Well annoyed, banks are crap. Have they screwed over my little sister? Is this fair!?

Perelandra

If there is any silver lining in this-

It is better to make a financial mistake earlier in life when there's time to recover from it, and when the sums of money involved are smaller. Hopefully your sister will learn the same lesson I learned when I was about 27- when it cost me closer to £15k. Your sister has lost something over £1k over this which is bad, but it won't wreck her financially.

I wish her luck sorting this out.

lolavix

I still find it unbelievable that after all the publicity over bank charges people can ignore all correspondence from their bank for so long and then moan that they're in debt.

How on earth is she going to cope at uni if she cannot run a bank account? I joined the bank at 18 and the basics are pretty easy to learn - stay in credit and you won't get charged.

I doubt very much she'd get a student overdraft and that's probably a good thing.

Your best bet would be to go to Natwest and explain the situation, they may offer you more of a refund.

I'm also another one for the 'shout at me and you'll get nothing' It gets my back up and I think being polite is the best route to go down, as it is entirely her fault.

notts_phil

This girl really is an idiot!

She is going to uni and cant deal with this?

Why should she even be allowed in if she hasnt got any common sense

I really really hope she has to use a basic account or a passbook account like i said earlier. That would teach a good lesson

Mrs_Ryan

It makes me sick that banks whack such charges on for such a small OD balance. Santander tried to charge me £150 for going 13p overdrawn :eek: Not the first time I've had to quote their own T's and C's to them (ie they werent supposed to charge for any OD balance under £1)
I had 12 - yes that's right 12 - charges back from Natwest plus £50 compensation for bank error as they kept charging me wrongly so I dont trust NatWest as far as I can throw them - they're about as bad as Santander, if not worse so frankly I aint surprised that this has happened.
Sorry to you esteemed NatWest employees but your lot screwed me over (and I've just finished paying it off!!)
If you notice the first charges came the day after being overdrawn. So how could she have been notified??? I queried this once and pointed out my previous bank had notified me when they would debit a charge. i was told that 'it wasnt standard banking policy' Huh?!

meer53

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

It makes me sick that banks whack such charges on for such a small OD balance. Santander tried to charge me £150 for going 13p overdrawn :eek: Not the first time I've had to quote their own T's and C's to them (ie they werent supposed to charge for any OD balance under £1)
I had 12 - yes that's right 12 - charges back from Natwest plus £50 compensation for bank error as they kept charging me wrongly so I dont trust NatWest as far as I can throw them - they're about as bad as Santander, if not worse so frankly I aint surprised that this has happened.
Sorry to you esteemed NatWest employees but your lot screwed me over (and I've just finished paying it off!!)
If you notice the first charges came the day after being overdrawn. So how could she have been notified??? I queried this once and pointed out my previous bank had notified me when they would debit a charge. i was told that 'it wasnt standard banking policy' Huh?!

The charges taken the day after the OP's sister went overdrawn on 23rd August relate to the 3 August, she must have been overdrawn then too. It shows this on the statement

opinions4u

If you notice the first charges came the day after being overdrawn So how could she have been notified??? I queried this once and pointed out my previous bank had notified me when they would debit a charge. i was told that 'it wasnt standard banking policy' Huh?!

Of course she will have been notified that the charge was applied and given time, usually 14 days, to bring the account back in order.

She didnt do this.

The charge you refer to relates to 3rd August. Bet she was told in the interim period.

The last transaction on the statement also shows a refund of fees. So somewhere along the way the bank appears to have made some sort of effort. Despite none from the customer.

lolavix

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

It makes me sick that banks whack such charges on for such a small OD balance.
Charges which are in the terms and conditions, are they not? I have no sympathy for anyone who doesn't monitor their accounts - his sister could have saved herself a fortune if she opened her letters - in fact for such a small overdrawn balance she may even have had the fee waived - saving all these problems.

Sorry to you esteemed NatWest employees but your lot screwed me over (and I've just finished paying it off!!)
If you notice the first charges came the day after being overdrawn. So how could she have been notified??? I queried this once and pointed out my previous bank had notified me when they would debit a charge. i was told that 'it wasnt standard banking policy' Huh?!
If you had so much trouble with NatWest, surely you would have learnt how to read the statements - as others have said, the first charge is for a previous overdrawn balance.

We may work for the bank but that doesn't mean we don't see both sides of the story, and the bank is not always right - but in this case I fail to see how they are in the wrong - they have already refunded £400!

Gonzo33

I also agree that this is entirely the sisters fault. OP if I were you I would be having serious chats with her with regard to money management.

Debt_Free_Chick

TangerineDream wrote: »

I have a good mind to call some news agency or at least a !!!! magazine or something. I reckon it has potential to be published.

Thoughts? Help?

I think your time and energy would be better put to helping your sister understand exactly why and how she got in to this mess. It ought to be "a hard lesson learned". In particular, not communicating with a lender when you owe them money and fail to make any attempt to repay it over x months is a really bad move and one that's likely to end up with a CCJ, ultimately.

The final entry on the statement is a receipt/"credit" (debit in banking terms) of £406. Is this the bank refunding some of the charges? If so and if it were done without any request from her, then this is bank attempting to ease the situation. And if so, then they've "done their bit" to help her out - it's now over to her. That was back in the January though - what's happened since?

saterkey

Its another strong argument to put financial lessons into schools, I thought my daughter would do this in living to learn lessons but instead theyve done drugs, healthy eating and sex about 5 times each, no financial planning, which i think is ridiculous as its so important. She will be doing business alevel so will hopefully have it in great detail, but will also do lots of instruction myself.
Kids tend to have a head in sand approach and tend to think parents will sort it, i can relax really, which is okay up to 16 i guess but at 19 unfortunately should be alot more wise, esp with Uni approaching.
Grovel with bank to reduce charges, but dont just pay it for her as she wont learn her lesson she must sit down with you/parents and go through it with a fine toothcomb, all her statements, go to the bank speak to the manager herself, and sort it out thats the only way she will learn, else i can see bigger pitfalls later in life when your not there to pick up the pieces.
I do think perhaps the bank should have followed it up before now as well as the letters, rang the person, or maybe they did and she did not answer, at 19 they cant really request to speak to the parents, so letters and phone calls are really all they can do.