advice on letter of complaint

hive42

I thought about posting this in the reclaiming bank charges forum but I am not sure this really fits

I have recently issued and resolved a complaint between nat west and cahoot banks due to an online payment for a credit card issued from the nat west to cahoot going astray and never making it to the credit card. It appeared to take cahoot 2 weeks to even take any action on the complaint but as soon as the financial ombusman was mentioned it was resolved in 24 hours

The problem occurred when a payment I made to my cahoot credit card in November of last year didn't make it. I noticed this when I looked at my statement in January and I appeared to still be paying the credit card back.

For some reason the complete details of the transfer were not given to cahoot which meant it wasn't processed correctly and sat in a holding account for more than 2 months.

In the mean time I was charged interest on the money on the credit card of at least about £50, potentially £75 depending on when the payment was issued compared to the November interest charge.

I would like to write a letter of complaint to cahoot to try and reclaim the interest which I should not of been charged but I am not sure the best way to go about it

any advice would be much appreciated

thanks

mountainofdebt

I must admit I am slightlyl confused.

If (as I understand it) the payment was made from your natwest card to Cahoot why is it cahoot's fault, if incomplete transfer details were given to them by natwest?

If anyone should pay you compensation, I would have thought it should have been Natwest.

mrsb2100_2

Best advice I can give you is: keep it to 4 paragraphs ...

1)

mrsb2100_2

I meant to say: 1) Open (I have had an account with you for x amount of years ...) 2) Information (The problem that I have is ...) 3) Action (If I do not hear from you in x days ... ) 4) End ... Would appreciate swift response blah blah blah.

I used to read letters from debtors many years ago - and the shorter they were, the quicker they got dealt with. As awful as it sounds, if they're too long and rambling, they will end up at the bottom of the pile - constantly!

Mark7799

hive42 wrote: »

For some reason the complete details of the transfer were not given to cahoot which meant it wasn't processed correctly and sat in a holding account for more than 2 months.


any advice would be much appreciated

thanks

Tracing this back to source, does this mean that the complete details were given to NatWest? If this is the case, shouldn't your complaint be against NatWest? If the complete details wren't given to NatWest, who gave them incomplete info?

hive42

Mark7799 wrote: »

Tracing this back to source, does this mean that the complete details were given to NatWest? If this is the case, shouldn't your complaint be against NatWest? If the complete details wren't given to NatWest, who gave them incomplete info?

I will be honest and say I don't know. It may be that the complaint should be against Natwest

I filled out Natwest's online form to make the payment and have no reason to believe it has been done incorrectly as at the time it all appeared to be processed correctly

From nat wests side they traced the transfer and said it was made by BACS and made it to cahoot but for some reason the reference information was incomplete so cahoot didn't have enough information to apply it to the correct account whether this id down to me mistyping the information or Natwest incorrectly applying the information is impossible now to tell as it was done 3 months ago online and unfortunately there is no record kept of what I actually typed

After receiving the money Cahoot, rather than send it back the account it came from or at least informing someone that the process hasn't gone as intended, just kept the money sat in a holding account for nearly 3 months making interest on it.

Once I had noticed the problem Nat west for the most part seemed very helpful in trying to sort the matter out Cahoot on the other hand seemed deeply uncooperative until bring the matter to the attention of the Ombudsman was brought up then the matter was resolved very quickly.

Unfortunately it would seem very difficult to work out exactly whose fault it is that this wasn't resolved sooner but Cahoot being that they charged me the interest, have undoubtable made money from the misdirected funds and were very unhelpful in solving the problem seem the people to complain too.

thanks

dunstonh

I will be honest and say I don't know. It may be that the complaint should be against Natwest

It may be that the complaint is against yourself

If you look at the process, you give the details to your bank. They set it up from the details you give them. If the details are correct, the money gets there. If the details are wrong, the money doesn't.

So, where in that chain did it fail?
1 - Did you give the right details to Natwest?
2 - Did Natwest use the correct details? - yes - then Cahoot is possibly at fault. If no, then natwest are

Cahoot being that they charged me the interest, have undoubtable made money from the misdirected funds and were very unhelpful in solving the problem seem the people to complain too.

There is little they can do. If money goes missing, the trace has to start at Natwest (assuming a mispost).

Think of it like this, when Cahoot get the money it is put into one of 500,000 pigeon holes. The choice is either to manually look at each pigeon hole or get Natwest to find out which pigeon hole they sent it to.

hive42

First I will make it clear the money itself has been found. so that aspect of the complaint is resolved. What I am interested now is reclaiming the interest on the credit card I feel I should not of been charged

dunstonh wrote: »

It may be that the complaint is against yourself

If you look at the process, you give the details to your bank. They set it up from the details you give them. If the details are correct, the money gets there. If the details are wrong, the money doesn't.

So, where in that chain did it fail?
1 - Did you give the right details to Natwest?
2 - Did Natwest use the correct details? - yes - then Cahoot is possibly at fault. If no, then natwest are

NatWest claim the error arose because either an incomplete or incorrect credit card number was given as reference

What appeared on my bank statement was the first 6 digits of my credit card number which makes me think the number was truncated somehow

Having looked at nat wests online process for setting up such a payment I think but I can not prove it was a bug in their online processing as I think it is possible for me to have mistyped the number but unlikely that I would only give the first six digits of the number and not the rest

There is little they can do. If money goes missing, the trace has to start at Natwest (assuming a mispost).

Think of it like this, when Cahoot get the money it is put into one of 500,000 pigeon holes. The choice is either to manually look at each pigeon hole or get Natwest to find out which pigeon hole they sent it to.

In this situtation then do you think I have grounds for complaint to Nat West for incorrectly processing my details. I unfortunately can offer no solid proof of what went wrong as I am not in the habit of taking screenshots of online banking transactions (though maybe I should in future)

thanks

Mark7799

hive42 wrote: »

What appeared on my bank statement was the first 6 digits of my credit card number which makes me think the number was truncated somehow

Unlikely - what is more likely is that they would not print the full card number for security reasons.


In this situtation then do you think I have grounds for complaint to Nat West for incorrectly processing my details. I unfortunately can offer no solid proof of what went wrong as I am not in the habit of taking screenshots of online banking transactions (though maybe I should in future)

thanks

On the grounds that cahoot COULDN't apply it because of the wrong details, someone should have records of what those incorrect details were? I would suggest a written request to both banks but be prepared for them to both refuse to reimburse anything if it was found that you inputted the incorrect info.