Natwest - Account Closure Fail

dangermouse78

Hi All,

Im new here, just a quick post to see if anyone else has experienced this problem with Natwest and what I can do.

I requested that Natwest close my advantage gold account last week, after years of being with them and having no end of issues with them. Closing my account, I was informed was easy......But they managed to mess it up.

The young lady on the desk requested certain information, I twice told her that there where several card transactions outstanding (5) and she confirmed twice that the closing balance she was issuing me was correct and that I could withdraw the cash from the counter. So off I went to the counter, collected my money (they destroyed my card) and done a little dance on the way out!

6 days later I went online to check the balance of my bills account with Natwest and observed that my advantage gold account was -£150 overdrawn and not closed. The transactions that where outstanding cleared the same day as I closed it, they had obviously not been taken into account when I requested the closure. Wonderful!

I spent over an hour on Monday explaining this to a customer advisor as I was understandably angry at there complete lack of service & ability. I have raised a complaint with them and was supposed to get a call back from someone today, they did not call.

This is the final problem of many with this poor excuse of a bank, what do I do ? I expected them to carry out my request and they failed, the money owed is no issue, BUT the fact they got it so wrong is.........

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

DM

stclair

The bank can not always see pending transactions for example POS payments.

The advisor may have been correct at the time however they should have possibly used a disclaimer regarding possible payments that may still be pending.

Ben8282

What can you do?

Simple. Pay the outstanding balance. They will then close the account.

I am actually a bit suprised that they would have closed the account while there were pending transactions. I don't really see how they could. I imagine they closed the account to further spending/withdrawals and, presumably at your request, refunded you the credit balance (less known pending transactions?). I imagine actual final closure of the account would only occur after all pending transactions had cleared.

Hooloovoo

Why not simply not spend on the account for a few weeks to ensure everything has cleared, before closing it?

Honestly, I swear some people like to make their life difficult.

lolavix

They may not have known that transactions were pending from the system. When you sign the closure form, you are signing to confirm that all outstanding transactions have cleared the account

dangermouse78

They told me that there where transactions pending and that the closing balance they issued me was correct, which I confirmed with her twice. She even mentioned one transaction she could see for £129.99. All the outstanding transactions cleared the same day as I closed it (I closed it @ 12:47), am I to believe that the bank that is paying them cant see them the same day ?

I signed nothing, it was all closed through the system (PIN Machine) They issued me a "confirmation of closure" print out with the closing credit balance written on it and told me the account would be closed in 5 days.

lolavix

Sign or pin machine, same thing - it's still you confirming. The closing balance they gave you takes account of transactions due to go out that are already pending - but not everything will be on the bank's system.

At the end of the day, you need to pay it back. What do you want from the bank?

CLAPTON

you knew you had made the transactions
you knew what your balance should be

if all the problems with the bank have been along similar lines to these then they must be pleased you have parted company

dangermouse78

CLAPTON wrote: »

you knew you had made the transactions
you knew what your balance should be

if all the problems with the bank have been along similar lines to these then they must be pleased you have parted company

Wow.

Thanks very much for this helpful post.

When you confirm something with a bank "...I have 5 outstanding transactions on this account, have you covered them on the closure balance?" and they say "YES", what else are you supposed to do ?

The money is going in today and FYI the issues I have been down to them, IE - sending my personal details and balances for all Natwest accounts to old housemates that where joined to my bills account when removing them after several years & I am very pleased to have parted company with them.

CLAPTON

dangermouse78 wrote: »

Wow.

Thanks very much for this helpful post.

When you confirm something with a bank "...I have 5 outstanding transactions on this account, have you covered them on the closure balance?" and they say "YES", what else are you supposed to do ?

The money is going in today and FYI the issues I have been down to them, IE - sending my personal details and balances for all Natwest accounts to old housemates that where joined to my bills account when removing them after several years & I am very pleased to have parted company with them.

you knew how much the pending transactions were and you knew what the balance should have been

you knew she was confused and mistaken but you persisted in this nonsense;

why ?

Hooloovoo

CLAPTON wrote: »

you knew you had made the transactions
you knew what your balance should be

Exactly.

You know how much money is in the account. You know how much you have spent. Therefore you know what the final balance is going to be once all the transactions have cleared. You don't need to rely on anyone else to tell you this information. Especially a bank that you don't trust to get things right.

I still say it would have been easier to open your new account elsewhere and start using that, and stop using the Natwest account. After a couple of months when you are sure everything has cleared Natwest and all your direct debits are working on your new account, then - and only then - do you go ahead and close the account withdrawing the remaining balance.

Seriously, I swear some people actually try to do things the most difficult way possible and cause the most potential problems for themselves.

I'm not trying to make out the bank are blameless, but come on you could at least try to do things in a way that has the lowest number of potential errors.