Legal action against a bank?

robbiethegood

I recently paid in a largeish cheque from my wife , over a thousand, into my bank current account. I was aware they would delay its' clearance because of some regulations against fraud etc. However, it took over a week to clear, during which time I received two letters.

The first accused me of being overdrawn. That is silly. I've never been overdrawn nor incurred any charges. It warned me to put my account back in credit or I would incur charges. I called them up and the person said it was because the cheque was pending.

Now, I have another bank account and they have never written to me like this over cheques. My wife's bank has never written to her over such things like this either.

Today I got another letter saying, in snotty tone once again, that they were waiving the "charges" as my account was back in credit. (The cheque cleared.)

These letters have caused me much distress and anxiety and I find it blood boiling they have done this to me, when I've always to date been ultra careful to do everything correctly and never cause them any concern nor incur charges.

This bank have caused me much trouble in the past too by repeatedly flagging my attempts to purchase things and blocking them, forcing me to spend time and money calling them up to have the purchases cleared. I've just about had enough of these people.

Can I take any kind of legal action against them for the trouble and distress they've caused me without good reason?
I suspect their complaints process would dither and end up fobbing me off, with excuses that it's their policy or something. Well it shouldn't be their policy!

I'm considering having these letters framed and telling everyone I know to avoid this bank. The bank won't much care about that, I fear, so can I take action and prosecute or sue for the suffering they've caused? They have made me feel guilty and small and scared me when I've taken pains never to do anything out of order at all.

I'd appreciate any advice.

antrobus

robbiethegood wrote: »

....The first accused me of being overdrawn. ... It warned me to put my account back in credit or I would incur charges. I called them up and the person said it was because the cheque was pending. ....

Well that explains it all then. You paid a cheque into your bank account and spent the money before the cheque had cleared thereby making your account overdrawn.

robbiethegood wrote: »

....Today I got another letter saying, in snotty tone once again, that they were waiving the "charges" as my account was back in credit. (The cheque cleared.) ....

That was very nice of them.

robbiethegood wrote: »

....Can I take any kind of legal action against them for the trouble and distress they've caused me without good reason? ....

Of course you can. You have the right to take legal action against anyone you like. I wouldn't recommend it in this case, however.

dunstonh

Can I take any kind of legal action against them for the trouble and distress they've caused me without good reason?

How have they caused distress?
You drew against an uncleared cheque without asking permission from the bank first.

What financial loss have you suffered because of your actions?
If you go to court and the judge asks you if you contacted the bank first to see if you could spend money that was not cleared in your account first, how would you answer that?

robbiethegood

"How have they caused distress?" Hello? The letters caused me concern about ID theft as if my card had been cloned or similar too, as well as the hassle and threatening tone of them.

I was not overdrawn and did not draw on the funds beforte the cheque cleared. There was also an extra five hundred already in my account.

There are phone calls logged proving I did check on my balance and that everything was okay with my account. Three times that week. I already said I had done everything correctly. Clearly you don't believe me.

The fault here is not mine. The bank is out of line by treating me like this. I wanted to know what procedure I should follow to get redress, that was my question. I'm also unsure if this occurrence could potentially affect my credit rating in future. I've never been overdrawn nor in debt. Ever.

Edit: Just called again and now I've finally discovered the cause. It was a random check up they did causing the problem. Thought it was strange initially too, as they don't normally write like this when I put in large cheques. Not going to bother with legal action but I just won't use this bank so often now. May consider action in future if I continue to be messed around.

Being a popular forum, where we help each other, I hope this occurrence assits someone else in future if they have any similar problem.

Thanks for the replies.

societys_child

Reading your first post made me go . . :huh: huh
and also made me think you must have withdrawn uncleared funds.
Obviously this is not the case but it wasn't clear from your original post.

Pleased you got it sorted.

DevCoder

You can't consider legal action without following their complaints procedure.

Well you can, but it will get thrown out of court.

Atidi

robbiethegood wrote: »

I recently paid in a largeish cheque from my wife , over a thousand, into my bank current account. I was aware they would delay its' clearance because of some regulations against fraud etc. However, it took over a week to clear, during which time I received two letters.

The first accused me of being overdrawn. That is silly. I've never been overdrawn nor incurred any charges. It warned me to put my account back in credit or I would incur charges. I called them up and the person said it was because the cheque was pending.

Now, I have another bank account and they have never written to me like this over cheques. My wife's bank has never written to her over such things like this either.

Today I got another letter saying, in snotty tone once again, that they were waiving the "charges" as my account was back in credit. (The cheque cleared.)

These letters have caused me much distress and anxiety and I find it blood boiling they have done this to me, when I've always to date been ultra careful to do everything correctly and never cause them any concern nor incur charges.

This bank have caused me much trouble in the past too by repeatedly flagging my attempts to purchase things and blocking them, forcing me to spend time and money calling them up to have the purchases cleared. I've just about had enough of these people.

Can I take any kind of legal action against them for the trouble and distress they've caused me without good reason?
I suspect their complaints process would dither and end up fobbing me off, with excuses that it's their policy or something. Well it shouldn't be their policy!

I'm considering having these letters framed and telling everyone I know to avoid this bank. The bank won't much care about that, I fear, so can I take action and prosecute or sue for the suffering they've caused? They have made me feel guilty and small and scared me when I've taken pains never to do anything out of order at all.

I'd appreciate any advice.

If it was one of the major banks, the cheque for £1000 (which isn't that big in the grand scheme of things) should have followed the 2-4-6 pattern

http://www.bba.org.uk/customer/article/understanding-cheques/current-account-and-payments

robbiethegood

It was the co operative bank.

Now I discover almost a fiver has been charged to me for a product I bought that was converted to foreign dollars. They are about to lose my custom. I've had enough and they're not worth my time chasing up, every time I use account they hassle me. Some of the staff are nice but the policies are not. Heavy handed and nasty and somewhat incompetent. They seem to be going down the loo considering the dozens of bad reviews I've now read about them.

dzug1

robbiethegood wrote: »

It was the co operative bank.

Now I discover almost a fiver has been charged to me for a product I bought that was converted to foreign dollars. They are about to lose my custom. I've had enough and they're not worth my time chasing up, every time I use account they hassle me. Some of the staff are nice but the policies are not. Heavy handed and nasty and somewhat incompetent. They seem to be going down the loo considering the dozens of bad reviews I've now read about them.

A foreign currency charge is made by just about every bank in the UK and you won't find policies different in anything but fine detail in other banks.

Sinhanada

dzug1 I'm afraid you are almost certainly not going to be successful in taking them to court. The whole issue will cost you a lot more as you would more than likely be responsible for their charges too.

I would suggest you do the following:

Call them to register a complaint. Be concise and not aggressive. Keep emotion out of the call. Explain that you feel that their automated letters gave the impression that they were treating you as a fraudster.

Follow this up with a letter of complaint.

In the meantime, use the new switching service and look for another bank.

As for bank charges on foreign policy yes most banks do charge this. A bank is after all a business and needs to make money.

robbiethegood

I haven't been abroad nor used any forein money in fact. I just bought an american product. I've done it plenty of times. My other bank doesn't press hefty fees when I do that. The co op are being silly. They initially blocked my purchase of it forcing me to phone up. Now they've charged my card as if I've used it in another country it seems.

Thanks for the further advice. I might consider making a complaint but for a fiver and a letter of apology not worth much to me anyway, I'm about to close the account once I tie up some things.