Halifax Stole money from me!

If_Only_3

Hi,

Well, this post is just to vent my frustration at Halifax. A quick tale of what has happened to date:

Applied for and obtained a mortgage promise online. (Jan 29)

Went in to local branch to ensure promise was all Ok (Feb 18) - assured it was all OK, just need to find the house!

Feb 19 - house found (it was already found anyways, a new build).

Feb 20, pop into local branch to provide details of house, but no mortgage advisor on the day, so branch calls the telephone help desk. They run through another mortgage quote, now say we need to provide further details (not sure why, as all done previously, but hey ho).

One hour later, phone call from telephone advisor - now need to go to underwriter's for approval.... will call on Feb 21 to advise on result.

Feb 20 (3pm) we decide not to pursue mortgage with Halifax, as it is too much hassle! Phone up and advide Branch and telephone advisor we no longer wish to proceed. Telephone advisor gets stroppy with us!

Now the fun starts:

Feb 21 - £355 debited from my current account, by Halifax!
Feb 22 - I notice, phone up Halifax and complain, request money back!
Feb 25 - call Halifax, request money back.
Feb 26 - £144 debited from my current account, by Halifax!
Feb 27 - I notice, phone up Halifax and complain, request money back, plus previous £355, plus interest, plus as I'm working oversea's, my international call charges.

Feb 28 - £355 repaid by Halifax.

Feb 29 - I phone Halifax again, request the remaining £144, plus interest etc.

March 3 - phone up Halifax, they are looking into the issue and will call me back

March 5 - no call yet, I call them, they are working on it. They have apparently now requested Head Office to repay me. Request I wait one week and they will let me know.

March 12 - No call as of 12:30, I call them - the person dealing with it is on holiday and his boss is off today, they will call me back tomorrow!



So, it appears Halifax can, at will, enter my account and take money out, for no reason, with no consent given, and remove money. Funny thing is Halifax still does not know (well claim not to know anyway) who took or why the money was taken out - they checked Inetrnational clearing, credit card people, current account people, fraud department, insurance team and mortgage section - all say they did not do it! Yet, I still do not have my money back!

Does anyone know how I stand re my ability to reclaim the Interest lost on this money, plus my oversea's telephone costs, not too mention my complete frustration at the situation?

Only once has someone from Halifax contacted me and that was to say, the person was passing it on to a different team!!

Very poor customer service is all I can say, and I have been with the branch / bank, for more than 10 years:rolleyes: !

notis7

If_Only wrote: »

Hi,

So, it appears Halifax can, at will, enter my account and take money out, for no reason, with no consent given, and remove money. Funny thing is Halifax still does not know (well claim not to know anyway) who took or why the money was taken out - they checked Inetrnational clearing, credit card people, current account people, fraud department, insurance team and mortgage section - all say they did not do it! Yet, I still do not have my money back!

Does anyone know how I stand re my ability to reclaim the Interest lost on this money, plus my oversea's telephone costs, not too mention my complete frustration at the situation?

Only once has someone from Halifax contacted me and that was to say, the person was passing it on to a different team!!

Very poor customer service is all I can say, and I have been with the branch / bank, for more than 10 years:rolleyes: !

i used to have a bank account and loan with halifax. ....and there was an error they made with a loan payment date and they went into my bank account and took the money.....it is in the ts&cs that they can do this to protect their interests.....I changed my bank account after that and checked ts & cs there too before I transfered so this never happens again!

notis7

As for your complaint - ask to speak to a Team Manager in the call centre and put forward a claim for compensation - it has to be agreed with the TM but if they are unwilling to do it ask to speak to the Service Manager - if they refuse take their name and put your complaint in writing stating they refused and that you are asking for compensation and feel betrayed from disfunctional customer service....(let the TM know you are going to do this!)...

The call centres can not track down money usually as there is a code next to the funds which can account for many an areas....Ask the call centre person to go through to the business centre to find out where the money has gone....;)

If_Only_3

Surprise, surprise - 3pm this afternoon (UK time) I phoned the branch as I had not received a telephone call from the branch yet. I am told the person who is dealing with the issue (Asst Manager) is dealing with another customer and will call me as soon as he is done..... guess he's working late, as I haven't received a call back yet!

I have now just this minute called the 24 hour line too close one of my accounts with them (keeping the other open until my A&L account is fully set up - and Halifax repay the money)... I managed to get the customer services person (who was very nice) to tell me the code: Apparently, the code for the debit is "0592 Payment Clearing Halifax Branches".... not sure this helps me, but at least I know it's payment clearing (whatever that is).

I'm off to wait patiently by the phone, waiting for the asst manager to finish with the current customer:mad:

If_Only_3

Quick update -
3 weeks to get it back, but it's back!!
Halifax have finally repaid the money they took (plus a little extra as a way of an apology) - but can't / wont explain why it was taken in the first place.

Leeds-Blokey

Basically, I logged into my HBOS online service and noticed that they have withdrawn (shows as cash on statement) a grand from my bank, yea that's right a thousand punds!

Anyway, what is wierd is that I have 3 accounts with them; My BOS Easycash, a sole websaver and a joint websaver. Each account has several thousand in but for some reason I had £1000 taken from the joint websaver only (I removed the remaining funds once I knew what happened).... But having rung the bank they state we used to have an account with them and we owe the cash so their debt collection took the cash from our account.

I argued stating this was illegal and they have surely got to determine that we are the right people before simply taking a grand from the bank. HBOS simply said ring Blair Oliver and they'd deal with it.... why should I? What have I done wrong, the bank has no right to just take funds from a random stangers account do they?

I now know exactly what happened, my wife was born on the same date as another woman with the same name and they have linked them and now think my wife owes them money.... bit difficult when we've just stepped foot into the UK a year ago!!!!!

Anyone got any advice or helpful solutions, we are also suing the Halifax if our insurance allows us to pursue this.

Thanks

money_maker_3

What would you sue them for? Human error happens, as unfortunate as it is. Merged accounts is a common error in a lot of banks, if they now know where the error is, they will reimburse your money and if you write a polite letter of complaint to the customer services department you should get some compensation for trouble caused, but I don't think you will be able to sue them.