Halifax Current Account... ARE THEY SERIOUS?

[peterb]

This arrangement only applies to one of halifax's accounts - if you want to have a look

http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccount....asp#overdrawn

(needs a bit of digging through the pages) although there is zero interest on the first £300 of an arranged/approved overdraft on this account, which is a bonus if you occasionally go overdrawn. Their other accounts offer (at present) the more traditional charges on a per item/per occasion basis. So there is scope there to find an account thgat suits you specific need. (Their student account looks quite good, but I haven't compared it with any others.

I have an offest mortgage anyway, but that is effectively a secured loan against my house, and that also requires discipline or a plan to ensure that the capital is paid off over time.

A financial producdt needs examining and assessing in just the same way that you would assess any other product (a GPU/monitor/washing machine - whatever) to ensure it is right for your needs. In fact I'd say that it needs more consideration, as the long term consequences of a poor decision can be very serious.

[TooNice]

If there is zero interest nor any charge for the first £300, it is actually not too bad. Short of accidents preventing the person from accessing their account, I only ever overdraw by minutes amount (usually a miscalculation of how long it takes to transfer funds).

[neonplanet40]

I would never EVER go back to A&L!! They charge more than you think. Them £25 per item charges can be a killer if you live in your overdraft which is how it sounds in this thread.

Not only that but their customer service couldnt give a *** about you when you find yourself in a bad situation financially no matter how pristine your account has been to that point.

[Sp00n]

I recently went over my overdraft due to a direct debit for my hsbc credit card paying out in full which was £500+ taking me over my overdraft by £70... hsbc charged me £73 on my current account for 3 days over.

I've written a letter of complaint but i'm not holding my hopes very high

Might be time to change all of my accounts about as well.

Thought I'd update everyone, I wrote an email of complaint explaining the situation and basically saying its a joke blahblahblah and....... checked my balance today and been refunded the full amout of all the charges.

So the moral of the story: if you dont ask, you dont get

[abaxas]

Just write them a letter stating you are charging the same as they will on mistakes, late payments etc.

Always works for me

[AledJ]

Just had the letter about the charges form Halifax! Now let me get this right- I have a £500 agreed overdraft does this now mean that if I go into that overdraft I get charged £1 a day? Or do I get charged £1 a day just for having an agreed overdraft?

[TooNice]

I am pretty sure that it's £1 per day for going into your overdraft. £1 day for a previously agreed overdraft would really be shooting themselves in the foot.

[Raging Blade]

I have been with them for a while, fortunatelly i have never needed to use the ovdr facility.
They have to make money from somewhere thus target those that need an ovdr eventually adding to the problems.
I would accept these charges if they paid out in the same way when accounts are in credit...

[Raging Blade]

I haven't read the letter yet however I would guess that the charges are applicable if you go over your agreed limits.

[Saracen]

I haven't read the letter yet however I would guess that the charges are applicable if you go over your agreed limits.

Not exactly.

Both the minuscule interest on credit balances, and interest charges for overdrafts have gone. If you use an agreed overdraft, you pay either £1/day or £2/day for using the facility, but if you don't use it you don't pay, even if an agreed facility is in place. If you go into unapproved overdraft, either by not having an agreed facility or by exceeding the limit on one, you pay £5 per day.

That's how I read it anyway. It's as simple as a facility being there that you pay a fixed daily charge for, if you use it.

[AledJ]

I'll be switching all direct debits over to Nationwide! Plus I get £50 from them for doing so!

[mycarsavw]

The only people this will annoy are those people who live in an overdrawn account. And to be honest, if you are like that you deserve every charge you get. Do yourself a favour and get a credit card.

Because people with extreme financial hardship actually chose to be in that situation?

How remiss of them.

[Rave]

Personally I'd just leave mate, the new fee structure may suit some people but to be honest I can't see who. If you stay £2499 overdrawn for a whole year, then you get charged £365, or an APR of 14.6%. If, like I would estimate 99% people who use overdrafts, you go in and out, or vary the extent to which you're overdrawn, you're paying a lot more than that.

Barclays charge me 12% for my agreed overdraft of £3500, and that's calculated daily. If I'm £50 overdrawn, I pay 2p a day interest. If I'm £2500 overdrawn (as I am at the moment), it's 82p a day. Next month when I go from being £500 overdrawn (after payday) to £2500 half way through (when my rent/credit card bill comes out), I'll probably pay about £15 interest.

Halifax would charge me a hell of a lot more with their new system. If Barclays try something similar on me I'll move to whatever bank will offer me a flexible overdraft where I pay for what I borrow and no more, even if I have to pay a higher rate of interest, because I appreciate the flexibility of having an overdraft.

As it happens, I'm currently overdrawn because I paid for a holiday which the wife and I greatly enjoyed, and because I bought my father in law's car off him, and put my other car through its MOT. Had I not had that option, I wouldn't have gone on holiday, I wouldn't have bought the F-I-L's car (which would have inconvenienced him as well, as he was looking for a rapid sale), and I've have had to scrap or sell my Peugeot 106 Rallye which is a fairly rare and very nice car, which I enjoy owning, even if it currently doesn't drive very well.

[Biscuit]

My parents informed me there was somthing about this on watchdog tonight, they where saying to get out of it asap too

[SeriousSam]

Aye the piece on Watchdog was rather interesting, basically it is now not the amount you go overdrawn but for how long that matters. The three cases they looked at, which were not extreme debt but more like £500 for 10days over a year and people were paying twenty times the amount under the new system than they are now.

Their basic advice was look for a bank which has already restructured its overdraft system, is offering 0% deals plus financial incentives if you switch and get the heck out of dodge... I mean Halifax.

[Rob_B]

Personally I have a One account (Virgin One Mortgage), so have a killer overdraft facility allowing me to borrow and mortgage interest rates the full amount of the facility at any time with no charges. When i first got it I went to a bank machine and it told me I was £120,000 overdrawn! Ouch! I would like to point of its all payed off now, but I keep the account as its a great way that i could borrow money if I needed. However mostly I keep a Lloyds back vantage account topped up to the 4% level, which is more than enough for unexpected payments.

I always wondered how that would work when you checked your balance, is it easy enough to keep track of it all as with a normal account you can compare you balance to £0 but with a One Acc that will constantly be changing?

I'm tempted when my mortgage fixed deal is up next year moving to a One Acc, buying EVERYTHING on my CC (to get points/bonuses/cashback/etc) then paying off the CC in full each month, I assume that's what most people do?