The last straw that made me break from the Halifax Bank. Twenty-two and a half years entrusting my money to a bank where no one knows what they are doing. They have on numerous occasions paid me different amounts as compensation for their stupid mistakes. Many years ago, I asked the Halifax if I could borrow £50000 to build an extension on a property I owned outright and had planning permission for. They refused. So after contacting a broker, he got a loan for me at a cost to him of over £1000. Where did he get this loan from? Yes, no other than the Halifax! Numerous other smaller problems followed. I am only mentioning the biggest: I purchased a new iPhone at a cost of £800 and used my Halifax debit card to pay for it. A couple of months later, I had a problem with it and sent it back to the shop. It was returned to me "No fault found," but the fault was still there. I requested my money back; this was refused! stating their sales contract emphasised it would have to be returned within 14 days of purchase, I contacted Trading Standards, who informed me that under the 2015 Consumer Protection Act, the seller could not make their own rules that went against the law. Which was that I had 6 months in which to return the item, and the seller would only have one opportunity at rectifying the problem. If this failed, the purchaser was entitled to a full refund. Regardless of this, I contacted Halifax.

They returned the £800 to me but soon after returned it back to the seller who had responded to the Halifax with "We're dealing with it," which equated to "We will not refund your £800." I therefore issued a county court summons, costing me hundreds of pounds, as I was then partially blind, which has now been upgraded to blind, so I had to pay someone to deal with all the admin work for me. This would have been totally unnecessary had Halifax followed what British law stipulated and allowed me to keep the £800 and not return it to the sellers. Recently I did not receive one of my monthly statements. I requested a copy from Halifax, who were aware of my sight situation, and for the past few years my statements were in large print. When the statement arrived, it was in normal print, which I could not see. I informed Halifax of this, and when the next statement arrived, it was in large print but with the wrong dates! It took Halifax twelve attempts to rectify this, for which I was compensated with £50. Due to my being 81 years old, I was dubious about changing to another bank until the latest episode. I advertised something for sale, which the buyer paid by transferring money from her account to mine, but I failed to collect these items on so many occasions that I finally put a deadline on the collection. Due to this, it had cost me £60 for my carer to stay on late and £40 for a removal company to move the wardrobes. After more than a week passed, the buyer then decided she wanted her £35 back and threatened me with "I will contact my bank." I contacted the Halifax to inform them of this and was assured that this would not be returned to her until first contacting me.

I then received a text message from the Halifax as follows: "Mr. (Redacted), we believe your account may have been used to receive fraudulent funds. We've blocked your account. Why did we complete a review? This means you will need to use an alternative method to pay any bills you were planning to pay from this account. If you need to withdraw wages, salary, or benefits from your account, you can do this in a branch. You will need to take a form of ID such as a passport or driving license with you. There was no contact information with this message; I thought it was a scam but phoned the Halifax and was put through to the fraud section, where I spent the next 1 hour, 14 minutes. I gave the full details of what had transpired with the buyer, who had obviously done as she had stated gone to her bank. The person taking this information informed me it would be submitted to the investigation team. The following morning, I called the Halifax and the block was still there! Three more times during the day, I was informed it was still blocked! So on Monday I would do as the message had told me to do and went to the Halifax bank for a 40-minute drive, costing me £15 an hour for the driver whilst he waited and to bring me back home... to ensure this was not to be a wasted journey. On Monday morning, I called the Halifax and was informed the block was still on but was told I could withdraw and close the account. Upon arrival at the bank, I am told, "No, you can't close the account until we have contacted the fraud department." I asked what happens if, and when you get through, you are informed that the block is still there and I can't get any money out of my account to even buy food with. I am then told the block has been lifted! when?  This morning, what time? I don't know! How many other people have had similar problems with the Halifax?