Halifax bank charges spiral help!

[Katherine]

At the moment the only spending money I have coming in goes into my hlafix account and its just my child benefit of £150 per month. DH takes care of most other things but doesn't give me any.

A couple of months ago I misjudged and slipped over my overdraft limit, by a few pounds. Since then I've had a few more items go through but they've all been under £20. Trouble is Halfiax has charged me £35 for each item plus £28 for going over my limit. I gritted my teeth and figured I'd have to write off most of my child benefit last month. On the first I made a paypal payment of £7. Just got another letter saying I will get the same charges. I thought my CB would cover it but they have taken so much in charges that they have taken more than my child benefit and the same will happen when they debit these charges too.

I just can't see how they can justify charging so much. OK I should manage my account better but I only slipped up by a few pounds and they've taken about £200 for me so far.

Feel really depressed as I just can't seem to get on top of it.

The Halifax charges almost immediately for going overdrawn (for each item and then for their admin costs). On top of this, they will then charge you again at the end of the quarter. Extortionate, I know, and many people don't find this out until it happens to them.

Leave the Halifax a.s.a.p - not interested in anyone with only 'small' amounts going in and will make money from them one way or another.

Perhaps I shouldn't admit this - I used to work for the Halifax (some years ago) and as soon as I had spent my first week there - I advised everyone I knew, to move their accounts, and especially their mortgages to somewhere else.

As for clearing cheques, part of my job was to take them across to a particular place and they were cleared immediately. The money sits in the Halifax earning them interest, but you still have to be wait until they are cleared for your own use.

katherine, you need to sort out a personal loan for £1000 which you'd have to pay monthly in a manageable amount from the CB (say £20/month?). Whetehr you decide to take out this loan from Halifax or other company, that's up to you. The overdrfat (even agreed) carries a very high interest rate, whereas you should be able to get a loan at a rate of 7% say. If you go with a different pprovider for teh laon, you'd bneed proof of the CB that it comes in regularly, Halifax might give you a loan based on your history with them, so no need for proof of income. At any rate, you should NOT be using an overdratf it the only money you have coming in is the £150/month. You are paying an awful lot of money on interest charges.
And of course, when something happens (like bouncing cheques etc) the charges are really, really high. I imagine most banks work on the same basis. So saying you'll change banks does not guarantee the end of hassles.
You should phone your bank today and ask about these charges, also enquire about a loan for £1000. Do not take a bigger loan (they might try and persuade you) becauyse you are trying to get rid of bedt not accumulate more.

If you want to change banks you will have to show the most recent complete months banks statement from your existing bank (I too work for one). If this statement shows unpaid/returned items most banks will refuse an account, so get a clear months statement before you apply.

Banks definatly use OUR money as far as i am concerned.

We pay our rent by standing order and it went out on the first of every month. When talking to the housing association one day about my rent, i discovered that they wern't actually recieveing my rent until the 6th or 7th of every month, so the bank were taking out of my account and having it for themselves for a week.

You can apply for a Nationwide account online and they give you a desicion there and then. Only thing is though that I applied and was only offered an account with a normal cash machine card not a debit card which i have now.

No I'm sorry I really have to stand up for the banks here. You can not draw onthe cheque until it has cleared the system in case the person who wrote the cheque has insufficient funds or stops the cheque. I think we all are aware of the time it takes for a cheque to clear, also it is illegal to write a cheque if you do not have the fund to honour it. ie your funds are not in your account. DH is a director with bank, and yes the bank uses yor money too, but is only yours if your account is in credit.

But it doesn't take 5 days to clear. We're all aware of the time a bank tells us it takes to clear but it cannot take that length of time. Why would it? Think you're only a lonely mission here standing up for banks

the thing I hated about halifax was they took the funds for the charges out of the bank a week after we were O?D, and as we're both paid monthly if it didn't fit with when we were getting paid we were charged again for going over, which was entirely their (ours in the first instance) fault. Lloyds at least wait until the 1st of the month (normally when ppl r paid) and take the charges out. i've not had any problems at all since being with lloyds.

can you get DH to help you pay off the overdratf in full to avoid future problems and save on paying the interest every month?

firstly,Katherine, I'm amazed that your husband allows you to get into this sort of pickle- family finances should be a joint responsibility- if you are spending the money on the family, not fripperies, he should help you by making sure you have enough money in the account.

Secondly, I recommend the Royal Bank of Scotland for personal service, never had a problem with them; they were fantastic at arranging our mortgage at very short notice when another load of shysters lost all the paperwork we sent them, then failed to inform us they'd lost it, this was 2 days before completion...

good luck!

Tissy - no offense but... "I'm amazed that your husband allows you to get into this sort of pickle..." Bloody hell woman this is the 21st century