What's the cheekiest fast one they've tried to pull on you?

ffs

I received a letter from Barclays a couple of years ago explaining that several hundred pounds had been deducted from my account, because a cheque that I had deposited about ten days earlier had been lost in the clearing system. I was told in the letter I would need to request a new cheque from the person who wrote the cheque.

I had to check it wasn't April 1st, but it wasn't, and the cleared funds to the value of the cheque had indeed been deducted from my account. No doubt I would have had additional charges deducted as well if this had taken me over my overdraft limit.

ffs

Obviously I've been far too cynical, I had assumed everyone had suffered something similar. Now I just feel paranoid!

MORPH3US

Did you do what they told you and get a new cheque issued or did you tell them where to go!?!?

wigginsmum

I just now got a call from Natwest, the branch nearest my office; I go in there occasionally to pay in cheques and transfer money overseas. She started off with some old flannel about was I happy with the service they provide, so I said yes. Then she said in a syrupy tone of voice that she'd noticed I have a large overdraft so would I like to pop in and discuss how they could make it cheaper. I said No - I'm a Premium Advantage customer (or whatever it's called) with a Natwest personal advisor in Hertford; she disputed that because she couldn't see it on her screen, but I think I'd be the one to know. I said I speak to him regularly and I'm happy with things the way they are because I get a cheaper rate on my overdraft while I'm concentrating on paying off the CCs. Then I said 'Is this about you trying to get me to take out a loan?' and she couldn't get off the phone quick enough. Cheeky moo.

Jules

BenL

A guy from Alliance Leicester told me that they couldn't action my online transfer from savings account to my current account that was requested on a Friday on the next Monday due to Bank of England rules.

Funny that I had a DD coming out and was going to be charged on the Monday.

They had to do it on the Tuesday.

Their system updated the balances of both accounts fine on the Friday.

He refunded my charge though so I didn't put him right after my 5 years banking experience working for one of their competitors.

Ben

Caped_Avenger

BenL wrote:

A guy from Alliance Leicester told me that they couldn't action my online transfer from savings account to my current account that was requested on a Friday on the next Monday due to Bank of England rules.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
That's brilliant!!! So this was a transfer internally between 2 A&L accounts? Awesome.

In response to the OP, i'm not surprised at all, they will have reserved their right to do that somewhere in their T&Cs.

dchurch24

I had HFC bank try to tell me that I owed them just under 8k, when in reality I had bought a bed from Courts on 0% credit (why not, if there's no interest to pay - it takes the sting out of it!) - but what I didn't know was that HFC (the bank that underwrites the 'loan') 'allocated' 8k to me. Somewhere along the line a + must have been changed to a -, as the amount they claimed I owed them was exactly 8k minus the cost of the bed. As I'd never heard of the bank, it came as a bit of a shock to discover that I owed them 8k.

More of a clerical error than a fast one.

madfrenchgirl

I wanted the Lloyds to keep my new cheque book in the branch as my old address was in France and I was in the process of moving places for a new job. But I still needed to pay my rents and deposits, so needed a cheque book.

They kept on sending the cheque books to France (to a wrongly spelt address). They did so 3 times!!! And I only knew of this because of my mom phoning me about it. So everytime, i had to go back in the branch, ask them to cancel that chequebook, rectify my mom's address, and request another chequebook to be left at the effing branch.

Of course, in the meantime, I had to pay my rents and deposits, I was already having problems to the people I "owed" money to (another long story of extortion by so-called greedy "friends"). So yeah, they offered me a banker's draft, but did not remind me of the 10 pounds charge... so everytime for 50 pounds worth I was charged 10 pounds!!!

I can tell you that once my mom told me about that on my statement, I ran into the branch and gave them a piece of my thinking! Charges reversed, but nothing was offered to compensate for the hassle!

BWZN93

!!!!!! - I'd have told Barclays to go take a running jump!! Bloody pesky people (they are no 1 on my hate list of banks).

I once requested an overdraft increase in a different branch to the one my account was based at, and was told that they could do it but they had to get my branch to do it on thier computers as my account was held there and that 24/48 hours later it would show on my account, and allowed me to make a counter withdrawal without charge.

A couple of days later, the overdraft still hadnt appeared so I went back to the request branch who allowed another counter withdrawal and would chase it up with the branch.

Another couple of days later - still not there. My account had by now begun to generate charges - so I called the account owning branch to get it sorted there. They told me that I had gone over my authorised overdraft limit by making withdrawals that were "categorically not authorised by any member of staff in this organisation" (grrrr) and they couldnt increase it until I had paid the 'unauthorised' money back. By this point, I was hopping mad and it eventually took 3 weeks to be sorted before they did things properly.

I complained though - and got £30 for my troubles and all the charges cancelled. I hate my account holding branch, but the local branches near me are excellent and I wont move my account. If the local branches go to pot however then I will be moving pronto!

Jo xx

bargainhunt_3

One of the more amusing ones I had was a few years ago with Royal Bank of Scotland. I have just finished my masters degree and had moved home to the parents for a few weeks and was sleeping off the previous three months of long days,towards the end it was hitting around 20 hours per day. This meant I was never out of bed before about noon.

Anyway I received this rather odd call one afternoon from the anti-fraud department saying that earlier that morning (around 8-9am) I had phoned them regarding my cards and that I had also visited a police station to inform them that my cards had been lost of stolen. This I thought was odd as I was sure I was asleep at the time, and as I had never visited that police station I thought it was even more odd.

After much discussion with the bank it also emerged that whoever had called had also been able to verify my ID, by correctly answering all the security questions. Anyway this went on for a few days during which time I was alleged to have made a couple of calls to their anti-fraud team, but unless I was sleep phoning I knew it couldn't have been possible.

A line was eventually drawn under the issue and the account was re-activated, but I never did find out what happened. I suspect it was a clerical error, or if someone was trying to defraud me it was very odd as why would they stop my cards ?

All rather odd really, but slightly amusing.

ffs

bargainhunt wrote:

After much discussion with the bank it also emerged that whoever had called had also been able to verify my ID, by correctly answering all the security questions. Anyway this went on for a few days during which time I was alleged to have made a couple of calls to their anti-fraud team, but unless I was sleep phoning I knew it couldn't have been possible.

Interesting - in my limited experience the account is closed if there is any possibility of fraud, suggests that you are right, some sort of error instead...