Abbey have taken £800+ out of my account for a holiday 1.5 years ago

pandas66

Good Grief Kim, hope you now sort the rest out.

milkydrink

magyar wrote: »

Firstly, you CAN rename your thread, you just edit the first post.

Secondly, can I just clarify the situation:

- First Choice called for the transaction in Feb 06, and were paid their money YES
- Abbey didn't debit your account until Jun 07 (so effectively only half the transaction occurred) Actually 2nd July, but to maximise the bank charges they back dated it to the 4th June!!!!!

What I would do is to contact the Citizen's Advice Bureau. You can find your local branch here.

It's clear to me this is completely unethical, and almost certainly a breach of the banking code. But the CAB should be able to advise on the right course of action.

Potentially your other route is via the Banking Ombudsman, but I would go to the CAB first.

I cannot believe what they have done with the back dating.
They DID not take that money till the 2nd of July, but they backdated it to put on nearly £1,000 of charges.
Surely they can't do that?
Its their !!!! up in the first place.

milkydrink

I can't change the title :-(

meerustar

Click on your FIRST post, click edit, then advanced and you can change the title at the top.

magyar

kimevans wrote: »

I cannot believe what they have done with the back dating.
They DID not take that money till the 2nd of July, but they backdated it to put on nearly £1,000 of charges.
Surely they can't do that?
Its their !!!! up in the first place.

Of course they can't do that. Try not to worry, Kim - this is clearly the bank's fault.

Have you approached them and just asked for them to refund the charges? If you get the right ear, you might just find it all sorted straight away.

If not, then go to the CAB.

milkydrink

magyar wrote: »

Of course they can't do that. Try not to worry, Kim - this is clearly the bank's fault.

Have you approached them and just asked for them to refund the charges? If you get the right ear, you might just find it all sorted straight away.

If not, then go to the CAB.

Yes hubby did today, took four hours to get the truth about what happened to the money. They won't play ball with the charges, shower of *********

Will keep you all informed.

I actually feel relieved that at least we know what happened, we are still down about £2,000, but at least now we know what happened.

But I'm going to fight them over the charges. Wonder how far I would get with other charges incurred because of this?:rolleyes:

MarkyMarkD

Whilst I think you've been hard done by, you should also consider it from the opposite point of view.

You should have paid for your holiday 16 months earlier than you actually did.

Whilst the transaction appears to have been backdated, it's actually been processed 16 months late not 1 month early.

The fact that you had spent the money on something else because you didn't realise it hadn't been processed is not the bank's fault, but yours.

Just a bit of food for thought.

nataliejane1981

That's not really fair MarkyMark - it was Abbey's fault because they made a mess of the original transaction (I actually work for Abbey so can kind of say that from their point of view!). They should also have consulted her before taking the money & there is no way it should have been back dated unless it would reflect favourably on her account status because it WAS their error....

Kim - I'm afraid I'm on maternity leave at the moment so don't have access to Abbey's internal policies etc or would look them up for you However don't let first choice escape ALL of the blame - remember they did phone to ask if they could have the money so must have been involved somehow. Companies always try to blame eack other for mistakes!

I would make an appointment with the manager of your local branch if I were you & take all of the information you have with you. Then explain the situation as it stands (calmly! it's not the manager's fault & they are more likely to bend over backwards for you if you're scrupulously polite ) Make it clear that you WANT to pay but can't afford to pay over £800 all at once - hence the charges incurred already. They may be able to arrange the debit to be reversed or a credit to be made, back-dated to the same day. Either way make sure they provide you with details on how to complain, even if just to make sure they realise you will!!

Don't let them fob you off, get them to do the fighting & running around for you, it is what they are paid for after all. obviously you'll have to keep phoning them to make sure they keep at it so get their direct line number to harass them If you get someone particularly good & helpful who resolves it - say thank you. If someone is obstructive & unhelpful - complain until you find a helpful one!!!

Good luck

milkydrink

Another update, Abbey phoned hubby today & said they were going to remove all the bank charges, we will have a letter in the post to confirm this. Hubby is useless at these sort of things, but hes got the impression that they have also agreed to pay other expenses as a result of this large debit.
Abbey have got the holiday money back now, almost I think we still owe them about £300.
He has actually opened a A&L account (on MSE Martins top pick account) & hes closing his Abbey account anyway ASAP, he opened it BEFORE this all started, DD & I have opened them too. Shame he hadn't closed down the Abbey one already, they couldn't have just dipped in, they would have had to let us know.

It was Abbey that phoned, not First Choice. I think First Choice are off the hook totally.
The email I sent to Abbey I also sent to the financial ombudsman, banksafeonline, which, creditaction, fla, ico.gsi.gov.uk, legalservices.gov.uk, moneyadvicetrust.org, [EMAIL="reader@guardian.co.uk"]reader@guardian.co.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="reader@observer.co.uk"]reader@observer.co.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="watchdog@bbc.co.uk"]watchdog@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="dom@flametv.co.uk"]dom@flametv.co.uk[/EMAIL]
Do you think thats why they called us out of the blue today & offered to waive the charges???

magyar

kimevans wrote: »

Another update, Abbey phoned hubby today & said they were going to remove all the bank charges, we will have a letter in the post to confirm this. Hubby is useless at these sort of things, but hes got the impression that they have also agreed to pay other expenses as a result of this large debit.
Abbey have got the holiday money back now, almost I think we still owe them about £300.
He has actually opened a A&L account (on MSE Martins top pick account) & hes closing his Abbey account anyway ASAP, he opened it BEFORE this all started, DD & I have opened them too. Shame he hadn't closed down the Abbey one already, they couldn't have just dipped in, they would have had to let us know.

It was Abbey that phoned, not First Choice. I think First Choice are off the hook totally.
The email I sent to Abbey I also sent to the financial ombudsman, banksafeonline, which, creditaction, fla, ico.gsi.gov.uk, legalservices.gov.uk, moneyadvicetrust.org, [EMAIL="reader@guardian.co.uk"]reader@guardian.co.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="reader@observer.co.uk"]reader@observer.co.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="watchdog@bbc.co.uk"]watchdog@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="dom@flametv.co.uk"]dom@flametv.co.uk[/EMAIL]
Do you think thats why they called us out of the blue today & offered to waive the charges???

Good news Kim!

Who knows, they might have done this anyway, but at least they did - and relatively quickly, I would say.

All's well that ends well. :T