Posted on September - 24 - 2009
Halifax announces change to overdrafts policy
The bank follows RBS in reforming its fee structure. Halifax has become the second bank in recent weeks to announce reforms to its charges for overdrawn customers.
The financial firm said that its rate-based system would be replaced by a flat fee from December 6th.
Currently, customers who go into the red pay an annual interest rate of 19.5% on their balances.
Under the new regime they would be charged £1 a day for overdrafts of up to £2,500, a move which would reduce costs for many.
RBS also announced recently that it would cut its fees for overdrawn customers who exceed their authorised limits from £28 per month to £20.
Bank charges are currently the subject of a test case involving the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and several high street financial firms.
An upcoming supreme court ruling is to rule whether or not the OFT can decide on the fairness of these charges.
If the verdict empowers the OFT in this way, hundreds of thousands of people are likely to be allowed to reclaim previous overdraft penalties.
Both RBS and Halifax were part-nationalised by the government last year due to the extreme market volatility caused by the global credit crunch.
The UK taxpayer now owns large equity stakes in both firms, following the bailouts.
However, a Treasury spokesman told the Times that no pressure had been exerted in order to encourage the banks to change their policies for overdrawn customers.
“We have publicly issued a call for the the OFT and all the banks, not just those with a government stake, to resolve the charging situation as soon as possible,” he added.
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