Natwest

farquarpigmix

Hi,

Received letter from above stating unable to pay a DD. Checked account it had been paid. They are going to charge me £38.00 for the pleasure.

Just got of phone and have to phone tomorrow because staff not there. I explained to person on phone that the DD had been paid. Enough funds was transferred the day before it came out. Also says on letter which I have never heard of is this and I quote,

" In future, when any payments are due to leave your account, you need to make sure that you have a cleared account balance that can cover the full amount by 3.30pm on the previous working day."

Has anybody else heard of this 3.30 dead line? First time I have. Whats the point of having on-line banking if you cannot transfer money at any time of the day or night.

I will be phoning tomorrow (that will be the 4th phone call to them on a 0845 no.) and having words. I am not a happy bunny I can tell you.

All help & advice welcome,

Farquar

Money_Saver

Hiya,

Yes, I have heard my Sister saying the same, Funds should be in the account the day before the DD is due and She is with Abbey. I found it hard to believe now you said the same. I dont know why it honestly matters, so long as you have funds in the account before the end of business the day the DD is due.

You can ring Natwest on: 01634 890876

HTH

MS

penniesforme

hi,

this happened to me as well, sometime back in Dec. they charges me 38, but they told me that the funds have to be in by 3pm??

all in all, i made about 6 phone calls to their 0845 number, which cost me around £15 ish, coz of the hold, the security question, being passed to "a colleagus who deals with this" etc etc.

eventually managed to get the 38 pounds back, after 4 trips to the local branch and 6 phone calls.

dangeroussports

I love NatWest. I have a Private account with them, its great.

If you have a product like that they will nearly always wave these silly little fees for DD.

That way you can bounce bounce bounce....hehehehehehe....

farquarpigmix

Phoned bank,

Money should be in by end of business (5pm) if transferring by on-line and 3.30pm if calling into bank. As I explained they paid 1 DD but charged me £38.00 for the other.

Only realised they charged me on the same day. They are now going to refund charge as a good will plus paid me £10.00 for the trouble of numerous phone calls etc.

Surely if you use on-line banking you can transfer any time of the day? the pc doesn't close does it? Something smells.

Thank you for replys,

Farquar

looby75

So if you get paid on the same date every month and you have your dd's set up to come out on pay day you will get charged for each one because the funds aren't in your account the day before payday

olly300

looby75 wrote: »

So if you get paid on the same date every month and you have your dd's set up to come out on pay day you will get charged for each one because the funds aren't in your account the day before payday

You can do as I've noticed my direct debits have always come out after 0.01am on the due date.

However my wages are always visible to me the day before i.e. my balance is bigger but my available credit is only the money I have left over so I can't spend my pay. Then my pay then goes through at 0.00am on the official pay day.

So in theory I can't be overdrawn if my Direct Debits come out of the same day as I get paid, but having watched a program on bank charges a few years ago where Natwest was purposely debiting money from a guy's account an hour or two hour before a cheque/BAC cleared then charging him, my DDs are set up to come out after pay day.

BTW I've banked with 2 different banks (one of which is a member of the Natwest family), worked for different companies and the same thing has happened.

farquarpigmix

I also forgot to say,

That while they charged me for one DD, I wasn't charged for my mortgage being in on time. Both payments where transferred at the same time. Also they charged me the £38.00 straight away. Last bank I was with give me a week or two notice.

Is this the banks way of trying to claw back the charges people are claiming?

Also I can transfer money on a Saturday from one account to another and it says be available Monday, but i can draw it out on the same day.

Has anybody else heard of these cut of times? Can somebody in charge of this site help us?

Regards

Farquar

PS, like the new site, keep up the good work.

libertine123

Hello,

First post on this forum...

Just to let you know, Natwest (and other banks as well i suspect) always makes payments out of your account around midnight on the day they are due out. If you are transferring money into your account (via the internet or cash at a branch) at any time during the day, the desicion on whether or not to pay or charge you on a direct debit has already been made so the money needs to be in the day before.

If you have a bacs payment in (ie wages) this is USUALLY ok as it clears around the same time, but would be worth checking to be on the safe side.

However, if funds are paid in on the same day (in cash or internet transfer) go into the branch or call their call centres ON THE SAME DAY a direct debit is due to bounce, the staff can either recall or pay it free of charge. If the cashier refuses or says she/he cant do this, ask to speak to a customer advisor or the Manager, as long as you talk to them nicely (no shouting/swearing etc) they will do this.

I used to work for Natwest, we used to do this all the time for people. If you have no luck with the call centre ring your local branch. Despite all the bad press, most bank staff in the branchs want to help their customers as best they can.

Hope this is of some use!

farquarpigmix

Hi libertine,

My funds where transfered in the day before. The mortgage was in one account which was paid and the vodaphone bill was unpaid, which was in a seperate account. Now according to customer care team, it should have been transferred before 5pm the previous day?

Apologises if I haven't explained this properley. Why charge me for one account but not the other?

Regards

Farquar

libertine123

You will probably find you have a paid referral fee for the mortgage payment, if the cash wasnt in there before 3.30 (i think the reason for the cut off at this time is because some branches shut at 3.30 and its to make it universal), and the direct debit was paid anyway.

For those who dont know a 'paid referral fee' in Natwest terms is when a payment (cheque, standing order or direct debit) is paid but it takes you over your arranged overdraft limit. these fees are applied around the 6th of the month in the following month.

Also when looking at the account to decide whether or not to pay a direct debit, (its not always just a computer generated response) mortgage payments are paid more often or not as they are deemed (rightly so) more important than mobile phone bills. If you have salary going into the account where it was paid from that can also make a difference, and things like previous bounces/ unarranged borrowing are also taken into account and can vary from account to account for the same customer.

in terms of calling them to sort this out, if possible go into a branch in my experience it was always easier to sort things out than over the phone... the 0845 should be a local call rate, but if in doubt (or calling them from a mobile etc) you can ask for them to call you back.

Hopefully this makes sense, its a bit hard to explain sometimes!