small branches of natwest

luckyme38

hi,

I was just wondering whether anybody knew the answer to this. I withdrew £500. out of my natwest account last week from a very small branch of natwest. Now I know this doesnt show as debited until the next day, with it being a small branch, but i am sure that when i asked for this amount they didn't, or weren't able to, check to see if this amount was in my account.

So my question is, does any one know if they are able to check your balance in a very small branch of natwest and why also doesnt the amount go out of the account until the following day.

Can anyone follow that?!

many thanks for any replies

~Beanie~

If you are talking about a tiny sub-branch, open for about 3 hours per day then no, some of them can't check your balance without phoning the main branch as they don't usually have the computers on the tills.

At the end of each day they have to bundle up all the debits and credits and take them to the main branch for them to deal with which could be why it wasn't debited until the next day. This is unusual though, they normally get back in enough time for that days work to be processed same day.

luckyme38

thanks for that :beer: I would have thought though, that for the amount of £500 they would have rang a branch to check i had that amount in my account. Seems very odd that in this day and age they trust thay you do have that amount in your account!

~Beanie~

luckyme38 wrote: »

thanks for that :beer: I would have thought though, that for the amount of £500 they would have rang a branch to check i had that amount in my account. Seems very odd that in this day and age they trust thay you do have that amount in your account!

Well I haven't worked for NatWest for about 5 years but we had a 'floor limit' in those tiny branches and anything above that limit, we would phone the main branch to check the balance, especially if the customer was not known to us. Things may have changed since I left but it seems foolish to cash cheques for £500 without checking!

natweststaffmember

Beanie, you are kinda half correct and half incorrect. You are right with regards to phoning the main branch for maybe balances, although most small branches have been given the facility to see balances on computers and therefore become more self reliant. The work bundled up would not go to the main branch but to a voucher processing centres and debited overnight. Complete manual branches have not in the recent history sent any work to their main branch for processing of cash credits\debits /cheque/ mixed(cash+cheque) credits.

luckyme38

the thing is, when i withdrew the money, they asked me for my sort code and account number....just wrote this down on a withdrawal slip(with rest of info) and gave me the money. There was no screen or anything that was looked at.

natweststaffmember

There maybe local limits that they are using but it is surprising that they are not using cheque guarantee limits for example, to prevent abuse of the system. I am not suggesting you are doing this by the way but merely an observation.

luckyme38

I didnt present a cheque?

natweststaffmember

I know you didn't, they used a debit slip which they had to complete with account number and sort code and get you to sign. I am merely speculating what they may have done because to call the branch on every single transaction would be impossible and could be extremely time consuming. Did you have to provide ID like a card or driving licence?
There is a possibility that certain transactions are not checked for available funds at all.

luckyme38

no, i didnt have to produce any id, although i did pay a cheque in to my account.