Dubious practice by Nationwide

goodValue

In September, I followed the advice about opening a number of current accounts and switching funds between them.


I then got a problem when a transfer in, and a transfer out of my Nationwide current account both fell over a weekend.
The funds were paid in and taken out on the Monday, but Nationwide backdated the transfer out to the date of the standing order and charged me overdraft fees. They did this even thought the statement shows the transfer in and the transfer out taking place on the Monday.
Are they allowed to do this?


Are there similar pitfalls that can be avoided?

MyOnlyPost

Don't have transfers on the same date or within 3 days of each other unless the funds are in place in each account ot cover the transfer amount.

Whether they are allowed to do this, I don't know. Have you contacted them first to see what they say?

PinkPig

Personally I find it easier to make these payments manually (faster payments are often instant between many banks), instead of using standing orders which - as you noticed - can happen at hard-to-predict times.

You could leave longer between the standing order dates to make this less likely to happen again. You haven't said what Nationwide charged you, but if it was a significant fee and it's the first time this has happened, you might have luck if you politely ask if they can waive the fee.

schiff

If you are unlikely to have enough money in the account when your standing order is due to be paid, make your SO a few days earlier.

My £300 SO from my First Direct current account, which only ever has a nominal balance, to my First Direct RS is due on the 8th. So I fixed my SO from a different bank to my FD current account for the 5th. For example.

If you have accounts with plenty of money in them it hardly matters as the loss is only a few pence and it doesn't happen very often.

mt99

yes i agree - nationwide are generaly pretty good and a polite request will probably get you a refund this time rather than a hard complaint. In any case as ohers have said leave 3 days between paying in and out or if you must do it on the same day leave sufficient balance in the accout - or do it manually.

grumbler

goodValue wrote: »

Dubious practice by Nationwide

I followed the advice about opening a number of current accounts and switching funds between them.

... and a transfer out of my Nationwide current account both fell over a weekend.

Dubious practice by some customers abusing banks' offers...

Did the advice say that it was OK to use the same day SOs for switching funds?

RG2015

Dubious practice by some customers abusing banks' offers?

Are you referring to the practice advocated by Martin Lewis?

Shakin_Steve

RG2015 wrote: »

Dubious practice by some customers abusing banks' offers?

Are you referring to the practice advocated by Martin Lewis?

Martin Lewis? Now there's a dubious character if ever there was one.

agrinnall

If you're going to carry on doing same day SOs then you need to fully understand when each party in the process processes transactions scheduled for non-working days. It sounds like you have fallen foul of a mismatch in this case, one of the reasons why I do my funding transfers manually.

robatwork

I've seen it advocated on this very forum that some people do the SO transfer in and out on the same day. That would seem to all but the very naive a bit too risky.

I doubt that even deep within the Ts&Cs you will find an actual undertaking of the time of day that a SO will leave your account.

As everyone says, leave a few days between in and out to allow for this - it will only amount to pennies lost over the year anyway.

I suspect most of the interest you will gain this year has just disappeared in your overdraft fee. Hopefully you can appeal to them and get it back.

eskbanker

goodValue wrote: »

I then got a problem when a transfer in, and a transfer out of my Nationwide current account both fell over a weekend.
The funds were paid in and taken out on the Monday, but Nationwide backdated the transfer out to the date of the standing order and charged me overdraft fees.

If you're using multiple current accounts for savings, why would you not have the full £2,500 earning 5% in a Nationwide FlexDirect, as this beats all other current account offerings in terms of interest rate? If you had the maximum amount in there, it wouldn't matter if SO dates weren't completely aligned, provided that the amount being transferred was less than £2,500 of course.

Which accounts are you using, what are the balances and how much are you transferring around?