New unfair Halifax bank account condition

callum9999

Daliah said:

callum9999 said:

They presumably stopped it because the Eurozone interest rate is no longer negative. 

I don't know the real reason, but I do know that there are still one or two banks in Euroland happily charging for deposits greater €x, where x is generally a high 5 figure or even a low 6 figure number. Most don't charge any longer now.

I was trying to be polite with the "presumably"!

While the Euro interest rate was negative, many Euro accounts had negative interest rates. Now the Euro interest rate is not negative, most (/all?) of those banks no longer have negative interest rates. I think you can probably figure out the "real reason"!

MEM62

BenWh13 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

The way I interpret it, they're just saying they'll have the right to impose a limit on the amount you can deposit with them.  If you go over that limit then there'll be a charge.  No different to if you go over your overdraft or credit card limit.  If they set a limit of, let's say for the sake of argument £50,000 and you've currently got £60,000 with them then they'll contact you - and you can just transfer £10,000 to another account somewhere else.

It says "restrict the amount you can have in your account EITHER by applying a limit OR by imposing a charge." Let's say I have £50,000 - they could say "no more deposits allowed" OR impose a charge of £10, £1,000, £10,000 (or more) under that term. No guarantee they will allow me to move it elsewhere before imposing the charge. Appreciate there would be an outcry at that point, but it seems they would only do it if they were on the brink of failure anyway so might not care.

You are clearly misunderstanding the new clause.  Nobody can just help themselves to your money and banks cannot prevent you from legitimately moving your money.  I doubt that any of the institutions that you have contacted will give weight to your complaint.

Ergates

BenWh13 said:

I am frankly astonished that people are not up in arms about this - I have written to newspapers, Which? and MSE and no response. Waiting for my FOS complaint to be looked at, and the FCA unfair contract terms team to come back to me. Anyone else noticed this/concerned by this?

There has been no response because, unlike you, the people you've written to have understood what the new term means.

It doesn't mean the bank can just help themselves to your money *at all*.  The term doesn't state a limit to the charge, but all bank charges have to be reasonable and proportionate - this is why they can't change you £50 for bouncing a cheque any more - so couldn't be anywhere near £10,000  (unless, maybe, if you had literally billions of pounds in the account).

brianposter

MEM62 said:

BenWh13 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

The way I interpret it, they're just saying they'll have the right to impose a limit on the amount you can deposit with them.  If you go over that limit then there'll be a charge.  No different to if you go over your overdraft or credit card limit.  If they set a limit of, let's say for the sake of argument £50,000 and you've currently got £60,000 with them then they'll contact you - and you can just transfer £10,000 to another account somewhere else.

It says "restrict the amount you can have in your account EITHER by applying a limit OR by imposing a charge." Let's say I have £50,000 - they could say "no more deposits allowed" OR impose a charge of £10, £1,000, £10,000 (or more) under that term. No guarantee they will allow me to move it elsewhere before imposing the charge. Appreciate there would be an outcry at that point, but it seems they would only do it if they were on the brink of failure anyway so might not care.

You are clearly misunderstanding the new clause.  Nobody can just help themselves to your money and banks cannot prevent you from legitimately moving your money.  I doubt that any of the institutions that you have contacted will give weight to your complaint.

Have you heard of Argentina, or Cyprus ?

Zanderman

brianposter said:

MEM62 said:

BenWh13 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

The way I interpret it, they're just saying they'll have the right to impose a limit on the amount you can deposit with them.  If you go over that limit then there'll be a charge.  No different to if you go over your overdraft or credit card limit.  If they set a limit of, let's say for the sake of argument £50,000 and you've currently got £60,000 with them then they'll contact you - and you can just transfer £10,000 to another account somewhere else.

It says "restrict the amount you can have in your account EITHER by applying a limit OR by imposing a charge." Let's say I have £50,000 - they could say "no more deposits allowed" OR impose a charge of £10, £1,000, £10,000 (or more) under that term. No guarantee they will allow me to move it elsewhere before imposing the charge. Appreciate there would be an outcry at that point, but it seems they would only do it if they were on the brink of failure anyway so might not care.

You are clearly misunderstanding the new clause.  Nobody can just help themselves to your money and banks cannot prevent you from legitimately moving your money.  I doubt that any of the institutions that you have contacted will give weight to your complaint.

Have you heard of Argentina, or Cyprus ?

Yes. Of course. But the OPs complaint is groundless. Halifax's new terms don't say what the OP thinks they say.  Whatever happened in Argentina and Cyprus is irrelevant to the situation with Halifax now. As there's nothing similar at all. Halifax are merely saying they may restrict how much you can have in your account, or might bring in a bank charge if you want to be over that limit. Nowt to do with them nicking your money.

Daliah

Worth noting that we had limits on savings accounts for donkey's years. Most of those are way above the £85k FSCS limit.

Ergates

brianposter said:

MEM62 said:

BenWh13 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

The way I interpret it, they're just saying they'll have the right to impose a limit on the amount you can deposit with them.  If you go over that limit then there'll be a charge.  No different to if you go over your overdraft or credit card limit.  If they set a limit of, let's say for the sake of argument £50,000 and you've currently got £60,000 with them then they'll contact you - and you can just transfer £10,000 to another account somewhere else.

It says "restrict the amount you can have in your account EITHER by applying a limit OR by imposing a charge." Let's say I have £50,000 - they could say "no more deposits allowed" OR impose a charge of £10, £1,000, £10,000 (or more) under that term. No guarantee they will allow me to move it elsewhere before imposing the charge. Appreciate there would be an outcry at that point, but it seems they would only do it if they were on the brink of failure anyway so might not care.

You are clearly misunderstanding the new clause.  Nobody can just help themselves to your money and banks cannot prevent you from legitimately moving your money.  I doubt that any of the institutions that you have contacted will give weight to your complaint.

Have you heard of Argentina, or Cyprus ?

Neither of those are UK banks.

MEM62

brianposter said:

MEM62 said:

BenWh13 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

The way I interpret it, they're just saying they'll have the right to impose a limit on the amount you can deposit with them.  If you go over that limit then there'll be a charge.  No different to if you go over your overdraft or credit card limit.  If they set a limit of, let's say for the sake of argument £50,000 and you've currently got £60,000 with them then they'll contact you - and you can just transfer £10,000 to another account somewhere else.

It says "restrict the amount you can have in your account EITHER by applying a limit OR by imposing a charge." Let's say I have £50,000 - they could say "no more deposits allowed" OR impose a charge of £10, £1,000, £10,000 (or more) under that term. No guarantee they will allow me to move it elsewhere before imposing the charge. Appreciate there would be an outcry at that point, but it seems they would only do it if they were on the brink of failure anyway so might not care.

You are clearly misunderstanding the new clause.  Nobody can just help themselves to your money and banks cannot prevent you from legitimately moving your money.  I doubt that any of the institutions that you have contacted will give weight to your complaint.

Have you heard of Argentina, or Cyprus ?

I have heard of both - neither of which can be compared to the UK.  It is also the case that I do not subscribe to conspiracy or scare mongering stories.    

MDMD

Daily Mail have picked up on this - apparently they say in true DM style there is a “furious customer backlash” even though the article doesn’t mention any quotes from customers.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/saving/article-11139019/Changes-Halifaxs-terms-conditions-sparks-customer-backlash.html

Ebe_Scrooge

callum9999 said:

MDMD said:

Daily Mail have picked up on this - apparently they say in true DM style there is a “furious customer backlash” even though the article doesn’t mention any quotes from customers.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/saving/article-11139019/Changes-Halifaxs-terms-conditions-sparks-customer-backlash.html

I have vivid memories from childhood of being sent to the corner shop to buy the Mail when the grandparents visit and feeling compelled to explain myself and reassure the cashier that I would never read it! I can't wait for that vile rag to die out...

LOL, it was less embarrassing reaching for a "top-shelf" magazine than it was to buy that "newspaper" for someone else!

Errmmm ... I would imagine :-)