Not upheld: Account closure without notice complaint against Bank of Scotland plc trading as Halifax

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs E complained to the FOS about Halifax's service following the premature closure of her credit card account during an online chat. Although Halifax provided closure implications and asked for confirmation, the account was closed before Mrs E's subsequent response indicating she wanted to speak to the team first. Halifax agreed to reopen the account but provided confusing advice about the reinstatement timeframe, initially stating 'up to three days' then 'will take three days', though the account was actually reinstated the same day. Mrs E claimed she missed an online sale and experienced an embarrassing payment decline at a grocery store four days later. Halifax awarded £150 compensation, which Mrs E felt was insufficient. The ombudsman found no evidence of Halifax system failures and concluded the £150 compensation was reasonable, not upholding the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Halifax made an error in closing the account prematurely and provided confusing advice about reinstatement timing, the account was reinstated the same day and Halifax's systems showed no evidence of payment failures. The ombudsman concluded that the grocery store payment decline was likely due to an in-store processing error rather than a Halifax system failure. The ombudsman considered that Mrs E could have mitigated losses by checking online sooner, and that Halifax acted quickly to resolve the situation and provided reasonable compensation of £150.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website