Bank Taking Money from Account without permission!

magicsy

hi this is my first post although im a follower of this great place.
Here is my Dilemma and a HUGE 1.
My account has accumulated a large amount of charges in a short period, recently losing my job and house we had no money to make any payment to the charges these then rose to over 450 pound!!! how this is possible when the charges they are claiming for have been told are unLawful and in court because of this! but they still continue bulling the customer around is nothing more than Scandal!!!
So recently we have received some cash which i have in the account around 1000 which is to be used for our new Council house decorating our daughters room etc.
The account the 1000 has been paid into is a separate account held with NATWEST.
today i go to draw the money out but i have nothing left. as they have transferred the money into the overdrawn account and wiped off 450 pound in the red of debt without my consent and not mentioning the crazy prices they have setup for the bank charges they are in court about!!! Argh im so angry what can i do!!!?:mad::mad::mad::mad:

simon_templar_2

Probably not a lot as this is in the T&C's, they can offset debt in one account from another in credit.

magicsy

What action should i take baring in mind we are under extreme financial hardship. on benefits DLA etc,

McKneff

You cant take any action, you will find that they can do this, it will be in the T&Cs which you will have signed as read and understood when you opened the account.
All you can do is start a reclaim of charges if you havent already and just wait like the rest of the people who are claiming.
At least your not in debt any more and incurring more even more charges.
Try and make the remaining £550 stretch a bit further - sorry its not what you want to hear but thats life I'm afraid.

dunstonh

when the charges they are claiming for have been told are unLawful and in court because of this!

That has yet to be decided. Its probable that it will be but as it stands it hasnt. Also, you shouldnt expect charges to suddenly vanish if the court case goes against the banks. They will still exist. Although it will be on a lower scale. Some banks have changed their charging structures to a method that they believe is compliant and that has seen charges for some actually go up.

today i go to draw the money out but i have nothing left. as they have transferred the money into the overdrawn account and wiped off 450 pound in the red of debt without my consent and not mentioning the crazy prices they have setup for the bank charges they are in court about!!! Argh im so angry what can i do!!!?:mad::mad::mad::mad:

That is allowed unless its benefits money.

What action should i take baring in mind we are under extreme financial hardship. on benefits DLA etc,

Do you have priority debts? council tax etc?

Smasher

McKneff wrote: »

You cant take any action, you will find that they can do this, it will be in the T&Cs which you will have signed as read and understood when you opened the account.

Only if the account was opened after September 2007. Otherwise they would have been described as charges to cover the cost of dealing with the transgression. An issue that seems to have been side-stepped now because it can't be called a penalty.
You would think that the point is to establish what these historic charges are, rather than what they are not..

With perhaps the exeption of Lloyds customers, pretty much nobody ever agreed to any services and their associated fees because they did not exist in the T&Cs at the time of opening the account if it was opened before September 2007. These 'services' were introduced and enforced upon the customers' accounts in September 2007 whether the customer wanted them or not.
This is an issue that is being overlooked imo. It is impossible to imagine any other industry being allowed to introduce new services by simply handing out new T&Cs and start imposing them on their customer's accounts and forcing them to start paying for them whether they want them or not.
Only a bank is in a position to do this because they have access to everybody's income before they do.

If your milkman painted your doorstep & left you a note with his new T&Cs which state he will do that every time he delivers milk & charge you £30 a time, would you pay the bill? Of course not! You have no choice if a bank does this, as they simply take the money before you have an opportunity to challenge it.

magicsy

Well im off to talk to manager this morning. will update.

natweststaffmember

The bank can take the money under what is called the Right of Off Set. As Dunstonh has stated with regards to hardship claims, if you have priority debt arrears, ie mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities, then you will need to write to the bank to a central department and not the branch to ask them to look at refunding charges under financial hardship.
With regards to Bank Charges in general, ONLY a court can decide a fair amount. If the previous term was unfair then all charges under that term have to be refunded if deemed unfair.

ILW

Smasher wrote: »

If your milkman painted your doorstep & left you a note with his new T&Cs which state he will do that every time he delivers milk & charge you £30 a time, would you pay the bill? Of course not! You have no choice if a bank does this, as they simply take the money before you have an opportunity to challenge it.

That is a ridiculous arguement. If my milkman said he was going to supply me with services I did not require as part of the milk delivery, I would stop taking the milk. The same applies to anybody who does not like updated T and Cs from their bank. If you dont like it, take your business eleswhere.

Smasher

ILW wrote: »

That is a ridiculous arguement. If my milkman said he was going to supply me with services I did not require as part of the milk delivery, I would stop taking the milk. The same applies to anybody who does not like updated T and Cs from their bank. If you dont like it, take your business eleswhere.

I just knew someone would bring out the old "if you don't like it, go elsewhere" card. If you paid your milkman by direct debit and he just debited your account for a weeks worth of doorstep painting, would you just take your business elsewhere then, or would you try to get your money back?
How do you think you could avoid this 'service' if all milkmen were now making the doorstep painting a compulsory part of having an account with them?

Here is where the parallel can be stopped because you could simply forget the milkman & go to the shops instead. You can't just close your bank account and keep the cash in your shoe instead, because it won't be possible to get paid from your job. There aren't many employers around who will pay any other way than into a bank account, so you will be forced one way or the other to accept a bank's T&Cs and they are now all the same.
Saying "if you don't like it, go elsewhere" would only apply if there was a choice. There is no choice.