Nationwide bank charges caused by excessive nPower, possible reclaim?

EmJ86

Hi all,

I hope this is the right place, Nationwide on a monthly basis are charging me for going over my limit (I don't have an overdraft facility - won't give me one) and charging me for returned direct debits. We're a very low income family and are struggling to make ends meet month to month, yet we don't seem to be able to get any extra help from anywhere..!

I'm digressing...most of the direct debits that are being returned are from nPower, they refuse to lower my direct debit payment, yet each month they take the direct debit (of £82) at the end of the month, but at the beginning and in the middle of the month try to take an additional £40..! They have been successful once in taking the £40 but that then meant the actual direct debit was rejected...!!! :mad:

I'm in the middle of dealing with nPower in regards to the direct debit(s) they keep taking when they're not meant to. What I want to know is am I able to make a plea to Nationwide to reclaim all the charges they have put on my account (especially for the returned nPower direct debits) due to our poor financial situation? If so what's the best way for me to go about it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I can't afford to pay £80 in bank charges every month..! :eek:

Aquamania

EmJ86 wrote: »

Hi all,

I hope this is the right place, Nationwide on a monthly basis are charging me for going over my limit (I don't have an overdraft facility - won't give me one) and charging me for returned direct debits. We're a very low income family and are struggling to make ends meet month to month, yet we don't seem to be able to get any extra help from anywhere..!

I'm digressing...most of the direct debits that are being returned are from nPower, they refuse to lower my direct debit payment, yet each month they take the direct debit (of £82) at the end of the month, but at the beginning and in the middle of the month try to take an additional £40..! They have been successful once in taking the £40 but that then meant the actual direct debit was rejected...!!! :mad:

I'm in the middle of dealing with nPower in regards to the direct debit(s) they keep taking when they're not meant to. What I want to know is am I able to make a plea to Nationwide to reclaim all the charges they have put on my account (especially for the returned nPower direct debits) due to our poor financial situation? If so what's the best way for me to go about it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I can't afford to pay £80 in bank charges every month..! :eek:

Why are nPower attempting to take charges of £40 mid month?

Is this an agreement you have entered into with them? If so then you must ensure the funds are available to meet the payment plan you entered into.

Otherwise, nPower can only collect the amounts they have given you advance notice of which is presumably the £82 per month.

Direct debits are fully covered by the terms of the DD guarantee. This means that you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of any amount incorrectly taken - claims should be made direct to your bank.
Also, what is less known, is that such incorrect attempts at collecting money can give rise to a claim for consequential losses (e..g. bank charges as a result) - again a claim should be made direct to your bank, although the bank may take a couple of weeks to pay such consequential loss as they may wait for the errant party to pay them first.

EmJ86

Hi Aquamania,

Sorry for the delayed reply. I haven't entered into an agreement for them to take the £40 only the £82 which I try to ensure is covered each month but being on such a low income it's really difficult to make sure everything is covered once rent and council tax has been paid for.

The past couple of times they've taken the £40 it's meant there isn't enough money for the £82 direct debit. I have queried this with them but I need to speak to someone about it who hasn't been available to talk to me. Wish we never switched to nPower as we've had nothing but problems since the start..!

I've got the start of a letter written out to the bank (taken from the Claim Back Bank Charges article on here) to claim back any sort of charge, should I write a separate letter that specifically deals with the nPower direct debit/payments etc?

EmJ86

Bump! Please help!!

Aquamania

EmJ86 wrote: »

Bump! Please help!!

What further help do you need? :huh:

I have already informed you that unauthorised direct debits (including, but not limited to, those for which you have not been given the correct advance notice for) are fully covered by the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee.

Contact your bank to make a claim. You don't need any special forms or to write any letters usually.

(Only if the bank refuse to honour the Direct Debit Guarantee might you need to make a formal complaint in writing to the bank)

[Deleted User]

EmJ86 wrote: »

I'm in the middle of dealing with nPower in regards to the direct debit(s) they keep taking when they're not meant to. What I want to know is am I able to make a plea to Nationwide to reclaim all the charges they have put on my account

It's NPower, not the Bank with whom you have the complaint. You can certainly tell the Bank to consider your case for hardship, but if you don't have enough money in your account each month to cover your direct debits then you WILL be charged.

Why exactly is the utility company taking this "additional" £40 each month? If you don't know, then it's this you must swiftly address.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/living-on-a-low-income-tips?utm_source=d-tabo&utm_medium=disp&utm_term=ntwk&utm_content=d-convert&utm_campaign=d-taboola

EmJ86

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

It's NPower, not the Bank with whom you have the complaint. You can certainly tell the Bank to consider your case for hardship, but if you don't have enough money in your account each month to cover your direct debits then you WILL be charged.

Why exactly is the utility company taking this "additional" £40 each month? If you don't know, then it's this you must swiftly address.

Ok thanks, with it being Christmas etc there's not a lot I could do as everywhere is closed. I'll have to speak to nPower tomorrow to try and get this sorted out, weren't sure if I should contact the bank too about the nPower payments but I'll leave it at nPower for now.

Will see how I get on with reclaiming the bank charges..!

[Deleted User]

EmJ86 wrote: »

Will see how I get on with reclaiming the bank charges..!

You really need to sort out your problems with Npower…
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/living-on-a-low-income-tips?utm_source=d-tabo&utm_medium=disp&utm_term=ntwk&utm_content=d-convert&utm_campaign=d-taboola

Aquamania

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

It's NPower, not the Bank with whom you have the complaint. You can certainly tell the Bank to consider your case for hardship, but if you don't have enough money in your account each month to cover your direct debits then you WILL be charged.

Why exactly is the utility company taking this "additional" £40 each month? If you don't know, then it's this you must swiftly address.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/living-on-a-low-income-tips?utm_source=d-tabo&utm_medium=disp&utm_term=ntwk&utm_content=d-convert&utm_campaign=d-taboola

Whilst I think there is no dispute that nPower is wrong for taking £40 here & there contrary to the agreement with the OP, any claim must be made direct to the bank.

Should the OP attempt to claim direct from nPower, then nPower should tell the OP to claim direct from the bank (but they probably won't as they won't want their DD sponsor to know they are abusing the DD scheme)

As the OP claims to be having issues caused by the lack of money caused by these unauthorised withdrawals, then by contacting the bank these unauthorised withdrawals can be immediately reimbursed. As I also said, by contacting the bank the OP can also claim for consequential loss, although such losses may take a couple of weeks to be reimbursed (but at least the OP won't have to wait for a person who isn't available at nPower to resolve it

As to why nPower are taking the unauthorised amounts, that was the very first question I asked the OP.

Please OP, contact your bank today!

[Deleted User]

Aquamania wrote: »

As the OP claims to be having issues caused by the lack of money caused by these unauthorised withdrawals, then by contacting the bank these unauthorised withdrawals can be immediately reimbursed. As I also said, by contacting the bank the OP can also claim for consequential loss, although such losses may take a couple of weeks to be reimbursed (but at least the OP won't have to wait for a person who isn't available at nPower to resolve it

The problem with going direct to the Bank without first consulting NPower, is that the OP does not know why the additional payments are being taken. If she has the payments refunded to her by the Bank and it is then found that the NPower payments are actually not errors, the OP will be in a bigger mess than she is currently.

I stand by my original advice to the OP which is to first contact NPower to ascertain the reasons for these payments and only claim a refund from the Bank if they've been taken in error.

The OP should certainly inform the Bank of her ongoing financial difficulty regardless; because there are other things the Bank could be doing to help the situation if there is genuine "hardship".

Aquamania

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

The problem with going direct to the Bank without first consulting NPower, is that the OP does not know why the additional payments are being taken. If she has the payments refunded to her by the Bank and it is then found that the NPower payments are actually not errors, the OP will be in a bigger mess than she is currently.

I stand by my original advice to the OP which is to first contact NPower to ascertain the reasons for these payments and only claim a refund from the Bank if they've been taken in error.

The OP should certainly inform the Bank of her ongoing financial difficulty regardless; because there are other things the Bank could be doing to help the situation if there is genuine "hardship".

Why nPower are taking the odd £40 here & there was the first question I asked of the OP.

The OP says the amounts are not part of any agreement the OP has with nPower.

Of course that will not get to the bottom of why nPower continue to take these odd £40 amounts and the OP says they are waiting to speak to a certain person at nPower who isn't currently available to get this looked into.

But to resolve the ongoing financial issues the OP is experiencing due to the unauthorised deductions then the OP should contact the bank immediately to obtain an immediate refund of all such unauthorised deductions as well as any consequential losses incurred (although as I say, the consequential losses may take up to 14 days to be refunded)

To advise the OP otherwise could incur the OP in further consequential losses (i.e. accumulating bank charges) and these may not recoverable if the OP fails to mitigate these losses by contacting their bank immediately.

Financial hardship doesn't come into any of these claims; they are a right under the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee.

(There is an MSE article about reclaiming bank charges for those in genuine financial hardship and that should of course be read and follwed if applicable, but lets not divert ourselves from the original question asked and the advice I have provided will give the quickest and easiest and guaranteed refund relating to unathorised direct debit deductions and associated consequential losses ... and no complicated letters to write or forms to fill in)