Can Anyone Help?

badwolf23

After being with my bank for over 20 yrs, I have now finished working to look after my family and therefore took the decision to move all my direct debits to my joint account with my husband. I informed our bank of the details and left it with them to deal, I also informed my own bank of my intentions. However, my old bank continued to try & draw all my direct debits from my old bank account, which obviously I was no longer using or having my tax credits paid in. This resulted in 6 of my direct debits being rejected, at a cost of £35 a time; they also charged me each time for being overdrawn at £20 a time (I have never had an overdraft). I did pay some money into the account to cover some of the direct debits that couldn't be moved in time but I am now looking at an overdrawn balance of nearly £200, with additional charges of £20 a month being applied.
I wrote to the Abbey to complain, but they have replied with a standard letter stating that as their charges are awaiting the review by the High Court, they are unable to deal with individual cases and this could be ongoing for over a year. I could therefore be looking at another 12 months or more of £20 monthly charges.
As I am no longer working, I cannot possibly afford to pay off this debt in full and then try and reclaim the charges at a later date but I am worried if I just do nothing, my credit rating will be affected and the debt will continue to mount. ANY ADVICE ANYONE PLEASE???

shooter

Write to them stating that these charges are a result of their failure to act on your instructions and they are to refund the charges forthwith or you will seek restitution via the courts.
They cannot use the TEST case as an excuse for not refunding you as you are not reclaiming under the utccr as the rest of us are but because of the banks failure

Good Luck and hopefully some one more experienced will be along to say if I'm right or wrong

These are only my own thoughts and I could be wrong

Primrose

it would certainly seem that the charges which have arisen are due to the bank's incompetence in following your instructions to close your account in a timely way. I would therefore suggest writing to them to say you want to resolve this within 14 days under their own Complaints Procedure but as the charges are being incurred as a result of their negligence, you will refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman if you cannot reach agreement. There are also two excellent financial columns in the Money Sections of the Sunday Times and the Saturday Daily Telegraph who might also be able to intervene on your behalf and get some common sense to prevail. These two excellent journalists have taken up many readers' complaints with financial institutions in the past and got good results for them.

lindilou39

thing is..did they put it in writing to close down the DD,s..some cannot be closed in writing to the bank...some dd payments are set up using a debit card..maybe online or over the phone...these cannot be cancelled through the bank, they have to be cancelled by your method of set up.

bengal-stripe

badwolf23 wrote: »

However, my old bank continued to try & draw all my direct debits from my old bank account, which obviously I was no longer using or having my tax credits paid in.

It is not the bank (either old or new) that "draws" Direct Debits. It's the beneficiary, the company you have the contract with, that calls them in. Did you advise them of your change in banking arrangements? They will need a certain time span, to change their computers. A DD goes out several working days, before it is drawn from your account. (It's like a tanker, it can't turn around instantly.)

Unlike Standing Orders, which are sent out from your bank account, Direct Debits are called in.