unauthorised payment

brianfaescotland

good day i would like to ask advice about a payment that has went out my NatWest current account, sorry i have ms and may not make sense at bit but bare with me please.
so my son 22 is in student accom with liberty living and recently has fell in to debt as many students have, buthe wants to do all himself regarding money etc anyway, today i found out that £1071 was taken out my account which is max'd out my overdraft but i called bank to ask and found it was liberty that took it and i requested to stop this payment but bank says i have to contact them. I did so and they were far from being helpful and guy said if i can make my son pay what is due then they will give me my money back, i stated i was not the debtor nor was i the guarantor. i asked how they could take the money and was told my card details were on his account but that was on temporarily due to having to book his room and he had lost his card and that was months ago. i said but i haven't authorised this payment you haven't called me or written to me about this and was told that they didn't have to as details were on file,
I am not sure where i stand although its my son he is a adult and wants to deal with things i am on disability benefit and this has taken all i had and some.
the bank says it looks like i authorised it as they had my card details but i feel this is wrong i feel i am not due the money in any way. can someone help?

agrinnall

You should, in the first instance, go back to your bank and tell them in no uncertain terms that you did not authorise the transaction and that you expect the money back in your account asap. If they don't do that then invoke their complaints procedure:

https://personal.natwest.com/personal/support-centre/how-to-complain.html

You can also look into whether you can get extra help from them because of your MS:

https://personal.natwest.com/global/accessibility.html

The downside is that if your son doesn't pay his debt then he'll probably be evicted and may end up with a trashed credit record. But that's all his problem, not yours, and if he says he wants to deal with it then that's what he should do.

eskbanker

brianfaescotland wrote: »

was told my card details were on his account but that was on temporarily due to having to book his room and he had lost his card and that was months ago. i said but i haven't authorised this payment you haven't called me or written to me about this and was told that they didn't have to as details were on file

The Ts & Cs may have changed since your card was used (check exactly what you signed up to) but their current ones suggest that the card can be used for future payments as well as the initial one-off deposit:

3.1 When You complete Your Booking, You are agreeing to submit an up-front payment for the processing of Your Booking, which also acts as the deposit paid by You in relation to the AST ("Booking Fee"), and to authorise the future payment of instalments in relation to the rent payable under the AST ("Future Payments").

[...]

3.5 You confirm that the credit/debit card that is being used is Yours or that You have the authority of the card-holder to make the payments set out at clause 3.1 using that credit/debit card.

brianfaescotland

yip i looked at that but surely that is only if linked to the account by being guarantor or the student? they were well aware i used my card as payment as he had lost his and was waiting for another one but they wanted payment straight away to confirm booking

Zanderman

brianfaescotland wrote: »

yip i looked at that but surely that is only if linked to the account by being guarantor or the student? they were well aware i used my card as payment as he had lost his and was waiting for another one but they wanted payment straight away to confirm booking

I don't think that matters. What matters is they have details of a card authorised to use in their t&c, as quoted by Eskbanker.

Unless you explicitly told them to remove that card it will be on their system as an authorised card.

They won't have a special system for students's relative's cards. Just one system. Which regards any card as authorised until instructed otherwise. And your card is on it. Authorised.

At least that's how I read it. In which case I have every sympathy but you may not have a case. Unless you did expressly ask them to delete the card after that one use.

Wizardy18

Call the bank, commence Visa Chargeback proceedings.

You'll be refunded; then await to see if the other party can provide proof they were entitled to remove the money.

Either way, you won't lose anything more, and most likely will win the dispute.

brianfaescotland

thanks for all the help i decided to go to the top and asked the ceo to look in to this as i felt it was unfair and i got email back in the evening and the following day at just after 9am i had email stating the money is being refunded and today it appeared back in my account which is great thanks for all your help and it is well worth asking the person at top to look in to the practices lower down.

Sparx

OP you know this is not the last you will hear of this - right? All you've done is gone to the top, got a knee-jerk reaction of "do what the customer wants" so a chargeback has been claimed. But that's not the end and case closed...

They can dispute your chargeback once they have been notified, then your bank may debit the funds from your account again. Permitting they can prove it was taken with permission and in accordance with their T&Cs...

EDIT: Don't forget the root cause of the problem... Your son has rent arrears presumably?

jonesMUFCforever

Whether they challenge it or not OP you need to NOW revoke any further payments to this organisation.
If it was a direct debit - cancel it if it was a CPA - again cancel it with the bank and the organisation.

agrinnall

Sparx wrote: »

OP you know this is not the last you will hear of this - right? All you've done is gone to the top, got a knee-jerk reaction of "do what the customer wants" so a chargeback has been claimed. But that's not the end and case closed...

They can dispute your chargeback once they have been notified, then your bank may debit the funds from your account again. Permitting they can prove it was taken with permission and in accordance with their T&Cs...

You might be right, but what we don't know is whether the OP went to the CEO of NatWest or Liberty, and which organisation has refunded the money. If it was NatWest then what you say could happen, but if it was Liberty then it should be the end of the matter for the OP (although of course the son still owes the money, as you point out).

brianfaescotland

thanks just to say liberty refunded it and i have asked bank to make no further payments to them if asked they also suggested i change my card thanks again