HELP! Standign Ordering sent me over overdraft! charged £70

cozboz

So...thanks for hijacking my thread....

For those you are generally interested in my situation...what lines should i go along with regard to the letter that i am going to send?
Thanks

BigBudgie

cozboz wrote: »

So...thanks for hijacking my thread....

For those you are generally interested in my situation...what lines should i go along with regard to the letter that i am going to send?
Thanks

Hi Cozboz,

Try drafting a letter explaining exactly what has happened from your point of view, including the bit about believing that you had actually cancelled the relevant standing orders online.

Finish by requesting that they remove the charges

Keep it brief, polite and factual and avoid any references whatsoever to the test case or that you believe they are unfair or unlawful etc.
From what you have posted so far I believe that these charges have been applied by mistake.

Draft up and will check for you if you wish.

Sorry, for my part in the hijacking of your thread.

Budgie

Premier_2

Alpine_Star wrote: »

In incurring any insufficient funds charge you are still abiding by the terms of the contract - as per Justice Smith's High Court declaration on penalties.

Your chocolate analogy is poor and there are 2 additional reasons to Big Budgie's above as to why.

1)Buying chocolate is entirely a matter of choice. Their is little alternative to having a current account in the 21st century and as such a PCA is a utility.

2) Unlike chocolate the PCA market is not competitive enough to offer real choices between providers in the way their offerings are structured and priced - these were the findings of both the Cruickshank Report and the OFT Market Study. And unlike the confectionary business the banking industry have an agreement in place to maintain the price of their products.

There are many people who don't have a current account.
How do they survive?
There's choice if you look for it.
e.g. a passbook operated savings account may suit better those who cannot manage their own financial affairs well.

(Edit: wages can be transferred in, no problem)

Regarding the claim banks have an agreement in place to maintain the price of their products, do you have a link to the source of that statement please?
It's just strange you make such a statement when many banks are actively revising their prices.

Premier_2

cozboz wrote: »

...For those you are generally interested in my situation...what lines should i go along with regard to the letter that i am going to send?
Thanks

If you care to respond to the question posed to you back in post#3, then perhaps people could help you further

Alternatively, prepare a draft letter yourself, post it here and invite comments

Alpine_Star

Premier wrote: »

There are many people who don't have a current account.
How do they survive?
There's choice if you look for it.
e.g. a passbook operated savings account may suit better those who cannot manage their own financial affairs well.

(Edit: wages can be transferred in, no problem)

Regarding the claim banks have an agreement in place to maintain the price of their products, do you have a link to the source of that statement please?
It's just strange you make such a statement when many banks are actively revising their prices.

1) Did I say it was a question of survival?

2) Can you make Direct Debit payments from a passbook operated savings account thus avoiding non DD fees?

3) Can you please read the answer to question 366 here http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmscotaf/c319-ii/c31902.htm and tell me what it means?

Premier_2

Alpine_Star wrote: »

1) Did I say it was a question of survival?

No you said:

Alpine_Star wrote:

1)Buying chocolate is entirely a matter of choice. Their is little alternative to having a current account in the 21st century and as such a PCA is a utility.

I asked you how people survive without a current account

Alpine_Star wrote: »

2) Can you make Direct Debit payments from a passbook operated savings account thus avoiding non DD fees?

Not usually. It's DD's that often cause much of the heartache that those unable to control their personal finances endure.
You don't have to use DD's. Again that is a choice made by the customer.

Alpine_Star wrote: »

3) Can you please read the answer to question 366 here http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmscotaf/c319-ii/c31902.htm and tell me what it means?

Thank you for the link.
What is it you don't understand?
Perhaps look at Q367 too to clarify that not all banks charge the same
Looks like the result of a competitive market to me.

Alpine_Star

So, to summarise:

1) It's not a question of survival - as you implied it was.

2) You cannot use a passbook savings account to avoid DD fees and thus eliminating 'choice'.

3) You agree that banks have an industry wide agreement as to how much they charge yet somehow you think this is a competitive market, despite the findings of the 2 most comprehensive market studies undertaken in the last 10 years.

Thanks for clearing that up.

cozboz

Premier wrote: »

Presumably you purposely set up the standing order in the first instance?
So yes.

How hard is it to enquire if there are any current standing orders on your account?

Yes I purposely set up the standing order (but only after the banker pushed me to do so...)

Im guessing its not that hard and that it could have been found out with a phone call.

What do you think of this as a draft letter??

Re: NatWesst Bank charges

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to complain about the bank charges that I have received for the 26th October and 29th December.
When I originally opened up the account I set up a monthly standing order from my main account to my ISA account of £25. As i experience so money troubles I transferred all the money out of this account and decided to cancel the standing order online by going to the scheduled payments where I saw the £25 a month payment and stopped it. I have now been charged on two occasions as it appears that the standing order was not cancelled on the NatWest Systems.

I feel that I should be entitled to reclaim the charges as to be charged for moving my own money from an account that virtually had nothing in it to another one of my own accounts therefore giving me a negative balance is totally unfair especially when I had cancelled the standing order in the first place.
Yours Sincerely
******

MarsdenCuckoo

Hadn't realised that the bank charges were incurred due to transferring monies internally within your banking organisation - or have I got that wrong?

Am not sure but seems to me that if that IS the case then that should strengthen your case totally.

Not wanting to override your letter but purely in an attempt to help might I suggest something along the lines of:


National Westminster Bank,
(branch address)

For the personal attention of the Manager (or even better, find out his/her name - quick tel. call should establish that)


Dear Sir/Madam (as appropriate)

Ref: Accounts Nos...................... and .......................

Could you please help?

I have been a customer of NatWest for ... years and up until now have been pleased with your company's services and facilities. I have, however, recently discovered a problem.

As your records should show, I had a monthly standing order in the sum of £25 from my main account no. .................. to my ISA account no. ................ Due to various financial difficulties it was no longer practical for me to continue with that arrangement so I duly cancelled the payment order via your website i.e. specifically by going to the list of my scheduled payments and cancelling the instruction. Once done, I assumed that would suffice but it now seems that the payments - for whatever reason - still continued. Unfortunately, that resulted in sending my main account overdrawn, which led to my being charged £.......... during the period 26 October to 29 December, 2008 (?)

Whilst I apologise for the delay in bringing this to your attention, I very firmly believe that I did cancel the instruction via your website and would ask for you to reimburse the charges debited to my account through no fault of my own.

Thanking you in anticipation of your help and co-operation in this matter,

Yours faithfully,

......

Obviously, tweek to suit your circumstances but hope that helps in some small way.

cozboz

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

Hadn't realised that the bank charges were incurred due to transferring monies internally within your banking organisation - or have I got that wrong?

Am not sure but seems to me that if that IS the case then that should strengthen your case totally.

Not wanting to override your letter but purely in an attempt to help might I suggest something along the lines of:


National Westminster Bank,
(branch address)

For the personal attention of the Manager (or even better, find out his/her name - quick tel. call should establish that)


Dear Sir/Madam (as appropriate)

Ref: Accounts Nos...................... and .......................

Could you please help?

I have been a customer of NatWest for ... years and up until now have been pleased with your company's services and facilities. I have, however, recently discovered a problem.

As your records should show, I had a monthly standing order in the sum of £25 from my main account no. .................. to my ISA account no. ................ Due to various financial difficulties it was no longer practical for me to continue with that arrangement so I duly cancelled the payment order via your website i.e. specifically by going to the list of my scheduled payments and cancelling the instruction. Once done, I assumed that would suffice but it now seems that the payments - for whatever reason - still continued. Unfortunately, that resulted in sending my main account overdrawn, which led to my being charged £.......... during the period 26 October to 29 December, 2008 (?)

Whilst I apologise for the delay in bringing this to your attention, I very firmly believe that I did cancel the instruction via your website and would ask for you to reimburse the charges debited to my account through no fault of my own.

Thanking you in anticipation of your help and co-operation in this matter,

Yours faithfully,

......

Obviously, tweek to suit your circumstances but hope that helps in some small way.

Yes the charges have come by a standing order from my current account to my ISA...if it was a direct debit or something other than my own dealings between my accounts that made me overdrawn then i would be complaining but as this is the case i think it is ridiculous that i have been charged in this way with no remorse.

Thank you for revising my letter, it sounds a lot more professional and i am entirely grateful

Should i send it to the branch which i opened up with or will my local do? I just thought they may be a bit more lenient if it was sent to the branch I first opened ?