Has your bank closed your account?

Paul_Herring

autopark wrote:

No missfortunes here, just bad at managing my finances, [...] However, I think we all know that the real reason for the excessive charges is to make the bank a lot of easy money and that when they realise that a particular customer is no longer willing to suffer such charges they don't want to know and close the account.

Perhaps it's about time the banks started a 3-strikes and you're out policy instead of the fees.

You know the type of thing, if you're in the position where you would have had 3 fees applied in the old way of doing things, they close your account.

At least everyone would be happy that they aren't being charged any more.

Oh - and for the few customers they have left, they can charge an account operating fee.

Clearly a much better system than the current one.

oldwiring

antopark, hi! Nic to see someone awere of their own foibles. Accepting the charges are unfair is to be taken as read, but my post was directed at the vailed assumption in the previous post and IMHO many others, that all closures of accounts stem from actual or potential reclaims of charges, I'd say that some are blind to their antecedent delinquent behaviour and that the event of mass reclaims has merely been a catalyst tomake banks take a stricter view on account it wishes ro retain or acquire. With forecasts of interest rate rises, increasing bad debts, problems in USA and Spain with mortge lending, all of which affect senriment. I do not see that banks becoming less careful, whom they want as customers.

In the grand scheme of things bad personal accounts are probably worries ,tiresome well beyond their worth to be shed as soon as....

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Edna_Bucket wrote: »

A lot of people "argue" on the point? Nonsense.

It is a fundamental right of any business within a capitalist democracy to trade with people they want to or not. That is "freedom" and if you ran your own business would you not want to exercise that right too?

We might not like the banks but they have that freedom too. As I've said before it's not about whether they are right or wrong - personally I wouldn't trade again with anyone who threatened to sue me (rightly or wrongly) so why should they?

You do seem to be quite keen on labouring the bank's "right to chose", Edna...however, I feel you are missing the point - in these cases, banks are only choosing to end their relationship with you when you have brought a justified complaint against an illegal action on their part.

If their closing an account is done only after you challenge them on this, then they are acting in a punitive and retaliatory manner, which makes things a little different...they were perfectly happy to keep these accounts open whilst it allowed them to extort illegally high charges from the customers - if they really had any argument with the principle of people not operating within their T&Cs, they would have closed them before people became indebted to them by £1000s.

While obviously people have a responsibility for managing their own finances (myself included...I'm yet to claim back my charges from my skint student days...:eek: ), the terms and conditions in question are illegal and self-serving...the charges themselves make it nigh-on impossible for people on low incomes who slip up to then return to operating within their terms and conditions.

The number of posts from you on this topic leads me to suspect that you are secretly the boss of Alliance and Leicester...hmmm....??;)

oldwiring

in these cases, banks are only choosing to end their relationship with you when you have brought a justified complaint against an illegal action on their part.

Myopic and simplistic comment, as the accounts have been problematic. else decisions to pay items beyond the agreed limit would not have been necessary in the first place.

oldandskint

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW BARCLAYS WILL CANCEL ALL YOUR DD'S AND SO'S
WITHOUT TELLING YOU IF YOU ARE RECLAIMING BANK CHARGES

I KNOW THIS AS I HAVE JUST GONE ON LINE TO CANCEL 1 OR 2

AND TO MY:mad: HORROR THEY HAVE CANCELED ALL OFF THEM

WITHOUT ANY FORM OFF NOTIFICATION AT ALL

THIS WAS TODAY ABOUT 1HR AGO

I NOW HAVE TO WRITE LETTERS TO ALL ASKING FOR NEW DD FORMS

AND JUST TO CAP IT OFF THEY HAVE CHARGED ME ANOTHER £70.00 FOR UNPAID DD'S SINCE I POSTED LETTER RECLAIMING CHARGES THROUGH THE LETTERBOX OF BANK LAST FRIDAY:mad:

HAS THIS HAPPEND TO ANYBODY ELSE ????????????

AND CAN I ADD THESE CHARGES ON TO MY ORIGINAL CLAIM ????????????

lesley2a

Banks only pay items over the agreed limit when they think they can make money operating the account. They are not in the business of helping customers out. That's why some accounts are being closed, because the bank thinks that if they can't charge a lot the account won't make them money - and why some accounts aren't being closed, b ecause even without levying high charges, the bank thinks there's still pips to be squeezed from customers able to pay reasonable sums into the account.

Gem2509

Hi

First post on here so sorry if i do anything wrong!

I have got my own account (natwest) and a joint account (hsbc) with my partner, both with large overdrafts, which we're in every month, we never really get out of them at the moment as I was out of work for a couple of months! We are wanting to reclaim our bank charges, particularly on the hsbc account as prior to it bing made joint and me meeting my partner it was his ole account and he has, we are guessing, about £600-£700 charges, possibly more, which would just about cover the overdraft on that account, but if they closed it it would mean finding another account and changing all the direct debits and I have heard of some banks closing your bank on the spot! My question is, are they really legally entitled to do this? Surely its blackmail!! Sure, if they had told you prior to you trying to reclaim that they were going to close your account then that's a different matter, but closing it purely because you've reclaimed charges surely can't be right?! Not only do I think it's a form of blackmail but it's like going back to primary school!

Does anyone know whether anything is being done about them closing accounts?

If I reclaimed charges on my sole account it would not pay my overdraft off, which is in 2 separate accounts, due to something else natwest messed up - long story! Although I'm assuming they could only close the one I was reclaiming on, which is abouy 1k...and I might reclaim about £150-200 if that I think, so it wouldn't pay my overdraft off, and if they closed my account they'd be lumbered with chasing me for the debt of the overdraft. And to be perfectly honest with you all they could go jump as it'd be the last thing I would be paying off, if there was money spare at the end of the month, yes, but no way would I be going out of my way to do it. I think it's ridiculous that they seem to be getting away with closing people's accounts. Ok, generally the closing of a bank account is at the banks discretion, but this is just retaliating and threats!

Any advice or info on the above would be appreciated!

Thanks

Head-Out-Of-Sand

oldwiring wrote: »

Myopic and simplistic comment, as the accounts have been problematic. else decisions to pay items beyond the agreed limit would not have been necessary in the first place.

I disagree - yes, the accounts may have been problematic, but if the banks genuinely had a problem with this they would be closing them after the first few instances of the limit being breached.

In the majority of cases it appears that banks are more than happy to allow customers to continue mis-managing their accounts while they can charge them extortionate penalty fees. The action of closing your account only when you challenge them on their illegal actions suggests that this is a punitive and retaliatory action and goes further to support the concept that banks have been using penalty charging as a profit making exercise - otherwise problem accounts would have been closed long ago.

I do not in any way excuse individuals of the responsibility for managing their own finances, but the whole point of this forum thread is dealing with the illegal actions taken by banks - yes, banks have every right to close accounts of those who do not stick to their terms and conditions. It is not, however, acceptable for banks to close accounts for purely retaliatory reasons when they have been conducting their penalty system outside of the law.

I do not believe it is "myopic and simplistic" to correlate the occurrance of someone challenging a bank on an illegal but highly profitable action to the bank suddenly coming to the conclusion that that person is no longer a desirable customer. I also feel that this heavy-handed approach by banks is a further attempt to discourage people who have been illegally deprived of funds to start a claim.

Gem2509

I agree with head-out-of-sand. I'm not disputing that its the individuals responsibility to manage their finances either - but when they're earning out of it the banks don't care how bad we are at it - it's only now that they can't get away with making money out of our finance decisions that they see it as a concern.

1 -2 years ago how many accounts were closed? Has anyone ever had an account closed prior to the illegal charges issue arising? I think very few people will have done....

Ok so the banks may be a little unsettled by the fact that you are taking them to court for the fees...I read in an earlier comment that they havea right to be disgruntled if you are taking them to court and they have every right to choose who they deal with, which is a fair enough point...but these banks aren't one man bands who like everyone could get offended, they're huge organisations. It's not like having a cleaner who has worked for you 10 years, and who trips over and is now suing you for it...that would be an awkward situation where termination of the contract would be better suited. i agree the banks do have this discretion, but I don't think 'well wouldn't you want to terminate any contract with someone who sued you' can be used as an excuse for them. It's not personal, it's not emotional, it's business. Let's face it, they don't sit there and say 'well poor Mr and Mrs X can't afford to get their groceries this month otherwise they'll go overdrawn, but we'll write to them and let them know we'll forget about any charges this month'!!

Sorry, i shall get off my soapbox now!

Jo-Anne_6

I have been claiming my bank charges back much to my delight I am owed quite a bit £1600 in fact and im due a decision any day know And i just had the worst thought , I owe the bank money on my credit card and this has been ongoing for a while as they want me to pay the full amount and I cant afford to , Can they just take my money if Im awarded it ?? Im completely and utterley relying on it and Im freaking out ! Please help