Lloyds and Halifax change credit card repayment rules - make sure you don't overpay - MSE News

Bit late to the party as I only use my Lloyds credit card for occasional big purchases, but I've just been hit by this. I bought something on behalf of a relative, putting it on my credit card for a few days until we got round to arranging for them to pay me back. When the money hit my Halifax bank account, I sent it as a one-off payment to the credit card so that both card and bank now reflected only my own purchases. There was a couple of hundred quid of my own stuff still on the card which I expected to be paid off by the normal in-full direct-debit.

Today, Lloyds did a direct debit for both the outstanding balance and the part already paid off, putting the card account over £500 in credit and my bank account into overdraft. This is the first I've learned of the new policy and I don't recall getting any letters or other communications about it.

Not intending to get involved with any of the workarounds in this thread, I'm just going to phone Lloyds tomorrow morning and cancel the account, requiring them to transfer the balance back to me. (Eejits will probably send it as a cheque...) Then take out a new card with some other company that operates in a sensible manner.

Pete

pete_v wrote: »

Then take out a new card with some other company that operates in a sensible manner.

You will need to read the T&Cs very carefully then, many cards now do it this way.

It was sent out via email, paper and you also get a text when you make the payment reminding you. The key is to make the manual payment (or balance transfer) before the statement is generated

I recently transferred money from my Halifax Clarity credit card to another card. I always pay the full amt via DD each month and was unaware that the payment rules had changed, so was expecting the DD amt to be the statement amt less the balance transfer amt. The transaction was after the statement date and before the payment date. Imagine my surprise then when I saw that the full DD amt had been taken resulting in my current account being £3000 overdrawn.
I rang Halifax as I thought it was an admin error but was told that payment, credits and refunds are no longer factored into the amount due, even if this takes the account into credit. I asked whether the transaction could be cancelled as it would result in my credit card being £3000 in credit, but was told it wasn't possible.
Instead, I was advised to wait until the pyt reached the credit card account and contact Halifax again to request a refund, which I did, only to be told it could take up to 5 working days to be processed and reach my current account.
I was also advised that, should I wish to make any future overpayments I should cancel my DD, make a manual payment over the phone and then reinstate the DD, making sure that this was in place prior to any further payment date and to continue to make manual payments until the DD was reinstated.
I raised my concerns with Halifax and have just received a response, the details of which I won’t go into. In summary, it would appear they aren’t interested in the inconvenience that this change is causing its customers.
As Martin says, vote with your feet and so it’s time to look for a new bank! I might take advantage of the switching offers available.
It’s Halifax’s loss really as we have our current accounts, credit cards and insurance with them.

pete_v wrote: »

I realise that; I closed the account this morning because seizing money that I don't owe is unacceptable behaviour that I don't want to condone. It's not even clear to me that it's valid under the direct debit terms - I authorised a monthly debit that brings my account to zero and they have knowingly exceeded that authority.

The lady in Lloyds' cancellation department immediately knew exactly the situation I was referring to; hopefully this implies that a noticeable number of people have been cancelling over it or at least calling to complain.

Pete

They haven't "seized" any money - they've taken a direct debit, as you specifically requested them to do.

You did not authorise a "monthly debit that brings your account to zero". In fact, under that wording, any spend between the statement date and direct debit date will be taken too. You authorised a direct debit to pay off the "full statement balance" - which is what Lloyds are doing. They also told me on many statements, by post, by text, on a splash-screen when logging into internet banking and every time I make a manual payment. If they were any more forceful in conveying this message I would have been very irritated!

Don't get me wrong - I find this change incredibly annoying, utterly ridiculous and I'm considering cancelling my direct debits altogether because of it, but they aren't stealing anything from you.