Halifax Overdraft - new fees from Dec 09

superbiatch · 11-10-2009, 13:47

Has anyone been informed about fee changes by Halifax from December? I was informed by phone (as I happened to be ringing them for help!), but I believe some customers have now received letters although I've not received one yet.

Basically from what I can gather if you use your overdraft, you will be charged £1 per day. The fees are standard for anyone who has an overdraft between £300 and £2499 (ultimate reward bank account holders) and any overdraft up to £2499 for other bank account holders.

I can't find anything on the Halifax website, but I have found an article http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/city-ne...5875-21699500/

Its also being heavily discussed on Mondaysavingexpert.com

As i have a rather large overdraft, I will more than likely be paying for every day of the month but will receive a £5 reimbursement for being an ultimate reward account holder. In effect this will become yet another bill for £25 a month and something which I just can't afford. So I will be switching bank accounts as others aren't planning to follow suit just yet (although I'm sure it will happen eventually).

webcrawler2050 · 11-10-2009, 13:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by superbiatch

Has anyone been informed about fee changes by Halifax from December? I was informed by phone (as I happened to be ringing them for help!), but I believe some customers have now received letters although I've not received one yet.

Basically from what I can gather if you use your overdraft, you will be charged £1 per day. The fees are standard for anyone who has an overdraft between £300 and £2499 (ultimate reward bank account holders) and any overdraft up to £2499 for other bank account holders.

I can't find anything on the Halifax website, but I have found an article http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/city-ne...5875-21699500/

Its also being heavily discussed on Mondaysavingexpert.com

As i have a rather large overdraft, I will more than likely be paying for every day of the month but will receive a £5 reimbursement for being an ultimate reward account holder. In effect this will become yet another bill for £25 a month and something which I just can't afford. So I will be switching bank accounts as others aren't planning to follow suit just yet (although I'm sure it will happen eventually).

I have a large overdraft with Halifax and there charges where pants. I then switched to Lloyds and halfed my charges. Was great.

Gary L · 11-10-2009, 14:00

That's a lot of money to a lot of people, £30 per month.
there will be a lot of people who are on low incomes that are over the £300 limit. they'll either have to pay it all back and go short for a while or get it below the £300 limit to save the charges.

The cost of living day to day is getting really depressing lately.

superbiatch · 11-10-2009, 14:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary L

That's a lot of money to a lot of people, £30 per month.
there will be a lot of people who are on low incomes that are over the £300 limit. they'll either have to pay it all back and go short for a while or get it below the £300 limit to save the charges.

The cost of living day to day is getting really depressing lately.

You're not wrong there Gary, as if its not hard enough atm to get by

**Derek** · 11-10-2009, 14:53

I changed my account a few months back and was told of the new charges at that point. Haven't received anything else from them.

**Hugh** · 11-10-2009, 14:53

I got something about this in the post last week.

Julian · 11-10-2009, 15:15

I'm pretty sure the new charges don't apply to people who have the Ultimate Reward account. They qualify for a free of interest £300 overdraft facility anyway. Obviously there is a fee of £12.50 per month to pay with a £5 per month sweetener for swapping.

superbiatch · 11-10-2009, 15:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Julian

I'm pretty sure the new charges don't apply to people who have the Ultimate Reward account. They qualify for a free of interest £300 overdraft facility anyway. Obviously there is a fee of £12.50 per month to pay with a £5 per month sweetener for swapping.

It does I'm afraid, I'm an Ultimate Rewards customer also and was informed this by their employee.

So in effect it will cost £12.50 per month for the account, then £31 for overdraft usage (over £300) minus £5 'sweetener' - for me anyway

danielf · 11-10-2009, 22:34

This doesn't surprise me at all. They had a cash cow taken away, and will seek to find an alternative. Sounds like a nice little earner for them. For overdrafts up to £500 that's an APR of around 100%. (Be in the red less than £500 for a year, and pay £365). You're better off with a loan or putting it on your credit card...

Osem · 12-10-2009, 11:00

I think we can expect more of this sort of thing sadly. HMG is pressing the banks (esp. the ones they own large parts of) to lend more but also rebuild their balance sheets by making big profits. Given that Lloyds and HBOS are the same company, it'll be interesting to see how long the discrepancies in charges highlighted above remain. Anyway, unlike HMG (via the B of E) banks can't just print money so when they feel like it so, amongst other things, they're going to have to raise charges. Guess who'll wind up paying.....