Just lost my rag on phone! What can I do?

angel31572

Around 8th October, I was really ill. I had a serious asthma attack and I was struggling to get over it for a few days. Because of this, a few things slipped my mind. I forgot about two DDs coming out and didn't get to the bank until later in the day. I paid in £110, which more than covered the DDs. They wrote to me on Friday to say they are charging £70. I am furious. I called them to discuss it but they were so aloof and smug that i lost my temper. Do I have any hope of getting it back and does changing your bank account affect your credit rating?

MABLE

angel31572 wrote: »

Around 8th October, I was really ill. I had a serious asthma attack and I was struggling to get over it for a few days. Because of this, a few things slipped my mind. I forgot about two DDs coming out and didn't get to the bank until later in the day. I paid in £110, which more than covered the DDs. They wrote to me on Friday to say they are charging £70. I am furious. I called them to discuss it but they were so aloof and smug that i lost my temper. Do I have any hope of getting it back and does changing your bank account affect your credit rating?

With respect you definately should not have lost your cool with them. No doubt according to their terms and conditions they had every right to charge you the fees. I would certainly give them a ring again but this time apologise for the error you made and tell them the reason why. I'm sure with a far different approach they would be willing to meet you halfway if not give the full amount back.

If you had good service from them in the past why change. However if you do decide the bank you apply to will certainly do a credit search but provided you have not had more than say 3 in a six month period this should not affect your credit rating very much.

Good luck!

angel31572

MABLE wrote: »

With respect you definately should not have lost your cool with them. No doubt according to their terms and conditions they had every right to charge you the fees. I would certainly give them a ring again but this time apologise for the error you made and tell them the reason why. I'm sure with a far different approach they would be willing to meet you halfway if not give the full amount back.

If you had good service from them in the past why change. However if you do decide the bank you apply to will certainly do a credit search but provided you have not had more than say 3 in a six month period this should not affect your credit rating very much.

Good luck!

Thanks but i did not go on with an attitude. I did apologise and explained that it was an error which I regret. I told them that I did not expect them to pay for my mistake but £70 was excessive. I paid the money in on the same day. when they got sniffy and condescending I told them that their attitude was infuriating and reprehensible. They refused point blank to discuss it with me. So, them refunding in full was never an option.

bathgatebuyer

You have my sympathies - I certainly had a ding-dong of a slanging match with someone at the Halifax who phoned me up the day before the refunded me £3.8K in charges insisting that I make a payment of £7 to my overdraft. I told him that I'd had a letter from Customer Services saying they would be refunding that money to my account, and he said,"Is that just a story, BB? Have you got any proof?" to which my response was a bit less than kind! I thought everything was resolved with them and the lack of communication between their Customer Services and Collections teams was so poor, my rag was definitely lost!!!

Money is such a personal thing - emotional even. I know that at times I've considered ending things because of the deep financial problems I once had. People phoning me up and being cheeky (which is what that was - surely not part of their training!) about mney and making threats about defaulting me when Customer Services had acknowledged a full and final settlement of a good few thousand did nothing for my stress.

Don't feel bad about getting angry. Yes, these guys are just doing their jobs, but there are ways and means to deal with customers, and sometimes they forget that even in debt, you are still a customer.

angel31572

bathgatebuyer - thank you very much for the understanding reply. I am just so annoyed at having to pay £70 for getting the money into my account a little bit late - and the circumstances were extenuating. Anyway, as I said to them, their policies stink and we, the faceless customers, have to accept it.

mum2one

all you can do is write a letter, using the template from MSE reclaim bank charges, miss out the letter asking for info, at the moment with the bank charges saga being in court system, banks are using it as an open license to do what they want when they want,

if you get the letter to them, obviously your get the standard letter, "its not our fault, .... waiting for outcome", method in my madness, as its pretty likely the banks are going to have their hands tied with a maximum charge, and you think of the people who will be then jumping on the band wagon, when the rest of us have had to fight tooth and nail, at least your letter will be nearer the top of the file, not the bottom!! x

globalds

If you are prepared to move banks ,then you may be able to use this as a negotiating tool .
No gaurantees they will feel you are worth negotiating with .But if you have been a good customer to them they may work to keep you .

angel31572

Update - I decided I had nothing to lose and wrote a polite letter to the manager, outlining my disappointment and indicating that I was considering closing my account. I got a reply (very brief) yesterday saying they are prepared to waive the charges - on this occasion.

The underdog wins!

Horace

Well done angel that's fab news.