Natwest charged me £35

davidcampbell

whats wrong with post dated cheques?

Lyndsay_21

Yeah i didnt realise at the time the money had to be in there on cob the day before as when i've put cash in before on a weekend and i've had DD due out its always gone through ok. It was the bank that sent it back early NOT the people collecting the money.

virgin_moneysaver

Sorry Lyndsay - but that's impossible as the DD is originated by the company - their computer takes it directly from your account - the bank can only return it if it's been claimed - if it's not been claimed they have nothing to return! - if I was you i'd put as many of your regular payments on standing order as you have more control over them - or do you have an account that can have an agreed overdraft - as interest paid on an o/d is calculated at COB, you would have gone o/d when the d/d went out but then the cash paid in by OH would have been applied so at COB on monday you would be in credit so no O/d interst to pay

oscardog

The other thing to remember is that these charges are generated automatically by computer (just like any unpleasant mail from banks), therefore by getting the human involved you have a chance of getting your money back.

Best of luck.

virgin_moneysaver

post#32 - davidcampbell

post dated cheques - no point in giving a PDC to someone so that funds will be in your account when payment requested - you are relying on that person not to present it for payment before the date - if they do & it causes your account to go o/d - it's no point telling the bank it was presented early as the banks T&C regarding cheques is that the funds must be cleared in your account before you issue a cheque

Walletwatch

virgin_moneysaver wrote:

post#32 - davidcampbell

post dated cheques - no point in giving a PDC to someone so that funds will be in your account when payment requested - you are relying on that person not to present it for payment before the date - if they do & it causes your account to go o/d - it's no point telling the bank it was presented early as the banks T&C regarding cheques is that the funds must be cleared in your account before you issue a cheque

I disagree. One of the basic checks any bank clearing staff must perform is that the chq that is drawn on one of its accounts is not dated in the future. This also happens to be one of the standard reasons for return of a chq from a Bank (around 20-25 reasons are pre-printed on a sheet that goes with every returned chq, with the relevant reason being ticked to indicate the reason for chq return)

That is to say, I may have issued a chq dated 01-May-2005, but may not have sufficient funds to cover it in my account right now. If the chq is presented today, instead of on or after the 01-May, and returned due to 'Insufficient funds', it is the Bank's fault and not mine.

MarkyMarkD

I don't agree, WW.

Virgin_moneysaver is correct that bank Ts & Cs prohibit the writing of post-dated cheques. As far as the banks are concerned, there is no such thing as a post-dated cheque, as a consequence.

If you write a post-dated cheque, in breach of your Ts & Cs, they are entitled to clear it. Equally well, they are entitled to clear cheques which are nominally out of date (over 6 months old) although they don't have to do so.

Banks don't check ANYTHING on some cheques - let alone the date - so relying on the payee to not bank the cheque early is not a good idea.

Walletwatch

MMD, VMS

I stand corrected. Just looked up PDCs in the UK, and came up with this:

http://www.bba.org.uk/bba/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=263&a=1531&view=print

ukric

Natwest computer systems update each working day at 2am to 2:40am. The systems may show credits on a Saturday but they will not be counted.

This is the reason you will not see a charge applied to the account on a Sat or Sun.

It states in your terms and conditions that in order to cover payments cleared funds must be available the working day before a payment is due to come out of your account.

These are the terms and conditions you signed up to when you opened the account. If you don't agree with them you shouldn't sign them in the first place. For this reason I would urge ALL people to read t&c's before signing them (because you don't have the time or can't be bothered)

As stated previously it would also depend on your past account conduct re: charges being refunded, it's worth remembering banks are not obligated to refund charges. If you ran a business would you be more likely to refund a bad customers charges or a good customers? (Companies are not nice beasts, they are in it for the money

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sound familiar?)

It's also worth remembering that banks work on automated systems which apply charges to accounts, these systems cost money to develop, they cannot amend them to individual customers account activity.

As far as I have seen Natwest is middle of the road when it comes to charges, there are some that charge more and some that charge less, so it's pretty standard the charge you have received.

I would say call them again and ask them to review your past conduct on the account. Be polite though, state what you have done to avoid future situations like this, even something as simple as signing up for online banking so you can view your details and keep track of your accounts.

As stated before if you do have a direct debit going out the next working day ask them to cancel and recall the direct debit to hopefully avoid further charges.

HTH


p.s post dated cheques, also covered in terms and conditions

MarkyMarkD

Lyndsay's rather confused posts still seem to suggest it wasn't the bank's fault in any case, so perpetuating the "I would call them again" message isn't helping. She needs to call the party who cocked up - which is NOT the bank if a DD is collected on an earlier date than agreed.