£168.69 - charges to be taken next week!

amberowl28

Update

Got a response today to say they are looking into it, but the charges will still be applied on monday! I'm getting money in on monday - HB, which i had planned to give straight to my landlady but an now wondering if i should put it in this account to cover the fees until this is resloved? Really don't want to do this but don't want to risk getting hit with yet more charges.

What would be the worst that could happen if these fees were taken (taking me over my limit) and they refuse to accept it's their error?

Decided i'm definately just gonna make what payments i can each month after this is resolved and not use this account, closing it once overdraft paid off. Also will definately be reclaiming charges if they are not reversed.

natweststaffmember

Keep at em. As I said, I think it is bank error and if you get further charges as a direct result of it then they should repay that as well.

amberowl28

Well they took the charges on Monday and today said they had investigated and are sticking with their original position. They won't be refunding anything! Really mad, i'm getting the barely £400 a month in benefits which is hard enough to live off but then this happens! Have started bank charges reclaim process but i know this will take a while and no guarentees of getting my money back.

esmerellda

Get away from the bank NOW. Open a basic account for just your HB - (HB in, HB out thats all) and don't give them any chance to take it from you.

Also open an account (with a different bank) for your other benefits. or a post office card account, leave the overdraft where it is and keep on with the claim. Offer a minimal (ie affordable) repayment on the overdraft and tell them its in dispute.

Your rent comes WAYYYYYYYYY above bank charges.

If this does happen again then have a look at this thread - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=23111405&posted=1#post23111405 I put a first right of appropriation letter on there.

amberowl28

Believe me i intend to. As i said have started the reclaim process and then other than repaying what i owe i will never have anything to do with them again. Token payment letter also sent. Benefits are already going into my other basic account, which i wisely set up following excelent advice on here. I took the advice on this thread and didn't transfer any money into the account to cover the fee's. So am now massively over my overdraft limit and incurring more charges as we speak. I can't believe their treating me like this - this is the same bank who only a few weeks ago offered to increase my overdraft!

Thanks for the letter of appropriation, i shouldn't need to use it no, but it's useful to have and know about.

natweststaffmember

amberowl28 wrote: »

Well they took the charges on Monday and today said they had investigated and are sticking with their original position. They won't be refunding anything! Really mad, i'm getting the barely £400 a month in benefits which is hard enough to live off but then this happens! Have started bank charges reclaim process but i know this will take a while and no guarentees of getting my money back.

Might be worth asking the FOS to look at this one to be honest.....might as well cost the bank another £500. Write to the bank and ask them for a final response letter so you can take this to the FOS.

amberowl28

Yes i was thinking i should take this futher, i'm awaiting their reply by letter then i shall be writing to the FOS if needs be. Serve them right if it costs them £500. Hoping they'll get the hint that i'm serious and give me the refund without messing me about for too long, after all it'll cost them less to refund me straight away.

Since i have priority arrears, no job and obviously struggling, they can't claim i'm not in hardship? Those guidelines aren't very clear but i'm sure i qualify. Though i'm still hoping they'll simply admit they screwed up.

natweststaffmember

At the moment, the way the argument is for you is bank error(let's not get into financial hardship yet cos that is a completely different thing).

amberowl28

Don't worry all i've done so far is pursue this as bank error and asked for records of bank charges, was just wondering about hardship incase i have no further luck going down this route. Will be going to FOS if they don't refund charges as it is their mistake. Hoping my call/audit trail will magically appear on their records once they realise i'm serious.