Why wont Halifax freeze interest on my CC?

Flange23

Hello everyone

Myself and my fella registered with a Debt Management company about 2 years ago.

We pay them 1 monthly payment and they liaise with all our creditors and pay them the agreed amount.

This has been working great and we were finally making some headway on our huge debt when suddenly after about 1 year the Halifax (who we both have a credit card with) suddenly stopped freezing the interest and not only that but they are slapping a £12 "late payment" fee onto each of our statements each month - has anyone else come across the same issue; and is there any way around it?

My Deby Management company have been trying to re-negotiate with them without any success and we now find ourselves owing far more than we originally started with!!!

Can anyone offer any advice?

Look forward to hearing from you all
xx

Gemmzie

Hi Flange23, welcome to the boards

I'm afraid that's the way they do things. We are having the same problem at the moment with them. After six months they'll pass it to a DCA and then the interest will stop again

HTH

Flange23

Thanks for the reply Gemmzie; It's nice to hear i'm not alone
Look forward to it being passed on then; i'm not sure how much longer i can stand having to speak to them on a monthly basis! :rolleyes:

Fairycake_2

I have this with HBOS too on my AA Credit Card.

I spoke to the National Debtline and apparently HBOS and Lloyds have recently decided that they will not suspend interest on any accounts now as they want their money back. The debt agencies were up in arms about this as their view is that it just compounds the problem.

I was ignored by HBOS for months and when I actually told them I had referred my issue to the Financial Ombudsman I got a rubbish response from them (responding to a letter at the beginning of May and ignoring the one about the FSO!!).

I am now trying to win back the late payment charges as I think that this is grossly unfair. Maybe we should all refer these issues to the FSO and try and beat the banks at their own game!!

Good luck

kel123_2

Halifax and BoS (HBOS) are the reason for me going down the CCA application route. We are on a DMP and with their insistance on interest, penalties and continueouse default took my dfd from 22 years to nearly 30 years now they do not get 1 penny so they really did shoot themselves in the foot were I am concerned.

Darth_chaffinch

Fairycake wrote: »

I have this with HBOS too on my AA Credit Card.

I spoke to the National Debtline and apparently HBOS and Lloyds have recently decided that they will not suspend interest on any accounts now as they want their money back. The debt agencies were up in arms about this as their view is that it just compounds the problem.

This type of behaviour by the financial institutions is, I feel, only going to make the current credit crisis worse over time - and it makes me mad with rage! I'm in the same situation Flange23 with Lloyds, I pay £20 a month off my overdraft via the CCCS and in return for me doing my best to repay them they charge £10 for being over my limit and £15 interest - so in theory I will never pay off my o/d! They constantly call me, sometimes several times a day (different non-english speaking people) asking for full repayment etc.
I dithered about reclaiming charges for my Lloyds current account and credit card, but their attitude to helping people like us spurred me to claim ~£2000 of charges.
I really think we should organise some kind of boycott of Lloyds, to cause an adjustment of thinking on their part when it comes to helping financial hardship cases!!:mad:

olivetrees

I got a letter today from Mint who will now be charging me interest etc even though I've been on a DMP with them for over a year....can't believe it and it's just insane. I pay £7.33 a month to them and all my payments will be wiped out next month.

My sympathies to you all......it just doesn't help does it!!!!

symikins

hi everyone
i im paying my debts through cccs + had the same prob with my cc with halifax+aa they had already put my current a/c and personal loan over to the debt recovery dept in march 07 but would not do the same to my cc even though my circumstances would not be changing, as they could obviously get more interest out of me on a cc than on a p/loan which has interest loaded up front !!
so l sent in a complaint to the BOS and they have contacted halifax and GUESS WHAT !!!
halifax have written to me and ""as a guesture of goodwill "they have not only frozen the interest again, they have also refunded to my cards the interest and late payment fees they put back on for the last 6 mths and have also sent my debt to their "in house" debt recovery dept which i have been asking them to do for months, who, by the way , are very helpful polite and dont keep ringing you up to tell u how much debt your in .
thats my next beef with them and i can feel another complaint to the BOS coming on......
keep on fighting,, + SLOWLY SLOWLY CATCHEE MONKEY:p

angeldiva

Oh Dear, exactly the same thing happened to me but with LTSB see here
There was some great advice on that thread that might help you and also a letter template

Chin up...

Fairycake_2

Symikins it seems that you were very lucky. I have been battling with HBOS since November 2007 and they still won't budge. All I have paid off in the 14 months they accepted my reduced payment and froze the interest has been wiped out and even more added on (not only due to interest but also late payment charges).

My case is now with the Financial Ombudsman as I am so incensed by the whole thing - seems very unfair when you don't ask for huge amounts to be written off, just a bit of help with the freezing of interest.

Well done you!

Gemmzie

Let us know how you get on with the FO Fairycake.