Is there a logic step missing somewhere??

Last week I was told that my soon to expire Halifax One Visa card would be replaced by a MasterCard instead of a Visa card at the end of the month. Last night I tried to pay by Visa card and the transaction was declined by HBOS Visa. This morning I eventually got through to their callcentre (which is in the UK) on their 0845 number and was told that my transaction was declined because the company making the new credit cards "has run out of plastic for making the cards". So................ my Visa card is valid until the end of the month what on earth has the card making company running out of plastic got to do with declining me a £200 charge on a credit card with a credit limit in excess of £20k and a zero balance as of 1st Sept? "Oh well sir, it's a security measure, we have frozen all Halifax One Visa accounts until the new cards are available" Wow what a great way to do business - embarrass the customer for the failure of a 3rd party supplier and you don't even mention it in a letter to the client!
My Visa account is now restored until the end of the month so if you also have a Halifax One card that is due to expire at the end of this month just check that HBOS hasn't done the same thing to your account. If that is the best HBOS can do then I think my Platinum Amex card will be getting a lot more use than it presently gets. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

More muppetry from customer service depts  

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Tim

Your not alone Halifax did the exact same thing to me

Went to pay for an item over the phone, to get next day delivery, using my Visa card due to its value and the added security. To be told the cards been declined.

Big credit limit, near zero balance, try it again you must have keyed in the wrong number etc........ not happening, have to then dig around to look for one of my other cards to make the next day delivery deadline

I found this really embarressing to have it declinded with somebody I had been dealing with for a while.

I eventually spoke to Halifax and my Visa Card had been cancelled and transfered over to a Mastercard account as they are accepted in more places........

They told me my card had been sent out a month previous and I should be using that.

I then had to firstly wait for the new card/statement, check back the last couple of months statements as my card has not been recieved and i wanted to check for any dodgy transactions

I found the 'Well we posted it to you" atitude really bad, No pre-warning advise of change letter or follow up letter and i didn't even have to phone them to active the replacement card as it came out ready to use which show lack of security measures too

Something is going on at HBOS, while I am at sea my mother not only has power of attorney for me but both my parents are recognised signatories on my bank account. Mysteriously while I was away the bank stopped recognising both parents signatures on my account (I still use the odd cheque for paying bills) and cheques were returned as unacceptable signatures. When my mother followed it up she was told that since the documents permitting my parents to be signatories and operators of my bank account had been signed in the days of Bank of Scotland without Halifax they couldn't now accept my parents signatures. At no time in the last however many years since HBOS was formed have my parents or I received any letters saying that we needed to make new authorisation documents. Strange that it has only been in the last 4 months that suddenly HBOS won't accept their signatures. When my mother re-applied she was declined by the bank as a signatory........................... why? Because the clerk dealing with the paperwork reckoned that her passport that see submitted as proof of ID was out of date............................. she had just returned from a holiday in Madeira and it's strange that the UK immigration authorities were happy accept her Australian passport with indefinite UK Visa in it but the bank wouldn't! It took 3 months and letters from the Australian and UK authorities to persuade HBOS that she has a valid passport! I've been an account holder with BOS and HBOS for more than 30 years and think I will be looking at changing banks shortly. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

It makes sense to change banks every now and again. I was with the Woolwich when I opened my first ever bank account when I was 12 or something and stayed with them for around 18 years, then Barclays got hold of them and the service went down the pan. We then moved to Firstdirect who were excellent until recently when a few cockups took place - we have now moved to Smile, who seem to be doing a good job so far. I think banks are some of the most complacent organisations out there as they expect their customers to be long term regardless of the level of service. 

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And here was me thinking I was the only one having problems with HBOS / Visa, my card runs out in January but I have been having problems with it for a while now. Had to take action over information the local KBC manager leaked out about my dealings and accounts to a local business, so it is not just in the UK that there is problems.
Tim did you notice that HBOS has dropped their intrest rates for balances in credit? just got a letter in from them telling me that  Sons of dogs come hither and get flesh
Clan Cameron

HBOS are in big trouble.
Cap bank which is their vehicle lending arm closed their doors a while back for new business, and are actively up for sale! So wouldn't be surprised if CS goes down the pan completely while they sort themselves out..

Most stable bank as far as we know, working with the various lenders/banks on a daily basis are: LLoyds TSB right now.

Kam HBOS might be in big trouble but that isn't my fault - if I ran my bank account the same way as the directors run the bank I would have been getting £45 a time letters from them years ago. They have lots of my money working hard for them, I don't owe them much, the last they can do is provide a competent level of service.
The other choice I have here is Royal Bank of Scotland and they appear not to be much better than HBOS at using my savings to sell mortgages to folks who cannot afford to own a house in the USA as well 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Well at least I got my money out of Northern Rock ... only to put it in HBOS  Sons of dogs come hither and get flesh
Clan Cameron

Tim HBOS are estopped from returning cheques signed by your parents if they have been doing so in the past. Porsche Cayenne S Diesel 66 Plate

I know a now retired former Chief Actuary for Standard Life........................... he put all his pension savings into Northern Rock Shares so he is now a not as wealthy a pensioner as he thought he was going to be (he's still pretty wealthy all the same!). What is it with these so-called smart guys who tell us never to put all of our money into a single investment and then do exactly that themselves? He will never see that money again and if it wasn't for you and me in the form of the government/ taxpayer stepping in he might well be a bankrupt now................................. so many people don't seem to realise that being a shareholder in a company doesn't just mean you have a stake in it and reap the benefits of any profits that company makes, you also have financial liabilities if that company goes down the tubes and stand to loose a lot more than just the investment you put in. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Tim in Scotland wrote:

Kam HBOS might be in big trouble but that isn't my fault - if I ran my bank account the same way as the directors run the bank I would have been getting £45 a time letters from them years ago. They have lots of my money working hard for them, I don't owe them much, the last they can do is provide a competent level of service.
The other choice I have here is Royal Bank of Scotland and they appear not to be much better than HBOS at using my savings to sell mortgages to folks who cannot afford to own a house in the USA as well

Pelyma wrote:

Tim HBOS are estopped from returning cheques signed by your parents if they have been doing so in the past.

estopped means that they have accepted something as a bonefide instruction for such a period that they cannot go back on it. The principal is right and I hope the terminology is correct. From my Banking Law days it was drummed into us that if you knowingly repeated an action for a client you created a precident that had to be followed. So if HBOS had been accepting your parents' signatures they can't suddenly stop accepting them. Porsche Cayenne S Diesel 66 Plate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel_(English_law)

Bloody hell... who'd be a lawyer  

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