Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

[angelnatty]

Hi Everyone,

Im in a bit of a pickle, I have been trying to claim back charges with Halifax for around 10 months now, I have constantly called them, explaining that I am in a tough financial position and have asked for there help!!! the first answer I got from them was 'dont spend so much' hmmm so helpful!!!

I tried applying for a hardship case which they kept on saying that I did not qualify for so refused to send me the appropriate paper work to be able to apply for it. I eventually got in contact with CCCS and done a debt budget sheet with them and they told me that I clearly quailfied for a hardship hearing, so armed with this new information I went back to Halifax and told them this, eventually they agreed and sent me the forms! during all this I was also saying that my account was in dispute, and they refused to put my account on hold, so therefore everymonth they were waking on more and more charges!!

Well for the last 10 months I have recieved between 2-4 balliff letters from them through a company called ALBION! when speaking with Halifax I kept saying that this was actually a form of harrassment, which again they ignored!

Last Friday I recieved a letter from Halifax saying that they had reviewed my hardship claims and as a 'good will gesture' they would refund me £887 of my claims from a small time period of the time that I am claiming from! although they have made this offer and temporarily put my account on hold for one month only, they have still been sending me out the debt collection agencys letters from Albion until monday of this week, now they are sending me the debt collection letters from a company called Blair, Oliver and Scott, they are now phoning my home 3 or 4 time a day, surely this is harrasment and I'm really not understanding why they've got there baliffs onto me again asking for the full amount in full, when they've only just sent me a letter with an offer of money refunded back to me?

Im really confused and not sure where to go from here? I have used one of the template letters declining the offer as its not even half of what they owe me, but will accept it as part payment of what they owe me, I've not sent the letter off yet I was going to post it tomorrow.

If anyone could please please offer any advice I'd be truly greatful

Many thanks

Angelnatty

[enaid]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

Here is a letter that you send to stop the phone calls Legal Beagles
I would personally accept their offer as part settlement and hopefully it will help you with your immediate debt problems.
I am sure someone else will come with further advice for you if need be.
Enaid x

[Amethyst]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

Hi angelnatty

How much is your overdraft that they are chasing ?
How much is your total charges claim (just the charges not interest etc) ?


As Nelly said yes accept the offer - its only an interim payment and the rest of your claim stands...if you pop up the letter you have done so far and give us the amounts we should be able to strengthen it to squish the hassle from Blair, Oliver Scott alongside the harrassment letter, as hassling you for a which is in dispute is against a few guidelines.

Welcome to the site

Ame
xx

[macca]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

Hi there,

I'm Angelnatty's partner and as she's at work at the moment I will chip in with the details..

The overdraft they are chasing is just over £3000, of which just over £1600 is made up of charges (some of which are disguting).

The letter we were going to send them was from the templates on this, basically saying that she would accept the offer as part settlement but felt that the claim was still valid and she wanted the full amount back or would begin a court claim for it.

Their conduct through this has been awful, they have point blank refused to consider the account in default, even whilst we were waitint for THEM to reply to us. The most we managed to get after I had a long discussion with a very arrogant Halifax rep was to put the account on hold for a couple of weeks.

The DCA's have been told the account is in default but also continue to ignore this. They even turned up on the door one day, which I was very suprised at!

Thank you for your help so far.

Mark.

[Amy]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

There is a huge difference between debt collectors and bailiffs.

The letters/telephone calls you are receiving from Albion and Blair, Oliver & Scott are automated so do not worry about them too much as they are not singling you out for this treatment. These letters are nothing more than DCA letters aimed to intimidate you into paying and no doubt made to look more like a bailiff letter.

They cannot send a bailiff to visit you until and unless they have a judgment against you, which is a long way off yet, so again do not worry about this.

They have offered you about half of your claim - is this correct? Would the offered 887 be enough to keep the wolves from the door for your primary debts, i.e. mortgage/rent, council tax, etc.?

Also, have a read of this thread with regard to complaining about a DCA Legal Beagles

[macca]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

Whatever they offer will just go to reducing the overdraft with them, some of which needs to be paid but most of which is made up of bank charges.

None of the money they refund will go towards paying other debts or commitments. Hence she would like to get as much as possibly, what she is owed if you like, to reduce the amount that she owes them.

Once the charges are taken from the account, then paying off the actual debt can commence.

Something on the CCCS web site suggest that it would be a good idea to token offer £10 a month towards the debt to show willing?
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Natty will also comfirm when she gets home from work, but I'm sure she (or her Mother in her absence) had a visit from a representative at their house trying to collect money for this debt?

[Amy]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

None of the money they refund will go towards paying other debts or commitments.

Why not? What are the other debts?

Something on the CCCS web site suggest that it would be a good idea to token offer £10 a month towards the debt to show willing?

Definitely. Something is much better than nothing.

Natty will also comfirm when she gets home from work, but I'm sure she (or her Mother in her absence) had a visit from a representative at their house trying to collect money for this debt?

This will have been nothing more than a debt collector. Unless she has already been taken to court for this debt and has a judgment against her.

[angelnatty]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

Hi Guys,

First of all thanks so much for you help already

My overdraft is £2,500 the total that the account is at so far as there still adding fees everymonth is £3,771.85 of which £1,938 of this is charges so far. Just looking on my internet banking for the past 4 months have stopped putting fees on, but have added a stonking great amounts onto my account £146.47 in the last 3 months.....? and this is on an account that has not been used in over 7months and should have been put on hold!

the sum that they have offered as a good will gesture is £812, so this is not even half of the charges that they have added to my account!!

so shall i send the letter saying that I will accept there offer as part payment?

Angelnatty

[Amy]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

Have you tried to get them to increase their offer? It might well be worth doing if you haven't already done so.

[angelnatty]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

Hi Amy

Thanks for your post, its taken them 10 months to send me the paper work so i could make a hardship claim as they kept refusing and saying that i did not fit there criteria for this, but after speaking to cccs and getting there help i then phoned halifax back and informed them, to which they sent the paper work out to me in feb and have only just made an offer, yet all the while still refusing to put my account on hold!!! so, so far I have written back saying that i am prepared to accept there offer as part payment only and that i want a full workup of how they come to a conclusion on how they think the charges are appropriate, so i am just waiting for a reply from that!

thanks again amy

x

[angelnatty]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

Hi guys,

since getting a letter from Halifax offering me £812 as a good will gesture, my partner and I have written back refusing that sum as the final payment, but said we would take it as part payment to what I was claiming only.

This is the reply that I have recieved, can any one please offer any advice on my next step please, whether I should accept this as part payment or persue the full claim.

Many thanks

Angelnatty



I have noted the contents of your letter therein and the conditions under which you would like to accept our offer. If you would like to accept our offer please sign and return the acceptance sent to you with out previous letter. Please be aware that this is our final offer pending the outcome of the court proceedings.

You asked us to explain how we set the level of fees we charge. As this is commercially sensitive information, I hope you will understand that I cannot provide this information.

We would like to refer you back to our previous letter in which we stated that to ensure you are not disadvantaged by accepting this offer prior to the outcome of the court proceedings, we can assure you we have registered and stored details of your complaint. Once the legal proceedings between the OFT the banks finish, we will review your complaint again, as quickly as possible, to ensure this offer reflects the courts findings.

We would also like to remind you if you still remain unhappy with out decision we have previously provided you with details of the Financial Ombudsman Service, whom you can refer your concerns to.

[Amy]

Re: Halifax's offering yet still have there debt collection agency harrasing me?

You need the money. Take it.