Charges

welshwizard1

Quick history:
In 2009 I already had a Basic Bank account with Natwest - Basic because I had been out of work some time.
I secured employment in Sept 2009 and went to Natwest to arrange a small overdraft to help me cope with the switch from fortnightly benefits to monthly salary. Natwest told me that the only way I would get an overdraft was to open an Advantage Gold account - which I did. Obviously there was the monthly fee.
Moving on to 2015 Natwest switch me to a Select Platinum account - again with a monthly fee. I thought nothing of this as I’d been happy with the service.
Recently (October 2019) I discovered that I may be able to re lain these account fees because of the way I was sold the account. I applied through Resolver and today received a letter from Natwest rejecting my complaint. I’ve now escalated to the Ombudsman.
Does anyone have experience of these circumstances and could they provide any information on the likelihood of a positive outcome please?
Thank you

[Deleted User]

welshwizard1 wrote: »

Quick history:
In 2009 I already had a Basic Bank account with Natwest - Basic because I had been out of work some time.
I secured employment in Sept 2009 and went to Natwest to arrange a small overdraft to help me cope with the switch from fortnightly benefits to monthly salary. Natwest told me that the only way I would get an overdraft was to open an Advantage Gold account - which I did. Obviously there was the monthly fee.
Moving on to 2015 Natwest switch me to a Select Platinum account - again with a monthly fee. I thought nothing of this as I’d been happy with the service.
Recently (October 2019) I discovered that I may be able to re lain these account fees because of the way I was sold the account. I applied through Resolver and today received a letter from Natwest rejecting my complaint. I’ve now escalated to the Ombudsman.
Does anyone have experience of these circumstances and could they provide any information on the likelihood of a positive outcome please?
Thank you

If you were happy with the service why would you reclaim the fees?

welshwizard1

Quite simply, because of the way the account was sold to me - I.e. the only way to get the overdraft was to have a fee bearing account.

welshwizard1

And I was only asking for information here not to justify myself. Thank you for taking the time to respond though - this used to be a friendly community.

[Deleted User]

welshwizard1 wrote: »

And I was only asking for information here not to justify myself. Thank you for taking the time to respond though - this used to be a friendly community.

It still is, I asked a reasonable question based on information you gave freely, take the heckles down

[Deleted User]

Did you make use of the services provided that came with the fee?

If so then you have no grounds for a claim.

eskbanker

welshwizard1 wrote: »

Natwest told me that the only way I would get an overdraft was to open an Advantage Gold account - which I did.

There would undoubtedly have been other accounts with overdraft facilities and no monthly fee, but that's not the test, you need to prove that you were eligible for them and that they'd have offered you one.

The MSE reclaiming article hints at this conundrum:

7. You were told it was the only way to get an overdraft

Many have told us that they went to their bank to ask for an overdraft, but were told the only way they could get one was to get the packaged bank account.

It's a fine line, as sometimes the packaged accounts do have higher maximum overdrafts than normal, 'free' accounts. But, if other accounts that allowed overdrafts at the level you wanted were available, you could have been mis-sold.

In terms of your prospects for appealing to FOS, what are the specific grounds on which your claim was rejected? Given the increased amount of publicity about this in more recent years, are they perhaps relying on having given you plenty of information about charges and alternatives in 2015 when switching products, as this would allow them to reject the claim on timebarring grounds?

jonesMUFCforever

Not sure when it first started but I think ALL banks send out an annual letter to customers with paid for accounts to make sure that they are still suitable for their customers.
If OP did not read or react to one of these I can see why they would reject a claim now.
I have had one from at least 2016.

Thrugelmir

welshwizard1 wrote: »

Quite simply, because of the way the account was sold to me - I.e. the only way to get the overdraft was to have a fee bearing account.

Providing overdraft facilities costs banks money even if unused.

You could have declined the account and found an alternative way of getting by.

SonOf

Does anyone have experience of these circumstances and could they provide any information on the likelihood of a positive outcome please?

The FOS only uphold around 1 in 10 Packaged bank account complaints. So, statistically, do not expect success.

I applied through Resolver and today received a letter from Natwest rejecting my complaint.

Why did they reject it?

Many PBA complaints are timebarred now. Was that the reason?

because of the way the account was sold to me - I.e. the only way to get the overdraft was to have a fee bearing account.

A number of PBAs gave better terms on overdrafts than the non PBAs. So, that reason may actually be a valid one for rejection rather than success on a complaint.