Halifax/ Bank of Scotland stopping free business banking

[kevinlewis]

Six months ago i swapped from Barclays to the Halifax as I was assured that the free banking offer was not just an offer of free banking for a short period but would continue indefinitely. Their information leaflet says, ” Free Banking forever”.Found out today that in December they will be charging £15 per month.

I’d been with barclays for about 25 years. Changing the account was not as simple or straightforward as the halifax had said so i don’t fancy going through all that again.
I think that the Banking Ombudsman needs making aware of this. any comments appreciated.

[clivejameson]

Re: halifax/ Bank of Scotland stopping free buisiness bankin

Lloyds are currently offering one year’s free banking on new business accounts :lesson:

[SWERV]

Re: halifax/ Bank of Scotland stopping free buisiness bankin

18 months actually.
Merv

[kwatt]

Re: halifax/ Bank of Scotland stopping free buisiness bankin

I think they’ll all drop free banking due to the fact that people are looking at the charges and, successfully, reclaiming a lot of them as they are illegal under OFT rulings.

K.

[EFS]

Re: halifax/ Bank of Scotland stopping free buisiness bankin

Alliance & Liecester are doing free banking for under £1m turnover which includes free banking of cash 😆 😆 😆
Too many forms to fill in for limited company as Natwest only charge me about £17 a month so not jumpin ship just yet.

Steve

[Martin]

Re: halifax/ Bank of Scotland stopping free business banking

I jumped ship from Lloyds TSB to Alliance & Leicester just last month. The process was relatively painless as A&L completed the whole process for me. I can now ‘bank’ at my local Post office across the road which is brilliant and access my account on-line.

With no bank charges whatsoever! 😀

[kevinlewis]

Re: halifax/ Bank of Scotland stopping free buisiness bankin

Thanks for your comments.
i did not understand, “I think they’ll all drop free banking due to the fact that people are looking at the charges and, successfully, reclaiming a lot of them as they are illegal under OFT rulings.”?
I’ve rang the Halifax this morning and told them how I have been mislead. They would not compromise except to say that I only needed to keep £5000 in the account at all times to receive fee banking. Previously I would only be charged 57p per cheque if my balance dropped below £5000.
I’ll check out Alliance and L.

[kwatt]

Re: halifax/ Bank of Scotland stopping free buisiness bankin

kevinlewis wrote:i did not understand, “I think they’ll all drop free banking due to the fact that people are looking at the charges and, successfully, reclaiming a lot of them as they are illegal under OFT rulings.”?

Basically the OFT has ruled that a lot of bank charges are illegal, for example charging a fee of £30 to reject a £10 payment, and that these charges can be reclaimed and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

According to the rules you can claimback hiked or unjustified charges for a period of six years after the event and this has led to the banks having to refund countless thousands as customers recalim unfair charges. Several companies now specilise in reclaiming these amounts, for a share of the spoils on a no-win, no-fee basis but it is fairly straightforward to do yourself if you have the time.

Needless to say the banks are none too happy about this and are trying to keep it as quiet as possible. The reason is simple, these charges support the “free” banking system that we have in the UK, if enough consumers and businesses do claimback charges or even start to question them then the fear is that free banking will stop, period.

K.

[kevinlewis]

Re: halifax/ Bank of Scotland stopping free buisiness bankin

This is a copy of the letter I’ve sent to BBC Moneybox.
I run a small domestic appliance business. I’d been with Barclays for 25 years and paid about £50 per quarter.The halifax/ bank of Scotland, encouraged me to transfer my buisness to them with the promise of free business bank “Forever”.The only charge to me would be 57p per cheque if my balance dropped below £5000.I only write 2 or 3 cheques per month so it was good value.I knew about free offers which only last for 6 months or a year and The Halifax asured me that it would be Forever.
Changing was not as simple as I’d been advised but eventually everything got sorted.Six months later they have advised me that if my balance falls below £5000 there will be a charge of £15 per month. They have only given me 6 weeks notice.i rang them to complain but got nowhere. I asked them to note my complaint three times before customer relations eventually said they would forward my complaint but they added that they would only repeat what they had already told me.
i have now received their written response.The reason given for their sudden change of policy is, “Recently there has been a significant investment made into the branch network therefore a decision has been made to migrate from a direct service to a branch based facility”.??
The lady from the Halifax branch who encouraged me to move to them , “feels awful about what has happened”.
They were still advertising their, “Free Banking Forever ” offer only days before.I feel like they are misleading the public.

[delta01]

Re: halifax/ Bank of Scotland stopping free buisiness bankin

i would highly recommend the coop bank business direct, especially if you are a member of fsb as you get even better deal .

I joined years ago and saved £900 in th first year on charges for banking cheques ( ie no charge at all for banking cheques ).

After the fsb (federation of small businesses )
arranged a special deal for its members we contacted the coop and they put us on the scheme , after the first 12 mnths we got £25-00 loyalty bonus on each of our accounts

[Author]

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