'Reserve Usage Fee' can I claim it back

natweststaffmember

delain wrote: »

Yes, they come out '14 days from your next statement' (ie when you're almost back in credit, and they can't have that :rolleyes:)

Which should mean you can change your statement date and then the charges kick in when you do have the funds in the account ?

delain

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Which should mean you can change your statement date and then the charges kick in when you do have the funds in the account ?

Someone said this to me the other day! the trouble is the vast majority of my income is weekly x get this for a story

My OH moved in with me last month, so i go into the branch and say (politely) 'owing to unforseen circumstances all my money is going to stop for at least 4 weeks, is there anything i can do to stop myself owing hundreds in reserve fees as i will not be able to pay anything in' (and they've already booked Augusts £88)

I was given 3 pieces of information:
1.cashier: we cannot cancel the reserve whilst you are in it, you will be charged £22 every 5 days until you have money in your account whether you like it or not. me 'so you are categorically refusing to help me, even though i cannot afford to feed my children?' cashier 'yes'

2. If you go to the tax credit office (she thought in swansea) and stand there all day you may get a small giro payment (more than it would cost to get to *%£$£ swansea?? i live in bournemouth!

3. Telephone banking: they removed my reserve there and then!

I have now opened three step accounts with natwest. one for the bills to come out of fo OH to pay into evry month, one for the partial housing benefit payments and one for my money to go in, so i dont get in this mess again. I have to give barclays a big thumbs down in every respect.

ermintrude1

Hope this may be of interest and get hubby off the hook a bit.

I am a barclays customer too, i got the letter warning me to opt to retain my reserve. The was a cut off date to return it.

Firstly, this letter nearly got thrown out unread, as they had managed to make it look like a junk mail, luckily something caught my eye.

I sent it back and telephoned the enquiry number from the letter a few days before the cuttoff to confirm they had received it. I was told they didn't have that info and i would have to ring the call centre. I rang them - they said it was dealt with by a separate department and they didn't have access to the info.

Finally, to cover myself in case this had 'got lost' i emailed customer services for confirmation. They relpied that i needed to telephone the call centre!

awaiting my next statement was the only way i confirmed they had not removed my resesve.

However, they have written again in the last few days and i think that what they are saying is if the reserve remains unused for 12months they will either remove it or apply charges for it. I do need to check it out properly.

Seems theyre going to have their charges one way or another?

iblametheparents

ermintrude1 wrote: »

Hope this may be of interest and get hubby off the hook a bit.

I am a barclays customer too, i got the letter warning me to opt to retain my reserve. The was a cut off date to return it.

Firstly, this letter nearly got thrown out unread, as they had managed to make it look like a junk mail, luckily something caught my eye.

I sent it back and telephoned the enquiry number from the letter a few days before the cuttoff to confirm they had received it. I was told they didn't have that info and i would have to ring the call centre. I rang them - they said it was dealt with by a separate department and they didn't have access to the info.

Finally, to cover myself in case this had 'got lost' i emailed customer services for confirmation. They relpied that i needed to telephone the call centre!

awaiting my next statement was the only way i confirmed they had not removed my resesve.

However, they have written again in the last few days and i think that what they are saying is if the reserve remains unused for 12months they will either remove it or apply charges for it. I do need to check it out properly.

Seems theyre going to have their charges one way or another?

You can, at any point, ring up Telephone Banking and ask to opt-out of the reserve if you don't want it on your account.

The cut-off date on the letter was the latest date you could opt-out of the reserve from the date of introduction only.

delain

Kneale wrote: »

You can, at any point, ring up Telephone Banking and ask to opt-out of the reserve if you don't want it on your account.

The cut-off date on the letter was the latest date you could opt-out of the reserve from the date of introduction only.

see, my branch point blank lied to me, and told me i was stuck with it!

Sock_Monkey_2

Hi,

My boyfirend got stung with this reserve usage fee recently. He has an account which he rarely uses and has one DD coming out of each month. He overpays by a small amount every month and so had built up a reserve of cash which he wated to use so wrote a cheque for it. Unfortunately he had miscalculated on the DD date and wrote too large a cheque meaning he ended up going overdrawn. The problem is that he did not receive any notification of this until nearly a month afterwards when the statement arrived and although he had made a deposit during this time period, the charges incurred and DD leaving the account had meant he incurred a further 3 £22 charges as he yo-yoed in and out of credit:mad:.The £22 charge is applied evey 5 days which soon adds up if you are not aware of the initial mistake.

We finally found out about all of this on Tuesday evening and after a frantic search on the web found only horror stories about this charge with people eding up owing hundreds, the terrible attitude of Barclay call centres regarding this and about how people were unaware of the 'service' of the reserve figure being added to their account as it was only added last year and many people missed the mailings thinking they were junk.

Luckily I am pleased to report that he made a call to Barclays last night and explained the situation to a very nice lady. She cancelled all the charges on the account before he had even finished explaining and said how much she dislikes this situation and these charges. She thanked my boyfriend for being so calm and friendly about it all. Apparently most people who call up are extremely irate about everything - justifiably I would say as it is a huge fee to add every 5 days, but it's never good to show that in your call. All in all I would advise anyone who gets caught out with the Barcalys Reserve fee to not panic instantly, rather try being calm and rational and calling Barclays up to explain without getting cross. It might have been down to the advisor we spoke with but it's worth a shot to get rid of the charges quickly and without too much hassle. If they refuse then I guess it's time to go with the fighting talk but only after the first call.

Anyway I hope I have not rambled too long I just wanted to let you all know what happened with us and that there is hope to getting these charges removed in some cases.

SM x :j

P.S He has also now cancelled the reserve on his account and now if anything like this happens again he will be charged £8 and the cheque bounced. Not great but sooo much better than £88!

smileycaz2005

Hi - Isn't it strange all the different things they'll tell you!

Husband has been in to speak to them and was able to sit with a manager, who apparently was very understanding and agreed to convert his reserve into an interest free overdraft with a limit of £400, reducing by £70 each month. So apparently no fees, unless he goes back over this limit and then will go back to the old system.

Now this seems at odds to the way some of you have all been treated - and whilst I do doubt Husbands honesty levels at the moment, I think he knows it's last-chance saloon, so don't think he'd deliberately mislead me on this...? I was very surprised though at the deal - did not expect them to be even half that understanding!

Next steps are to clear the overdraft, and perhaps ask for an electron card to prevent spending outside his means ???

iblametheparents

Sock_Monkey wrote: »

Hi,

My boyfirend got stung with this reserve usage fee recently. He has an account which he rarely uses and has one DD coming out of each month. He overpays by a small amount every month and so had built up a reserve of cash which he wated to use so wrote a cheque for it. Unfortunately he had miscalculated on the DD date and wrote too large a cheque meaning he ended up going overdrawn. The problem is that he did not receive any notification of this until nearly a month afterwards when the statement arrived and although he had made a deposit during this time period, the charges incurred and DD leaving the account had meant he incurred a further 3 £22 charges as he yo-yoed in and out of credit:mad:.The £22 charge is applied evey 5 days which soon adds up if you are not aware of the initial mistake.

We finally found out about all of this on Tuesday evening and after a frantic search on the web found only horror stories about this charge with people eding up owing hundreds, the terrible attitude of Barclay call centres regarding this and about how people were unaware of the 'service' of the reserve figure being added to their account as it was only added last year and many people missed the mailings thinking they were junk.

Luckily I am pleased to report that he made a call to Barclays last night and explained the situation to a very nice lady. She cancelled all the charges on the account before he had even finished explaining and said how much she dislikes this situation and these charges. She thanked my boyfriend for being so calm and friendly about it all. Apparently most people who call up are extremely irate about everything - justifiably I would say as it is a huge fee to add every 5 days, but it's never good to show that in your call. All in all I would advise anyone who gets caught out with the Barcalys Reserve fee to not panic instantly, rather try being calm and rational and calling Barclays up to explain without getting cross. It might have been down to the advisor we spoke with but it's worth a shot to get rid of the charges quickly and without too much hassle. If they refuse then I guess it's time to go with the fighting talk but only after the first call.

Anyway I hope I have not rambled too long I just wanted to let you all know what happened with us and that there is hope to getting these charges removed in some cases.

SM x :j

P.S He has also now cancelled the reserve on his account and now if anything like this happens again he will be charged £8 and the cheque bounced. Not great but sooo much better than £88!

Are you absolutely sure that the charges have been cancelled? No staff member has the authority to reverse the fees unless it is due to a bank error or due to fraud. Even in these cases, front-line staff only have the authority to cancel/refund up to £40 worth.

LeeSouthEast

This also highlights the importance (again) of keeping a regular eye on your accounts.

natweststaffmember

LeeSouthEast wrote: »

This also highlights the importance (again) of keeping a regular eye on your accounts.

And if you don't reclaim the charges until such time as a court has decided the legality of those charges.