Feel robbed by Natwest! (Or Churchill???)

glock339

Hi everyone.

In June 2007 my Churchill car insurance was due for renewal and they sent me a letter telling me they would automatically take the money from my bank account. The only problem is it that for some reason I did not get this letter and I had no idea they were planning on doing this! The account details they had was for an old one that I now only used for making purchases on the internet, and therefore I think it only had aprox £60 in it.

Churchill then tried to take £266.70 from my account but there was not enough cash available so they tried another 2 times over the next couple of weeks. Each time they tried Natwest charged me £76, which came to £228!!!

This was during a very stressful time at work so I had not been keeping as close an eye on my finances as I usually do. Luckily I did eventually spot what was happening before I got charged even more and went to sort it out at Natwest. The guy on the counter I spoke to was very uninterested and told me to ask Churchill to refund me my Bank charges back! I was so annoyed I slapped the cash on the counter and closed both my accounts and my credit card with them there and then. It was only at this point did the guy seem to take any interest in me, but still no offer of a refund. I then downloaded the bank charges refund letter from the MONEYSAVER site and everything was looking promising, but then the big bank charges court cases began and Ive been on hold ever since.

1) Dose anyone else think these charges are unfair and is there anyway I can get them back, or am I just going to have to wait until god knows when for the court cases etc to be settled?

2) Are Natwest correct and I should have got Churchill to pay me the charges back? (I honestly cant see that happening, its nearly as much as my annual policy!)

Thanks for reading (I know its a bit War and Peace!).

Mum2Princess

You could try calling Churchill. I used to work for churchill loans & if a customer had incurred bank charges due to our error, we would refund them after seeing proof of the charges.

glock339

Cheers Mum2Princess, thats a bit of a surprise to me. Do you think they will refund that much and with it being in June last year?

I'll give em a try and post if I gave any luck.

Thanks again.

Mum2Princess

If it is definately down to their error & they accept that they made a mistake, then they should give you it all back. At least that is how it was with their loans.

natweststaffmember

Glock, was it 2 direct debits because an unpaid item charge for NatWest is £38?
NatWest are correct in what they are saying with regards to the fact that there was no bank error. The DD was not cancelled by Churchill and neither had you cancelled it with the bank. Did you speak to Churchill at the time and have they admitted to their error?

glock339

Well I rang Churchill today and as I thought they say as they sent a letter out, regardless of me receiving it or not they've "informed me" so they wont pay any charges I incurred.

Glock, was it 2 direct debits because an unpaid item charge for NatWest is £38?

Ive just checked my old statements and I got it a bit wrong in my original post.

I did get charged £76 twice, this is because Churchill tried to take two different amounts (£60.90 + £266.70) from my account on the same day on both occasions. So yes that works out at £38 x 4, because there were 4 different amounts on 2 seperate occasions!!!

I then got charged a further £28 twice by Natwest, I think because the previous charges by them had put me over my overdraft. This brought the grand total to £208 before I realised what was going on.:(

Did I really cause £208 worth of inconvenience to Natwest? It feels very excessive to me and honestly thought as a previously model customer of 15 years they would have offered to reduce the amount to something a bit more fair.

natweststaffmember

£28 is account maintenance charge on two months. That is that the account exceeded the overdraft over 2 charging periods. It does make more sense that there was 2 direct debits to me. The second time the Bank Cancelled it. Have Chruchill defaulted you on the insurance?

NatWest have a robust charging policy which means that if there is NO BANK ERROR then there is no refund. If there are exceptional circumstances then they may consider it.

glock339

£28 is account maintenance charge on two months. That is that the account exceeded the overdraft over 2 charging periods. It does make more sense that there was 2 direct debits to me. The second time the Bank Cancelled it. Have Chruchill defaulted you on the insurance?

Hi again, what do you mean by "The second time the Bank Cancelled it"? And no Churchill didnt default.

NatWest have a robust charging policy which means that if there is NO BANK ERROR then there is no refund. If there are exceptional circumstances then they may consider it.

They can be as robust as they like, dosent necessarily mean its fair and balanced though. All I know is after 15 years of my loyalty and managing my accounts as I should, I make one mistake and I get a huge slap on the wrists. £208 is quite a bit of money to me and I will never do business with them again.

Cheers.

natweststaffmember

The second time a direct debit is returned unpaid by the bank over a three month period, it is cancelled.
With regards to bank policy and the robust policy we have today, I have made no comment as to whether it is fair or balanced, but most people know my views on it. Its pasted over most bank charges sites(do you think I would post if i agreed with it?) We have a code of conduct for bank staff about comments on the internet and I have been in breach of it for a long long time, you see I am damned already.

glock339

The second time a direct debit is returned unpaid by the bank over a three month period, it is cancelled.

Ahh, I thought that might be it.

We have a code of conduct for bank staff about comments on the internet

lol, I know what youre saying, I work with someone who used to work for Natwest many-many moons ago. From the stories hes told me they sound like they were even more strict with their staff's conduct in the days before the birth of the internet!!!

natweststaffmember

They still are strict and the policy was brought in May 2007 about comments on the internet. The same rules still apply with a few added ones. We are drifting off topic on this one so back to the task in hand. I think you need to follow Martin's reclaim guide so that you case is logged until the conclusion of the OFT test case and its appeals.