Advice please! Natwest Bank Charges

morpheus73

Hi there,

I'm not sure if this has been covered, I did search but couldn't find anything so please excuse me if this is a repeat.

I am a self-employed single dad, working as long and as hard as time will allow. I am a sole trader and set up my bank account with Natwest some 20 years ago. Just recently I have had nothing but problems with Natwest.

It is a small business account (or whatever they advised was best for me 20 years ago). My turnover is very modest, I never operate in debit, never had an overdraft facility, never made any use of their business tools, business advisors- my needs are very basic, nearly all of my transactions are electronic now, with the odd occasion I may need to withdraw £30-£40 pounds. In a bid to reduce my outgoings further, I no longer receive paper statements and haven't done for 4 years now, everything is online or app-based. I am a songwriter so most of my income is paid by royalties into my account (i've never paid cash into the account), in fact they shut all my local branches, but I digress...

I have always been charged for having the account, always per month, and the average fee has been around £3.75. As is the way this time of year I have been preparing my accounts for my accountant and I noticed my back charges have increased well over 10 fold! All my transactions, direct debits, standing orders are the same- I use my account no differently to what I did 3 years ago (or 10 for that matter). My yearly charges were around £45- Ive just completed my accounts for 2017-18 and the yearly charge is now over £500! I assumed the figures I saw on my app were cash withdrawels- I didnt imagine for a second they were charges. The charge seemed to change in November, I received no notification at all. I am currently awaiting a call from their complaints dept.

Has anyone else had experience of this? I would welcome feedback on best way to proceed with getting those charges back.

eskbanker

Perhaps worth reviewing your charges (at a transactional level) versus their published tariff at https://beta.natwest.com/content/dam/natwest/business/current-accounts/documents/NW_summarised_business_account_charges%20.pdf

That's dated July 2016, which suggests that they haven't made any changes since then, so check some transactions both before and after November to get to the bottom of exactly what's different....

dunstonh

Ive just completed my accounts for 2017-18 and the yearly charge is now over £500!

Banks provide a monthly breakdown of your charges. With yours being online, you should see it each month. Normally issued with the statement.

From there, you should be able to see what has created the increase in fees.

I received no notification at all.

With paperless banking, you wouldnt get a paper notification (although sometimes banks do paper and electronic when its a major change). Check your online banking.

I would welcome feedback on best way to proceed with getting those charges back.

What makes you think you can get them back?

The first thing to do is identify what is causing the charge.

Electronic tariffs are normally very cheap (£6pm or thereabouts). If you use the counter service though, it jumps in cost.

You can also contact the bank to discuss with that bank manager you have chosen not to use before the best bank account for your needs.

morpheus73

dunstonh wrote: »

Banks provide a monthly breakdown of your charges. With yours being online, you should see it each month. Normally issued with the statement.

There is no detailed breakdown. When expanded, it just says 'charges'. So no way whatsoever to see where the increase is.

dunstonh wrote: »

With paperless banking, you wouldnt get a paper notification (although sometimes banks do paper and electronic when its a major change). Check your online banking.

No record of any increase, either paper or email.

dunstonh wrote: »

What makes you think you can get them back?

My charges have increased per month by over 1000% (that isn't a typo!) without any breakdown or notification. Surely this would be a breach of their code of conduct?

dunstonh wrote: »

Electronic tariffs are normally very cheap (£6pm or thereabouts). If you use the counter service though, it jumps in cost.

I do not use any counter services at all. All my banking is entirely electronic.

I am receiving a call from Natwest tomorrow, hopefully I will get to the bottom of this, get refunded then find decent bank that actually values it's customers.

Interestingly enough, I have spoken to a number of people with natwest business accounts, all in my line of work and none of them have experienced an increase in bank charges in line with what I have.

Thanks for your help!