Always Giving you Extra (Hassle) (Halifax)

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Halifax
Date:	08/01/06 (1345 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Branches all over the country, friendly staff

Disadvantages: Contradictory information from branches and helpline, poor administration, large, uncaring company

My mortgage has been with the Halifax for the last two years, and it has been a disaster from start to finish. The problem isn’t the actual mortgage itself, but rather the customer service that you receive. If anyone is considering a Halifax mortgage, then I would strongly urge you to consider other alternatives, unless you want a lot of unwanted stress.

Selecting the mortgage
When I chose my mortgage, I first did a lot of research on the internet to find out as much about the various products as I could. Having identified that Halifax’s mortgage was probably the best for me, I then consulted an independent financial advisor to seek a second opinion and he agreed with my conclusion.

Stupidly, I thought that was it: all I needed to do was go to the Halifax when I was ready and sign a few forms. If only…

Despite the fact I told her from the start that I knew exactly which mortgage I wanted and had taken independent advice, the Halifax mortgage adviser insisted on going through the whole process and explaining each product’s strengths and weaknesses to me. She claimed they had to do this (not true, as long as you tick a box confirming that they have not given you any advice). At the end, surprise, surprise, she agreed that the one I’d mentioned at the start was, indeed, best for me. So, we completed the relevant forms. The whole process took over two hours.

However, once it was done, I thought at least things were underway. Wrong. When I didn’t hear from them, I contacted Halifax to find out what was going on. They had no record of any of my details and “a computer error” must have meant they weren’t recorded properly, so I would have to go in and complete the forms again (at least this time I didn’t have to take product advice). Another hour down the drain.

I also decided to take out both my buildings/contents insurance and critical illness cover with Halifax (to qualify for various disounts). It came as no surprise when they messed this up to. They only put my details on the critical illness cover (it should have been myself and my wife) and “forgot” to start the buildings/content insurance on the agreed date, meaning that technically, we were without any insurance for almost 6 weeks until I noticed the error. In total, due to lost forms, computer errors and their “forgetfulness”, I had to take 4 separate afternoons off work to sort out the mess. I made an official written complaint to the Halifax and they gave me £25 to “compensate me for my trouble.” Ooh. How generous.

Keeping your data private
When I took out the mortgage, I stated very clearly that I did not want to receive promotional information from them or have my details passed on. Recently, one of my family (with whom I’d previously lived) got a call from a credit card company asking to speak to me – at an address/phone number I hadn’t been on for over 2 years. When asked how they had got my details, he claimed they had been passed on by the Halifax.

I contacted Halifax to find out 1) why they were passing my details on when I requested they did not and 2) why they were using contact information which was two years out of date, despite the fact they had my correct contact information. I don’t want to say too much about this, because I’ve reported the matter to the Information Commissioner, but it does seem to me that Halifax suffer from an unfortunate amount of “errors”, since this one was put down to “an administrative error”.

The Customer “helpline”
The final straw with Halifax came recently when I had to contact their Customer Helpline. I spoke to the first person who told me that they couldn’t give me the information I was after over the phone – they would have to post it out to me and this was the only way I could get it – despite the fact I was able to answer all their security questions. Unhappy with this, I phoned back and spoke to a second person. I explained the situation and they confirmed they were unable to do the transaction over the phone (however, they did explain why and it made sense). However, they said, it’s not true this is the only way to get it – you can go into any branch and the transaction could be completed over the counter.

Next I made a special trip into the branch and explained what I wanted. “We can’t do that over the counter”, they said, “you need to make an appointment with a mortgage advisor. There’s none left until next week. Alternatively, you could pop in tomorrow (a Saturday) on the off-chance someone is free.”

Back home I went and back onto the Customer Helpline. “Your branch is being awkward”, they said “there’s no reason why the transaction can’t be completed over the counter”. Next day, I went back into the branch and repeated this to the staff there. “No, you need to make an appointment with a mortgage advisor to do that.” Fortunately, because I was there as soon as they opened, someone was able to finally see me and sort things out. When I mentioned the problems I had had getting a straight answer, he said the Customer Service staff didn’t have a clue about how things were done in the branches. Very reassuring!

So, one question, 3 phone calls and 2 branch visits, getting contradictory information each time just to carry out a simple transaction on a mortgage (once I finally got to deal with someone who knew what they were doing, the whole thing took less than 10 minutes.)

*** UPDATE APRIL 2006: Forgoet what I said about "someone who knew what they were doing" - I've just found out that, in fact, they failed to complete the transaction properly, meaning that for the last 3 months, something I thought had been sorted was, in fact, still outstanding. Pathetic.***

The sad thing is, these are just the “highlights” of the problems I’ve experienced dealing with the Halifax – I could give plenty more examples: some just minor niggles and irritants, others bigger problems.

Thankfully, my mortgage is no longer with Halifax. My experience is that Halifax are fine as long as there are no issues/questions (i.e. as long as you just pay your money each month and keep quiet.) The minute you want anything other than very basic information, you will be forced to jump through an awful lot of hoops to get the details you need.

Halifax may be the “UK’s number one lender”, but that means that you are just a number to them and they really don’t care about you as long as they’ve got your money. I’ll be taking up a new mortgage soon and, unless Halifax offer me a 0% interest rate, with a £50,000 “golden handshake”, I can guarantee that they will not be getting my business again in future.

Frankly, the only reason Halifax has been given one star in this review is because it’s not possible to give a zero rating.

Summary: If you want a stress-free mortgage, avoid arranging your mortgage through the Halifax