Halifax Online Banking - Software Problem

C

Conshine

Registered User
Messages
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Hi - I was charged €5 for going overdrawn with Halifax recently, but was 100% sure I didnt.

Upon checking it out, I found that it is a problem with their online banking system. I called them and they refunded the charge, no questions asked. The lady I spoke to was not interested in getting the problem escalated and fixed, so am sharing my experience with you guys in case

1) there are any Halifax employees out there that can escalate internally or
2) if anybody else has been charged, you may need to claim it back


Take the following example on pay day, 31st July:

Date ............Transaction Narrative ..............Debit (€) .............Credit (€) ............Balance (€)
31/07/2008 ...Transfer to XX ............................1020 ...............................................2000
31/07/2008 ....Automated Credit .................................................3000 ...................3020
31/07/2008 ...Direct Debit XXX .........................20 ..................................................20
30/07/2008 ...Cash Withdrawal .......................10 ....................................................40


The above is fine, I am in credit. I transfer out most of my salary as soon as it gets paid to an account earning better interest.

But overnight, their system sorts all transactions alphabetically, then date, but the most recent transaction displayed first - not by time and date. So my account appears like this:

Date ...........Transaction Narrative .................Debit (€) .................Credit (€) .............Balance (€)
01/07/2008 ...Referral Fee .................................5 .........................................................1995
31/07/2008 ..Automated Credit ...........................................................3000 ......................2000
31/07/2008 ..Direct Debit XXX .............................20 .......................................................-1000
31/07/2008. .Transfer to XX ...............................1020 .......................................................-980
30/07/2008 ..Cash Withdrawal ............................10 ...........................................................40

one to keep an eye on.
 
Unable to make this more readable - spaces are being stripped out and tabbing of the text doesnt work. Hope you can make sense of it.
 
Yes - I think that this hit me too before although I don't think that I ended up overdrawn as a result as it happens. I found it confusing how transactions were posted/processed too.
 
I am not a customer of Halifax, nor can I make sense of the transactions details you provided, but ..

IMHO you were charged a fee for not having sufficient funds in your account when an item was presented for payment. A charge described as a referral fee, to me, means that they either bounced, or deferred payment of a cheque/direct debit on your account as there were, at that point in time, insufficient funds to meet payment.

Not IMHO a software issue, rather a personal finance management issue ?

Edit
On re-reading your post, the DD was paid when you were already OD. If you have no agreed overdraft, then someone had to 'eyeball' the TX and make a decision to pay it. For this, you have been charged a referral fee.
 
Actually my issue was with PTSB and not Halifax! I think it's the same sort of thing as outlined above? See here.
 
TarfHead said:
I am not a customer of Halifax, nor can I make sense of the transactions details you provided, but ..
Click to expand...
Err.. ok.. go on..
No - there were sufficient funds in the account. Thats why the online banking allowed me to transfer to another account. Balance at time of transfer was €3020. If I was to log on now and try to transfer €2000 more than the current balance, I am sure I would be told that this is not possible.
TarfHead said:
Not IMHO a software issue, rather a personal finance management issue ?
Click to expand...
Yes it is a software issue - The software has not ordered the transations in true time - It has sorted and processed them alphabetically
, which is wrong.

TarfHead said:
On re-reading your post, the DD was paid when you were already OD. If you have no agreed overdraft, then someone had to 'eyeball' the TX and make a decision to pay it.
Click to expand...
No DD - It was a manual transfer.

TarfHead said:
For this, you have been charged a referral fee.
Click to expand...
Yes, I was charged a referral fee. But they refunded it, because of the software issue. But, I had to ring them to point this out.
Am just making others aware of this.
 
Conshine said:
Original posting amended, added some ...........'s to make it easier to view.
Click to expand...
Format the text in an editor with a fixed width font using spaces (not tabs) to space things out and then use the code tag in vBulletin to retain that formatting:

Code: 
Column1        Column2         Column3
Like           This            Example
 
I also noticed that Halifax sorts multiple transactions on the same day by name (not the time the value was done).

This creates fantastic account balances at times when you have a pay day followed by you doing transfers to pay your bills (and transfers go to the bottom of the display) and than get some direct debits down from the account.

So while you know that you were in credit the whole time (because you watch the transactions going in and out) and in the evening arround 1630 everything looks fine with transactions reflected as they hit the account overnight your account shows funny transactions and next morning it's down to alphabet.

As in Conshine example I have a credit and it's available than I make a transfer and all is fine, next morning the display changes and the debit comes first before the credit hence bringing down my balance for a second.

Now I never have been charged referal fees (I always have 2000 € in the account for the interest) but I noticed the same behaviour.

I don't question their logic (maybe because it's easier to read and find transactions) but if they start charging you for transactions you did while you were in credit that is just wrong.
 

I know I did have a point to make, but I sure didn't articulate it . I'll try again.

My interpretation of the transactions is that, at some point in time in that day, an item was presented for payment for which there were insufficient funds at that point in time. Is there an item posted to your account, subsequent to the date in question, submitted externally (e.g. cheque, direct debit), that could have set you OD, based on the close of day balance for 30 July ? For example, is there a cheque posted to your account for more than €40, with a posting date after 31 July ?

The processing of payments and their representation in a statement, or a browser, are seperate processes. The order in which they are shown is not a true indication of the order in which they were presented or processed.

The bank I use shows, for statements, transactions on the same day in descending order of value. In the browser, the current day's transactions are shown in the order in which they are processed.

Although the sortation of transactions may show a point in time debit balance, this would not, I believe, give rise to a charge labelled 'referral fee'. In banking, that has a specific meaning.

Going OD without permission would give rise to interest and/or surcharges which are posted periodically, not following the causal event.
 
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