RBS Complaint What Should I Do

rosswade

My complaint is about RBS.

RBS have taken off my business banking account overdraft twice now, with no explanation or communication as to why.

The first time they did this was back in October 2011 and I only found out looking at my account via their internet banking portal.

Just for reference there has never been any issues or problems with my account financial or personal.

My account is a property account named Wade Properties in which I run my property portfolio with.

The first time it happened I called my RBS business manager at the branch where the account was opened, who told me that the account had been passed to their Business Collection Centre and that I need to deal with them directly as she did not have control over the account any more. She could not tell my why the account had been passed over and in my opinion was not very helpful or co-operative if helping me given that she was meant to be my point of contact and business relationship manager.

When I called RBS’s Business Collection Centre they told me that the over draft had in fact been cancelled in error and that it would be put back on the account on the third day following the call and apologies where made for any inconveniences caused.

The third day came and went with no overdraft facility re-instated. I called up again and was told that the overdraft had not been action’ed to be put back on however after some choice words from myself I was told that It would be done now but it would take 7 – 10 days and not the 3 days as previously told. I asked what would happen about my Direct Debts and was told that they would put these through for me so that they would not be retuned as failed payments. It has now come to light that this did not happen after speaking with one of the mortgage lenders who has told me that I now have an adverse credit rating due to RBS incompetency.

This overdraft facility did finally come back on to the account after 10 days and all appeared to be fine.

However on January 18th of this year I received a letter from RBS Business Collection Centre telling me that 0.21 pence had been taken out of my personal RBS account which had now been closed by RBS again for now reason as to why and that money from this account had been transferred to my Property account as a debt had arisen.

At the time I was away on business when I returned I went to log on to internet banking and discovered that I could not login into the RBS internet banking portal. When I called the RBS banking portal team as per their website I was horrified to be told that my account had been sent to a debt recovery agency outside of RBS and that they could not help me and that I had to speak to the recovery agency.

When I spoke to the recovery agency and after some investigation they agreed that the account again had been sent to them from RBS in error and that there were no issues with the account. However I could not use the account until they released It back to RBS and their Business Collection Centre which would take 3-7 days.

I made numerous calls to the RBS Collection Centre over a period of a week who again where very unhelpful and incredibly scripted whereby you were unable to have a reasonable conversation with them. I asked to speak to their complaint teams and after some pushing I got to speak to a complaints team manager called Andrew Pool. Andrew was helpful and told that he would push the overdraft facility to be put back on the account within 3 days.

Yet again this did not happen and after many more calls to the Business Collections Team I was told 10 days for this to happen.

Since this time my overdraft is still not back on the account, having being contacted by one of my mortgage ledgers collections agency when I was at a funeral and having to pay them for two months in arrears due to RBS’s mess. I was also told that my credit rating has now been effect and I still have debts arising from DD returned charges and phone calls from lenders and insurance companies on a monthly basis.

I have recently been diagnosed with Cancer as well as suffering from IBS, the effect that this has had upon my life has been very stressful and detrimental to me.

What should I do where can i go and how much compensation will I be entitled to if any.

Regards,

Ross

stclair

Follow the banks complaints procedure:

http://www.rbs.co.uk/Downloads/global/contact/complaints_leaflet.pdf

There seems be a lot of emphasis on the overdraft, I would be mindful that overdrafts are repayable on demand.

You may want to blank out staff members names to :-)

jonesMUFCforever

If it was me I would be approaching other banks to see what they could offer me.

lolavix

Have you been exceeding the overdraft limit at all, or is the account rarely used? When an account is transferred to collections it can be quite common for overdrafts to be withdrawn - with business accounts they are also renewable annually, so it may not have been renewed, rather than just being withdrawn on demand.

The aim of business collections is to reduce outstanding debt and help customers get back on track, so there must be a reason your account has been moved. Either this ir an account is rarely used, meaning they would not be eligible for an overdraft.

You say you run a property portfolio - is this just rent in/mortgage out? If so, the bank probably would not see a need for a business overdraft as there shouldn't be cashflow issues, which may explain why it was withdrawn.

rosswade

No limits of the OD had been reached.

The way the account worked is that all DD's came out first before money came into the account. So there was a period of 5-6 days where the OD was used.

I have never had any problems personally or financially the account was in good standing order. The OD facility was renewed each year with no problems at all and there had never been any correspondence from RBS to suggest other wise.

RBS have severely failed me in Treating Customers Fairly.

All their Business Collection Center advisers contradict each other and are severely scripted to point that you can NOT have a reasonable conversation with them.

I have given them every opportunity to put things right, now it's time to contact the FOS.

jonesMUFCforever

As others have said an overdraft is not a right. It does not matter what happened last year or before if their rating of you now is that they do not want you to have an overdraft that is their right.

If your business is profitable long term then other banks will want to see your business plan.

Do you think that Nat west think you are over commited? For instance if one or more tenants fail to pay what would that do to your business?

lolavix

The bank are moving towards not having any overdrafts over 5% of business turnover, which may affect you, but its hard to give more details just from this post!