Bank dont answer my request for reclaim of charges

mrrunninz

Hi all
I went down the route of trying to reclaim the £15 pm charges on my natwest account through this site and the reclaimer tool ?! I today received a letter from the bank but there is no mention of my request for a refund. Instead they say.

Further to previous communications regarding the unsatisfactory operation of your account, having reviewed matters further we no longer wish to provide you with the following accounts....

So can anyone tell me what i do now ?? No mention at all of giving my money back. I am into my overdraft on the account and in no position to pay it all off but surely this should not affect me reclaiming funds that they have taken from me in previous years ?

I have another bank now any way but do not know where to go now ?!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Deleted User]

It sounds as if there are two issues here.

1 - your reclaiming issue.
2 - your management of your account.

It sounds as if their letter is in response to the second issue and has no bearing on the first.

tomtontom

I don't know what the reclaimer tool is. Have you spoken/ written to the bank regarding financial hardship? It is not usually possible to reclaim bank charges going back years, only recent ones and only where you can demonstrate the charges are causing you hardship.

The letter you have received is something entirely separate. They are closing your accounts because you cannot service them.

tomtontom

Is this the same bank you were reclaiming from a year ago?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5174054

Nasqueron

It sounds like you complained you were paying £15 a month for an account so obviously the bank assumed you didn't want the account any more and as part of that, decided you were not managing the account in line with the terms and conditions you signed (not paying off overdraft) so have closed your account. Essentially it sounds like you effectively owed them money (the OD) and were demanding they give you money for having the account (you don't say how you came to have the account so we couldn't say if you were miss-sold it or not) and they decided to call your bluff and give you the elbow.

If you complained and they rejected it (even if you didn't receive the letter or binned it by mistake) more than 6 months ago unfortunately that is it for you as you only get 6 months to refer to the FOS

mrrunninz

tomtontom wrote: »

Is this the same bank you were reclaiming from a year ago

No
That was a credit card

mrrunninz

I sent in a request to reclaim the charges on my current account as i had never used any of its benefits and the account was miss sold to me. I have not had a response to the request but did receive this off the back of it.

[Deleted User]

mrrunninz wrote: »

I have not had a response to the request but did receive this off the back of it.

No you didn't. They are unrelated issues.

You need to deal with each separately.

magpiecottage

You do not say when you complained that the account was missold so we cannot be certain that they are unrelated.

However, it sounds like both your credit card account and your current account are delinquent.

The bank has a duty to treat you fairly. However, that must be balanced against its duty to run its own affairs in a competent manner and to treat other customers fairly - in particular, not adding to their charges to meet the cost of your failure to control your finances.

This is in accordance with FCA Principle 8.

You can continue to pursue the complaint, if necessary to FOS. If they think the account was missold they MAY award some redress. However, the bank is likely to be permitted to set that off against money you owe it (if it is even awarded).