TRANSFER FIASCO

I have been with Halifax for almost a year and have 4 different accounts that include: ISA, current, savings and a electron account. Over this time a have deposited 10s of thousands of pounds in different accounts. To my surprise lately, whilst transferring further funds into my Halifax current account, to eventually purchase a property in France, I had a very unsatisfactory experience. Halifax refused to transfer my funds to a FX account within a 24 hour period. The Halifax staff were extremely rude and unhelpful and stated that the only option for me was to use the CHAPS payment system at a cost of £25 by phone. Later another member of staff stated that I could not do this over the phone and had to call into a local branch to do this....difficult as I am working in Brussels...no further assistance given and staff were so unhelpful bordering on rude!

In the end I managed to solve most of the problem by transferring my money into the 4 different accounts and transferring the maximum £25,000 allowed per day.

I now intend to cancel all accounts with Halifax and use a bank that is more helpful such as Fist Direct.