Ridiculous Halifax charges

[mikeh]

My Mother up until a year or so ago banked with Halifax. She had a £400 overdraft she almost never used and all was fine.

In the last few months of the bank account being used, she needed to use the overdraft.

It sat there for a little while whilst she got herself back up together until one day they started charging £1 per day in charges. She could not afford to keep up with everything else as well as this, and this fell by the wayside. It started to become an unauthorised overdraft with charges, and then £5 a day.

It got to something silly like £800 before she asked me to intervene, and I paid what I could off at the time which took the balance to under £400 again. Two months pass, my Mother has forgotten to pay at least the charges and all of a sudden they drop the bomb of adding something like £220 in charges in one month.

What are her options? At present she cannot afford to drop it under £400 again, and certainly cannot afford to pay £5 per day in charges, which results in it spiralling ever further down.

I am not currently in a position to help her either.

[leclerc]

Re: Ridiculous Halifax charges

My Mother up until a year or so ago banked with Halifax. She had a £400 overdraft she almost never used and all was fine.

In the last few months of the bank account being used, she needed to use the overdraft.

It sat there for a little while whilst she got herself back up together until one day they started charging £1 per day in charges. She could not afford to keep up with everything else as well as this, and this fell by the wayside. It started to become an unauthorised overdraft with charges, and then £5 a day.

It got to something silly like £800 before she asked me to intervene, and I paid what I could off at the time which took the balance to under £400 again. Two months pass, my Mother has forgotten to pay at least the charges and all of a sudden they drop the bomb of adding something like £220 in charges in one month.

What are her options? At present she cannot afford to drop it under £400 again, and certainly cannot afford to pay £5 per day in charges, which results in it spiralling ever further down.

I am not currently in a position to help her either.

Does she have any arrears on utilities, rent, council tax?

Halifax did change their charging structure about a year or so ago where they would charge a certain fee for overdraft useage.

[mikeh]

Re: Ridiculous Halifax charges

She may have arrears on council tax and/or rent - I'll have to find out.

What significance do they have?

[Shadowcat]

Re: Ridiculous Halifax charges

Hi mikeh

I recently sent a hardship letter to my bank as I have been laid off of work for the winter period.

Initially, when I phoned to tell them this was happening they were pretty harsh, saying they wouldn't help so I put it as a complaint that they refused to assist in my time of hardship. Amazingly, they wrote back last week saying charges would not apply to this account until my finances were sorted.


Shadowcat.

[leclerc]

Re: Ridiculous Halifax charges

She may have arrears on council tax and/or rent - I'll have to find out.

What significance do they have?

Well, the bank should have enquired about this since this is in the Lending Code section 9 on financial hardship. She has to show a change of circumstances ie how come she is using the overdraft and that those charges are affecting her ability to pay her priority debts.

[mikeh]

Re: Ridiculous Halifax charges

Are there any guides or templates that can help her make such an application?

[Shadowcat]

Re: Ridiculous Halifax charges

I'll put my hardship letter on for you to adapt unless any of the guys have a specific one that mentions priority outgoings, they usually have one for everything



Shadowcat.

[labman]

Re: Ridiculous Halifax charges

If your Mum was to get a CFS done by Payplan, CCCS, CAB or any other free debt charity, the charity would work through her finances with her and make a repayment offer supported by this.

It would not get back what has been paid already, but it would stop any further charges being applied.

If you read Section Nine of the Lending Code, you could put a strong letter together fairly easily, but I don't know how far you'd get. The banks are very good at ignoring this section until it is pointed out to them.