Business Account - reclaiming bank charges

jennorcotg

This has happened to us a few times now, and its not big sums of money, but the response I got from my business manager just annoyed me even more, so I have come here for advice.

As a small business we are hit heavily for paying in cash to the Royal Bank Of Scotland, so we bank cash at the post office, then write a cheque to ourselves from the post officer, and bank that cheque with the RBOS along with other cheques received.

The RBOS credits our account with the money from the cheques the day its paid in, but it takes 3 days to clear (still), so while they give us the benefit of the backdated interest from the day its paid in, these funds count as "uncleared funds".

This is where the problem lies. The uncleared funds, while showing as a credit on our weekly bank statements, aren't actually avaliable to us as money. Example time:-

Monday 1st - I pay in a cheque for £1000. Bank credit account
Tuesday 2nd - I check balance (£1000cr) so remove £1000 in cash.
Wednesday 3rd - Cheque for £1000 'officialy' clears.

The problem with the uncleared funds is that The £1000 is not there for me on the Tuesday to remove, so I go overdrawn by £1000 even though a weekley statement AND a statement from the bank cashier show my balance is £1000 and therefore a £1000 withdrawl will leae me with a zero balance.

So I'm charged for going overdrawn on "uncleared funds" which I dont see anywhere. My bank statements show my accounts are healthy and in credit for the past year or so, yet every quarter I'm charged negative interest because money isn't there for me to use.......................AND I CANT SEE THAT.

Surely the banks cannot charge me business account rates and give me a statement with a healthy credit balance then charge me again for something my statements dont show.......breath, breath - getting angry.

Anyway, my business manager says this is how the system is set up and cannot provide me with a true statement of my account, showing when cheques actually cash, because their policy is to credit cheques the day they are paid in. He blames consumers wanting instant cheque pay in's for this, and say's the bank will not cover the money if the cheques bounce, so someone has to.

Please give me some advice, I hate banks and what they do to my business (newsagent). I'm constantly arguing over pay-in's, and change bought, and DD charges.

A

Greggie

HI,

I'm still unsure if I can claim on an old Business Bank account with Lloyds Bank?

Can anyone shed any light if there is a difference or where I can go to get advice?

Many thanks

Greggie;)

Edinburghlass_2

jennorcotg wrote:

Please give me some advice, I hate banks and what they do to my business (newsagent). I'm constantly arguing over pay-in's, and change bought, and DD charges.

A

You can claim for returned dd's and fees for going over your overdraft limit the same as personal accounts but the same can be said of personal accounts as you describe above, any cheques or tranfer of monies is not cleared for 4 days minimum and therefore you are not in credit until that 4 days is passed.

You can't claim on business charges such as supplying cash, monthly/annual charges.

Edinburghlass_2

Greggie wrote:

HI,

I'm still unsure if I can claim on an old Business Bank account with Lloyds Bank?

Can anyone shed any light if there is a difference or where I can go to get advice?

Many thanks

Greggie;)

As above basically!

jennorcotg

Edinburghlass wrote:

You can claim for returned dd's and fees for going over your overdraft limit the same as personal accounts but the same can be said of personal accounts as you describe above, any cheques or tranfer of monies is not cleared for 4 days minimum and therefore you are not in credit until that 4 days is passed.

You can't claim on business charges such as supplying cash, monthly/annual charges.

I understand that, but its the issue of being charged on UNCLEARED FUNDS. I'm not shown these anywhere, yet I am charged interest on using money that isnt cleared when according to every other piece of paper i have, the money is cleared.

Must I now leave ALL pay in's for 3 day before I dare write a cheque so that I know the money is there??

I have a £10,000 overdraft, and have a balance of about £9k right now. but last month I was charged interest, that means my uncleared funds must have come to more then £19,000 in order to surpass my overdraft limit.

From another point of view, for all the money I have in credit, in the past 2 years I have not received interest from my bank, I am only every charged it negativley, so its taken from my account.

I want to know if this is legal.

Universal1978

I am really finding it difficult to understand exatly what i can claim back from HSBC. We get charged afee for beign overdrawn, a fee for beign over the overdraft and also charges for writign cheques, cash withdrawals, direct debits etc.whcih i think are very high. All in all about £150.00 per month. Can someone please tell me if i can claim any of this back. Also can you claim back debit interest???? I appreciate any help xx

Edinburghlass_2

jennorcotg wrote:

I want to know if this is legal.

As this isn't a reclaim bank charges query I would try the Financial Ombudsman. They will also help with reclaiming bank charges.

chezable

Hi i,m new here and in need of some advice.

My husband has a business account as a sole trader with Barclays that is just sat empty as we've been meaning to close it since we stoped trading in 05.

During the 3 years that we traded we were stuck going overdrawn then getting into credit only for the charges to hit sending us overdrawn and charging on all the next things to be presented. I think i,m looking at £2000+ in charges. I have all the statements just need to dig them out although i was still planning on asking for them to send me a list of the default charges as my first stage of procedings.

Any advice anyone, or other business accounts that have claimed!!

gemmaandmatthew

Do the same principles apply regarding unfair bank charges on small business accounts? My husband wound his building company up two years ago now and one of the main contributers was the extortionate monthly bank charges.

TheHacker

gemmaandmatthew wrote:

Do the same principles apply regarding unfair bank charges on small business accounts? My husband wound his building company up two years ago now and one of the main contributers was the extortionate monthly bank charges.

My brother is going to start his business bank charge reclaim it's probably over £8000!!

Just apply for all charges - what's the worst that can happen???