Natwest and children

Xbigman

Here's something that happened recently that I want to let off steam about.

My 17 year old daughter is at college and has a Natwest account. I found out in Dec 04 that she was £56 overdrawn and I decided to 'have a chat' with her. It turns out she went overdrawn by £17 in Jan 04. She allowed for the £17 plus £20 unauthorised overdraft charge. However she had managed to be overdrawn the first few days of Feb too so had another charge. This resulted in another charge. She goes on holiday and the charges mean she has no money and stays overdrawn. More charges. Its now Sept and she is scared to tell me she has no money for college bus fare so, you guessed it, she is still overdrawn in december when I find out whats happening.

One of my first questions was why hadn't she asked for an authorised overdraft. A. Can't have one until 18.
Next question, why don't you get a student acct. A. Can't, overdrawn.

I arranged to pay into her account £110 for the overdraft and 2 months coming charges (to be repaid from future pocket money). She then told me the unauthorized overdraft charge had gone up to £28 and she was going to be overdrawn again so more money was paid in.

I also asked her to book an appointment with an account manager. After three weeks of put offs (no one available, no appointments available, etc) I went up with her and stood behind her with my best scowl on and wouldn't budge till she had an appointment.
I checked all the statements she could find and she paid approx £310 bank charges on a £17 overdraft. I went to the appointment with my daughter and asked for a refund. Silly me. Natwest branch managers cannot do anything, they are powerless. All this sort of thing has to be refered to head office.
Final result was a refund of 4 months charges. My daughter was happy with this so I let it end and hoped she had learn't her lesson.
Somehow I doubt it.

But there's more.

I now check her bank statements to keep her on the straight and narrow. In Feb she had a notice of charges for an unauthorised overdraft. The one I cleared in Dec. There is no way she was overdrawn in Jan so I'd love to know where that charge came from.
Her Jan bank statement? Lost in the post. The replacement she requested? Still not arrived after nearly 3 weeks.
I feel slightly better but I feel another rant against the CSA coming on, see my separate thread.
Regards


X

kazzy

Oh Dear, I have just opened an a/c for my 11 year old daughter in Nat West cos that is where I have my A/C.Hope we don't have any trouble with overdrafts-have to keep an eye on it.