Banks charges and benefits (merged)

roger56

furndire wrote:

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.

Good for you.

It is blatently obvious that the combination of low income and high charges for small misdemeanors is unreasonable and unhelpful behaviour by banks and leads to very difficult situations for people in such situations.

Allowing you to have a small overdraft (not interest free however, but at a sensible rate) would make common sense but at the moment banks make much much more out of the unlawful penalties so it's in their interest (currently) not to give you the overdraft.

We should all keep claiming such unlawful penalties back, but most of all try not to go over-drawn in the first place (no criticism of OP intended).

raq

I had no hope with the Halifax yesterday ( after speaking to 4 different people ) they said that it is legal for the bank to take the charges even though they could see I had benefits paid in. I felt like screaming at them. They like B*****y robots , all trained the same way. They must have a board in front of them on what to say.. So frustrating..... Unfortunately I am now £30.00 down for the food shopping this week.

peter999

raq wrote:

I had no hope with the Halifax yesterday ( after speaking to 4 different people ) they said that it is legal for the bank to take the charges even though they could see I had benefits paid in. I felt like screaming at them. They like B*****y robots , all trained the same way. They must have a board in front of them on what to say.. So frustrating..... Unfortunately I am now £30.00 down for the food shopping this week.

Stick in there, speak to manager or head office.
Be polite & keep pushing, they'll give in.

All it needs is one person to check & sort it out in a few seconds.

peter999

raq

I did that and this morning I HAD another call from a Manager at the customer complaints section and it was still a NO. I couldn't have been any nicer. I did also run through the information from this website and she was having none of it. I did say to her she could refund the charge as she is management and she said "She is sticking to her first answer, NO".

gs1444

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how long it takes to go through the small claims, court Natwest have rejected the money claim stages and I was sent the court allocation questionnaire, I sent this off a week ago.
Does anyone know how much longer this will take? Its our wedding in a month and we could do with the extra money

Thank you

ally2524

I went down to my branch and quoted that they should never take out of benefits etc and was promtly told it's all my fault and lump it basically. oh but they offered a loan with a shocking interest rate which I told them where to shove
I'm now in the process of moving my benfits to another bank where they can't be stolen,

tremont87

Hey I'm new here and have a few questions...

Is there anything in any of the terms and conditions which state charges must come out of our bank account? Can't we use a local branch to pay for example!

The problem, especially for those on any type of benefit is being excessively charged and losing the benefit thats been paid into the account, although the bank may argue they have the right to charge, the terms and conditions don't seem to state anything about in the way in the method they can be charged, does it?

I have this problem with a bank in which i get my disability benefits paid into, on christmas eve the bank charged 7 seperate charged totalling £200 i had money few days before and it was only the bank charges from the previous month which caused me to go overdraft which is unfair.

Also if bank charges and unfair then is it possible to change our terms and conditions? The banks have no problem in changing it so surely we can as well, can't we?

I absolutely love this site and the fact its got us all fighting back.

Edinburghlass_2

Check out the links in this thread regarding benefits and bank charges.

wilf55

am going to write to bank today !!!

mouseymousey99

I went to open the parachute account today...mmmm... I read the internet instructions & it just said take d.licence as form of identity. However, when I got there they (Natwest) insisted they needed to see my last bank statement, I explained I was re-claiming from N.wide etc, it says nothing in on the site about bank statements - how does that stand re data protection I wonder? Anyway, the general idea seemed to be 'go away' ...so I did....anyone else had this problem? It seems another idea to put the frightners on you - didn't work, I stopped at the court & got the forms.