Natwest Advantage Blue - Bank Charges HELP!!

SOUF_OF_THE_RIVER

Hi,

I'm a student, I wanted to quickly open a second bank account so that the money from my part-time job and student loan could be easily be seperated to avoid confusion.

I decided to sign up with Natwest quickly online, they didn't ask for any ID, in a week it had been opened.

Then I got some papers about Advantage Blue, I rang up Natwest and told them I didn't want it.

This is where it all starts going downhill...

I got a bank statement for £6 for the Advantage Blue charge. I went straight to the bank and told them I don't want Advantage Blue and that I had explained this already. They then said they would "investigate" my claim and would reply in a week.

One week later, no reply, I went back to the bank they said that no investigation was carried out, basically they made a mistake. Anyway they said, THIS TIME they would investigate.

Two weeks later I get another bank statement this time for £34, an extra £28 Maintenance charge!!! this was due to there being a borrowing limit of £0 on my account.

I went back to the bank fuming asking what they think they're doing. They said the investigation showed apparently I signed for this Advantage Blue.
I asked them why was I charged during an "investigation", they then said they would remove that charge.

I asked them to just shut the account, they refused and said the bank account has to be 6 months old before they can close it down. So I said, ok I'll put £48 in my account to account for the £6 monthly charges and when the 6 months was done I would shut the account down. I thought my problems were over.

But it doesn't end there!!! :mad:

I thought they had sorted it out, went on holiday for a month, came back and have been revising for my university exams.

Then I get another bank statement, now I'm £130 overdraft :eek:

They didn't remove the initial maintenance charge which meant I only had £8 in my account after paying in £48. Anyway over 3 months the maintenance charges are like I said £130.

I can't believe it, I was stupid to believe they would sort it out, they have just messed me about from the start.

What I'd like to know it;

- Can I claim back this overdraft?
- Can I shut the bank account down?

Kavanne

yeah the adblue does have a min period of 6 months if you don't cancel it within the first 14 days.

that is the problem with applying online. You have to select specifically for 'no advantage blue' but you may have accidentally selected either 'car breakdown' or 'mobile insurance' (all 3 options presented on the same page of which you must select 1) by accident or just missed it altogether and ticked one at random.

NATWESTequalCON

mmmm, not sure I, personally actually selected anything of the sort, however incompetence on numerous occasions by the staff at my local branch in dealing with this would suggest the whole farce is down to natwest and its staff ( the completion of my opening of an account was actually done in the branch).

natweststaffmember

NATWESTequalCON wrote: »

My problem is / was almost identical, (every once in a while I get the statement through and think I'll have to jump on these idiots soon and get this sorted but find i'm too busy with business to waste time with it; the pattern runs as follows; 1 phone bank call centre > get referred to branch 2 (if having the time) make the effort to go to branch get told by
(names are unchanged to shame the stupid) Stacy that Becky is dealing with this but is away but she will call next week, Once or twice Becky was in and 'closed the advantage blue', however the account never has been closed or a call never comes from Becky back to step 1. I had to write a letter of complaint (to the complaints department as opposed to my branch) and was reinbursed substancial 'mantainence charges' relating to the origins of this fiasco but alas after almost a year of originally being told by becky that she had canceled the advantage blue for me, i'm still being charged for it! my branch (Penzance) is full of the most inept, incompetent, buck passing, timeserving, imbecilic waste's of oxygen I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. :mad:

If you have it in writing then rewrite to them and state that you have been charged or alternatively go straight to customer relations.

customer.relations@natwest.com

NATWESTequalCON

Customer relations are actually very good and refunded everything before, but every one (i've personnally dealt with anyhow) at that branch is an incompetent imbecile. I'm still being charged so am actually writing to them again right now and i'm including the words i've used above (and worse) in the letter. Sorry if you did get sacked because of this forum, very harsh but then again it's a rubbish bank (or at least the staff at my local branch are), you should get a better hobby than this though!