Why wont Halifax freeze interest on my CC?

Fairycake_2

I must admit I am sitting holding my breath as my other credit card is with MBNA and I am sure they will follow with this at some point.

My other credit card with with Egg but was passed over to a DRA and, after a few phone calls in the beginning asking for higher payments which I obviously refused, I have nothing but praise for the way they handle the payments. No more hassle, phone calls or bullying which is why we went on to DMPs in the first place.

What these companies need to realise is that we WANT to pay our debts and not have any monies written off but that is what they are forcing us to look at doing.

Keep your chin up Bargain Betty and fight them all the way!

Fairycake_2

OK, quick update! The AA promised a response by 19 July and I got one.. telling me they are sorry for the delay in responding to my complaint and they have passed it to customer relations (they said that in their letter of 19 June) and they are currently investigating! They also had the cheek to thank me for my patience! They also gave me the address of the FOS saying I can contact them - they know I already have!!! AARRGGGHHH..

Also received my latest statement with more interest and another late payment fee!

Have sent the letters to the FOS telling them that I think they are just wasting time and in the meantime my debt is getting bigger....

Will there ever be an end to this?

ANY_CHANCE

ANY_CHANCE wrote: »

Wow i am so glad that i popped over here again

I think it is great those of you who have complained re interest and late charges

This is what i am going to do

So i will send an initial letter to HBOS and wait untill i get their final response then to the FOS.

Thanks folks

I sent a letter of complaint and although i did not get a reply from the halifax today a statement came through and there are NO CHARGES OR INTEREST added on the account.

They were charging just under 300pm now its 0 :T :T

I am going to request the last 5 months interest and charges to be removed from the Credit card

Gemmzie

We're having the same problems so going to send a letter off on Monday. How long do you think is reasonable? 30 days then we'll contact FOS sound okay?

ANY_CHANCE

Hi Gemmzie i sent my letter off on 25/6 and today no reply but just the statement,

Good luck with it

I will post what i sent it may/maynot help

We are currently paying reduced monthly payments for these accounts through the Consumer Credit Counseling Service. This Debt Management Plan arrangement began in December 2006, and you are well aware of the history here.

In February 2008 you unfairly and without notice began adding interest and unlawful charges onto the accounts again, even though we have agreed this arrangement with you and are still paying through the CCCS and on a DMP.

These actions are clearly intended to secure yourselves further profit at our expense and would be considered unfair business practices due to youexploiting our financial position and increasing our debts.

It remains clear given the reapplying of interest that this debt will take considerably longer to satisfy and has served to undo the progress we had made with out previous payments.

This is not helping us to reduce our debt and is unfair to other creditors when they have still frozen the interest on our accounts. We are doing all we can to reduce our debt but we are not able to do this if you insist on adding charges and interest.

You will be well aware of Office of Fair Trading Guidance 664, in which it states that Creditors cannot encourage Debtors to take out further debt - this equally applies to Creditors who deliberately and willfully place a Debtor in further debt in the pursuit of extra profits.





May I also remind you of the Banking Code 2008 that you are signed up to.

You will appreciate on the cover of the Code it states 'Setting standards for banks, building societies and other banking service providers'. I'm sure you will agree restarting unlawful charges and adding interest on a repayment plan when it was not originally part of the repayment plan bargain represents seriously low standards from your company.

May I respectfully remind you of your companies commitment to section 2 of the Code:

'Fairness Commitment'

We will deal quickly and sympathetically with things that go wrong and consider all cases of financial difficulty sympathetically and positively

Can you please demonstrate how your behavior can be considered fair, sympathetic or positive in now extorting additional funds from us?

Additionally may I attract your attention to section 14.

'Financial difficulties - how we can help'

14.1 - We will be sympathetic and positive when we consider any financial difficulties you may have.
14.2 - If you find yourself in financial difficulties ... we will do all we can to help you to overcome your difficulties.'

I believe the above questions are equally appropriate.


In my opinion your company has been hugely responsible for our financial situation, you have given us poor advice, shown irresponsible lending, the mis-selling of payment protection and the addition of unfair charges has spiraled us into huge debt.

I feel that you should now act in line with the Banking Code and cease applying interest and charges, as the restarting of these did not form part of our repayment bargain, and by way of an apology refund the interest and charges taken so far.

It remains clear it is beneficial for both parties to continue on the plan we 'both' agreed in an effort to clear this debt.

Please be under no illusions as to whether I will take this matter further if you do not comply with my fair and sympathetic requests.

I put you on fair notice that should you make the mistake of tasking a third party to harass me, all costs I incur in dealing with them prior to them passing the account back to you, will be charged directly to your company and will need to be accounted for in any settlement you wish to make in the future.

I trust and hope I have no reason to take this matter further.

The above was written with help from the Penalty Action Group Website
http://www.penaltyactiongroup.co.uk/

ANY_CHANCE

Fairycake wrote: »

OK, quick update! The AA promised a response by 19 July and I got one.. telling me they are sorry for the delay in responding to my complaint and they have passed it to customer relations (they said that in their letter of 19 June) and they are currently investigating! They also had the cheek to thank me for my patience! They also gave me the address of the FOS saying I can contact them - they know I already have!!! AARRGGGHHH..

Also received my latest statement with more interest and another late payment fee!

Have sent the letters to the FOS telling them that I think they are just wasting time and in the meantime my debt is getting bigger....

Will there ever be an end to this?

I am sure you could get the interest and charges (definately charges) back keep going then your debt will be lower again and easier to pay off

We all just need to keep chipping away and fighting

xxx

Simon1967

ANY_CHANCE wrote: »

Hi Gemmzie i sent my letter off on 25/6 and today no reply but just the statement,

Good luck with it

I will post what i sent it may/maynot help

We are currently paying reduced monthly payments for these accounts through the Consumer Credit Counseling Service. This Debt Management Plan arrangement began in December 2006, and you are well aware of the history here.

In February 2008 you unfairly and without notice began adding interest and unlawful charges onto the accounts again, even though we have agreed this arrangement with you and are still paying through the CCCS and on a DMP.

These actions are clearly intended to secure yourselves further profit at our expense and would be considered unfair business practices due to youexploiting our financial position and increasing our debts.

It remains clear given the reapplying of interest that this debt will take considerably longer to satisfy and has served to undo the progress we had made with out previous payments.

This is not helping us to reduce our debt and is unfair to other creditors when they have still frozen the interest on our accounts. We are doing all we can to reduce our debt but we are not able to do this if you insist on adding charges and interest.

You will be well aware of Office of Fair Trading Guidance 664, in which it states that Creditors cannot encourage Debtors to take out further debt - this equally applies to Creditors who deliberately and willfully place a Debtor in further debt in the pursuit of extra profits.





May I also remind you of the Banking Code 2008 that you are signed up to.

You will appreciate on the cover of the Code it states 'Setting standards for banks, building societies and other banking service providers'. I'm sure you will agree restarting unlawful charges and adding interest on a repayment plan when it was not originally part of the repayment plan bargain represents seriously low standards from your company.

May I respectfully remind you of your companies commitment to section 2 of the Code:

'Fairness Commitment'

We will deal quickly and sympathetically with things that go wrong and consider all cases of financial difficulty sympathetically and positively

Can you please demonstrate how your behavior can be considered fair, sympathetic or positive in now extorting additional funds from us?

Additionally may I attract your attention to section 14.

'Financial difficulties - how we can help'

14.1 - We will be sympathetic and positive when we consider any financial difficulties you may have.
14.2 - If you find yourself in financial difficulties ... we will do all we can to help you to overcome your difficulties.'

I believe the above questions are equally appropriate.


In my opinion your company has been hugely responsible for our financial situation, you have given us poor advice, shown irresponsible lending, the mis-selling of payment protection and the addition of unfair charges has spiraled us into huge debt.

I feel that you should now act in line with the Banking Code and cease applying interest and charges, as the restarting of these did not form part of our repayment bargain, and by way of an apology refund the interest and charges taken so far.

It remains clear it is beneficial for both parties to continue on the plan we 'both' agreed in an effort to clear this debt.

Please be under no illusions as to whether I will take this matter further if you do not comply with my fair and sympathetic requests.

I put you on fair notice that should you make the mistake of tasking a third party to harass me, all costs I incur in dealing with them prior to them passing the account back to you, will be charged directly to your company and will need to be accounted for in any settlement you wish to make in the future.

I trust and hope I have no reason to take this matter further.

That looks like a great template for a letter, please let us know how you get on, also did you request a reply within a set time frame?

ANY_CHANCE

Hi Simon

I actually forgot to put a time scale so that would need to be included

I have not had a letter back but charges and interest have stopped

BTW saw your other post, i have claimed back charges and PPI from halifax credit card whilst on DMP total refund = around 6000

I had help from PAG http://www.penaltyactiongroup.co.uk/

Fairycake_2

I'm still waiting for a resolution to this. But having seen some of you guys getting good results I am very hopeful. What really p's me off though is how HBOS and the like try and drag the whole process out.

Well done Anychance - I would get it in writing though that they have frozen the interest (and possibly passing it to a DCA?), I just don't trust at all!!

Let's hope it is good news in the future for all of us!

Fairycake_2

OK, we are now getting somewhere. I had letter on Saturday from the AA further to the most recent FOS correspondence apologising (again!) and sorry for my pain!

Upshot is as a gesture of goodwill they are going to refund 6 months of charges and three months of interest as well as reducing the interest on future months. Getting there but not good enough.

They also state in their letter that "current" policy is that after 12 months interest is reapplied and this can only be "keyed" onto the account once. However, if this is the case how come they can "key in" a reduction in interest?!

I am going to write back to them pointing out that I know of cases where all interest and charges have been reapplied or interest has been stopped completely again. They have set a precedent.

I was pretty annoyed that out of a letter with 10 paragraphs, only one dealt with the main issue of reimbursement of interest and charges and the rest was about how they train their staff, how their letters and calls are to help you to work out repayment(!) blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, about to start writing my response! Don't give up, write to the FOS and we can try and stop this from happening to all of us who are trying to clear our debts!
:j