Times article: "Student wins claim over bank charges"

richiethekid

With Natwest, they charge £35 for each unpaid direct debit or standing order, but they only bother to notify you the first time. Surely, if the charge is to cover the cost of "the work involved" (as they put it), it should be slightly less the second time around, as sending out a letter (albeit a poxy computer-generated one) is part of the work involved? I'm not sure whether to point this out to them or not. I don't really want to go to court for the sake of £35, but I might take it that far if it happens again.

dchurch24

It's a very good point, and one that I intended to use in court, and still will. Amoungst others :-)

Just FYI, I received a letter from Abbey yesterday, signed by a chap called Allen Betts. In the letter it said to call them now. I did, they were closed. It was 7pm. Their letterhead states that they are open until 9pm.
I phoned and asked to talk to Allen Betts this morning, and was told that he doesn't speak to customers.

Wow. Imagine that! After all, customers only pay his wages.

Frontera2

M_Thomson wrote:

Again, you would be responsible for checking the balance of your bank account to make sure that you have enough money in your account. Every account wether with or without an overdraft has a shadow limit of which the bank will pay a transaction. I am sure you would be the first to moan if the bank declined it! If you don't like paying £28 then check your account before doing a transaction!

This is correct, as far as I can make out customers with HSBC have an "unadvised" limit which is set at a level higher than any agreed overdraft facility. Hence HSBC have often continued to pay items even though it would exceed my od limit. However, and I will be in the minority here, I don't object per-se to paying the charge as a) I know about the charges incurred and b) it's my own fault that I haven't been able to manage my money properly. Although it's at a very high price admittedly, the Bank has actually helped me in the past by paying items as opposed to bouncing them.

Thankfully those days are past me now though :-)

HGLTsuperstar

BUMP! Keeping this thread alive

dltbgyd1

We all lead busy lives and it is so easy to miss a direct debit due to go out of your account (like when you are on holiday as I was). I went £6 overdrawn with an Abbey current account and they wanted to charge me £30 for the pleasure.

Phoned Abbey (Bombay! I'm sure Bombay is a very nice place but the line was a bit faint, and it took three attempts to understand the account numbers) was told by a very abrupt woman that I should know how my account works, (true but who has time to read all the small print?) threatened to close all my accounts (including savings) she said well that is up to you!! Called customr service, and they wanted to know everything that had gone out of my account recently (a bit extreme had my birthdate, my mother's maiden name etc etc etc), "I'll just have a look on my account online" I said, "No I'm sorry you can't do that", (patience exhausted by now), "you'll have to go into your branch". Five mile drive there and back "No we can't do anything" they said "all done via the call centres".

Total rubbish, after standing my ground, (took about 10mins), threatened to move my accounts after being an account holder since 1974, discussion about lack of customer service, no personal service, inability to be flexible sometimes, use of common sense (theirs), and near fraudulent charges by the banks, the charge was reversed and put down as Customer Care. Well done to the girl in the branch.

Wake up Abbey, I'm surfing the web for a better deal, and I think many of your customers will be doing the same.

HGLTsuperstar

Firstly Bombay is not a nice place (Delhi is much nicer!)
Secondly, some of us are unable, yet desire, to leave Abbey until manage (by pulling belts in too anorexic proportions!) to "pay back" these accumulated charges as "owe them money"

pin

HGLTsuperstar wrote:

Firstly Bombay is not a nice place (Delhi is much nicer!)
Secondly, some of us are unable, yet desire, to leave Abbey until manage (by pulling belts in too anorexic proportions!) to "pay back" these accumulated charges as "owe them money"

I beg to differ, I prefer Mumbai (not Bombay) over Dehli by a long way. It is a very subjective choice, everyone prefers different things.

HGLTsuperstar

Do you prefer to bank with the Abbey by any chance?

tempest42

Hi, Does anyone have a sample letter or link to a letter as the Halifax just charged me £79 for being 1 day late on an internet transfer that took three days from one account to the other despite both accounts being with them, It caused 2 DD's to be returned.
Rgs

Bossyboots

tempest42 wrote:

Hi, Does anyone have a sample letter or link to a letter as the Halifax just charged me £32 for being 1 day late on an internet transfer that took three days from one account to the other despite both accounts being with them.
Rgs

Here we are.

http://www.govanlc.com/pro-forma%20letter%20to%20bank.htm