Bank Charge of £690!!

trytospendless

Can anyone help.

My husband banked a cheque recently which was in euros. It has bounced this week, and the bank have charged him £688.75 in charges.

This charge has now taken his savings account overdrawn, which they are demanding he puts his account back into credit ASAP.

They have today taken £170 from his current account and put against his savings account to part of set the overdraft, this again they have done without advise. Are they able to do this?

Mark7799

Are you sure this is charges and not the amount of the cheque? This figure sounds incredibly high.

trytospendless

It is a charge and they have debited his account with this amount.


Not had a straight answer from the bank yet, other than the branch staff think it is excessive, and have passed over to head office, international department.

natweststaffmember

was the cheque amount credited first? what does it say on the statement?
Did you receive an advice from the bank as to a value date(ie amount to be credited and when) and the charges for processing the foreign cheque?
When you received the advice it was being returned, did it say how much would be debited?
How much was the cheque in foreign currency?

trytospendless

The cheque was showing on the account, but not as cleared funds. My husband was working away last week, and on his return friday night he checked his account online to see if it had cleared, which was when he discovered the account had been debited for the original cheque amount and also a transfer just saying cash had been done for £688.75

When he originally presented the cheque at the bank, he had to go through a special clearance, on the back of the form he filled out, it stated charges would be max of £35 and £10 if the cheque was unpaid. No mention of any other charges, such as exchange rate difference which we have been lead to believe this is.

We have had no advice from the bank, other than the collections department ringing to ask him to clear the overdraft.

The cheque was for 10500 euros.

natweststaffmember

my gut feeling here says that there is an error made by the bank ie debited the amount twice.
can you confirm 10, 500 euros because the amount credited does seem a little low in my honest opinion.

facingthefuture

I would record delivery customer service a letter (don't do it by phone, no usable record of the call) and explain to them the charge is unreasonable and obviously a mistake. You want it rectified asap and obviously any charges incurred by overdraft also refunded. Give them a time limit to respond (one week) and explain you will have to pass it to the banking ombudsman if not sorted.
In addition whoever wrote the bouncy cheque should be invoiced for whatever proper charges there are.Suggest a bank tranfer in future. I bank with bank of ireland in northern Ireland (sterling) but it is really easy to transfer euros.

trytospendless

The cheque was for 10,500 euros, and the charges that have been debited to the account total £688.75, and the cheque has not cleared.

natweststaffmember

There are 2 things that make no sense to me and I will explain.
1) the narrative on the statement says "CASH" for me is nothing to do with the foreign cheque beause of the second point
2) the cheque is showing uncleared, which if returned would have been debited from the account.

THe last question you ask, re transferring from the current account is called the right of set off.

You do need an explanation of what that transaction on the statement is about because from what I have read, I don't think it is the foreign cheque issue because of the narrative "CASH"

EDIT: which bank is it?

trytospendless

It is the Halifax.
The text online when the cheque was paid in on the 26th Feb was 'foreign cheque' and they had exchanged the 10,500 euro's to approx £7735 which has been showing on the account as uncleared funds until the 27th March when the origional line dissapeared from sight and just this extract named 'cash' on the 27th for £688.75.
Initially on the 28th when he returned he called the help desk for an explanation to be told "we dont know" but it looks like a head office code against the word 'cash'. They advised to call head office or go into a branch. Obviously head office was closed until monday so he went to the branch on sat morning. The advisor told him the code next to the cash withdrawl was the general code for the main office in Leeds, as they were closed they could supply no more information.
In the branch today he told me it took 4 phone calls for an advisor to find the correct department that could explain what it was about. It was International clearing and told the advisor the £688 was made up of bank charges and difference in exchange rate between the deposit and the cheque being refered.

What is amazing is that he was so unsure about paying the cheque in that he asked the cashier on two seperate occasions what our liabilitys would be if the cheque bounced, and both times the cashier quoted what is written on the reverse of the foreign cheque presentation form which accompanies the cheque which states £10 referal fee.

The fact this is in dispute yet the bank still see fit to transfer money between accounts to suit themselves is unbelievable.

The other interesting thing is the money was not transfered over until after the query finished with the advisor in the branch!

This is very distressing for us both so help and advice is very much appreciated.

trytospendless

The branch agreed that they ammount of charges was excessive but told my husband there was nothing they could do as it was another department dealing with the matter.
They did however send an internal email to the international clearing stating what the cashier had said and the charges were excessive and requested the money be credited.
The branch then told him someone would be in touch by post.

It was after then they transfered the money between the accounts!!