abbey -blocked/froze my account can I claim compensation?

inthe80s

Realised i may have posted in the wrong forum, sorry! this is my original thread

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=918377

my basic question is how do i claim compensation?
I have had my bank account blocked for five days now through no fault of my own.
I will have spent over 4 hours chasing it up, over an hour on the 0845 nubers (from a mobile). I have been misinformed three times in total, treated rudely on three occasions.
And obviously having no money for five days is a huge inconvenience.

thanks

dunstonh

I cant see where Abbey have done anything wrong. If the cheque bounced then you are not allowed access to the money until the cheque is represented. If it is being investigated for fraud at the drawer's end (your mum) then its her that needs to discuss this with Abbey. Not you.

inthe80s

Its not the cheque money ive been trying to use, they wont let me access the money I had in my account before the cheque bounced. I was in credit before the cheque and I should still be in credit even after the cheque bounced.
There is also no reason for the cheque to have bounced. All it would have taken was them to make a phone call to my mums bank.

the call centre staff assured me on the 12th that i still had funds in my account i could use. The second one i rang tried to hang up on me cos she didnt know what i was talking about. The third one i rang was rude to me and thought i was trying to spend cheque money that hadnt cleared. So all completely useless

A branch memeber on the 13th assured me id be able to use my account on the 15th

and on the 15th a staff member i spoke to on the phone, told me that i could withdraw money if i went into the branch

None of these things were true.

olly300

With banks/building societies you don't ask for compensation you just make a written and easy to understand complaint, and they may offer you a sum which you either accept or negotiate with them about.

In your case because you had a low amount in your account anyway they are only like to give you a small amount.

Follow the Abbey complaints process here https://www.abbey.com/csgs/Satellite?c=GSInformacion&cid=564085054880064&pagename=Abbey/GSInformacion/GS_DetallePie and make it clear:
1. You are making a complaint about your account being frozen
2. You had £55 in your account on 11th May
3. On 12th May a cheque you put into your account was due to clear however this cheque bounced.
4. You tried to access the £55 and your overdraft but the account was frozen due to the bounced cheque
5. You have contacted 2 different people at the call centre and been into a branch (quote the distance from your house and how many times) and all the staff where unhelpful.

When you make your written complaint make it clear that:
1. You cannot get a statement off the person who presented you with the cheque as you don't have access to the other person's account because it is not your account.
2. if the issue isn't solved you will make a complaint to the financial ombudsman. (You have to wait 8 weeks from your last complaint with Abbey or until they give you a response.)

You don't need to go into lots of detail as it makes it confusing and make your complaint fit on one side of A4.

inthe80s

Thanks for the reply,
I will certainly do this, I have now managed to get them to unblock my account (spent the whole of lunch in there again, and they made me late back for work, so ill have to take it out of mondays lunch aswell), but im relieved Ive finally gotten somewhere, fingers crossed it wont happen again when my mum tries to transfer it over again.