Halifax Existing Customer Card

Incredibly bad customer service and they make it very difficult for you to pay Well I applied for a Halifax Credit Card two years ago. The offer was sixteen months 0% interest on all new purchases and sixteen months 0% interest on all balance transfers (with a 2.9% charge). I needed a bit extra at the time and I thought I could transfer the balance from my other card, leaving me with a single, easily managed Credit Card, I decided that the Halifax was the one to choose as their adverts always made their customer service seem so good. I was sooooo wrong. The application process was very easy and done on the internet. Within days I received the card, signed the credit agreement and sent it back. They had given me a credit limit of £2,500.00 with a APR of 16.9% so I transferred my £800.00 + 2.9% extra= £23.20 existing balance on another card and bought a new double pushchair, some clothes and essentials for my husbands family in Africa and paid the postage over there, I also bought some baby care equipment leaving me with a balance of £2,000. I know I went a bit mad but I figured I could pay it off by the end of the next year, all I needed to do was set up a direct debit for a set amount, like I had with my previous Credit Card and hey presto my debt has disappeared, sounds easy doesn't it? I should add that I'm a very forgetful and disorganised person, Direct Debits save my life. I can look at a bill and think, I've got to pay that, but once it's out of my sight I forget all about it. My first bill arrived: You owe us £2,000 (rounded up for the purposes of this review). To set up a Direct Debit phone this number. So I phoned up the number and spoke to a "customer services representative". I asked to set up a direct debit for £150 per month, only to be told that I couldn't choose the amount I could only have a direct debit to pay off the minimum amount each month, we all know that this doesn't normally pay off the interest, I argued back that I had done that with my last Credit Card but no joy, so I set up a Direct Debit to pay of the minimum amount and blu taced the manual pay slip to the front door to remind me to pay a bit extra after they had taken the direct debit, I operate to a budget and so I needed to know what I'd already paid off so I could round it up to the £150 I'd already paid. The problem is that working full time with a half hour dinner break, which wasn't even long enough to get to the bank let alone queue up, and the banks being closed round here on a Saturday, I didn't actually get round to topping it up, still, I though, at least the minimum had been paid, or had it. The next statement came; apparently I hadn't paid the last payment. I rang immediately and told them I'd set up a direct debit to pay off the last bill and all subsequent bills. I was told that the direct debit was set up too late to pay the last bill and I would have been told that on the last phone call, which I wasn't. I asked to pay off the balance there and then with my debit card, sorry we don't have the facility to take the payment, don't have the facility???? They're a credit card company attached to a bank, how can they not have the facility???? I was told to go into their branch and pay off the unpaid amount there, which I explained I couldn't do and why. I was also told that, because I had missed a payment, my promotional rate of 0% was being withdrawn and my credit limit lowered to £2,050. Not too bothered about the lowered credit limit but to take away my 0% was out of order. Lots of arguing later and they agreed to look for the tape of my previous conversation and check if I had been told that the direct debit wouldn't be in place for my first payment. For the next month I was working out of the country, my husband and babies came too pairing it with a holiday, when I got home both the second and third statement were there and checking my answer phone they had rung at least six times a day leaving messages to ring them urgently until my answer phone was full, they hadn't bothered ringing my mobile, which they would have been able to get me on. The direct debit didn't take the amount, expecting problems I rang up again to be told that I'd cancelled the direct debit on my last phone call, did I? Was I having a serious lapse of memory, and sanity? Obviously I was, or was I? Again I asked them to check the tapes of the last phone call. Miraculously they can take debit card payments over the phone if I'm over two payments in arrears! I couldn't pay at the time, a month away for my husband and babies had taken its toll on our finances, but gave them a date when I would be able to pay. A couple of months went by before this was resolved in the form of a statement with my interest rate back to 0%, no apology. The interest that had been charged in the mean time was still on the statement. Another phone call to customer services, they'll adjust the balance, still no apology though, no refund for the phone calls to them. Not a good experience. Since then I've been on maternity leave and then working part time so I've had time to keep up with the extra payments to top up the direct debit, so I've had no problems with them until recently when they wrote to say they were putting the interest up from 16.9% APR to 22.9% APR, I rang but there's nothing they can do about it apparently that's just the way it is. As soon as I pay off the balance I'll be leaving them, it'll take a bit longer because my budget is a lot tighter as I'm on Maternity leave again but I'll get there and in the mean time everyone should be warned not to deal with them at all. In conclusion: appalling customer service and it seems like a misnomer in their case. They make it incredibly difficult to pay off what you owe them, unless you're two months in arrears then they'll help you, although I feel like they begrudged helping. If I had rung up screaming and shouting I could understand them being difficult and not wanting to help but at all times I kept calm and civil. Steer clear! I'm only giving them one star because I haven't got a choice!