NatWest Advantage Blue 12 Month's of £6.95 charges!

ProvidaGroup1

Hello, I'm not new here as I have been reading the forums a lot a guest but decided to join up this morning to get some advice from you helpful people :j

Last year I signed up to a 'Step' account with NatWest, I applied on-line and sent some stuff back via post, I'm not entirely sure how long the account has been open as I have not had a chance to dig out the documents yet.

Basically I checked my statement on-line today and saw a charge for £6.95 which I thought was a little odd since the account never goes overdrawn, I then looked further up the page and saw another charge for £6.95 on the exact same day last month :think: so I phoned up NatWest and explained the situation to the person on the phone, who then spent 10 mins working out what the charges where for before informing they where for "Advantage Blue", Since I was not aware what this even was he informed me it was for Mobile insurance, Travel insurance, etc.... I asked him if I could get this refunded (since I'm not using it, and I never signed up for it) and he told me to go into my local branch and ask, we ended the phone call there.

I was planning on going down next week since it was only £13.90 to be refunded, however then I thought why did it only start in March? and to my horror I found I have been charged for this every month for the last year and possibly more (On-line banking only searches back 1 year) so thats £83.40 to be refunded thank you very much :mad:

I'm completely baffled how I never noticed these charges before :think: - I check my online banking regularly and would swear blind these have all just appeared!

Whats the best way to go about this? should I Wright a letter or go Into the branch where I opened the account? I have seen a lot of other horror stories about this on other forums (NatWest doing nothing about it) so thought the users of Money Saving Expert would be able to provide more assistance...

Any advice would be appreciated! thank you for your time and input.

brokeinyorkshire

I do sympathise but i doubt you will get a refund as its been a year.

I may be wrong though.

I opened a Current Plus with them in July last year and i got stiffed the first month for advantage blue which i then called up and cancelled.

Hope you have some successs.

HouseHuntr

ProvidaGroup1 wrote: »

Hello, I'm not new here as I have been reading the forums a lot a guest but decided to join up this morning to get some advice from you helpful people :j

Last year I signed up to a 'Step' account with NatWest, I applied on-line and sent some stuff back via post, I'm not entirely sure how long the account has been open as I have not had a chance to dig out the documents yet.

Basically I checked my statement on-line today and saw a charge for £6.95 which I thought was a little odd since the account never goes overdrawn, I then looked further up the page and saw another charge for £6.95 on the exact same day last month :think: so I phoned up NatWest and explained the situation to the person on the phone, who then spent 10 mins working out what the charges where for before informing they where for "Advantage Blue", Since I was not aware what this even was he informed me it was for Mobile insurance, Travel insurance, etc.... I asked him if I could get this refunded (since I'm not using it, and I never signed up for it) and he told me to go into my local branch and ask, we ended the phone call there.

I was planning on going down next week since it was only £13.90 to be refunded, however then I thought why did it only start in March? and to my horror I found I have been charged for this every month for the last year and possibly more (On-line banking only searches back 1 year) so thats £83.40 to be refunded thank you very much :mad:

I'm completely baffled how I never noticed these charges before :think: - I check my online banking regularly and would swear blind these have all just appeared!

Whats the best way to go about this? should I Wright a letter or go Into the branch where I opened the account? I have seen a lot of other horror stories about this on other forums (NatWest doing nothing about it) so thought the users of Money Saving Expert would be able to provide more assistance...

Any advice would be appreciated! thank you for your time and input.

Think of a better story !

ProvidaGroup1

HouseHuntr wrote: »

Think of a better story !

That wasent very helpful thank you very much, I spent 10 mins trying to work out why anyone would make that up - I'm assuming you think I'm making it up becouse I have been using this service and just decided I wanted a refund?

Wrong, as NatWest should be able to confirm I have never once even enquired about this service let alone use it, please don't judge everyone by your own standards.

If you cant post something helpful then dont post anything at all :T

vaporate

You may have signed up to it without realising it. Or the bank used some sneaky sales technique.

Along those lines.

Personally, every fee paying account is a waste of time. No need for them.

sscott5581

OP when you opened the step account, the blue advantage has been added, did you received a welcome pack with all the benefits, I have advantage gold and received a full pack?

willo65

sounds like it was signed up to during the application process.

stclair

ProvidaGroup1 wrote: »

Hello, I'm not new here as I have been reading the forums a lot a guest but decided to join up this morning to get some advice from you helpful people :j

Last year I signed up to a 'Step' account with NatWest, I applied on-line and sent some stuff back via post, I'm not entirely sure how long the account has been open as I have not had a chance to dig out the documents yet.

Basically I checked my statement on-line today and saw a charge for £6.95 which I thought was a little odd since the account never goes overdrawn, I then looked further up the page and saw another charge for £6.95 on the exact same day last month :think: so I phoned up NatWest and explained the situation to the person on the phone, who then spent 10 mins working out what the charges where for before informing they where for "Advantage Blue", Since I was not aware what this even was he informed me it was for Mobile insurance, Travel insurance, etc.... I asked him if I could get this refunded (since I'm not using it, and I never signed up for it) and he told me to go into my local branch and ask, we ended the phone call there.

I was planning on going down next week since it was only £13.90 to be refunded, however then I thought why did it only start in March? and to my horror I found I have been charged for this every month for the last year and possibly more (On-line banking only searches back 1 year) so thats £83.40 to be refunded thank you very much :mad:

I'm completely baffled how I never noticed these charges before :think: - I check my online banking regularly and would swear blind these have all just appeared!

Whats the best way to go about this? should I Wright a letter or go Into the branch where I opened the account? I have seen a lot of other horror stories about this on other forums (NatWest doing nothing about it) so thought the users of Money Saving Expert would be able to provide more assistance...

Any advice would be appreciated! thank you for your time and input.

Your notifed of the 6.95 charge every month in your statement !!

So whys its took so long for you to notice??

Plus you can view 6 years of bank statements via online banking !!

ProvidaGroup1

stclair wrote: »

Your notifed of the 6.95 charge every month in your statement !!

So whys its took so long for you to notice??

Plus you can view 6 years of bank statements via online banking !!

Honestly, I have no idea, over the last 7 or 8 months I have just used this account for money going in, which is then transferred more or less straight away to another account with NatWest, I do check the statements but not regularly on that account since nothing should be going out, I'm still baffled how I missed the payments.

I don't seem to be able to view more then 12 months back, are you with Natwest? I just get "Please enter a date range less than 12 months" and if going over "Date range must be within 12 months"... very strange.

I'm worried about this now since having it for over 12 months I hope NatWest will refund, surely they can see that I have never used it? surely you have to submit details to actually use the insurance services? why on earth did they keep charging me for it if I have never even looked at it :mad: its a final nail in the coffin for me, I will be looking for my local lloyds tsb next week and opening an account their.

stclair

ProvidaGroup1 wrote: »

Honestly, I have no idea, over the last 7 or 8 months I have just used this account for money going in, which is then transferred more or less straight away to another account with NatWest, I do check the statements but not regularly on that account since nothing should be going out, I'm still baffled how I missed the payments.

I don't seem to be able to view more then 12 months back, are you with Natwest? I just get "Please enter a date range less than 12 months" and if going over "Date range must be within 12 months"... very strange.

I'm worried about this now since having it for over 12 months I hope NatWest will refund, surely they can see that I have never used it? surely you have to submit details to actually use the insurance services? why on earth did they keep charging me for it if I have never even looked at it :mad: its a final nail in the coffin for me, I will be looking for my local lloyds tsb next week and opening an account their.

I would possibly recommend you checking your statements in more detail in future.

I would wait and see what they say about refunding all the charges, there argument will be you would have been nofied of the charges etc.

If you click on view statements via screen you can see upto 6 years of statments plus also if you click on view pre advice of interest and charges on screen you would have been able to see the dates the charges will debit your account. You should make yourself familiar with the options available online

natweststaffmember

stclair wrote: »

I would possibly recommend you checking your statements in more detail in future.

I would wait and see what they say about refunding all the charges, there argument will be you would have been nofied of the charges etc.

If you click on view statements via screen you can see upto 6 years of statments plus also if you click on view pre advice of interest and charges on screen you would have been able to see the dates the charges will debit your account. You should make yourself familiar with the options available online

I'm not so sure, there was a while back a spate of pre ticked boxes on the application process which did lead to a number of people going to step accounts with adblue when they did not require it.