Natwest overdraft fiasco. can I claim compensation?

rb10

innovate wrote: »

Making a complaint will with almost guaranteed certainty not improve Natwest's opinion about you as a customer. They may well offer to pay you £25 if you complain, because that will be cheaper than turning your complaint down. Don't be surprised, though, if in the future they will not be offering you loans or overdrafts.

Just for clarity ... making a complaint will not damage your chances of getting a loan or an overdraft in the future.

innovate

rb10 wrote: »

Just for clarity ... making a complaint will not damage your chances of getting a loan or an overdraft in the future.

Agree in principle - - however, if you complain about the credit facility you have had, the bank may well decide not to extend any credit to you in future.

pmduk

When you move to a "less terrible bank", remember that the T&Cs are there for a purpose. Complaining after the fact doesn't mean you can deny that you've accepted them in the application and by signing and/or using any card that they send you.

The bank made a mistake, and have corrected it without delay from your description. Not all banks would have been so quick to accept responsibility.

rb10

innovate wrote: »

Agree in principle - - however, if you complain about the credit facility you have had, the bank may well decide not to extend any credit to you in future.

Such an action would be seen as giving customers an incentive not to complain - I reckon the FCA would disapprove strongly of that behaviour.

innovate

rb10 wrote: »

Such an action would be seen as giving customers an incentive not to complain - I reckon the FCA would disapprove strongly of that behaviour.

We can continue to argue over this. Though I cannot see that the FCA and/or the FOS would, or could, disagree with a lender that says the risk for them to offer any credit would be too high. In the case at hand, the lender does have evidence that the borrower hasn't demonstrated that they can handle credit responsibly, and therefore they could credibly argue the risk is unacceptable to them.

In any case, however, neither the FCA nor the FOS nor anybody else can force any bank or BS to lend even only a penny. It is exclusively the decision of the banks/BS. They need to give absolutely no reason to anybody at all as to why they don't provide credit to someone.

JuicyJesus

They would probably be on a sticky wicket withdrawing extant facilities though. If I remember correctly some banks had complaints upheld against them by the FOS for closing peoples' accounts when they raised bank charge complaints, which were (at heart) the customers similarly disagreeing with a fundamental part of the bank's terms.

innovate

A dispute over charges is very different to a debate over whether the lender *must* provide credit. Morals and sticky wickets don't come into it when it comes to lending money.

There is just no way on god's earth that any UK bank/BS (or anyone else) will be forced to lend even only a penny to anyone. Ask Vince Cable or anyone around or before him.

stclair

innovate wrote: »

Agree in principle - - however, if you complain about the credit facility you have had, the bank may well decide not to extend any credit to you in future.

In NatWest terms that will be a Z marker applied to the account.

Thats NatWest version of a Lloyds CPD marker

stclair

guitar0211 wrote: »

I opened the account when I was 16. what sort of normal 16 year old will think that not reading the terms and conditions would come back to bite them in the butt? besides this whole thing comes down to a bank error. the system screwed up and i was in the red because of it. and to be totally honest as soon as this overdraft is payed I will migrate my account to a less terrible bank.

Rather than asking random people on a public forum.

Just raise a concern and be done with it, the worst they can say is NO.

https://www.natwest.com/global/contact-us/complain.ashx

If they award you any compensation it`ll be more than likely to shut up, as they put you back in the same position by refunding you the interest you had already paid.

JuicyJesus

innovate wrote: »

A dispute over charges is very different to a debate over whether the lender *must* provide credit. Morals and sticky wickets don't come into it when it comes to lending money.

There is just no way on god's earth that any UK bank/BS (or anyone else) will be forced to lend even only a penny to anyone. Ask Vince Cable or anyone around or before him.

You're entirely correct. But withdrawing lending facilities specifically in response to a complaint would probably result in an FOS uphold. Customer wouldn't get the overdraft or whatever back, but they'd certainly get a few quid in compensation plus the bank would be out the FOS fee.

(This is of course assuming the withdrawal was solely due to the complaint, even then there is a chance FOS could not uphold saying it was a legitimate commercial decision, as they would usually in such cases.)