Can these be reclaimed or are they legit? (Nationwide)

JillyJolly_2

Just wondering if these charges can these be reclaimed or are they legit?

I don't have an overdraft so I don't know how they let me overdraw?

It's a Nationwide Flex Account. Just would like confirmation if these charges are legit or not.

"Charge for an unpaid item when you do not have enough cleared funds: £15"

"Charge for an unpaid item when you do not have enough cleared funds: £15"

"Unarranged overdraft charge £20"

"Amount of charges you paid: £60"

Wywth

JillyJolly wrote: »

Just wondering if these charges can these be reclaimed or are they legit?

I don't have an overdraft so I don't know how they let me overdraw?

It's a Nationwide Flex Account. Just would like confirmation if these charges are legit or not.

"Charge for an unpaid item when you do not have enough cleared funds: £15"

"Charge for an unpaid item when you do not have enough cleared funds: £15"

"Unarranged overdraft charge £20"

"Amount of charges you paid: £60"

They do appear to be consistent with the Nationwide's current tariff of charges
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/pdf/current_account/annualsummary.pdf

I would suggest you speak with the Nationwide if you do not understand why these charges were applied to your account. I feel sure the staff there will explain to you why

There's a great article written by Martin & his team over the possibility of reclaiming bank charges. Unfortunately, following the decision by the Supreme Court, reclaims are generally only considered favourably where the customer is considered in genuine financial hardship as defined by the Lending Code (see sticky thread for more details on what this means) or sometimes for a 'first offence'.

dunstonh

I don't have an overdraft so I don't know how they let me overdraw?

More worrying is that you know you dont have an overdraft but you still spend money that doesnt belong to you.

All the charges you mention are consistent with their published tariff and therefore legit.

I would perhaps recommend you contact Nationwide and ask them to explain to you what happens when you spend money you dont have. The bank cannot stop every transaction you make. So, you cant rely on them to control your spending. It is your responsibility to control your spending or you end up with charges if you do not.

JillyJolly_2

Thanks for the help.

I fully understand and know it's my responsibility with my money. However I don't have an arranged overdraft and I can't get one, so they should be able to stop that from happening. I agreed to have a no overdraft account but they let it happen and charge me for it. Yes it's my responsibility to deal with my money correctly which I do.

However I've been using banks for 25 years and this is the first one that lets transactions happen even when I don't have any money in my account and I don't have an arranged overdraft, usually it's just rejected if there's not enough or no money in my account.

I will explain why it happened though. I use paypay quite often but recently I've been having problems with them. I've used them for some 10 years now, and usually funds clear within 2-5 days out of my bank, usually its always been a maximum of 5 days for the money to clear from my account into paypal. But the last 2 months paypal has been taking over 10 days for the money to clear, at first this was unexpected and when paypal tried to clear the funds due to money not being there they put negative balance on my account which is normal. Usually now I leave enough in my bank to insure the paypal funds get cleared even if it takes over 10 days. (I have no idea why that is happening now)

However there those times where nationwide let the funds clear without any money being in my bank, which is why I got the overdraft charge and other charges in first post, but usually they don't let it happen so I don't understand the inconsistency with these ones.

dunstonh

However I don't have an arranged overdraft and I can't get one, so they should be able to stop that from happening.

As already said, they cannot stop all transactions being made by you. Only you can.

Yes it's my responsibility to deal with my money correctly which I do.

Why are you getting charges then?

JillyJolly_2

Please read my previous post fully answers that question.

noh

Your previous post explains how you incurred the charges and demonstrates that you were not dealing correctly with your money.

You are now doing what you should have been doing all along. That is making sure there is sufficient funds in your bank account before making a transaction and leaving those funds in your account to cover transactions however long they take to complete.

Curious_Yellow_2

I don't understand why the OP is being castigated. He signed up for an account with no overdraft. A reasonable person would expect that if there weren't sufficient funds in such an account then no payment would be taken.

Granted, he could have taken additional responsibility by making sure there were enough funds in his account prior to making the transaction, but how many people do. We pay the banks (directly or indirectly) to hold our money. It's quite easy for them to allow us to go over our limits because it facilitates them earning money from us and shifts the burden onto us, but why is this acceptable? Why not take responsibility for administering our accounts as accurately as possible and ensure these impossible transactions don't take place?

If a bank ever opened up guaranteeing that a transaction that I didn't have funds for would never take place then I would be at the front of the queue to sign up for their product.

dunstonh

A reasonable person would expect that if there weren't sufficient funds in such an account then no payment would be taken.

As already mentioned, the banks do not have the ability to stop all transactions being made. e.g. below floor limit transactions, items that drop the earmark before they are debited etc.

A reasonable person only attempts to spend money they have and reconciles their balance to know where they stand.

We pay the banks (directly or indirectly) to hold our money.

We dont pay them to control your spending though.

Why not take responsibility for administering our accounts as accurately as possible and ensure these impossible transactions don't take place?

The responsibility is with the individual and it is not possible to stop all transactions.

roonaldo

To answer your original post, the charges are correct.

They are allowed to charge you for going overdrawn.

Alpine_Star

dunstonh wrote: »

The responsibility is with the individual and it is not possible to stop all transactions.

Groan.

It is possible to stop the vast majority of them but banks choose not to in order that they can charge accordingly.