or could reasonably have known he had cause for complaint. The banks have been sending out annual statements of benefits and advice on free alternatives for years which triggers the 3 year rule.

More likely they dismissed him as a chancer doing a try it on complaint

I suspect as ever, using a third party like Resolver has needlessly complicated matters and resulted in an incorrect response. As ever a reminder NEVER USE THIRD PARTY SITES, always complain directly stating the facts and your complaint reasons.

Banks can't dismiss complaints with completely bogus reasoning; if the complaint is meritless it is incumbent upon them to prove that.

No they can't but time barring a complaint is legitimate.  As they have been supplying annual fees statements on all packaged bank accounts for around a decade and will have proof of doing so,  the complaint is dead in the water.

buel10

kaMelo said:

WillPS said:

Deleted_User said:

 Halifax did not just randomly put people on paid for accounts (obviously people would notice they were suddenly paying a monthly fee and complain and the bank would be fined), he will have 100% chosen to switch to it and simply forgot

He'll most likely be time barred anyway, 6 years from account opening and 3 years from when he knew, or could reasonably have known he had cause for complaint. The banks have been sending out annual statements of benefits and advice on free alternatives for years which triggers the 3 year rule.

More likely they dismissed him as a chancer doing a try it on complaint

I suspect as ever, using a third party like Resolver has needlessly complicated matters and resulted in an incorrect response. As ever a reminder NEVER USE THIRD PARTY SITES, always complain directly stating the facts and your complaint reasons.

Banks can't dismiss complaints with completely bogus reasoning; if the complaint is meritless it is incumbent upon them to prove that.

No they can't but time barring a complaint is legitimate.  As they have been supplying annual fees statements on all packaged bank accounts for around a decade and will have proof of doing so,  the complaint is dead in the water.

Thanks for this. As my brother stated in his complaint, he has had serious health issues for the last 10 years (and I do mean serious) and these have impacted his mental health (depression, etc) so bank statements have been ignored. I am not saying this is 'right' but stating what his line was on this. Recently, his health and mental health have increased and there is almost light on the horizon. I was a little surprised that Halifax didn't acknowledge this but more surprised that they tried to claim the Reward accounts weren't PBAs?

buel10

Perhaps these will help?

mjm3346

They are not saying that the Ultimate Reward account is not a PBA but that the claim is outside the time limit to complain there are other accounts they say are not packaged accounts

eskbanker

buel10 said:
I was a little surprised that Halifax didn't acknowledge this but more surprised that they tried to claim the Reward accounts weren't PBAs? 

Reward accounts aren't PBAs - the packaged insurance benefits only come with the (different) Ultimate Reward product, hence the difference in fees, i.e. an avoidable monthly £3 for the Reward but £17 for the Ultimate Reward.

https://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/current-accounts.html