Viewing 21 posts - 1 through 21 (of 21 total)
  • Are HBOS having a laugh?! They can f*** right off!
  • Kit
    Free Member

    Got a letter from my bank today (HBOS) telling me that I will no longer earn interest on credit in my account (even if it is currently 0.1%) and that "to make it simpler" overdraft charges will be £5 per day on unarranged overdrafts, and £1 per day on arranged up to £2500, rather than charge a percentage.

    **** me! OK, so on one hand they're trying to stop people using credit they can't afford, but at the same time not rewarding those who CAN stay in credit. And at a time when people haven't had pay rises and generally cost of living has become more expensive! HBOS savings accounts are shocking too (most typically 0.8%) so I am now seriously considering changing banks after 12-odd years of trouble free banking.

    BigDummy
    Free Member

    I don't think I've had this yet, but I'm not sure I mind very much. I run a month's money in current account and everything else is in savings, and transfers between current and savings are free and near-instant. I'd care more if interest rates were further above zero, but when that happens current account rates will rise anyway.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Got that as well – its the response to the unfair charge thing IMO and the fact that charging interest on overdrafts is not worth it.

    I think all banks will be going that way

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    Sim
    Full Member

    Girlfriend got that, went to talk to them and they said that she'd be in the minority of people who wouldn't benefit from the change.
    She's now with NatWest…

    jockhaggis
    Free Member

    Yep, same letter here a few weeks ago.

    I think I'll wait a few months before making any rash decision on moving banks. Chances are they'll all follow suit.

    In the meantime there is the option to change your current account to a 'reward' version which gives a flat £5 a month interest. Need to pay in over £1k a month though.

    Kit
    Free Member

    In fairness I think I'm just pissed off because I struggle to stay out of my overdraft each month and being charged £10-15 a month is going to compound that difficulty further.

    Time for a browse of other current accounts, regardless…

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    They will all do it I am certain.

    cheers_drive
    Full Member

    Yep I had the same letter a few weeks back. Looking to switch banks now.

    It will now cost be about £8 to go overdrawn at the end of a month by about £100. This happens every now and again when my spending has been more than normal and I then top up the current acount with savings. Previously it cost me abot 20p to do this, now its £8 but if I was overdrawn by £1500 it would still be £8. How's that fare?

    The worse thing was that they had the cheek to say that they were improving it for my benefit. Bar stewards

    stuartie_c
    Free Member

    Kit,

    they have an account which will give you £5 credit each month instead of interest provided you pay in at least £1000. They still have pretty draconian measures if you go into overdraft though.

    Not defending the bastards BTW – I've warned them that I'll jump ship if they piss me off any more. They were proper shiteing themselves at that… 🙄

    lobby_dosser
    Free Member

    so you're being charged for borrowing money?

    Daylight robbery.

    13thfloormonk
    Full Member

    I've been pondering moving banks for a while, on the basis that with a monumental push I could be out of my overdraft within 2/3 months, and would like to bank with someone more ethical, or at least, ethical by my under-educated, simplistic standards.

    Are there any banks that don't have a reputation for being b@st@rds? I've heard reasonably good things about Natwest…

    jockhaggis
    Free Member

    I don't think there are any ethical banks, just different levels of unethical.

    Even the ones that claim to be ethical have some unethical practices.

    Have a look at this

    Offroading
    Free Member

    Got the same letter, simple solution – swap your account to the "reward account"

    If you put in £1000 per month you get £5 a month from them – £60 a year. So i went and opened 3 accounts with them…. £180 a year for doing nothing… You don't need to put a lump sum of £1000 in at one go, for example you can put £100 in 10 times etc. Once it's done you can take the money back out of the account it only needs to be in for 30 seconds 😀

    Northwind
    Full Member

    "If you put in £1000 per month you get £5 a month from them – £60 a year. So i went and opened 3 accounts with them…. £180 a year for doing nothing… You don't need to put a lump sum of £1000 in at one go, for example you can put £100 in 10 times etc. Once it's done you can take the money back out of the account it only needs to be in for 30 seconds"

    You can even do it by standing order :mrgreen:

    I think TJ's right, though, unsecured short-term lending is going to get expensive- RBOS have a similiar change in the pipes, and they're also cracking down on credit card signups. This particular thing is HBOS's response to the charges court case- I was briefly involved in the project and it's basically designed to be cost-neutral, the income from the overdrafts is expected to be roughly the same as the loss of income from charges. Except now instead of it only being people delinquent on their debts who pay, it's everyone. Hooray.

    The real fun's still to come, with RBOS getting out of the open credit card business, and so many other credit cards being MBNA rebrands, and general creditworthiness requirements increasing, a lot of people who've been doing the balance transfer shuffle for the last decade are just about to run into problems.

    richcc
    Free Member

    I had the same letter and decided to 'simplify' things for the Halifax by moving all of my accounts to another bank. I was in a similar situation as cheers_drive – usually end up a pound or two overdrawn at the end of each month and pay 20p in interest. Wasn't willing to pay a pound a day in fees for the same thing.

    richcc
    Free Member

    Did discover in my hunt for another bank account that it seems to be much more of a 'seller's market' – banks are not eager to sign you up any more (or weren't eager to sign me up anyway!)

    LordSummerisle
    Free Member

    so you're being charged for borrowing money?

    Daylight robbery.

    Well, we were being charge before – like every other bank you where charged according to the interest rate on overdraft and if they authorized or not.

    We currently are £300 overdrawn (part of our authorized amount) on our halifax account, which i believe we are charged about £5 a month in interest.

    if we dont pay it back before the new charges come in – £5 will jump to £30-31 a month – thats still £10 more than i was origonally paying on my student overdraft which was £2500 – when overdraf interest rates where higher!

    cheers_drive
    Full Member

    so you're being charged for borrowing money?

    Daylight robbery

    No I don't expect free money but potentially being charged £8 for 8 days of a £5 authorised overdraft is daylight robbery, I can't be bothered to work out the APR but it's got to be at loan shark levels.

    mocha
    Free Member

    I don't think there are any ethical banks, just different levels of unethical.

    Co-op don't appear there on first glance and I can't remember seeing them in the news re all the banking stuff that's been going on for the last few years. Or am I missing something?

    Capt.Kronos
    Free Member

    I stuck with them through this one, but then they decided to close the bank counter in the local Halifax estate agents… which means I need to drive a 28 mile round trip to put my paycheck in the bank.

    Guess I am going to be leaving them too then. I think the Cumberland Building Society have a service where they move all your accounts and transfer all your direct debits for you, which sounds tempting!

    4ndyB
    Free Member

    I will be leaving the Halifax, got the letter a couple of days ago.

    I'm trying to live on basic minimum wage & do all the overtime I can, but still go overdrawn every month, usually get charged about £5 a month, once the £1 a day charge comes in it will increase the charges to about £20 a month.

    Had a browse on Money saving expert, looks like the Alliance & Leicester will be the best bank for me to swap to.

Viewing 21 posts - 1 through 21 (of 21 total)

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