Bank refunded £202 which was taken without permission, then took it back!

animmo

Hi there. This is my first post here, so hope I'm doing it all right.

To the point. I had a payment taken from my account, a month or so ago, for £202, which, considering I'm only in receipt of Incapacity Benefit was rather a lot. I had not directly authorised this payment, even 'though I openly admitted that I was due the company the said sum, and complained to my bank. Next day the money reappeared in my account, and as I was going to Manchester for 3 weeks to flat-sit for a friend it was entirely necessary and I withdrew the money to prevent the same thing happening again.

Imagine my surprise then to find that the bank, without warning or any form of apology, removed the money from my account again, leaving me £202 overdrawn - a 'service' for which I was also charged £30!

My question is this: am I entitled to a) be very angry with my bank, and b) ask for a refund of all or part of this money? I instead had to borrow the money from family and am still repaying it. I only get £220/fortnight, so it is very difficult

Many thanks in advance and hope someone can help me clarify this.

Lokolo

So you owed a company money. The company took the money. You told the bank they shouldn't have. The bank gave you the money back. Later on, the bank took the payment back (as I assume they saw it as a genuine transaction and that you owed the money).

Is this correct?

animmo

The company took the money after keeping my debit card details for 5 months without my permission after I made a one-off payment using it. I then complained to the bank about this. I cannot even email the company involved to cancel the product because they have marked my email address as spam.

Lokolo

So you did not owe the company £202?

animmo

I did owe them it. What I did not do was say they could keep my debit card details and keep trying my bank account until the money was there, and they did not ask to keep the details. As I say, they blocked my email address, even 'though they email me at that same address.

My problem is more with the bank - one minute they say they can't do anything, then the money is back in my account, then it isn't PLUS an overdraft charge

animmo

I told the bank at the time that I had owed the company the money and that they had kept my card details, before the bank refunded me the money

Lokolo

Given you owed the company I cannot see anyway around this. They took the money they were owed. Unless you had a contract stating you were going to pay on X dates, or pay the money over Y dates I can't see you having a leg to stand on.

The bank did everything right. They gave you the money back whilst they investigated and then when they found out you owed the money, they took it out of your account.

animmo

The bank did not investigate it though. As I say, I told them plain and simple that I owed the company. The bank initially said there was nothing they could do and yet refunded it the next day. And then 'un-refunded' it and charged me for the privilege.

Lokolo

animmo wrote: »

The bank did not investigate it though. As I say, I told them plain and simple that I owed the company. The bank initially said there was nothing they could do and yet refunded it the next day. And then 'un-refunded' it and charged me for the privilege.

And in the meantime, investigated why the company had took the money.

animmo

They didn't though, to my knowledge. They said there was nothing they could do and it was to be left at that. I was annoyed that the company could hold my details for so long, but left it at that. Anyway, I will now be leaving Clydesdale Bank for their lack of communication on the matter and, to be honest, complete lack of interest

HouseHuntr

All sounds a little dubious to me!