Have I been screwed?

rinovesp233

I had an Overdraft with Halifax years ago which recently I paid off because I closed the account down. The account was transferred out but the overdraft was not transferred. Now I want to make a few things clear before explaining
-They never once asked for the money back, no post, no email, nothing. The balance was around £680
-I had to call them myself to pay back this balance (Trying to be a responsible adult, I setup a payment plan to clear it in three installments as I knew it wouldn't just vanish)
-I paid back on time every month, the first month slightly underpaying by sub £1, this was agreed by the bank as an error and they agreed essentially to ignore it.
Once this was done, I thought it was done. Until I noticed they put four marks on my credit file. For late payments. Now, as I said, they never ONCE tried to ask me for this money in any way or form, and this can be proven via DSAR request.
As I understand, becuase they never tried to contact me for this money, they are in breach of the consumer credit act 1974, section 74b (1) D as there was no informing of the account holder in writing regarding any unarranged overdraft.
Secondly, I made a complaint and they upheld it despite this, which actually impacted a loan I took out end of last year due to the incorrect marks on my credit score.

Here are my questions
Do I take this to the ombudsman? Is it worth the fight?

Do I consult a solicitor? 

How do I resolve this? As far as I know they probably have broken multiple laws, but I'm not sure how to approach this.

eskbanker

rinovesp233 said:

-I had to call them myself to pay back this balance (Trying to be a responsible adult, I setup a payment plan to clear it in three installments as I knew it wouldn't just vanish)
-I paid back on time every month, the first month slightly underpaying by sub £1, this was agreed by the bank as an error and they agreed essentially to ignore it.
Once this was done, I thought it was done. Until I noticed they put four marks on my credit file. For late payments.

I don't understand why a payment plan needed to be set up, i.e. if you have an overdraft on your current account then you simply pay money in to reduce it?  What triggered the conversation?  Was interest being charged on it?

Have you been receiving other correspondence from them either online or via snail mail, e.g. routine statements, etc?

rinovesp233

eskbanker said:

rinovesp233 said:

-I had to call them myself to pay back this balance (Trying to be a responsible adult, I setup a payment plan to clear it in three installments as I knew it wouldn't just vanish)
-I paid back on time every month, the first month slightly underpaying by sub £1, this was agreed by the bank as an error and they agreed essentially to ignore it.
Once this was done, I thought it was done. Until I noticed they put four marks on my credit file. For late payments.

I don't understand why a payment plan needed to be set up, i.e. if you have an overdraft on your current account then you simply pay money in to reduce it?  What triggered the conversation?  Was interest being charged on it?

Have you been receiving other correspondence from them either online or via snail mail, e.g. routine statements, etc?

Hi. It was set up voluntarily by me. As after 2 months they didn't bother to contact me about it after the transfer. 

No. Not a single piece until I raised a complaint about this.

eskbanker

I don't know if the information about switching the account out was added in your edit, but if you tried to switch an overdrawn account then I'd have expected them to prevent it from happening until you'd repaid them.  Overdrafts are repayable on demand but it would seem odd that they didn't expressly notify you of that expectation at the time of switching - are you sure they have your correct address if you haven't even been receiving statements?

rinovesp233

eskbanker said:

I don't know if the information about switching the account out was added in your edit, but if you tried to switch an overdrawn account then I'd have expected them to prevent it from happening until you'd repaid them.  Overdrafts are repayable on demand but it would seem odd that they didn't expressly notify you of that expectation at the time of switching - are you sure they have your correct address if you haven't even been receiving statements?

Yes, as all statements were virtual only. They also managed to send a letter to say that the account had been closed. I've never moved since opening this account so there's no reason it should of logically went to an incorrect address. I agree OD are repayable on demand, but as per the situation they didn't ever demand it once.

Yes it was added in the edit. It was switched out, then closed. 

eskbanker

rinovesp233 said:

I made a complaint and they upheld it

So what resolution did they offer when upholding your complaint?

rinovesp233

eskbanker said:

rinovesp233 said:

I made a complaint and they upheld it

So what resolution did they offer when upholding your complaint?

Sorry. Wrong word. They rejected it and claimed they made no error. Hence the post. 

eskbanker

Was your complaint specifically about lack of notification or the credit file markers, or both?  On what actual grounds did they reject it?

To be honest I'm not sure you have much of a leg to stand on, in that you accept that you had access to statements showing the amount of money you owed them - were you under the impression that an overdraft could be 'switched' to a new provider, as opposed to having to repay it?