# The Cheating Halifax Building Society



## fut1a (Dec 28, 2006)

I was tied into a mortgage with the Halifax until July 2009, but i wanted to rent my house starting in April. So i approached them for their permission to lease the house, they said, for them to consent to lease, i would have to change my mortgage, which was going to cost me an extra £140 per month, and because my existing mortgage had 2 months to run, there would be an early repayment charge of £2035. I argued that if they were going to make me pay more per month and pay a charge, i would just wait until July and go elsewhere. Their response was, because i was staying with them and paying more per month they would waive the charge, OK i says. The new forms come through for the mortgage with no mention of a charge, but i notice the mortgage total had increased. I called them asking why it had increased and they said, it was the early repayment charge. I explained that i was told they would waive this and if they were not going to, i did not want the mortgage. The person said after speaking to a manager, it is normal for the charge to go on, and it gets deducted when it all goes through. I said OK, when it gets tdeducted could they send me a new statement.

Guess what....after a further 3 calls chasing it, and waiting a manager calls me and says i will not get the money back  and i should never have been told that it would.

i contact the Financial ombudsman stating the facts and provide them with the paperwork where no charge is mentioned, but my mortgage total had increased. They write back saying it was verbal, and i had no proof of the conversations, and the charge is in the total . I argue that surely the paperwork should show a charge because how many people actually know their mortgage total, and i would have to be STUPID to agree to pay more per month, and an extra £2035. When i could just wait 2 months. After appealing to the ombudsman twice i have finally given up.

I am not the only person this has happened to, i found the exact same thing has happened to someone else. I did ask the ombudsman did they want a link to a site where someone was complaining about the exact same thing. They did not.

So beware.......because the HALFAX are a lying, cheating load of robbing BASTARDS. Tape your phone calls :twisted:


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

That sucks, although I can see the ombudsman's point if you had nothing in writing. It's tricky to get that with mortgage providers though. When mine was due for renewal (another bank) a while back, the paperwork I was sent to refix it, which was the legally binding contract between me and the bank had incorrect amounts on it because they hadn't factored in the latest payment. It was a complete nonsense, and so I didn't want to sign it because they hadn't even had the foresight to calculate what the balance would be on the effective date. In the end everything was fine, but that they want you to sign stuff that isn't even fucking valid is just a joke.

The best bit was when they sent me a letter explaining how they calculated their quoted amounts, which agreed with the letter I'd sent them showing the mistakes in their calculations. Priceless!

Clearly the Halifax did a number on you, and have fleeced you royally for the sake of a few months. With banks, if you don't get stuff in writing particularly in relation to charges, you're screwed. Most paperwork is generated by "the system" so the average Joe Gormless Mortgage Adviser has neither the noodle nor the power to make alterations to it. They record your calls for security and training purposes. Tell them you're doing the same. :lol:


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## YELLOW_TT (Feb 25, 2004)

This must be how there managers can get such big bonuses by ripping off customers dont know who the biggest con men are MPs or bank managers


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## Hilly10 (Feb 4, 2004)

They the banks are all lying cheating bastards. I invested quite a substantial amount in an e-saver account with Abbey Santander in Nov 08, interest paid annually. I was going through my investments during Christmas I opened up the Abbey account guess what not a penny in interest. I got on the phone and they say we cannot understand why this as happened we must get our IT team to look at this then the calculation team will have to check it out as well. Well so far its took a fucking fortnight and I am still non the wiser. I wonder if the boot was on the other foot and I owed them money, too right they would be after me with all sorts of letters. Any way I will get my own back on these incompetent bastards by telling them if I do not have a result by end of play Monday, money will be withdrawn and solicitors letter issued for return of all interest and expenses. I have all paperwork rules & regulations they issued for the account and they are in breech of those rules. I fucking hate these wankers


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## wul (Feb 10, 2009)

your right about the abbey mate.i went into ask for a ministatement to check my wages were ryt i got the reply"sorry we dont do that in the bank you have to use the atm"after explaining that the atm only showed me transactions for the past two days,i got the reply"sorry cant help you".so then i went on to ask about the balance in my isa account"as iv explained to you sir i cant help you".so starting to get pissed off now i asked how the fuk am i meant to keep track of my money"you can use internet banking"so i walked out.i had a coffee to calm down and thought fuck this.straight into the bank again andgot the same arse hole"can i help you sir"to which i replyed "yes id like to close my isa account please,and in a day or two i will be back to close my current account.i will return tommorrow to collect the cash thanks"i have never had anybody print off statements as quick in my life.i really think he would have kissed my ass if i asked him :roll: maybe next time tho


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Hilly10 said:


> I wonder if the boot was on the other foot and I owed them money, too right they would be after me with all sorts of letters. Any way I will get my own back on these incompetent bastards by telling them if I do not have a result by end of play Monday, money will be withdrawn and solicitors letter issued for return of all interest and expenses. I have all paperwork rules & regulations they issued for the account and they are in breech of those rules. I fucking hate these wankers


If you owed them a penny they'd charge you interest plus flat fees per day to cover their "admin", I reckon. Odd how whenever you want a bit of admin out of them, like Wul, they tell you to do your own online. Odd too how I got loads of excuses about "the system", and funny how their mortgage "experts" don't know a thing about how their own products are calculated. I think it's pretty clear that there's no "admin" behind their charges, because their staff don't/can't do any real legwork at all.


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## Hilly10 (Feb 4, 2004)

The more I think about this the more I get wound up. Facts. I have an account set up by them (they see all the transactions made online) that as had no interest paid in to it in the alloted time. Remedy Fucking simple get someone to calculate the interest right away and put it in the account, hold the fucking inquiry later.Priorities get the customer back onside. :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:


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## Charlie (Dec 15, 2006)

Fucking Hell   That is absolutely atrocious I felt my heart rate rise as I read all this thread - The plural of the rudest word in the english language is most applicable.

Charlie


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## denTTed (Feb 21, 2007)

Halifax robbed us blind when I lost my job 13 years ago, when we were due to be married in 4 months time and had just bought our first house. Cue some really bad advice (cancelled all my direct debits so nothing got paid), took me 6 years to get rid of the credit record. Charged the hell out of me (£400 a month at the time). Sent a bailiff round randomly 2 years after all the shit and took my debit (switch) card off me on my doorstep and my chequ book (I didn't have a cheque book, I never have I don't like it unless it's instant, I was not over drawn in fact didn't even have an overdraft, it was a Monday morning and I had no money to pay for my train fare ending up having to drive a 50 mile round trip to get *my* money out of *my* account which had to be authorised by fax by them to a branch, proving I had money in the account. They refused to listen to my protests.

However when we sold our house and the capital was paid into our current account, they all of a sudden took an interest in us. It appears that the removal of our debit card was a keying error in head office (oh really), that month I had forgotten to transfer money and missed a few direct debits, they refunded the charges immediately, the words I remember verbatim "People with current account balances like that do not pay charges, or have solo cards".

I closed my account not longer after that, and we had several accounts with them, all now closed. The sweetest feeling was thinking that some of the [email protected] that turned me over got finished up last year in a worse economy than I was in, and suffered the same fate hopefuly worse than I did. What goes around, comes around. I hope they are losing as much sleep as I did.

I think it was Oscar wild who said banks loan you umbrellas, and ask for them back when it rains. Truest words I have ever read. I could rant on all night about the halifax, and banks in general.

I flipping hate the Halifax with a passion, I love it when they make sales calls to me, I know how to waste peoples days.


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## Wallsendmag (Feb 12, 2004)

We had a great mortgage offer from Northern Rock a few years back , a discount for six months but the arrangement fee was more than the saving [smiley=argue.gif] . We said thanks for the offer but no , didn't find out until we got the next years statement that they had charged us the arrangement fee anyway. We moved to another lender as soon as the free shares were handed out.


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## Bikerz (Aug 23, 2008)

I know every company have little problems, but jalifax I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO fed up with I left. They kept maikig cocks ups, I once Enquired how much I could have a credit card for the lady said only £1500 due to me age, I said ok, thank, but dont worry then. She said I would have teh card in a week  I asked you verbally how much you would give me at my age and salary :roll: :lol:

They then charged me a late payment for that credit card (dont ask) when infact they took the money 13 days earlier from my current account with them. I said it doesnt take 13 days to clear, there response was " You should pay sooner in the future" :roll: :lol:


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Useless.... :roll: :lol:


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## Wallsendmag (Feb 12, 2004)

Now you mention it , years ago when I was working in London i had a Halifax credit card . When I moved home I filled in the change of address form and it took them months to send the statement to the correct address.


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## robokn (Feb 21, 2006)

When I was in the Navy, I went back to HMS Raliegh for a course this is the place where all basic training takes place,
I went into the bank as I had just had money paid in from the sale of my house, and asked for a few thousand as I was
going to buy a car, the woman had the odacity to ask me if I had my bosses approval to remove the money, I looked young
but not recruit young, I asked to speak to the manager and was told she is at lunch, even though I could see her sat at another desk eating a sandwich, ok no worries I will be in tomorrow when I would like to close the account and empty the account
in cash please, fat cow jumped up and says can I help you "Yes you can I want to close my account and withdraw the full amount
tomorrow" but do you have your bosses approval Fuck me I now went atomic and after several minutes of me putting here in the full picture she got the message, next closed the account and took my money.

Later I was posted into a training section and the same bank would phone up asking to speak to so and so ref a young lads account my reply it's personal for a reason, now fuck off :twisted:


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## BLinky (Jul 3, 2009)

yay! max overdraw for a student £7500/year! yay! they're so nice and intelligent! yay!
I mean who wakes up in the morning and think: Hm... students! responsible! lets lend them £7500 for not uni fees but for anything they want! i.e. booze. 3 year uni fees + OD + OD fees = 30k debt! yay for Halifax and irresponsible students! yay!


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