£38 Charge For Unpaid Dd And Money Was In Bank

kurjam · 15 November 2007 at 2:53PM

hi all.
i bank with natwest and on monday 12th a direct debit for £22 was due, my funds went into my bank account saturday 11th, yet natwest returned the £22 direct debit and had the nerve to charge me £38....

just had a letter from them stating that the funds were not in the account in time, as they need to be available the day before the direct debit and saturday is not a working day !!

so basically if i had a dd due out tomorrow i would need to have funds in there tonight to pay it even though it due tomorrow can this be right !!

can i claim the £38 back, there collection department say i am not entitled as it is not there fault, but surely if a direct debit is due out on 12th they should check the bank balance on the monday not the friday before !!
to make matters worse the original company have now charged me an extra £20 for unpaid diredt debit !!

help please:mad:

debtdestroyer_2 · 15 November 2007 at 3:22PM

Im not sure if this is industry wide practice or just HSBC but Ive been told that as long as I have funds cleared by midday on the day the DD is coming out it will clear. Was told that the bank trys to take the DD at midnight on the day, then again at midday if it could not take the funds at midnight. Theres been a few occasions during the last few months when Ive paid cash into an empty account the morning the DD was due and had no probs whatsoever.

If youve got statements showing that the funds were in your account the day before the DD came out Id write to the complaints dept, with those statements enclosed and ask them to refund the charge.

Also, if it is the first time youve had a charge for a bounced DD the bank may just refund it if you nag enough - most banks seem to the first time.

Try explaining the situation to the company who took the payment too, they might be sympathetic.

Hope this helped!

RayWolfe · 15 November 2007 at 3:39PM

Most banks require the money to be in the account on the Working Day before the DD is due. There have been many posts about this. Refer to your Terms & Conditions.
An overdraft facility would remove this sort of problem.

eagreen · 15 November 2007 at 3:44PM

i had the same problem with natwest, they saud to me i had to have the money in the bank on the firday for a direct debt to go out on the monday, i flipped at them on the phone when it happened to me, i managed to get the charges back for that time!

debtdestroyer_2 · 15 November 2007 at 4:11PM

RayWolfe wrote: »

Most banks require the money to be in the account on the Working Day before the DD is due. There have been many posts about this. Refer to your Terms & Conditions.
An overdraft facility would remove this sort of problem.

This is what i thought untill I asked in branch and they advised me the funds had to be in the account by midday the day of the DD.

Maybe this is just HSBC then?

continualdiamond · 15 November 2007 at 4:13PM

Im with Natwest and i've had this happen twice. The 1st time i got refunded, the 2nd time, not.

The best is i do online banking and check my statement every day. What i tend to notice is, if a DD is due on the Monday it comes out before, which i think is wrong personally. Had it happen last weekend, i checked my available balance on Saturday the 10th and it showed my DD on my statement saying the 12th, yet the funds had already gone from my bank account, so clearly it wasn't taken out on the 12th like it was showing on my statement.

yar_2 · 15 November 2007 at 4:17PM

HI
I received a letter from a solictors claiming to represent GE CAPITALL BANK LTD . Stating that they have been instructed to defend my claim against them they further went on to say it may be helpfull if I could please contact them to discuss the case prior to hearing. What do you think they want to discuss? any ideas on how or what to say.
Ray

Danni · 15 November 2007 at 4:18PM

Natwest seem to process all Monday payments (debits and credits) somewhere between 2am and 2.30am Saturday morning. They will show up on statements as the Monday though.

gt94sss2 · 15 November 2007 at 5:17PM

debtdestroyer wrote: »

Im not sure if this is industry wide practice or just HSBC but Ive been told that as long as I have funds cleared by midday on the day the DD is coming out it will clear. Was told that the bank trys to take the DD at midnight on the day, then again at midday if it could not take the funds at midnight. Theres been a few occasions during the last few months when Ive paid cash into an empty account the morning the DD was due and had no probs whatsoever.

HSBC are an exception to the 'must have money in your account the day before rule' - if you top up your bank account by the end of the day(8pm/midnight I think) the DD goes through they won't charge anything even though you may have been 'technically overdrawn' during the day.

Lloyds have also just moved (this month) to a similar system, giving their customers until 3.30pm on the DD day to top up their accounts and avoid charges

Of course, if its a large payment, no guarantees that the banks won't bounce the DD unless you have an overdraft limit in place.

Regards
Sunil

fiendishly · 15 November 2007 at 5:28PM

Vote with your feet and change banks. Make sure they know this is why you are leaving. It is outrageous and should not be tolerated. Go to HSBC.

taless · 15 November 2007 at 6:00PM

Kurjam,

I bank with Natwest and I did this mistake before a year back.

Basically, you have to transfer your funds on Friday. As long as it still shows up on your account statement as 9 Nov you will be fine. But if it shows up as 12 Nov you will have been too late.

I definitely do not agree with Natwest's practice, but their way of doing things is their S/Os and D/Ds will be the first thing they put on the statement. So they will say "effectively you have gone overdrawn as your transfer is later than your money going out" - not true, but that is what their computer says!

Definitely, get an overdraft with them (their first 50 pounds is interest free); or change to another bank (though most banks do this - I am only aware LTSB, and HSBC doesnt). If this is your first time, ask Natwest for the refund, from your local branch or the branch where your account is mantained.

£38 Charge For Unpaid Dd And Money Was In Bank

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