Moving house and changing banks

simmian

I want to ask a hypothetical question.

Lets say that we have Bob who lived in Brecon for 4 years and he banks with First Direct for around the same amount of time. He has to move back to Merseyside (his home town) due to family reasons. He decides that he also wants to change banks because of there charges. He contacts Nationwide and they tell him yes you can join we will take care of everything and dont worry. He tells First Direct that he wants to close his bank account and destroys his old bank card. Nationwide send him out a new card, he checks his account and everything seems to be in order. He moves back to Merseyside. 3 weeks after moving he gets a letter from his pet insurance saying that his direct debit was refused by the bank. S**t he thinks. He checks and the direct debit was missed. He contacts his pet insurance and explains and gives them the new Nationwide details. In the meantime his old bank First Direct send a letter saying that a unauthorised direct debit was made and they are going to issue a fee. Only thing is Bob does not receive the letter, because he has moved and no longer banks with them. They issue another penalty. Bob is unaware because he no longer banks with First Direct. So how would he avoided the scenario? I know there are some people on here that are holier than though and would suggest leave a forwarding address, but not all people will forward letters on especially if you live in a flat that was mostly occupied by unemployed drunks. At what point would Bob stop contacting his old bank, he had no reason to give them his new address and it does not state this in any of the terms and conditions. He told First Direct that he wanted to leave so as far as he was aware he had no reason to contact them as he was with Nationwide and informed his pet insurance who updated there records

Dobbibill

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and it's easy to become holier than though when looking through that lense.

Bob may have been better to do a switch to NW using CASS but as I said above hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Bob now needs to contact FD and explain the situation - if they confirmed the account would be shut, can they explain why this hasn't happened. (nicely.....Bob always gets better results when he asks nicely )
Bob then needs to ask FD if they are able to waive the charges as a good will gesture as there has been some miscommunication between Bob & FD.

Please wish Bob all the best from me

[Deleted User]

I suppose the moral of the story is always pay the post office to redirect mail for at least 3 months, it doesn't cost a fortune and means you don't have to leave a forwarding address.

sourcrates

Do what post #2# suggests.

First Direct are not number one for customer service without good reason, they were always more than fair whenever i had any issues about there service, but they are not mind readers, so Bob needs to contact them and explain himself.