Very poor treatment by Natwest - what to do.

conura

Hi all,
I'm looking for advice about what to do regarding my recent interactions with Natwest. I'm sorry it's so long but I'd really appreciate advice about what to do.

I recently moved into a new flat and had to pay a rental deposit of just over £4025.33. I was told by the agent if the amount cleared by 5pm I could move in that Friday night. At Natwest the person behind the counter told me they had no idea whether or not the receiving bank (Barclays) would receive a normal payment, so recommended that I either A: walk to Barclays and ask them, or B: pay a chaps fee to have it sent same day. I was anxious to move into the new place so paid the fee, without realising this was not required at all. The bank teller was rude and unprofessional, however I let this go because I just wanted things finished.

Come 5pm the agent phoned me to confirm the amount hadn't been sent and I couldn't move in. I paid for an airbnb and phoned Natwest again the next day.

The following day I got through to customer service who confirmed the CHAPS payment had bee cancelled due to missing information on the form. the CHAPS team had tried to contact the branch but received no reply. She assured me the CHAPS payment had been cancelled, and so I made the payment direct over the phone. The money left my account and I presumed that was the end of it. I extended by airbnb stay and the agent confirmed I could move in Tuesday.

The following Wednesday, a mystery amount of £4050.33 appeared on my account as an international payment. This amount put my deep into my overdraft (I'm quite young and don't have a lot of savings yet).

I phoned Natwest and they passed me between teams denying responsibility for an hour until eventually getting through to the Fraud team. They said they had no idea what the payment was (though it was odd it was so close to the genuine deposit payment), and said they would mark it as fraud and refund me in full, and the amount would be back in my account the following day.

The amount never arrived - I phoned up again and re-explained the entire story. I was once again passed between teams for 45 minutes. The payment details had updated on the statement and they confirmed it wasn't fraud, but instead an unauthorised transaction most likely due to a clerical error in branch. On this basis they had cancelled the Fraud refund (and not told me) but also not taken further action in terms of repaying me. They said the branch most likely panicked about the failed payment, went to re-action it, but got the amount wrong (hence £4050.33, rather than 4025.33).

I gave them the full details of the estate agents they had wrongly sent money to, and they assured me the funds would be back in my account by the end of the day. This was 5 days ago.

The funds never came through, so I phoned them the next day and spoke to customer service. Customer service said they had no idea what was going on, and due to it being the weekend couldn't do anything anyway. At this point I was living off my AMEX, as I still am. After another 40 minutes of being passed around I cracked and said put me through to complaints.

The complaints team were much better and seemed to have a more detailed understanding of everything, but were still unable to do anything as it was the weekend. They asked me a lot of questions about any financial loss I had suffered as a result. They confirmed that I -may- get the money back Monday (today - though it hasn't arrived), and if not to phone them.

At this stage I've really become quite stressed. In the past two weeks not only have I paid well over £5000 for a new flat costs and deposit, they've incorrectly removed £4050.33. I still have no idea when I'll get the money back, and Christmas has certainly had a huge impact due to this. Natwest seem to have very little interest at all in the fact I've had this amount taken a week before Christmas.

In total financially I've lost:
£4050.33 in rent payment
£240 in airbnb (£60per night for 4 nights)
£260 in lost rent (rent was paid from the Friday though I couldn't move in as funds hadn't cleared)
Costs of eating out due to not having a kitchen
Phone and time costs of spending over 4 hours to Natwest being passed around.
Amex interest costs
Overdraft costs

The complaint is currently with their 'complex complaints' team and I have no idea when I'll get the money back. Probably not before the New Year now so they'll have had the money for at least 2 weeks.

Can anyone advise me to what do? Is it likely to get compensation for this? I'm usually not much of a complainer but the treatment in this situation has been so appalling I would like to know what my options are.

scottishbank

I cannot give you much advice apart from logging a formal compliant. However the amount taken by the branch staff trying to take the payment again seems right to me as it includes £25 fee for the Chaps service.

pmduk

A link to their complaints procedure. As well as all your financial losses, don't forget to mention your ruined Christmas.

Terry_Towelling

Did you not consider talking to the agent about the extra payment that had presumably gone into their accounts? That might be the quickest way to get your money back. You can then continue your claim for out-of-pocket costs with NatWest for their probable errors.

Others will probably tell you, it's a bank error, so the banks should sort it - fair enough. I say, you do what you can to get the money back as soon as you can - pursue all angles.

agrinnall

I was told by the agent if the amount cleared by 5pm I could move in that Friday night. At Natwest the person behind the counter told me they had no idea whether or not the receiving bank (Barclays) would receive a normal payment, so recommended that I either A: walk to Barclays and ask them, or B: pay a chaps fee to have it sent same day. I was anxious to move into the new place so paid the fee, without realising this was not required at all. The bank teller was rude and unprofessional, however I let this go because I just wanted things finished.

What you were told was correct, no other payment method than CHAPS guarantees a same day arrival. A Faster Payment is very likely to get there the same day but has until the end of the next business day to arrive without breaching the payment directives. Unfortunately there have then been a catalogue of errors that meant the CHAPS timescales were not met, which is where your complaint needs to focus.

jonesMUFCforever

Won't a lot depend on what details were incorrect and who provided the details and what details were inputted by by the branch?

Flobberchops

As JonesMUFC - which CHAPS details were missing, whose fault was that, and why didn't that result in the payments team calling you to query?


Aside from that it seems to be a real comedy of errors and interdepartmental inefficiency leading to a very poor experience for you during a critical time (and around Christmas, no less) so in my opinion you would qualify for some kind of goodwill payment regardless of who was initially in the wrong. See what their complaints team say and take it from there.

micky2phones

Hi, you just have to wait and see what happens, try and put to the back of your mind until xmas and maybe new year is over.

If you cant put it to the back of your mind then look up other cases to get some idea of what nat west/ banks pay out for mistakes like yours