Reclaim Misold account upgrade, time restrictions?!

Sarahtb

Recently I received an email from nat west asking me if i was still enjoying the 'benefits' of my upgraded account. I'd completley forgot that I was even paying for it! On my bank statement it doesn't say what it is just my account number. I originally was sold an account upgrade pre 2009, I was rejected for a loan, given a leaflet on how to access my credit file and advised that one way to improve it was to upgrade my account. Here started the upgrade hell to which I've never benefited from, never ever having used any of the associated benefits such as insurance. So from around 2009 (although I think it was before this can't access statements pre 2009) I began paying £6.95 per month until Feb 2011. Then from Aug 2012 it was again upgraded and I began paying £8 this ended in March 2013. At this point after been declined an overdraft several times I was advised a better upgrade would help my chance as it even included the overdraft! I've never received an overdraft. I never realised that this was mis selling. Just assumed my credit rating must have affected it. So I've put this to nat west in the form of a complaint. However, on reading about other peoples experience with nat west I'm sad to hear that there is an apparent time restriction on when u can complain. That it is assumed you should have realised this after a certain period of time, 3 years one person said. The complaint was thrown out. It was referred to the financial ombudsman, and again dismissed!

Has anyone any advice/experience/comments about this? This is the first time I have EVER complained about a service, and feeling a bit deflated. This is probably why I never complain

Thanks

dunstonh

6 years from point of sale or 3 years from being reasonably aware of an issue. Whichever is the longer.

So, the timebar appears to be correctly applied here and that is why the FOS rejected it.

Mersey_2

Sarahtb - yes, advising to upgrade an account to increase an overdraft was one of the ways NatWest mis-sold its packaged accounts.


Sadly a lot of this went on. You should hear back from them within around 8 weeks. If not chase them up by email: [EMAIL="customer.relations@natwest.com"]customer.relations@natwest.com[/EMAIL] as they have backlogs at the moment.


You have a decent potential claim by he sounds of it; but, yes, 6 years is when they become time barred, so you would now be to late. You don't say when you complained, so lets hope you were just in time (eg if you sent a letter or email before Christmas 2014). But the longest I have heard for NatWest to respond to a complaint is 9 months.

Sarahtb

Thanks for replies, I received the email this month. Just my luck not to have realised within the timeframe! i won't keep my hopes up, I suppose at least I can get the upgrade cancelled and be a tenner better off each month!

Nasqueron

The problem is many people forget banks are not a charity, they do not have to lend to whoever asks nor do they have to extend credit if they exercise a commercial decision not to.

A bank who has a policy that certain customers (say those who live in their OD and then ask for more OD) who want more credit must have an account with them can enforce that, that would not be miss-selling as no account = no credit. If the bank staff lied and only said you had to have the account to get the OD but this was not true, this would be miss-selling but you would struggle to prove it.

In short, it's not as black and white as Mersey makes it out to be

Mersey_2

An interesting aside as to your thoughts; but, the fact remains the banks have been found wanting.


I quite agree that the banks could have eg offered a higher rate of % on overdrafts to the customers you refer to. But they didn't. In fact, RBS did the exact opposite: they offered preferential rates to those extending their overdrafts and then mis-sold them packaged accounts on top.


I quite agree that the banks could have refused to extend credit and we might have avoided the consumer credit bubble and resultant bust.