Dear Mr F**k Off' - Halifax Insults Lancashire Dad On Credit Card Application

Halifax referred to a Lancashire dad as ‘F**k Off’ on a credit card application form, in an embarrassing gaff by the national bank.

Horrified schools examination officer, Steve Smith, received the letter addressed ‘Dear Mr. Off’ after his wife pointed out the expletive on the promotional application.

Although it was an unsolicited piece of mail, 40-year-old Smith said he had been thinking of switching to Halifax anyway. He said:

"The funny thing is, unbeknown to Halifax, I was about to move my current account to them. But there is no way I would now as they've already told me to F-off."

He added: "I couldn't believe the bank has no system for picking up such profanity. I work as an examinations officer in high schools and this year a pupil wrote some derogatory comments on the front of their maths GCSE paper. "

"The examination body returned it to the school and the pupil was given a zero mark and didn't get a maths qualification."

"If this happens to a 15-year-old, surely the bank should also be responsible for their actions?"

Although someone had clearly tried to scribble out the rude word by breaking the clear panel on the envelope and inking out the profanity, Smith said:

"It didn't work as the swear word was still easy to see and the letter begins with 'Dear Off'. Also, on the next page, the credit card is issued to the same name."

He rang up the bank to complain, only to be told that it "was probably the work of someone with a grievance against the company." However he felt this was not good enough, labelling their attitude a “disgrace”

"At the minute banks have a bad reputation and this type of thing really doesn't help their cause."

Nick Osbourne, media and relations manager for Halifax, said: "A regrettable error in systems allowed a spurious application to progress beyond initial checking."

"We will apologise to Mr Smith for the distress caused by this oversight."