Halifax Account question

atencorps

Hey all,

I have a current account with Halifax , The account normaly has a few grand in . But the last month I either transfered the money or bought stuff with it.

Anyway I made a payment of £800 several days ago using my Card ( its a debit card for the current account ). The several days ago the bank sent me a letter daying the £800 payment had gone overdrawn on the account so they will charge me £35 for going overdrawn.

Now I never asked them to allow for an overdrawn facility whether authorised or not. Legally is the bank within their rights to allow that payment even if it pushed me into the overdrawn ?

My logical thinking is if there is not enough money for the payment to be taken then simply to not allow the payment to go thru.

Also from january onwards the bank without telling me started sending 3 month statements instead of monthly statements are they had originally done.

Do I have a case against the bank ? or can I write to the financial body etc ?

let me know my position and what I can do . As I object to having to pay for the £35 charge as I did not ask for the overdraft facility.

ShelfStacker_3

atencorps wrote: »

Now I never asked them to allow for an overdrawn facility whether authorised or not. Legally is the bank within their rights to allow that payment even if it pushed me into the overdrawn ?

My logical thinking is if there is not enough money for the payment to be taken then simply to not allow the payment to go thru....

I object to having to pay for the £35 charge as I did not ask for the overdraft facility.

Yes, they can. Your debit card payment is considered, due to the fact that your account doesn't have the funds to cover it, a request for an overdraft, and they have given you one and charged you because of it. They didn't decline your payment as you presumably have a Visa Debit card, which doesn't check your balance before authorising a payment. Cards exist which do do this, namely Solo and Visa Electron - your payment would in this case simply have been declined and you would have been asked to pay by another means.

Technically, you DID ask for the overdraft facility, and personally I'd like to know why you made a £800 purchase when there wasn't enough money in the account to cover it. You can call them up and try and get it waived, but in my personal view they're very justified in charging you, as it's not their fault you tried to spend more than you had! I would sympathise more if you'd only gone a couple of quid overdrawn and been charged £35, but £800 is a lot of money and most reasonable people would expect you to check if the money's there before making a purchase of that size.

With regards to statements, it's stipulated in their terms and conditions when they can send you statements and they usually set a maximum time between statements being produced for you. Call them up and ask them to change it back.

atencorps

I made a purchase of £800 , but only went overdrawn by £8.90

ShelfStacker_3

Ah, apologies for presuming. You should call up and ask for the fee to be waived, but make sure you check/know what your balance is before you make a purchase to avoid a similar situation.

olly300

@Shelfstacker

Your information is not actually correct. The bank can set up your Visa or Maestro card to be declined if you do not have an authorised overdraft but it's not profitable for the bank to do this in most cases.

I use to have a Maestro card which was declined if I didn't have enough funds in my current account. I had a loan account which I was suppose to use instead of an overdraft and if I didn't transfer the money over then my card would be declined in shops.

The fact that the OP terms and conditions state charges for unauthorised overdrafts means that if they spend more money then in their current account, the bank will charge them for this.

If the OP doesn't want to be charged for going overdrawn they should set up a small buffer overdraft. If the banks charges for this then they should bank elsewhere.

~Beanie~

I would have thought that a pament for £800 would have needed to be authorised at point of sale as it would be over the floor limit of most retailers.

If that is the case and it was approved, maybe another transaction went out (a DD or cheque maybe) after the authorisation but before it was debited which caused you to overdraw when the £800 hit your account.

In that case, that Halifax can't refuse your card payment as it had already been athourised at point of sale.

Night-owl_6

atencorps wrote: »

Hey all,

I have a current account with Halifax , The account normaly has a few grand in . But the last month I either transfered the money or bought stuff with it.

Anyway I made a payment of £800 several days ago using my Card ( its a debit card for the current account ). The several days ago the bank sent me a letter daying the £800 payment had gone overdrawn on the account so they will charge me £35 for going overdrawn.

Now I never asked them to allow for an overdrawn facility whether authorised or not. Legally is the bank within their rights to allow that payment even if it pushed me into the overdrawn ?

My logical thinking is if there is not enough money for the payment to be taken then simply to not allow the payment to go thru.

Also from january onwards the bank without telling me started sending 3 month statements instead of monthly statements are they had originally done.

Do I have a case against the bank ? or can I write to the financial body etc ?

let me know my position and what I can do . As I object to having to pay for the £35 charge as I did not ask for the overdraft facility.

Thanks for your post relating to your bank account.
I use to have a Halifax current account and visa card and had the same trouble as you, I had a direct Debit due outsay on the 1st and made a debit card payment to the same company on the 31st, even though the company were have meant to have placed a stop on my direct debit, my account went overdrawn on a visa electron with Halifax afew days later and I was contacted advising me I had been charged £35.00 for going overdrawn on an account that never offered a overdraft, and also informed me if I did not pay with 7 Days the full balance and the £35.00 fee my account would be closed and passed to there debt recovery department:eek: :eek: , I re-paid and closed the account there and then as for going overdrawn by £42.00 for one day:mad: I was no way going to pay £35.00, I had to however.
Be careful with Halifax.

Goodluck

Kavanne

I always check my balance via online/telephone banking before i make a large purchase... Was it a 'spur of the moment' purchase!? If not, you need to be more aware of your balance before making larger purchases if you want to avoid charges.

EDIT: I've only ever had one charge on my account... a late payment from nationwide credit card..the only bank I don't use online banking with!!