Natwest basic account - Need advice

Cloud182

Hi

I have a natwest basic account, I've had it for some time now but this is the first time I've encountered a problem like this. I made a purchase via debit card on the 30th December [£180], the money left my available balance as usual.

My item arrived on the 4th January, so all was great. On the 6th we received our tax credits, when I checked my account our available balance was higher than expected; £298. I checked with natwest online chat and they confirmed this was our available balance and that it was because of a tax credits payment. I went to the local branch and asked a cashier about my available balance, she confirmed the amount and said it was because of tax credits.

After confirming with 2 natwest employees I withdrew £250 and paid a couple of payments with debit payments. Today I checked my account to find the available balance was at 0.00, which I thought was odd. Then I noticed my balance was at -£177, so I spoke with natwest online chat again. I was told that the reason my balance was at -£177 is because the payment I made the 30th December had been returned to my available balance on the 6th January, then natwest transferred the £180 to company later that day which has resulted in my account being in the state it is now.

I'm now left without money for the week because natwest added money to my account then failed to tell me the correct source of the money.

Is there anything I can do about this?

Archi_Bald

The only thing you can do is learn from this that the "available balance" is not telling you how much money you can spend.

Specifically with debit card purchases, the bank often doesn't know about your purchases until the retailer tells them. You need to keep records yourself about your purchases, or use a credit card or cash only.

grumbler

Archi_Bald wrote: »

... the bank often doesn't know about your purchases until the retailer tells them...

It's worth adding that to make things worse retailers have up to 6 months to do this.

chambta

If for some reason the company have released the authorisation (as seems to be the case) your bank would not know about it. The branch staff told you what was available and let you withdraw it. If it hadn't been available the transaction wouldn't have been able to proceed without being overridden by someone else. You knew you'd made it though so the issue should have been clear.

The good thing for you is that as it's a Basic account you won't incur unauthorised overdraft charges and will simply be able to clear the debt when credits hit the account.

You could ask the company in question why they processed it this way but I suspect they won't care.

20aday

Have you checked your online statement to see when the transaction was reversed?

I know this can happen from time to time but as someone who had a NatWest Basic account in the past I'm surprised as those particular types of Visa Debit cards typically clear from your available funds pretty much instantaneously (i.e. if I went into my local supermarket today and spent £10 it'd show on my account within minutes).

mclaren32

My apologies if I have misunderstood but it sounds like you spent the £180 and then withdrew the £250 in cash knowing that it's more than you expected to be available in the account.

It's unfortunate that the available balance wasn't correct for a short time but Natwest gave you information based on what they could see, did you tell them you expected another £180 to debit the account?

stclair

It would have been just a case of the authorisation expiring which is standard for all banks.

The onus is on the account holder to monitor what transactions have been made.