Norwich & Peterborough.

z1a

As some of you will know, N&P decided that they were stopping current accounts from end of August. With this in mind I started getting our wages paid into a different bank from the last week in August and transferred anything in the N&P account to my new one.

I also emailed N&P on the 31st requesting account closure, this email was acknowledged, although given that I was told the account would be closed, via a letter a few months ago, I wouldn't have thought that the email was even required.

This morning I got 2 letters in the post about failed direct debits due to lack of funds. DDs were called for on 1st September, and they're wanting 2 X £15 charges.

Does this seem right to you?

eskbanker

What did you expect to happen with the direct debits? Unless you arranged with the companies concerned to pull them from a different account then they'd try to take them via the existing mandates with N&P - a bit late now but you could have used the Current Account Switching Service to shift DDs for you and this would have closed everything down in an orderly fashion, provided you were switching to a bank accepting such switches from N&P (who aren't full members of the scheme).

Did you receive a letter from N&P with all the specific details of exactly how and when your account would be closed, and what you needed to do, or was it the more general notification issued earlier in the year? Do they say you can close accounts by email?

Edit: at the risk of pre-empting your answers, were you aware that they backtracked on the August deadline and promised to give all customers six months notice of the actual date for their accounts to close, rather than trying to deal with everyone by one fixed date? See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5663536

z1a

eskbanker wrote: »

What did you expect to happen with the direct debits? Unless you arranged with the companies concerned to pull them from a different account then they'd try to take them via the existing mandates with N&P - a bit late now but you could have used the Current Account Switching Service to shift DDs for you and this would have closed everything down in an orderly fashion, provided you were switching to a bank accepting such switches from N&P (who aren't full members of the scheme).

Did you receive a letter from N&P with all the specific details of exactly how and when your account would be closed, and what you needed to do, or was it the more general notification issued earlier in the year? Do they say you can close accounts by email?

Couldn't use switching service N&P aren't in the scheme, moved to Halifax, and had to switch individual DDs.
N&P said all current account would be closed after last day of August.

YorkshireBoy

z1a wrote: »

Couldn't use switching service N&P aren't in the scheme, moved to Halifax, and had to switch individual DDs.

Did Halifax offer a 'partial switch' service (they ask N&P for a list of DDs/SOs/Bill Payments and you authorise them), as all banks did pre-CASS? Or did you contact your DD originators yourself?

eskbanker

Looks like you were posting while I edited mine, but it sounds like you were relying on the generic advance info rather than anything more specific or recent?

Anyway, if you shifted DDs to your new account (in sufficient time) but the companies concerned tried to take them from your old account then you should be able to claim the consequential charges from those two companies for failing to update their records.

z1a

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Did Halifax offer a 'partial switch' service (they ask N&P for a list of DDs/SOs/Bill Payments and you authorise them), as all banks did pre-CASS? Or did you contact your DD originators yourself?

No, they didn't offer any sort of switching service.
Also, when I said I confirmed closure of N&P account by email, I mean via their secure messaging service, which was acknowledged, ans a reply given that any credits to the account would be automatically transferred to Halifax account.

EarthBoy

I believe the DD process takes three working days, i.e. the originator asks your bank for the money three days before it actually leaves your account. If you only emailed N&P on 31 August asking them to close your account, the DDs due on 1 September would already be in progress and it would be too late to stop them.

z1a

EarthBoy wrote: »

I believe the DD process takes three working days, i.e. the originator asks your bank for the money three days before it actually leaves your account. If you only emailed N&P on 31 August asking them to close your account, the DDs due on 1 September would already be in progress and it would be too late to stop them.

Yes, I agree, but as far as I was aware, my bank account should have ceased to exist by 1st Sep. because N&P were closing accounts regardless of my request.

veryintrigued

I'll be leaving my account open until the New Year I.e. six months after they advised me that it was going to be closed in six months!

z1a

All worked out in the end, after another message from me they closed account immediately and cancelled any charges.