Help wanted please?

[danmc77]

Hi all,

I am new to this site and was wondering if there was anyone that would be able to advise me on the best course of action to take next in reclaiming my charges from Halifax.
I have received what I imagine is a standard letter from Halifax on Friday, basically stating that following the supreme court ruling they will not be refunding my charges (Approx £4200) as the grounds on which the original complaint was made (Using template letters from Money saving expert) have not been upheld and the ruling went in their favour. They have said that they will not look into any complaints regarding the charges on the same grounds as the original complaint, which I expected to be honest. However the letter also states that I can complain about the charges for any other reason and that they will consider this through their normal complaints procedure. They have said that if they have not received any further complaints within 8 weeks they will consider the matter to be closed.

I suppose I am looking for any advice as to what the best grounds are to continue the complaint so they do not consider it to be closed.
Any help would be appreciated.

Dan

(I can re type the letter received from Halifax onto here if this would help?)

[Celestine]

Re: Help wanted please?

Hi Dan

Have a read of this thread here:

OFT drop case - What are the options for consumers with charges claims ? - Legal Beagles

Then have a read around the site to see where we are with the ongoing bank charge battle.

There is a lot going on and if you keep up to date with our progress reports, a clearer path forward will hopefully develop.

[danmc77]

Re: Help wanted please?

Thanks Celestine,

I had previously looked at that thread before posting this one and it has given me some help, particluarly the "sample" letter to HSBC.
There are a few areas that I am struggling with though, as I have put a claim in for charges going back 6 years I don't have all of the statements relating to these unfortunately and Halifax did not provide copies of the statements only details of the charges. Because of this I am going to find it difficult to show evidence of where charges have been applied for more than the value of the transaction and also where transactions have been re ordered to apply the maximum number of charges.
Virtually all of those that I did incur were for returned direct debit transactions.
I have apllied to Halifax on numerous occassions to extend my overdraft or upgrade my account to give myself a bit of breathing space to get back on an even keel and had always been turned down due to having incurred charges in the preceding 12 months. However within 2 weeks of the supreme court judgement Halifax have upgraded my basic current account to their ultimate reward account!
I fully understand that any further arguments to carry on the claim are very complex and will take a considerable amount of time to finalise/advise on, I am just concerned that I will not be able to submit a continuation of the complaint to Halifax within their 8 week deadline and so will lose any chance I have of getting any cahrges back. Also I do not want to submit an incorrect argument to them for fear of this just being rejected out of hand or possibly damaging my chances further?

Thanks,

Dan

[Celestine]

Re: Help wanted please?

Hi Dan

Did you send Halifax a Data Protection Act Request Subject Access Request (DPA/SAR) with a payment of £10 to get all your data including statements?
This is the most vital first step and I would recommend you doing so as soon as possible.

Legal Beagles


Perhaps then you could respond to them in writing indicating that you have submitted a DPA request and that you do (for now) intend to pursue the claim?

[borgbaiter]

Re: Help wanted please?

hi

was your complaint with the bank or had it gone as far as the courts?

given the new circumstances a FULL sars will be needed. given the size of your loss it would be a shame to let it go.

if with the bank and you write back disagreeing with there assesment and say you require a full sars (dont forget the £10) i would think this would be enough to stop them closing your complaint for now.


Borgbaiter

[danmc77]

Re: Help wanted please?

Thanks both of you, The original request was made using the templates from MSE and a payment of £10 accompanied this.
I will make a further request for all the relevant statements.

Dan
------------------------------- merged -------------------------------
Also Borg, it was with the bank only, it had not gone to court.

[danmc77]

Re: Help wanted please?

Having had a more detailed look at the response outlined to HSBC on the other thread, this mainly seems to relating to the provision of an unauthorised overdraft. In my caes Halifax have never provided that as they have never allowed the transactions to take place and so have charged me for returned DD payments.
Can anyone advise which is the best way to word a further complaint letter relating to article 5 and the CCA arguments?

Dan

[Amethyst]

Re: Help wanted please?

Was your account a cash/basic account ?

Did they bounce everything, what kind of payments were they - direct debits/standing orders and debit card transactions ?

you want to look at instances where the charge was higher than the amount you had tried to pay, and where the charges being applied IF instantly rather than notified, cause the next payment to be bounced where otherwise it would have been paid - thus starting the spiral of debt.

[danmc77]

Re: Help wanted please?

Apologies for the appalling typing in the above post!!!

When the account was originally opened it was just a basic current account, which they later changed the name of to a Cash account. It was a very basic account until recently when Halifax upgraded it shortly after the Supreme court ruling.
All of the charges were for unpaid DD's or standing orders. The account has had an arranged overdraft of £150 since approx 1999 and they have never allowed any transactions to take me past that. Instead returning the direct debit and charging me for the pleasure. Will have to check full statements after I have written to Halifax with an SAR for them to see the exact nature of the charges, although I do remember having charges totalling several hundred pounds in a 3-4 month period at one point.

Dan

[danmc77]

Re: Help wanted please?

Further to the above posts, has anyone corresponded with Halifax since receiving the standard reply stating that they would not be upholding the complaint after the supreme court ruling and that you had 8 weeks to reply or the matter would be closed?
I'm not looking for a template as such as I know that every case is different and it sis now very much about individual circumstances, but some idea of an outline with what to put regarding Halifax's terms and conditions and why we still want to complain about charges would be really really helpful?


Thanks in advance,

Dan