What can I do?

Scabs

I am currently in Thailand (hard life) and have been for the last 12 months. My problem is that my A+L cheque book and account are held at my dads address and he also holds an A+L account. The problem is he picked up my cheque book and made a cheque out for 500 quid thinking it was his book, this account I rarely use and have it just for emergency but have been charged 25 quid for being OD.
A+L say they can't communicate with my dad as its my account and they will wait until I return (2 months). My question is they cashed my cheque with my fathers signiture so surely I can't be charged?.
Sorry if I posted in the wrong forum and thanks in advance.

natweststaffmember

Scabs wrote: »

I am currently in Thailand (hard life) and have been for the last 12 months. My problem is that my A+L cheque book and account are held at my dads address and he also holds an A+L account. The problem is he picked up my cheque book and made a cheque out for 500 quid thinking it was his book, this account I rarely use and have it just for emergency but have been charged 25 quid for being OD.
A+L say they can't communicate with my dad as its my account and they will wait until I return (2 months). My question is they cashed my cheque with my fathers signiture so surely I can't be charged?.
Sorry if I posted in the wrong forum and thanks in advance.

Can your father pay back the £500.00 to your account in the meantime so you can argue the charges issue at a point when you are back in the country?

Scabs

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Can your father pay back the £500.00 to your account in the meantime so you can argue the charges issue at a point when you are back in the country?

I transfered the money online as soon as I found out. The charge is not the problem its my credit rating that I am worried about, could this be deleted from my records?.

natweststaffmember

Scabs wrote: »

I transfered the money online as soon as I found out. The charge is not the problem its my credit rating that I am worried about, could this be deleted from my records?.

It is quite difficult to speak to your bank from overseas. Ask you father to get the number for you to speak to them from abroad. Some banks will accept calls with the charges reversed so see if you can speak to them today or tomorrow. Explain the situation and explain that you are out of the country and there is no way you could have anticipated your father using your chequebook. Ask them to waive the charges as a gesture of goodwill since the cheque signature would not have your signature on it and Alliance and Leicester failed to check it. If not then I would wait until you got back to the UK and ask for advice from the financial ombudsman service as this is a complicated situation. There is another way but unfortunately, you wouldn't want to go down that route because that means the fraud route rather than a genuine mistake being made.

Scabs

natweststaffmember wrote: »

It is quite difficult to speak to your bank from overseas. Ask you father to get the number for you to speak to them from abroad. Some banks will accept calls with the charges reversed so see if you can speak to them today or tomorrow. Explain the situation and explain that you are out of the country and there is no way you could have anticipated your father using your chequebook. Ask them to waive the charges as a gesture of goodwill since the cheque signature would not have your signature on it and Alliance and Leicester failed to check it. If not then I would wait until you got back to the UK and ask for advice from the financial ombudsman service as this is a complicated situation. There is another way but unfortunately, you wouldn't want to go down that route because that means the fraud route rather than a genuine mistake being made.

Cheers
I have done all of the above and was also a bit worried about kicking up too much of a fuss and getting the old man done for fraud .
Thanks again.

natweststaffmember

Scabs wrote: »

Cheers
I have done all of the above and was also a bit worried about kicking up too much of a fuss and getting the old man done for fraud .
Thanks again.

I wouldn't. Simply tell them that your father has made an honest mistake and used one of your cheques and the signature on the cheque will not match yours so you transferred the money as soon as you were aware of the problem.(might be worth adding that your father is very embarrassed at his mistake) and that you would like the charges waived since you took all reasonable steps to put the money back into credit when you found out there was a problem and it is not a fraud but a mistake on his part and clearly a failure by the bank not to check the signature