Natwest have just closed my account

BBB

Right, I've had a standard account with Natwest for the last 3 years, last year I called up to inform them that I've changed addresses and the bloke on the phone upgraded my account with a £500 overdraft, no problem I thought as I'll use it as my main account and close my other one. This didn't happen and so the £500 was gone, I agreed a payment plan with them to pay it off over X number of months with no bank charges promised, this goes fine for a month and then I get a charge which cancels my plan and so I ring up, go through it all again and agree a plan. Anyway to cut a long story short, I've gone onto my online banking and the account I can view is the one with the outstanding overdraft (£300) and my other account has disappeared, so I think it's probably just a glitch so I go to check my account balance via a cash machine (wages/direct debits etc) and it says no access (or something like that). I'm about to ring them but I don't really want to go mental at some poor sod (I work in a call centre so I know how it feels!) but I've just worked out that I've paid back the £500 and more but with the bank charges that they said I wouldn't recieve it's nearly a thousand pounds.

I'm going to go into branch tomorrow and see what they say but what would you recommend in the meantime?

One route I'm going to go down is to make a request for all my information under the right to access information act, all the recordings of the telephone calls I've made so that I can prove that they said there would be no bank charges.

Any help appreciated.

sutton111

Have you tried speaking to there customer lending department?

So you still have full access to your other account?

BBB

Hello fellow red!

I'm on the phone to them now, I've agreed (no choice) to pay £50 to reactivate my normal account, which leaves me £100 to live on till the 15th. I've not even got any christmas presents yet. I've spoken to Think Money (recommended by a mate who works there) and just setup an account with them, they charge me £12.50 a month for the account and then I don't recieve any more bank charges either which will help.

sutton111

World club cup semi in the morning.

BBB

indeed, I'm at work though sadly!

piglet39

Hiya

So how many accounts do you have with NatWest? Do you have a second account with them which you operate as your main account i.e. wages in and s/o's, d/d's out?

You can get an a/c similar to Think Banking without the fee. £12.50 is a helluva lot to pay.

Piglet

chambta

Think Banking service is abysmal and the charge a complete waste IMO.

wheelel

BBB wrote: »

One route I'm going to go down is to make a request for all my information under the right to access information act, all the recordings of the telephone calls I've made so that I can prove that they said there would be no bank charges.

Bear in mind that they probably don't record all calls, only a random selection. I found that out once when I needed proof of what a bank had said to me.

Airwolf1

You the same BBB who works for a utility company? And posts in another forum?

~Beanie~

BBB wrote: »

I've spoken to Think Money (recommended by a mate who works there) and just setup an account with them, they charge me £12.50 a month for the account and then I don't recieve any more bank charges either which will help.

You could just set up a basic account with another bank which won't charge you £12.50 per month

ShelfStacker_3

chambta wrote: »

Think Banking service is abysmal and the charge a complete waste IMO.

Wholly agreed. It's a p*sspoor basic bank account with an attached prepaid credit card which is equally p*sspoor. Its sole use is for people who really are too unbelievably idiotic to operate a basic bank account without physically putting their eye out, and I'm fairly certain OP doesn't fit into that category. You might as well just open an actual basic bank account and get your own prepaid card, if not one of the BBAs with an actual debit card.