Bank help (sorry long)

To cut a long story short, I went for a bank account at the bank I already bank with and they said they couldn't open me another one because of something on my credit file, only ever having had a bank account with Halifax (which I closed 5years ago), a barclay card (which I have made a couple of late payments, but pay religiously) and my account with barclays with no overdraft, I was stumped as to why and so thought I'd investigate Halifax, when i spoke to them about my account they said I had closed it in sept '02 and alarm bells rung because I closed it the last working day of Feb '02. (Only know that for certain because I closed it the day I got paid into that account exactly one month after opening my barclays account).

Spoke to Halifax again and they agreed to send me the account report for 2002, i received the report this morning and to my horror this is what I saw.
Date in/out going Balance
28/02/02 481.27dr 84.00
28/02/02 56.00dr 28.00
01/03/02 15.98dr 12.02
18/03/02 28.00dr 15.98dr
interest of 72p taken over the next few months.....
01/07/02 84.00dr 100.70dr
31/07/02 0.35dr 101.05dr
01/08/02 56.00dr 157.05dr
12/08/02 1.07 155.98dr
12/08/02 84.00 71.98dr
12/08/02 56.00 15.98dr
31/08/02 2.33dr 18.31dr
31/08/02 4.22 14.09dr
02/09/02 14.09 Nil

Let me explain... the day i closed my account(28/02/02) I went into the bank told the cashier and she told me that i had to pay £84.00 in bank charges, I told her to take their money and give me whats mine, she chopped my card up in front of me and from that day forward I assumed i had no account with them. Now i cannot even open a bank account with the bank i have banked with for 5 years because of this, they kept my account open and obviously on my credit history it is gonna show that i was overdrawn without an arranged overdraft for 6 months. i am so livid but I dont know where to go from here? Anyone know anything about the law, can they not take this off my file? can i get compensation for this? HELP

hiya

I had a similar problem - funnily enough with the Halifax too - and again over a 5yr debt - i had no cards no agreed overdraft and nocontact from them - I ended up sending a massive letter of complaint to the manager and eventually I got it cleared off my account, however Tee has posted a thread and the Financial serivces osbusman somewhere who managed to reclaim unfair bank charges - so search for that and see if they can help
good luck
dani

Make an appointment with Citizens Advice Bureau, take any paperwork with you, did you continue to receive bank statements for this account, did you actually close the account down?

Zuba,

Most banks use the credit reference agency called "experian".

If you register on line, you get a free monthly trial, you agree to pay £5.99 you can get a credit report instantly and print it off, then, when your month is nearly up, ring and cancel and say you don't want any more, then you won't get charged anymore monthly fees.

I had to do this when Marshall Ward catalogue duplicated and triplicated my order and my a/c showed £3000.00 odd pounds, when it should have been £1182.40, which I had paid "up front" by debit card !

It was all sorted out in the end and Marshall Ward refunded me £30.00 to cover my expenses, which I was happy with.

oooo the halifax my mum had bother with them.she had a credit card with them and transfered the balance to another card,she cut the card up and posted it back to them saying she was closing the account(told her not to cut the card up until she had confirmation of the account closure),for months she was getting letters saying she was 17p in credit then after a little while she started getting letters saying she owed them money each time she received a letter she called them and said the account was closed and they were saying oh yes you will hear no more from us except a letter stating the account is closed,in the end after about 10 months she managed to speak to somebody with a brain who closed the account correctly and we heard no more from them.i think if you have some paperwork stating you closed the account on the date you say and not when they say you should be within your rights to have the matter rectified and if they can wipe out your bad credit history they should do it and any costs incurred they should pay.if you get no joy from them i would go to citizens advise and ask for their help i hope you get it sorted

Well, have been on the phone all morning since this post, one woman at Halifax was extremely helpful, gave me people to contact if Halifax would not sort it and complained to her boss and everyone else at halifax on my behalf. She sent an email to the manager of the branch where i closed the account telling her to give me back my bank charges and remove all the incorrect data from the computer. As soon as the branch has done this, the woman i spoke to will be contacting Experian and getting Halifax removed from credit history. Happy so far, but what has since occured to me is my mortgage, I had to go with my bank at a slightly higher rate and now this must be why, so I am gonna check that out with my bank and see whether i can get any compensation from Halifax

glad you found somebody to help

Thank you, though it was tough, spoke to at least 6 different advisers before speaking to her Have been going all through this since monday, what a mess. I knew Halifax were terrible hence leaving didn't realise they were gonna get their own back