Nationwide Charge

Jaymo

Hi,

I was looking through my statement last night and noticed that a Direct Debit for £20.25 had returned unpaid on my account.

This has resulted in a £15 pending charge on my account.

In 2011 I've had four charges refunded via the gesture of good will policy and since then when failed payments have come through they will just quote that back to me without really listening to the nature of complaint.

Anyway, I called them last night got quoted "due to policy I can't refund etc" and esculated it a "complaint manager" who quoted exactly the same to me and passed my details onto financial hardship people to review.

I don't really understand Nationwide's process compared to other Banks due to the various glorified job titles etc and my whole arguement is that on the same day I paid £300 into my account and the charge is almost equal to the failed payment.

How can I reclaim this charge, because I wouldn't consider myself in financial hardship (say I owe some cc's) but it was more of an ethical perspective I wanted because I can't see how its fair or sensible to charge someone £15 for a £20 transaction?

If anyone's been through their process of "Customer Consultant" & "Complaint Manager" it would be great to get an insight because these jobs titles are both the same level as customer service advisor/call centre agent surely.

noh

The credit needs to be in your account by the end of the working day before the debit.
Nationwide applied the charge correctly. As you have already had several charges refunded as a goodwill gesture they obviously feel they have done enough.
There is no basis at present for reclaiming charges on the grounds of fairness.

dunstonh

I don't really understand Nationwide's process compared to other Banks due to the various glorified job titles etc and my whole arguement is that on the same day I paid £300 into my account and the charge is almost equal to the failed payment.

Most banks/building societies require the money to be in the account cleared the day before. A direct debit is taken from the account in the early hours of the morning. Long before the branch opens and long before you pay in anything. Sometimes you may get away with paying in the same day but it is risky at best as you are relying on events you are not in control of (i.e. account manager not making the authorised payment decisions to bounce or pay in he morning but afternoon)

Most banks will give a goodwill refund on first error. You have had four in 2011. You are starting to get a reputation at your bank and losing your goodwill. So, the chances of them refunding decline with each case. You can escalate it. you may get lucky but but that is what it comes down to.

Jaymo

dunstonh wrote: »

Most banks/building societies require the money to be in the account cleared the day before. A direct debit is taken from the account in the early hours of the morning. Long before the branch opens and long before you pay in anything. Sometimes you may get away with paying in the same day but it is risky at best as you are relying on events you are not in control of (i.e. account manager not making the authorised payment decisions to bounce or pay in he morning but afternoon)

Most banks will give a goodwill refund on first error. You have had four in 2011. You are starting to get a reputation at your bank and losing your goodwill. So, the chances of them refunding decline with each case. You can escalate it. you may get lucky but but that is what it comes down to.

I'm going to go their customer services in the morning and ask to speak to a manager if possible as opposed to a complaint person, so I will see what happens.

I understand the whole debits before credits being applied to accounts, but from a 'common sense perspective' I'd said the charge should be dropped due to the fact the charge is almost equal to the DD going out.

Fingers crossed but at the end of the day I am going to be moving Banks as I didn't realise nationwide offer 0% interest on their current account (when their boss took a pay packet of over £1.8m in 2011 which includes his bonus).

dunstonh

I understand the whole debits before credits being applied to accounts, but from a 'common sense perspective' I'd said the charge should be dropped due to the fact the charge is almost equal to the DD going out.

The counter argument, and it is one the FSA support (as they prefer explicit charges) is that you pay for the work done. Whether you go £1 over or £100 over, the same person has to look at your account and make a decision.

at the end of the day I am going to be moving Banks

I think Nationwide have been very fair to you in refunding charges four times in one year. Most of the other banks only give you one error full stop or one per year. You may be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire by moving.

Jaymo

dunstonh wrote: »

The counter argument, and it is one the FSA support (as they prefer explicit charges) is that you pay for the work done. Whether you go £1 over or £100 over, the same person has to look at your account and make a decision.



I think Nationwide have been very fair to you in refunding charges four times in one year. Most of the other banks only give you one error full stop or one per year. You may be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire by moving.

Thanks for the advice about the counter argument, didn't get mentioned by the Bank earlier today and charge was removed in the end. Not as a gesture of good will but turned out I did have available funds that day and the DD should have been paid.

By the way 3 out of the other 4 charges i've had back from nationwide were due to errors caused by their agents. This is also the other reason why I am switching Banks to Santander.

magpiecottage

Jaymo wrote: »

This is also the other reason why I am switching Banks to Santander.

For all their faults, Nationwide do seem to get less adverse comment on here than Santander.

As DunstonH says, out of the frying pan.

Jaymo

magpiecottage wrote: »

For all their faults, Nationwide do seem to get less adverse comment on here than Santander.

As DunstonH says, out of the frying pan.

May well be, but I work within the Santander Umbrella so I have certain benefits with one of their accounts as oppossed to Nationwide.

Plus 5% interest for the first 12 months is greater than the 0% I have at the moment.

Thanks for all the help guys