NatWest stopped a payment

k2406

I have Poa on my father’s NatWest accounts. He had a current account and savings accounts. Last month I attempted to pay a bill on online banking for less than £200 and was unable to make the payment but was referred to the fraud department of the bank. Incidentally before this there was a direct debit set up to the same company. After much faffing the payment was made and the person I spoke to said there were 2 mobile numbers on the account I informed her that one was an old number from several years ago and asked her to update the account. 

A couple of weeks later when I tried to make another payment the via online banking I received a confirmation  the code would be sent to was my old number so I could not complete the payment. I was advised to re-register for online banking but again I could not do so as the phone number was wrong so I could not retrieve the verification code.  I called in the branch, they said they could update the phone number on the account but I would need to wait for the access code to be posted to me before I could  register for online banking again.
While all this was going on I needed to make a payment to make a deposit on an apartment my Father was buying with his Sister. I didn’t have a cheque book on his account so made a from my own funds.
Last week I  set up the online banking again and made a transfer from my Fathers account to my account. The payment left his account but did not credit mine. I called the telephone banking number to query the whereabouts of the payment. When I finally managed to get through spoke to a very rude person who told me my query was not urgent and they were only taking calls from customers without money or food!!!

I went into the local branch yesterday and was without even asking for any account details told me as the payment had left Natwest there was nothing they could do, said my bank would have the payment in a suspense account and I should speak to them. I phoned my bank and explained the situation and they were astounded that Natwest had been so unhelpful and suggested that I call them again.

What followed was an immensely frustrating hour of being passed from pillar to post before I finally got through to someone in their Fraud department who said that the payment had been held for suspected fraud. I told them to cancel the payment and put the money back into my Fathers account. Was informed that they couldn’t do that until I called at a branch with photo I.D. I told them it was a joke and that I would be closing the accounts. Asked why no-one had bothered to call me regarding the payment and that I considered their service to be appalling. I have opened new accounts at another bank and will be calling at the branch tomorrow to transfer all funds out of the accounts which total around £20k.

BTW when I tried to log into the online banking last night they have removed my access to the current account I can only see the savings account balances.

I am astounded by this banks attitude, if the payment was to a new payee I could understand it but I was already set up on the account. Their customer service is non existent and their staff are extremely unhelpful and rude. I wouldn’t recommend that anyone banks with Natwest and will be recommending to anyone that I know that they bank elsewhere. My Father has banked with Natwest for over 40 years, his new bank couldn’t be more helpful and I don’t need to bother with online banking which will be great.
Does anyone have any similar experience of anything like this?

eskbanker

Not condoning unhelpfulness or rudeness in any way but it does seem likely that there will be another side to this story, given your admission that you "told them it was a joke" and "considered their service to be appalling", plus other hints about your attitude in dealing with them, so I can't imagine them being distraught that you'll be moving elsewhere.  It's hardly their fault that there were multiple mobile numbers registered (something you should be able to update in online banking) and anti-fraud measures for all banks aren't as simplistic and predictable as you seem to imagine, so if your expectation is that no payments to existing payees should ever be held then chances are you'll be in for further future disappointments....

k2406

The only phone number registered online until last month was the one I gave them 2 years ago,  I don’t know how they got my old mobile number unless my Father gave it to them for some reason as I have not banked with them for over 20 years which was pre mobile phones. For your information I used to work for Natwest at the branch where my Fathers account is held so most of the few remaining branch staff do know me.  I already said I was unable to change the the phone number as I had no online access to the account......
All of this does not excuse not being informed they could not process the payment and refusing to investigate when I went into the branch and when I called by telephone, I don’t think there are many
People that would be happy to either wait on the phone for an hour nor to be told it wasn’t an important
matter.

Thrugelmir

k2406 said:

People that would be happy to either wait on the phone for an hour nor to be told it wasn’t an important
matter.

Have you missed the news entirely recently? Bank call staff are under enormous pressure. 

soulsaver

If they're under enormous pressure they should consider taking some of the idiosyncrasies they employ out of the equation. 

born_again

>> For your information I used to work for Natwest  <<

In that case you will fully understand their procedures and exactly why they are in place.

There is nothing worse than sat there looking at calls waiting for over a hour to be told by a customer... DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN WAITING.
Yes I know exactly how long you've been waiting. Now lets get down to you issue... Yet they still rant on, totally forgetting that other people are waiting🤦‍♂️
They then want to raise a complaint because they had to wait so long, causing.. Yes you guessed it even longer delays...

Please remember that it is another human being on the end of the phone doing a very stressful job at this time. Many people ringing are simply calling to ask for balances or move some money that could be done via other means.
As it is at the moment, there is no way to employ more staff. So as staff go off to self isolate. It is not a case of one staff member, it can take a whole bank of up to 12 people with them for 7 days if they were showing any symptoms.