Unlike Monzo, and other banks, Halifax have told me they take 45 working days (around 2.5 months) before they will start a chargeback. It’s then another 45 calendar days until they know whether they’ve won.
That’s a total of 4 months of stress.
Did you get the chargeback @urban ?
Hey Jamie, yes, it was finally sorted at the end of September. The retailer challenged the first chargeback because Halifax made an error in the dispute.
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It really did take that long, eh?
I had a terrible experience with a chargeback on my Halifax credit card - so if you are needing to do one yourself, good luck
Unfortunately yes.
I filed the dispute in early May, they didn’t get around to it until late June, then they made a mistake and so the chargeback was rejected at the start of August. Halifax said they wouldn’t proceed any further because I didn’t have a valid claim. I had to read the Mastercard rules myself and dispute Halifax’s version of events - which was insane.
They then filed a dispute based on my wording, which we won at the end of September.
So yes, a total and utter mess.
The only good thing about Halifax’s handling of it is that they put the disputed funds into your account as soon as they submit the chargeback (unlike Monzo who wait until the chargeback is won).
(Edited to get the dates correct!)
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What a mess! What did Halifax get wrong?
It was for an apartment rental that was not as described. And Halifax said that a “service not as described” is not a valid basis for a chargeback, so they didn’t put that bit in the chargeback (so of course it failed!). I had to read the rules myself to literally quote the line where it says it is, and force them to submit a second chargeback. Fun times.
This is pretty much the same thing my chargeback was about. Ultimately I gave up fighting and just swallowed the cost, I wish I had thought of reading the MasterCard guidelines myself!
Even if you’re too late to reopen that chargeback, another route is to make a complaint against the bank for providing a lack of support in the chargeback process (and essentially, making a mistake which cost you money). They’ll then escalate that through their disputes process - just make sure you let them know what resolution you want (ie compensation for the money they lost you). And if at the end of that process you’re not successful, take it to FOS.
I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it shouldn’t be more than one email. Try Resolver.
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Wow ok - a new Halifax chargeback, and guess what: they submitted it to the merchant’s bank the day after I sent it. 
Makes a change from the spring/summer
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For what it’s worth, 45 days from the clearing date of the original transaction to a card issuer being permitted to file a first chargeback (depending on the type) sounds about right.
You can do a lot of cool things to improve the best case timeline but the worst case timeline will always be multiple months until the network rules or potentially consumer protection laws change.
As a card issuer and as a customer, under network rules you have to give merchants fair time to investigate and resolve non-fraud disputes. Unfortunately those timescales were written at a time when disputes may have needed to be sent and returned by international post, hence the long timeline.
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In the April/May disputes, it was 45 days from the date I submitted the dispute to Halifax (which itself was about 1-2 months after the transaction date). I think they were just overwhelmed by coronavirus travel claims at that time.
So from 6 weeks down to 1 day is a massive improvement. (Fwiw: the transaction date on this one was 2 months ago)
EDIT: OH! It’s my Monzoversary. 3 years 
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Happy Cake Day! 
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I heard there was cake 
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Oh god I’ve been here too long. In a couple of months it’ll be FIVE years.
I remember the forum when there were about 10 of us here.
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I remember when Halifax was great, oh wait…, that was when they were a Building Society, had a small branch in the village I lived in at the time, close nit community
bringing shame to Halifax Town…
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