Amazon refund to closed Natwest account.

ojo3

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

I know this might be a stupid question but did Nat West actually close the account or did OP merely withdraw the balance? Has he had a closing statement?

If the account has actually closed then I agree with other posters it is Amazon that you should be chasing not the bank. With the amount being £1000 then it could be money laundering guidelines that is causing Amazon to delay the refund.

Hi,

thanks for response.

yeah Natwest actually closed the account, it was a step account. I got my closing statement balance from them about two months ago. I am a she by the way .

Amazon has confirmed the money was not rejected. They say they will investigate further if they get a letter from the bank saying the money was rejected - which I thinks makes a little bit of sense. It is this letter I am trying to get from Natwest that is proving difficult.

I have also seen suggestions that payments go into holding accounts and this could be the case with me but either way the bank has to confirm that the money was/was'nt rejected as Amazon is saying the money went through.

Does anyone know how long to wait for a response from a bank as my initial letter to Natwest is reaching 3 weeks without any response from them?

ojo3

will-in-estoril wrote: »

Banks hold suspense accounts, where such card payments can end up. This happened to me when I found an unused paper ticket BMI had issued to me several years previously. They insisted on refunding back to my AmEx credit card, long since closed.

Could this be the case with Natwest? I know that in the OP's case it was a debit card, but assuming the visa/maestro system accepted the processing of the credit, then it must be there somewhere!

Hi,

thanks, This is the feeling I get as well. but I don't know if there is a difference between credit and debit cards in this regard like you say.

pmduk

In my experience you need to contact the head office of Nat West. Do it in writing. Hopefully the people that control the suspense accounts need to check what's in there. Branches are unlikely to have access to those records.

Mikeyorks

ojo3 wrote: »

I have also seen suggestions that payments go into holding accounts and this could be the case with me .....

I don't know any financial institution (utilities / HMRC / Banks etc) that directly rejects an incoming payment. They all default into a holding account or holding area.

Normally it's then a manual intervention to ensure there's nothing obvious - before it's turned back to the originating account if they can't trace the intended destination with a degree of certainty.

As suggested by others - I'd write to Natwest (HO) as being the most likely holder of the money. Otherwise you're just in an impasse.

reall

Dear ojo,

Also contact amazon to make sure they have the correct details of your account number and brach as well as your name just in case it went astray.I HAD A SITUATION WHEN MY ACCOUNT WAS CLOSED BUT I DID NOT REALISE IT BY ABBEY.however the money i paid returned to my bank account as i paid from an account with a different bank to abbey .it took about a week and i was pleasantly surprised.
i,m sure you will get your money back.I am assuming that you do not owe any funds to natwest or its subsidaries as sometimes they will andcan use the money if you owed them eg.credit cards/loans etc.

Consumerist

Don't forget that, in the final analysis, they are both financial institutions which are regulated by the FSA. As such, they should have a formal complaints procedure which you must follow in order to be able to ultimately refer to the Financial Ombudsman Service for a resolution.

ojo3

Hi,

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

After advices, I decided to go through using the banks complaint procedure (Natwest).

It took not more than 7 days from my complaint before Natwest contacted me to let me know my money was in a holding account and I should come and collect at counter.

I wanted to update the thread incase anyone finds themselves in a similar situation.

Also, I found out that even though Amazon refunded the money on the 5th of August, Natwest informed me the funds did'nt actually get to the account until the 25th so I guess in these kind of situations things take a while.

Special thanks to Ryan101 for the PM's.

Fedz

Fantastic news

So all along NatWest frontline staff were telling you they don't have a holding account & they do :T

Smacks in the face of their recent ads of always been helpfull ... but can do more :rotfl: