My ******* useless bank.

[Hazell B]

Last summer I put £800 in the bank in the form of cash and change. They credited me with £680. A few days later they tried to diddle me out of another £80 worth of pounds coins I'd also foolishly banked with some notes.
So, besides a visit with the mortgage advisor, I haven't been back.

During the last visit (remember, this was in summer '09) I'd paid the mortgage in advance for the first 4 months of this year. They took the cash, gave me a letter telling me I'd paid it .... then took the cash again on Jan 1st 2010 :mark:

Today I got a statement saying I owe them money :mark:

So, anyone care to wager what will happen next in the first Halifax v Hazell bout of the year?
Will I get credit? Lose my money? Get double my money back and a bill for three times it? Will my house be taken from me? Or will they simply say I have no account with them after all?
My money is on me opening a large parcel from them containing Howard :rolleyes:

[GridGirl]

I bank with the Halifax and they are useless. My current issue is my own fault because I'm an idiot but Halifax won't solve the problem. Last month I spent £150 on my Halifax credit card. I clear my bill each month but being an idiot and paying the bill online in a rush I actually paid £1500 off my bill. Now I'm £1350 in credit on my credit card and had to borrow money to cover my direct debits as Halifax won't put the money back into my current account. I'm not sure if I'm more angry with myself or at them for being morons.

Hazell, kick some butt for me!

[Drew]

My spanish bank won't even let me shut my account. I have to personally go back to the branch I opened my account in and ask them to shut it there. They still keep sending me statements and letters and even a nice christmas card. But no matter how many times I ring up and tell them I'm not going back just to close my account, they don't listen :p :

[Malbec]

Now I'm £1350 in credit on my credit card and had to borrow money to cover my direct debits as Halifax won't put the money back into my current account.

I had a problem with my credit card that was the direct opposite. I paid off my monthly bill in full but rounded up what I paid to the nearest pound. I then didn't use that credit card so I was several pence in credit. Soon I had a phone call from the bank explaining that I was not allowed to be in credit on my credit card account bizarrely, and that they would have to return the excess to my current account or freeze my card.

Bit of overkill if you ask me.

Incidentally we've had problems with Halifax being late in sorting out money they owe us too, I suspect they've lost a lot of staff after being taken over by Lloyds.

[Malbec]

My spanish bank won't even let me shut my account. I have to personally go back to the branch I opened my account in and ask them to shut it there. They still keep sending me statements and letters and even a nice christmas card. But no matter how many times I ring up and tell them I'm not going back just to close my account, they don't listen :p :

Keep a couple of pennies in your account and just leave it, that way they lose money on you sending you the statements and all that mail, as well as the administration costs involved in keeping your account going.

May not be a big kick in the teeth for them but at least you get them back somehow.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Yikes...I thought Canadian banks were haughty and out of touch!!!

[Drew]

Keep a couple of pennies in your account and just leave it, that way they lose money on you sending you the statements and all that mail, as well as the administration costs involved in keeping your account going.

May not be a big kick in the teeth for them but at least you get them back somehow.

Well, unless they let me shut my bank account without having to pop in, that's going to be the plan!

[driveace]

Well your lucky,I thought i had lost BIG time with money in Icesave ,in the UK and Kaupthing Edge in the IOM.
I am not talking peanuts here,BUT luckily I got paid by the British financial compensation Scheme from Icesave and just got by 2 instalments ,the moneys from Kaupthing Edge,from the Isle of man Depositors compensation scheme.BOTH these banks are Icelandic
Lesson for every body here ,IF they offer BIG interest rates ,more that anybody else BEWARE!!!!!

[Daniel]

I had a problem with my credit card that was the direct opposite. I paid off my monthly bill in full but rounded up what I paid to the nearest pound. I then didn't use that credit card so I was several pence in credit. Soon I had a phone call from the bank explaining that I was not allowed to be in credit on my credit card account bizarrely, and that they would have to return the excess to my current account or freeze my card.

Bit of overkill if you ask me.

Overkill in your situation of course but it's there to combat money laundering for good reason.

[Hondo]

Our banks just have signs politely asking you to "Please remove your ski mask and unload all weapons before entering the premesis. Thank you."

Seems to work alright.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Our banks just have signs politely asking you to "Please remove your ski mask and unload all weapons before entering the premesis. Thank you."

Seems to work alright.

Our Banks have a nice sign stating : You may deposit your money with us. It will safely make 2% interest while we charge you to keep your money in our bank and every time you want to look at it you will have to pay US.

Oh well...maybe it said that. I do know this much. They are a necessary evil. Key word...evil.

[Dave B]

Halifax? I had to issue a claim in the county court before they reluctantly admitted to their string of errors, which culminated with them setting a debt collector on me. Don't get me started.

[Mark]

Rather amusing then that the advert I'm getting at the top of this thread is for Haxifax credit cards :D

[Daniel]

Rather amusing then that the advert I'm getting at the top of this thread is for Haxifax credit cards :D
At least Howard is gone now though :D

[Hazell B]

At least Howard is gone now though :D

Does that mean he's really being sent to me? :eek:

I've written a stern letter to head office.
Let us await the answer.
And Howard :p :

[Dave B]

I've written a stern letter to head office.
Let us await the answer.

I'll save you the wait.

Dear Hazzel [they do like to spell names wrong]

Thank you for you letter. Blah blah blah fingers in ears we've done nothing wrong, sorry to hear of your problems but really not our fault.

If you remain dissatisfied you do have the option of sticking it where the sun don't shine.

Yours mockingly,

Halifax Bank Plc.

There. All sorted. :D

[Hazell B]

Dave, you know me.
Do you honestly think a letter I wrote would get that sort of reply?
C'mon, the very least they'll do is say "It's not worth us keeping your custom for that piddling mortgage, but as you clearly stated you know where our children go to school and our mothers sit on benches here's a cheque for ....."
:D

[Robinho]

you'll be well shot of Halifax, they have been gettting steadily worse over the last few years and are now the pits. i have dealings with Halifax, A&L and Barclays, plus credit card companies, and by far the most difficult and ewrror prone are halifax.

they'll also charge you more than most for any overdraft (including agreed overdraft level of £1 a day) god forbid you go over an agreed limit.

i'd strongly recommend moving to Abbey/Santander/A&L, HSBC or Barclays, you'll probably get a better deal in general

[christophulus]

Not just me then, I've had trouble with Halifax in the past. I tried opening a current account with them when I was 18, nothing fancy. At this point I'd never had a credit card, loan, mortgage, overdraft... Three months later (by which time I'd given up) I got a letter saying I'd been declined.

After ploughing through the telephone help service I ended up with a response along the lines of: "I've no idea why your account wasn't approved. Could be anything, maybe you've got a bad credit rating." Not sure where they find their staff..

Contrast this with the RBS who I'm currently with. Polite staff, great help centre, not one single error to date. Apart from losing several trillion pounds of someone else's money that is :p

[GridGirl]

This thread is definately making me think that my decision to swap to A&L was a good one. Now if only the snow would go away and the postman deliver me the next stuff in the application process.

[driveace]

A and L should be safe,as its part of Santander Banking Group now
IF you have any doubts ,keep your investment to £50K per individual,so your covered by the FSA

[Hazell B]

they'll also charge you more than most for any overdraft (including agreed overdraft level of £1 a day) god forbid you go over an agreed limit.

I saw that in the bumf they sent recently. I never go overdrawn more than once every two or more years, so it didn't bother me at the time. Now they've made the mistake, it's made me realise I could easily do the same and end up costing myself a tenner for 20p over :(



i'd strongly recommend moving to Abbey/Santander/A&L, HSBC or Barclays, you'll probably get a better deal in general


My savings are partly with (Abbey) Santander, plus I use them for my business money, so I might just give them everything. Thing is, they didn't want my mortgage as it's just not profitable (being small and wee :p : ) so I'd be stuck with the Halifax account to cover that. Annoying.

[Jag_Warrior]

What kinds of banking protections do you folks in the UK have? I mean, are your savings protected (from a bank failure) up to a certain amount, as long as they're deposited in qualifying accounts? Is that what driveace is referring to?

[Hazell B]

Yeah, it's a government backed scheme that covers up to 50k should a bank fall on it's backside.
I think it's 50k per bank (so you can have 100k over two banks) per person. Joint accounts are different I'm told.

[Jag_Warrior]

OK. Thanks. Sort of like the FDIC here then.

[Hazell B]

The bank's complaints man just rang me.

He seems to think they've added the extra mortgage repayments as a lump sum payment rather than a pre-payment like I requested (and had a letter confirming). He called me before the bank in question, which is very fair of him, so is getting back to me on what exactly went wrong.

I told him I don't want Howard.

[Jag_Warrior]

He seems to think they've added the extra mortgage repayments as a lump sum payment rather than a pre-payment like I requested (and had a letter confirming). He called me before the bank in question, which is very fair of him, so is getting back to me on what exactly went wrong.

Just curious, Hazell, but why did you want to give them the money upfront for future payments? Were you going to be out of the area for an extended period or something? To be honest, while I've set up most of my accounts on an auto pay (from my checking), I've never considered giving the bank money upfront and expecting them to credit me for future payments. It just seems that might create a bit of a bookkeeping issue for them. But if they said they would/could do that, it's their fault anyway.

[Hazell B]

I just figured that as I had the cash in summer it would save me more in interest if I paid it off than the sum earned in interest if I held on to it. Generally Jan to April are colder, slower months in my business, so I chose them as the months to pay off.

I actually gave them the choice, pay now for those months or just pay off a lump sum and they said either was good as it wasn't a problem on the computer. Like an idiot, I believed them :mark:

[Jag_Warrior]

Maybe your mortagage isn't fully amortized or something, but it sounds like they made it unnecessarily hard for themselves.

Did this Howard fellow have something to do with this? :D

P.S. I'm not familiar with Howard, but I'm guessing he's some sort of character that shows up in ad spots?

[Daniel]

Maybe your mortagage isn't fully amortized or something, but it sounds like they made it unnecessarily hard for themselves.

Did this Howard fellow have something to do with this? :D

P.S. I'm not familiar with Howard, but I'm guessing he's some sort of character that shows up in ad spots?
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=halifax+howard&search_type=&aq=f

[driveace]

It was 35K per person,now it is 50K per person by the banks compensation scheme,So if you have a joint account with your spouse its 100K between you ,BUT if you have say A&L ,and Abbey,and Bradford and Bingley and 100K in each, because the owner of them ALL in Bank Santander you only get ONE 100K back and lose 200K

[Jag_Warrior]

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=halifax+howard&search_type=&aq=f

Well... uh... that's... uh... "interesting". I don't think that would convince me to give Halifax my business. More likely, I'd close my accounts. :D

I guess the corniest ones we have are from Capital One.

They used to have this dweeb named David Spade:
3NCxndXjsWg

Now they've topped that silliness with these fools:
XTMJU2N--ps

[driveace]

We also have Capital One,but I have only had thier credit card.
Still have it but dont use it as their rates are too high

[Daniel]

Well... uh... that's... uh... "interesting". I don't think that would convince me to give Halifax my business. More likely, I'd close my accounts. :D

I guess the corniest ones we have are from Capital One.

They used to have this dweeb named David Spade:
3NCxndXjsWg

Now they've topped that silliness with these fools:
XTMJU2N--ps
Man that is crap......

[Hazell B]

I like David Spade(r?) on 8 Simple Rules

Anyway, the bank's complaints man rang again. He's spoken to my branch and they 'can't remember' two of the mistakes they made (not that I'm a cynic, but I expected that) and they thought I wanted to pay off a lump sum from the mortgage. Funny, they also said a few other things I'd predicted and the complaints guy joined me on the cynics bench over all of them.

He's upheld my complaint :D