A bit confused.............

VeLoCiTY

I hope there are some kind-hearted MSE's that could help me out, with a little bit of your sought after knowledge and advice?

I have had several charges over the years, and I am looking to claim them back. I requested a copy of all my charges, which I received after paying £10 for the pleasure. (Although I am not entirely convinced that they are all there- but I have no other means of proof, so I guess I will have to trust them on that)

I have three accounts with the bank, (Bank of Scotland, Halifax- or whatever they call themselves these days) My main account has incurred numerous charges over the past 6 years, and I have recently had a few charges on one of the accounts, and one charge on the third account. The charges are actually for unpaid items which should never have been returned unpaid in the first place as the funds were there. I went into the bank the other day to ask that the recent ones, and the ones due this week to possibly be waived as I am about to move house etc, and I really didn't understand why I would have these charges imposed upon me as there were plenty funds to cover the Direct Debits. I was told that this would be at the Managers descretion- to which the Manager told me that she didn't want to because she didn't have to. I pleaded that this was unfair as the returns were not my fault, and she agreed that she could see there was enough money to cover them and didn't know why this happened either........'It must have been a system error'. She then said quite abruptly 'I don't have time for this- the charges are on your account and that's that'. I thanked her for agreeing to see me anyway and started walking out of the door. My little two-year old boy ran back in to say bye-bye to her, and she turned, looked him up and down and said to him 'I think you should get out right now- you're not meant to be in here boy' and he ran out in tears. (I was nearly in tears myself)

Anyways, my question is- As I have three accounts, should I be making 3 claims, or can I condense them into one claim? I understand that I will be told to wait until the outcome of the trial etc, but I guess it's better to get the ball rolling now, even if it is a little late in the day.


Many thanks to all of you who read this, and any advice is greatly welcomed :beer:

redroo555

hi there,
firstly, o.m.g. you should definately make a formal complaint against this woman!! how dare she talk to your child like that!!:mad:
i'm afraid i can't help on the claim side as i am finding out myself, but i'm sure someone on here will be along soon to help you, just was fuming about the rudeness of the woman, good luckxx

militantconsumer

Suggest 3 separate claims to avoid confusion.

Start now as you can only go back 6 years from the date you first complain.

If you are in financial hardship you won't have to wait for the outcome of the trial - your case will be dealt with straighaway. Otherwise, yes, it will be a long wait.

VeLoCiTY

Thank you redroo, I agree- and I will make a formal complaint about her. I wouldn't normally stand for someone to speak to him like that but I was so angry about her abruptness to start with, and then I was gobsmacked when she said that to him- I figured I had better just get out of there before I would make things any worse. I will let you know how things go. And also- good luck with your claim too xxx

natweststaffmember

I would firstly deal with the charges that would appear to show sufficient funds in the account. If she thought it was an error then the rules on Bank charges and lawfulness or otherwise is not really relevant. I suspect that the charges may have been accrued due to uncleared cheques which should have been fairly straight forward to explain.
As militantconsumer has said, I would start the process off.

willo65

natweststaffmember wrote: »

I would firstly deal with the charges that would appear to show sufficient funds in the account. If she thought it was an error then the rules on Bank charges and lawfulness or otherwise is not really relevant. I suspect that the charges may have been accrued due to uncleared cheques which should have been fairly straight forward to explain.
As militantconsumer has said, I would start the process off.

in my experience I would probably agree that this is uncleared cheques on the account and therefore the funds were their but not cleared.

VeLoCiTY

I completely understand what you are saying, but the only problem is that I haven't written any cheques since I got my new cheque book 4 months ago- similarly, I never had any outstanding transactions on my debit card as I had not used it for two weeks prior to the Direct Debits being returned unpaid as I was unable to even leave the house, get out of bed etc when I was ill. When I look at my statement online the last transaction was 13 days before everything started going wrong

There was more than enough to cover the D/D's, and even after they were returned unpaid- no other transactions around that time had come off as I had used the cash I had in my purse- this is what is baffling me

Thank you for your replies, everyones advice really is appreciated xxx

IcklePickle_2

Do you have a phone number for the bank? Or even the phone-banking service?

I'd call and ask to speak to a manager. If the funds were available the DD shouldn't have been returned. At very least they should be able to give you an explanation as to why the DD was returned.

I'd persist with them in trying to get an explanation.

Sorry you had such a bad experience with that branch manager - she sounds horrible.

VeLoCiTY

Yes, I have the ordinary Telephone Banking number- I will give them a go this afternoon.

It's strange as this has happened last year around February- and they couldn't explain then either, so they were more than happy to refund the charges. But now it's a new Bank Manager, and apparently under no circumstances is anyone to be refunded.

Maybe it's to do with the whole Bank bail-out situation and the upcoming verdict regarding claiming unfair charges- they could be trying to scrape together as much money as possible.

It just bugs me as I had got myself into a sticky situation a few years ago when I was in hospital, and couldn't organise my banking- and got a bunch of charges, which I accepted as being my own fault- but this (and last year) is a completely different kettle of fish because I have been steady on my feet for 3 years now without going overdrawn etc.

Thank you again for everyones kind advice- I will keep you posted! xxx

natweststaffmember

Couttsey wrote: »

I completely understand what you are saying, but the only problem is that I haven't written any cheques since I got my new cheque book 4 months ago- similarly, I never had any outstanding transactions on my debit card as I had not used it for two weeks prior to the Direct Debits being returned unpaid as I was unable to even leave the house, get out of bed etc when I was ill. When I look at my statement online the last transaction was 13 days before everything started going wrong

There was more than enough to cover the D/D's, and even after they were returned unpaid- no other transactions around that time had come off as I had used the cash I had in my purse- this is what is baffling me

Thank you for your replies, everyones advice really is appreciated xxx

Did you pay cheques INTO the account. That is what I meant. Not cheques that you have written to someone but the reverse. Cheques that someone wrote to you which were paid into the account but were not cleared. Hope that make sense?

VeLoCiTY

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Did you pay cheques INTO the account. That is what I meant. Not cheques that you have written to someone but the reverse. Cheques that someone wrote to you which were paid into the account but were not cleared. Hope that make sense?

Lol- I know what you mean...... but unfortunately not- although receiving a cheque would be fab!!! :rotfl:

Hoping to receive a nice big one from Camelot or similar....... if only :rolleyes: