Credit card company takes money from my current account.

max_sand1

I have a bank of scotland current account and a bank of scotland credit card. I have been in dispute with the bank of scotland credit card people about charges, more specifically i want mine back, ive refused to pay them any more money until they give me them back, then i will settle the amount in full and close the account.

BOS have not been forthcoming with settling my charges dispute and havent got back to me for over a month despite phone calls and letters.

Today i noticed i was £131 down in my bank of scotland current account, taking me to a zero balance. This was taken as a payment for my credit card by the bank of scotland credit card dept. Are they allowed to do this?

MinniMe_2

I used to work for HBOS and yes they are allowed to do this for any product that is arrears

stapeley

Have you another account ? Pay WAGES into that . As an associate company they have right to take from your account . Theres a on going court case over charges , it ,ll be a year tilll test case sorted .

floss2

If you read the small print of your accounts, both credit & current, it may well say something to the effect of "we may utilise funds in any other account with the bank to redress any deficit in another account"....so basically, yes, if you have a CC with the same bank as your current account, they could do this.

daisykinn1

If you've sent all the template letters it's time to start court proceedings.

fermi

There is some explanation of this and some examples of when the Financial Ombudsman feels it is fair/unfair to do this here:

Link: banking: firms' right of 'set off'

max_sand1

Thanks for the replies, I have my eggs in different baskets, my wages get paid in to a smile account. I only use this account for paying bills, so if i wasnt paying attention they could have taken money away from paying one of my bills and then i would have been slapped with other charges no doubt. Ive agreed to pay them 100 a month and hopefully by the time the amount i think i owe them has been paid the charges dispute will be sorted.

Am i sure im going to win the charges dispute... no... but it is a credit card and not a bank account charge so i would have thought with the OFT ruling it would be easier.

My only query was... is it legal... and you seem to have answered yes.... so thats fine. Some notice would have been nice tho.

stapeley

If they did give notice , you would have time to take money out of the account .

daisykinn1

max_sand1 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I have my eggs in different baskets, my wages get paid in to a smile account. I only use this account for paying bills, so if i wasnt paying attention they could have taken money away from paying one of my bills and then i would have been slapped with other charges no doubt. Ive agreed to pay them 100 a month and hopefully by the time the amount i think i owe them has been paid the charges dispute will be sorted.

Am i sure im going to win the charges dispute... no... but it is a credit card and not a bank account charge so i would have thought with the OFT ruling it would be easier.

My only query was... is it legal... and you seem to have answered yes.... so thats fine. Some notice would have been nice tho.

I've had all my charges in full refunded from 2 credit cards. One refunded them after one letter the other I had to start MCOL proceedings then they paid up day after they received notice. You can get them back if you're pesistant enough.

max_sand1

Most of the charges were at a higher rate than £12, they have sinced dropped to £12 and in my agreement with them to pay £100 a month back they stopped all interest and charges. So i would have thought id have a decent chance of getting the +£12 charges back... ill just go down the court route tomorrow since they arent getting back to me.

cinnabar

stapeley wrote: »

If they did give notice , you would have time to take money out of the account .

true, but they'd take the money anyway, making you go overdrawn in the process, or at least that's been my experience!