RBS Bank Charge

ryan2032

Basically a direct debit came out sooner than expected from my g/fs account and she hadn't been paid yet, so without the funds in the account the direct debit couldn't be paid and she got charged £38.00 for unpaid item. Realising on the day the direct debit came out and she didn't have the funds, she actually put the required funds in her account hoping this would be ok.

She has written to her local branch using the templates and got a response today saying "The Bank considers its charges to be fair, resonable and transparent. Having reviewed your account, I believe that the charges debited have been applied correctly and in accordance with our published tariff". Then it goes on about she has the right to contact Financial Ombudsman Service.

Does anyone think it is worthwhile still chasing this? To some people £38.00 might not be alot and not worth chasing but we felt £38.00 for an unpaid item is extreme.

catmiaow

Problem is unless ur in hardship the FOS will say they can not look at any cases like this until after the test case.

You can put a complaint in with them but it will be on hold, however it is still worth doing as £38 is a lot of money.

If you agreed a direct debit date with the company and they have taken it earlier, it might be worth contacting them and giving them a copy of the charge letter as really they should pay the charge(if it is their fault)

ryan2032

We have checked the direct debit date and it was set up for the 6th, we just presumed it would be on the 9th as it was the month before, i know you can never presume.

We just feel £38 is alot of money for an unpaid item, specially as stated before we got the funds in on the same day but they still charged us.

On the letter it stats we cant contact the Financial Ombudsman Service until the 16th of December if we havn't reached an agreement.

We dont want to make a massive deal out of this but just feel £38 is extreme.

Just woundering what would anyone do next? I was basically just going to reply stating again the charge was unfair, we put the required funds in on the day and would like a full refund and if we havn't reached an agreement by the 16th of December we will contact the FOS.

MrsBartolozzi

I know it will not help you now, but I thought it worth mentioning: In my experience with the RBS if you are paying in cash on the day you are about to go overdrawn/ have just gone OD , tell the teller as you pay the money in, and they will sort it so that you don't pay charges. There is something they have to do at the end of the day which points out to the computer that you are not overdrawn today and so you don't get charged. This is as it was explained to me by bank staff (!) - but in future AFAIK all banks expect you to have the funds in at close of business on the previous day for Direct Debits, and this can be a real pain in the @ss on bank holidays, when money comes out on the friday instead of the following Monday.
HTH in future,
MrsB.

MrsBartolozzi

I just had a thought, maybe you could go into the branch, with the statement showing that money was paid in on the same day as the DD came out, and ask nicely to the manager if they could see about waiving the fees. Explain that the previous month it came out later and you were expecting it to come out on the same day each month, you feel stupid, and are sorry etc.
I have done this, even been in tears (ok I was 8 months pregnant and a bit hormonal), but if you are polite the worst they can say is no, and you have lost nothing. Maybe you could ask for a small overdraft to stop this happening again - £50 or so.
Good Luck. MrsB.

Twister84

MrsBartolozzi is right on both occasions!

If you are paying funds to cover a direct debit, standing order, or a cheque, on the same day that the item is leaving your account, then you must explain that to the cashier because an additional transaction is needed to be done to make sure that it doesn't bounce.

Regarding the charge - I personally think that using one of the templates to complain was a bit harsh :P Seeing as though it was the first step taken.

If it was a genuine mistake, I'm sure the bank will sympathize and see what can be done about the charge.

LookingUp

Did your g/f pay in cash or a cheque?

I have paid cash in on the day at RBS to cover items and never had a problem. This has been the case even though my branch is Bristol but I use local branches in Edinburgh.However, if you pay in a cheque they may well refuse to pay items against uncleared funds.

Icewytch

You`ve got my sympathies. I`m with RBS, and in severe financial harship and well into the overdraft. Two cheques bounced, and I got charged a total of £112 for those. I tried to explain my situation (which they can clearly see for themselves) and asked for charges to be temporarily withheld until I can get enough funds back into my account so that anything I put in isn`t being automatically taken away in charges.
They said no.
So as things stand, I can`t put enough money in to clear the increasing charges, they won`t put them on hold, and I can see no way out of the mess.
I don`t know how much depends on your own bank manager...they had to send my request to the main Edinburgh branch to be dealt with...but I`m finding them far from sympathetic or helpful.
I do understand that banks don`t exist to fund our lives...but if they can see from my past statements that I`m not normally in this crisis, and would allow for that and see the common sense of letting me have a little time to clear my debts, then it would be great.
But all I see is that they want to claw in more money in charges for themselves. :mad:

BadDebtCrisisBoy

Well folks, I am in a similar situation with the RBS. I'm self employed and have had a few disasters which have left me out of pocket, unusually so. I've never had lots of cash but always managed to avoid excessive charges.

Anyway, about three months ago I realised that things were looking a bit dicey so when I went over my limit, incurring their £38 fee I asked if there was anyone I could speak to. I wanted to avoid further charges and I knew that without some intervention from the bank it was inevitable. I was turned away, point blank, 'There's nothing we can do, all you can do is get back within your o/d limit, we're not refunding charges, no bank error - no refund'.

I was disappointed, I only wanted to speak to someone and maybe sort things out for the future...

Well things got worse... My van broke down... Customers pulling out of jobs.. In the mean time I have an eight month old child and the financial strain we're under is having a really damaging effect on me and my partners relationship.

Three more times over the next three months I tried to get to talk to someone, each time I got the same response and frankly I was starting to feel very desperate. Finally a family member gave me a large cheque as a loan to help me out. Three months after my initial attempt to discuss my problems. I deposited that on the Monday and on Thursday I went into the branch to see if it had cleared. I was informed that it hadn't and in fact my account had now been passed on to the collections department.

I sat at the reception desk and used their telephone to call them. I was finally speaking to someone who was able to offer me the help I'd sought all along. My o/d was increased temporarily to accomodate the current balance and the coup[le of cheques I had written that were due to be debited. The arangement is that I should have enought money deposited in there so that each month th o/d can be reduced by a fixed amount until finally I am back within the original o/d limit. The weight was lifted and I complained that this it what should have happened in the first instance. What a shame it had taken so long for this to happen.

The complaint has since been 'resolved' by the bank and they say 'no bank error - no refund'. Well I just don't know how anyone can call that fair.

I've since studied my bank statements and to my utter disgust have discovered that, during that three month period, they have taken from me a total of £878 in charges.

I have just chanced upon this website and I think I might fall into the 'Financial Hardship' catagory and will attempt to get some refund by offering this to the bank... I'll keep this forum posted....

I think I might go back to the abbey whos queues were longer but charges smaller and the staff seemed to have a far more open attitude to discusion.