Natwest

nervousmother

Hi wonder if anyone can give me any advice.

I have posted previously but now more has come to light.

Things went wrong for my daughter when a direct debit was taken out 1 day early, She had £26 in her account the DD was for £36. the following day a s/o went into the account for £10.

Natwest bounced the direct debit then charged her £38 for doing so. We rang and explained what had happened but were greeted with a less than helpfull banker, who infact was darn right rude.

Now, yes maybe she should have made sure the money had gone in earlier, but this is her first bank account as she is only 18 years old. It was infact her first direct debit.

We received a letter today saying as she was overdrawn they were now charging her £28, It was Natwest who made her overdrawn in the first place, so she has had to find charges totaling £66 and has to find the origional £36 for the DD.

Is there anyway she can recover these charges, she does not work her only income is a s/o we set her up for pocket money as she is in full time education

Please can anyone give advice?

koolmummy

I've had similar with Natwest in the last couple of weeks concerning my husbands account. They have charged him over £60 for going £3 overdrawn for 3 days.

I have worked for Natwest albeit a long time ago so I tried to call them to discuss.
Must have spoken to the same rude man as you!

Then I wrote a letter saying I felt charges were unfair and how my husband has always been a good customer etc.
Got a letter back saying get lost!
I now intend to put in a claim for 6 year charges and am sending of the first letter as soon as I have calculated the amount to claim - ( lot's of charges before he had me to sort him out)!
I would write to the bank and ask them to refund the charges and if they refuse then open an account elsewhere.

nickmack

nervousmother wrote: »

Things went wrong for my daughter when a direct debit was taken out 1 day early, She had £26 in her account the DD was for £36. the following day a s/o went into the account for £10.

Is there anyway she can recover these charges, she does not work her only income is a s/o we set her up for pocket money as she is in full time education

Often banks will refund a charge if this is the first time it's happened. However, NatWest employees on this forum have previously indicated this now does not happen unless it's a bank error.

You should read Martin's Reclaim guide (link in my signature) and see if you want to pursue a claim.

As a side note, you say the DD was taken a day early. This shouldn't happen, if the DD is setup for a specific date, that's the earliest it should be taken. If it's taken earlier than specified, you may be covered by the Direct Debit guarantee.

Also, it may be that previous DD payments were taken later because of weekends/bank holidays and you expected this one to be as well. If you think this might be a problem in the future, you should try and move the DD to a later date.