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Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

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GoSeigen
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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#171580

Postby GoSeigen » October 5th, 2018, 8:11 am

Satsuma wrote:To clarify on a couple of points:

GoSeigen wrote:Ah I hadn't seen that. Sounds more like cock-up then, perhaps developers given too much power or key decision overlooked/went the wrong way.


I was explicitly told this change had been decided by the business, in response to customers complaining they didn't understand how to repay their cards properly.


The mistake IMO was not the new system, which is fine by me -- it was their failure to retain the old way as an additional option for people who want it. And I don't think that failure was a deliberate response to customer feedback -- hence my speculating about cock-up etc.

GS

Clariman
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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#171636

Postby Clariman » October 5th, 2018, 11:29 am

Satsuma,

Thanks for all your investigative work on this. I had the Ts & Cs change on my "To Do" list on got nowhere with Halifax yesterday, so this thread and the pointers to MSE have been very useful. Although MSE has an article about it, the information clearly has not been fed through to the MSE writer who writes the guide to spending abroad, because there is no discussion of this issue there.

I've had a look at Tandem and it is not for me, much as the 0.5% cashback would be good. I am not interested in banking services that are App only, with no option for browser access. Also the MSE forums show many who are unhappy with customer service being provided by a 3rd party. So not for me.

I have just applied for a Santander Zero card. If that operates like Halifax Clarity used to then that is perfect for me - and I am an existing happy Santander customer.

Thanks again
Clariman

Satsuma
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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#171647

Postby Satsuma » October 5th, 2018, 11:59 am

No problem, I'm glad it has been useful! But it was very much a joint endeavour with the other posters asking pertinent questions and raising relevant points that got me from my initial "huh?" posting to being able to fully understand what on earth they were doing and explain it onwards!

(Interesting their phone queues were so jammed too, right after the MSE article came out...)

Also good heads-up on the CS part of Tandem, I hadn't clocked that, thanks.

Sats

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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#171690

Postby melonfool » October 5th, 2018, 1:53 pm

I tend to think Santander have improved massively over the past 3-5 years, though they did come very low in the recent feedback thingy.

I'll apply for their card I think.

Mel

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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#171711

Postby RececaDron » October 5th, 2018, 3:01 pm

I harangued Halifax about all this yesterday - the fella I bored to tears had already had a bunch of other people moaning to him also so...

I raised a formal complaint - patiently explaining that it would have been straightforward to combine the new approach (which can help those with debit balances to reduce them faster and reduce interest charges) with the benefits of the old approach (which minimises interest charges and hassle for those making cash withdrawals abroad and who clear their balances each month). All probably pointless, but I think it's useful to give Orgs feedback when they mess up, so they've at least the means of connecting departing customers with the underlying cause, if they can be bothered to...

I've looked at the Santander Zero, and unless I'm missing something, it seems to operate similarly to the Clarity w.r.t forex, so if early repayments/DDs work together as the Clarity used to, then it seems to be a good option and I'll probably apply for one. Thanks for flagging this up.

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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#171918

Postby RececaDron » October 6th, 2018, 3:13 pm

RececaDron wrote:I've looked at the Santander Zero, and unless I'm missing something, it seems to operate similarly to the Clarity w.r.t forex, so if early repayments/DDs work together as the Clarity used to, then it seems to be a good option and I'll probably apply for one. Thanks for flagging this up.


I successfully applied for the Santander Zero card, so shall attempt to use it and test whether early manual repayments play nicely in conjunction with monthly DDs that are set up to clear the full balance, as used to be the case with Clarity.

If so, Clarity == binned, and I'll eventually report back...

Satsuma
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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#172431

Postby Satsuma » October 9th, 2018, 7:19 am

Ugh. I have an account with Santander (not cc), so I sent two secure messages. One was a specific query about the Zero card and the other was related to my existing account.

As usual, both replies have come back with inaccurate information that doesn't really answer my query and is padded out with a whole bunch of useless and irrelevant information.

Every time I contact them this happens, it is so annoying. I ask a simple factual question which should be a simple factual answer. It always takes several attempts to wheedle the actual info out of them, it's like they pride themselves on being inept.

It doesn't exactly incline me to adding more of my finances to their care.

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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#172591

Postby melonfool » October 9th, 2018, 3:30 pm

I have recently been forced to open a Santander current account. I'll leave you to guess why!

If I get a chance I'll find a way to provide this feedback in the place it might be most effective.

Mel

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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#175275

Postby jaizan » October 20th, 2018, 11:29 pm

1 I have had my Clarity account in credit in the past without problems. I suppose the same could happen again.

2 Just to be on the safe side, I have put in applications for a Santander Zero card AND a Starling current account. Once these are set up, I shall shut down a couple of other pointless accounts to keep complexity down.

The Starling account looks like a very nice option. I set it up in about 10 minutes & the card is due in 5 days time.

Satsuma
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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#179126

Postby Satsuma » November 9th, 2018, 9:38 am

Just as a final follow up...

For several weeks now I have been getting dire text warnings from Halifax saying:
"Miss Sats REMINDER: if you make extra payments to your credit card at any time this will not reduce your DIrect Debit"

Except, of course, depending the date, some do reduce the DD. This is my latest set of transactions:
01 Oct 18__RETAILER1__02 Oct 18__39.99
04 Oct 18__PAYMENT RECEIVED__04 Oct 18__5.00 CR **£5 first manual payment**
06 Oct 18__RETAILER2__08 Oct 18__130.00
<<<Statement generated here @ £164.99: £39.99 + £130, less £5 first manual payment>>>
08 Oct 18__RETAILER3__09 Oct 18__48.69
10 Oct 18__PAYMENT RECEIVED__10 Oct 18__5.00 CR **£5 second manual payment**
10 Oct 18__RETAILER4__11 Oct 18__83.97
02 Nov 18__DIRECT DEBIT PAYMENT__02 Nov 18__164.99 CR


As you can see, the statement generated a DD amount of £164.99, which was duly collected on 2 Nov and (as expected) disregarded the second £5 payment on 10 Oct (it got carried over to this month's statement)

As a side note, there is also an option online which says "Pay Credit Card" which takes you to a screen offering the option to "Make a one-off payment", explaining "Making a one-off payment is quick, easy and might help you clear your balance faster." There is no warning that it will affect the DD if you pay it after your statement date! This whole thing really is a complete omnishambles. I might contact my complaints lady just for fun to point this out to her

So there we have it. A ill-thought-out and even worse implementation of a rule change that took customers from August till November to unpack.
Sats

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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#179147

Postby swill453 » November 9th, 2018, 11:07 am

Satsuma wrote:So there we have it. A ill-thought-out and even worse implementation of a rule change that took customers from August till November to unpack.
Sats

I'm confused at your comment. Isn't it just working exactly as promised and as you expected? Payments before statement date are incorporated in the statement and in effect define what the DD will be. Payments after the statement date don't affect the DD, and this is the annoying, but flagged up, change.

Scott.

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Re: Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?

#179158

Postby Satsuma » November 9th, 2018, 11:54 am

Well, yes ok, it's working as I thought, but only after we untangled the contradictory and confusing information they sent out! It should have been communicated accurately and with clarity ( :lol: ) from the get-go and this thread should not really have been needed to understand what they were doing/changing (which even now is still not being addressed accurately as the SMS messages and their website illustrate).

MSE.com felt it was worthwhile explaining to their readers too: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/ ... ers-caugh/

So I maintain that it was (a) an odd change of the T&Cs to start with; and (b) badly implemented.


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