Abbey have blocked my account, can i claim compensation?

inthe80s

To try and cut a long story short.
Abbey blocked my account due to a cheque that was due to clear on the 12th of may.

On the 12th when i found at the cheque had bounced all I could do was ring there call centres, my bank account was showing that i was £2506 overdrawn when I should have been £55 in credit (the cheque which was for £4000 would have put me up to £4055 if it had cleared). I rung the call centre 3 times. The first lady said the overdrawn amount was simply the amount i could borrow. I though this odd but got her to confirm that i had funds available in my account, she said yes. Obviously when i went shopping after the phone call i find i have no funds available. So i ring twice again and no one seemed to understand the concept that my balance was wrong and i didnt receieve any help after over an hour in total on the phone (not sure yest how much this has cost me).

On the 13th i go in branch on lunch, it took them my whole lunch hour to figure out what was going wrong. I was told the cheque was with fraud and that a decion on it would be made by midnight on the 14th. I would be able to use my account as normal on the 15th. This wasnt good enuff but i had to go.

on the 15th, i still dont have access to my own money, spend my whole lunch hour in branch again, only to be told id been misinformed. The cheque had bounced and theyve blocked my account untill i can provide them with a letter Id and a bank statement from the person who gave me the cheque. I repeatedly asked them to let me withdraw my own money so I could buy my fare home, but i get the usual shoulder shrug, and no they cannot let me have my own money, till i prove i havent tried to commit fraud.

The cheque was from my mum, she had been to her bank on the 9th to make sure there were no problems in terms of it clearing. There is no reason the cheque should have bounced (im 100% sure of this) and its blatantly not fraud.

Does anyone know if there is anyway i can be compensated for the huge inconvenience this has caused and the time and money spent contacting them. At the very least can someone point to the best place to voice this complaint.

thanks in advance, (from a still penniless and angry consumer)

hollydays

So,you stil haven't got access to your money?Isn't that your priority?

inthe80s

yes but that will be sorted today as im meating my mum at lunch and she is bringing ID a bank statment a statement for her bank manager saying the cheque will go through fine. (which is what they told me I had to do to lift the block).
Obviously if this doesnt work then yes it is my main priority, but ive done all I can do to try and get access to my money.

Iamthesmartestmanalive

inthe80s wrote: »

To try and cut a long story short.
Abbey blocked my account due to a cheque that was due to clear on the 12th of may.

On the 12th when i found at the cheque had bounced all I could do was ring there call centres, my bank account was showing that i was £2506 overdrawn when I should have been £55 in credit (the cheque which was for £4000 would have put me up to £4055 if it had cleared). I rung the call centre 3 times. The first lady said the overdrawn amount was simply the amount i could borrow. I though this odd but got her to confirm that i had funds available in my account, she said yes. Obviously when i went shopping after the phone call i find i have no funds available. So i ring twice again and no one seemed to understand the concept that my balance was wrong and i didnt receieve any help after over an hour in total on the phone (not sure yest how much this has cost me).

On the 13th i go in branch on lunch, it took them my whole lunch hour to figure out what was going wrong. I was told the cheque was with fraud and that a decion on it would be made by midnight on the 14th. I would be able to use my account as normal on the 15th. This wasnt good enuff but i had to go.

on the 15th, i still dont have access to my own money, spend my whole lunch hour in branch again, only to be told id been misinformed. The cheque had bounced and theyve blocked my account untill i can provide them with a letter Id and a bank statement from the person who gave me the cheque. I repeatedly asked them to let me withdraw my own money so I could buy my fare home, but i get the usual shoulder shrug, and no they cannot let me have my own money, till i prove i havent tried to commit fraud.

The cheque was from my mum, she had been to her bank on the 9th to make sure there were no problems in terms of it clearing. There is no reason the cheque should have bounced (im 100% sure of this) and its blatantly not fraud.

Does anyone know if there is anyway i can be compensated for the huge inconvenience this has caused and the time and money spent contacting them. At the very least can someone point to the best place to voice this complaint.

thanks in advance, (from a still penniless and angry consumer)

Why is it blatantly not fraud?

I assume your a fraud prevention expert superior to the banks who knows everything

I used to do that job, young person plays large amount into account substantially overdrawn/unusual payment then immediatly tries to take the cash

Would flag the bells in my system and the ones banks use

There being reasonable asking you for this stuff and your claim wouldnt be sucessful

You may manage to get something to make you go away but there systems are entirely just

Voyager2002

Moral: use a proper bank.

If you write a letter of complaint and manage to get a senior manager to read it, you might get a small amount of compensation, but that would be it. Other banks are able to guarantee security without causing major inconvenience to their customers, but this does not seem to be a priority for Abbey.

Blacksheep1979

you should be asking for a 6 figure settlement - namely sodoff. As said above you a large sum of money being paid into a heavily overdrawn account will attract suspicion and the bank is legally required to check for money laundering etc - you'd be complaining equally as much if someone had cashed a large cheque against your account and it had gone through...

inthe80s

My account wasnt heavily overdrawn.
It was in credit.

on the 12th of may in the morning my account balance was £4055 (with a £4000 cheque pending)

on the 12th in the afternoon the cheque amount £4000 is returned. Doesn't take a rocket sceintist to figure out i should still be £55 in credit. But my statement was showing £2506 overdrawn. It took me two hours talking to people from abbey for them to figure out why my account was showing as overdrawn. And they couldnt really give me a good reason why, but assured me I didnt owe them any money its just the way it was showing in the account.

I have not used my overdraft in over four years, and £4000 is not an unsual amount to come into or out of my account, and i didn't try and withdraw it.

I assume your a fraud prevention expert superior to the banks who knows everything

I dont appreciate any of your comments, and it appears that its you who thinks they are the "oh so superior know it all". I said its not fraud because the cheque came from someone i share a surname with and the funds were available in their account, and still are, as abbey bounced the cheque.

and if we ignore the whole fraud prevention excercise, i was misinformed by abbey 3 times and it took over four hours for me to sort the whole mess out (1 hour 20min on the phone 3 hours in branch).

I did finally resolve the issue on friday, and the lady who helped me has pointed me in the right direction to start a formal complaint, she couldnt apologise enough for the way I'd been treated.

you should be asking for a 6 figure settlement - namely sodoff. As said above you a large sum of money being paid into a heavily overdrawn account will attract suspicion and the bank is legally required to check for money laundering etc - you'd be complaining equally as much if someone had cashed a large cheque against your account and it had gone through...

Thanks for this usefull reply. (see above)

[QUOTEMoral: use a proper bank.

If you write a letter of complaint and manage to get a senior manager to read it, you might get a small amount of compensation, but that would be it. Other banks are able to guarantee security without causing major inconvenience to their customers, but this does not seem to be a priority for Abbey.][/QUOTE]

yup, well I guess its more to the point that they know Im not happy. But i do at least want the money back which I spent calling their utterly useless call center.

pinkshoes

inthe80s wrote: »

I dont appreciate any of your comments, and it appears that its you who thinks they are the "oh so superior know it all". I said its not fraud because the cheque came from someone i share a surname with and the funds were available in their account, and still are, as abbey bounced the cheque.

Ignore "Iamthesmartestmanalive", as he is a troll, incapable of reading a post properly, and just likes typing abuse! (read his other posts!). I think we previously established it's because he's bitter due to having a very small penis.

If I were you, I'd write a stern letter to your bank informing them of the mistake, as if you had £55 in your account, then it certainly shouldn't have said you were overdrawn. I would also consider closing the account and moving to another bank.

maninthestreet

I wonder what made Abbey think the cheque was fraudulent in some way?
Have they said yet?

kuohu

Certainly must be more to this than meets the eye, and perhaps it hasn't been explained clearly enough to the OP.

Iamthesmartestmanalive

maninthestreet wrote: »

I wonder what made Abbey think the cheque was fraudulent in some way?
Have they said yet?

Large unusual cheque with immediate attempt to access the funds is enough on its own these days