Banks charges and benefits (merged)

lee4321

i hope you get them back but my experiance with banks is they hold on to it untill the very last minute after all its earning them interest
keep hammering away at them though and if all else fails you have the small claims court

lee4321

They will send a letter to your bank demanding money back BUT if the bank says no then its off to court you go

ally2524

Hi my bank (rbs) has taken the usual £28 charge out of my tax credit money for going - wait for it 90p od. As a result i had nothing for the rest of the week, surely they can't do this to a very low income family with 4 small kids
Ally

furndire

There is something similar here, you need to write to bank and basically tell them not to touch your benefits, I don't know where the template is for that letter, but the benefits forum will no doubt have someone on there to tell you. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=310818&highlight=bank+charges just read a bit more of above thread, and letters needed are on there. Good luck

mrmajika

I work for a large bank call centre (not RBS). I came across something similar a few weeks back.

RBS are not allowed to take your benefit money. You should be able to visit the branch and claim it back immediately. It could be it's something the branch staff are not aware of, as very few people in my workplace were aware of this government legislation.

I'm really not sure of the ins and outs of this, but hope this helps!

Edinburghlass_2

I have merged a couple of threads regarding bank charges and your benefits so have a read through the previous posts and you may find the answers there.

roger56

ally2524 wrote:

Hi my bank (rbs) has taken the usual £28 charge out of my tax credit money for going - wait for it 90p od. As a result i had nothing for the rest of the week, surely they can't do this to a very low income family with 4 small kids
Ally

A suggestion, is it possible to have a small agreed overdraft on your account,
say £50? If the bank agree, this can act as a financial "buffer zone" for such a situation. You'd then only pay a small amount of interest and not incur the hastle and stress associated with charges (all be they unlawful).
The key however is that you do not see this as handy "extra money" to spend - avoid any idea of intentionally using the agreed overdraft.

raq

I got hit last week with a £30.00 charge that is coming out tomorrow the same day as my child tax credit. Got 3 small children. Rang the halifax pleading with them that this is the case and the bloke I spoke to didn't know anything about it and to call the complaints department tomorrow morning,. I will be doing this first thing. If they take this out I have £25.00 for food and nothing to pay for my water bill.

furndire

roger56 wrote:

If the bank agree, this can act as a financial "buffer zone" for such a situation. You'd then only pay a small amount of interest and not incur the hastle and stress associated with charges (all be they unlawful).
The key however is that you do not see this as handy "extra money" to spend - avoid any idea of intentionally using the agreed overdraft.

My daughter tried to get a small overdraft from Nationwide for just this reason a few months ago, but because she was on benefits they wouldn't let her have one - even though she had banked with them for a few years - They then had to pay her unlawful bank charges back plus interest when she reclaimed them.

peter999

See these threads:

Bank taking your Benefit? Quote this -
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=269424

can banks do this with benefit money
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=275205

peter999