£300+ charges for an account never used

robpw2

why have you let it get this bad .
NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER PAY FOR A BANK ACCOUNT.

Paying or an account does nto mean you will get overdraft or credit card or switch card its just means that you will pay £12.00

you really should have fought the bank in the first place but also the terms and conditions that you signed when opening the accoint would have told you that you were not guarenteed od/cc/switch card etc. its no good in this day and age to blame the bank person for selling you and account you dont need as this is there job . Your partner chose the account he agreed to pay the !2.0 and then didnt so the bank charged him.

if he was never plannig to use the account he should never havre opened it .
He was foolish to think that the bank would give him an overdraft and it seem s this is the only reason he went into the account.

HE DOES OWE THE MONEY sorry but he had to sign form to open this account therefore aggreeing to pay the money and any charges levied against this account for non-payment etc these again are explained very clearly on the terms and conditions of the account.

Kavanne

marshall2k wrote: »

If the account truly had been upgraded rather than a new one set up then all this would probably have been avoided. There would have been £12 in the account to cover the charge thus no overdraft fees and interest. The OP's OH could then have cancelled within 90 days and got back the £12s.

Is it normal practice for an upgrade to instead turn out to be a separate account?

As far as I am aware at Natwest you cannot turn a STEP account into a full current account. A new account must be opened.

dunstonh

Thanks to all the people who have given words of support & useful advice, keep up the good work. It seems a shame that the people who have posted on thousands of threads are the ones who have nothing nice to say. To all you tw*ts who have nothing better to do than make sly comments either tell me what you think these inconsistencies are so I can try to explain better or GO SUCK A FAT ONE.

Perhaps with that attitude you deserve what you got.

Being all supportive and cuddly and feeling sorry for you gets you nothing. You posted information and there are inconsistencies in that information that, if you were to make a complaint using the same wording, the bank could use that to reject your complaint.

Your OH has a lot of culpability here. He agreed to open the account. He agreed to the terms. He has ignored the statements for years allowing it to build up. He must have ignored the periodic letter saying the account was over it's limit.

If he has a mental problem that prevents him from being accountable for his own actions then the bank will have to refund the charges as there are cases evidenced in the FOS publications where this has happened. If he agreed to it and is capable of making decisions then he has to take responsibility. In which case you are basically looking at the goodwill between yourselves and the bank to get all or some of these charges back.

Graham1

I would suggest that you check the formal complaints procedure for the bank (they ought to have a web page describing this) and follow that procedure exactly. At the end of that procedure if you are still unhappy you can go to the financial ombudsman.

I have found that banks do have staff in their complaints handling teams who are better at getting things put right than the regular staff.

gemma326

this happened to me with natwest, i cancelled the account after havingit for 2 years and they never cancelled it there end, I threatened solicitors etc and i got back all the fees that they had charged me.

you need to keep fighting you will get there eventually and you need to demand the charges get paid back.

PROLIANT

gemma326 wrote: »

this happened to me with natwest, i cancelled the account after havingit for 2 years and they never cancelled it there end, I threatened solicitors etc and i got back all the fees that they had charged me.

you need to keep fighting you will get there eventually and you need to demand the charges get paid back.

As long as the charges were not your fault as a result of poor financial management of course, if the charges are the banks fault then yes claim them back.

olly300

asandwhen wrote: »

any reason your partner cant get a job and pay it off?

That's not actually a helpful comment. Yes the OP's partner should get a job but not to pay Natwest back.

In my experience banks try and keep you in a fee paying account whether you want it or not.

The OP's partner is at fault for burying their head in the sand. This could have been easily sorted out if they had posted before they got the court summons.

Scousebird_2

asandwhen wrote: »

any reason your partner cant get a job and pay it off?

That is a bit harsh...why should he pay it off....??!! He tried to cancel a product that was clearly not suitable for his needs and they deliberately talked him into keeping it for the full 90 days (so it doesn't show as being cancelled and impact on the target for the branch)-whatever the persons circumstances, if they are on benefits then it's hard enough to live without £12 a month being taken for a product that is not suitiable. Not very nice at all. Hope all the money is refunded! Good luck!

katyw

To be fair, I used to work for the RBS Group of which Natwest is a member. After using a london branch to pay in various bits and pieces, I was horrified on a number of occassions to see that Natwest staff were selling credit cards and overdrafts to a lot of customers that couldn't even speak English and understand what was going on. Now I know that the OP's husband can speak english, but Natwest do appear guilty of pushing products on people that are clearly not right.

I would fight it all the way and good luck.

Kavanne

Katy, that's awful! It's not too bad working on the phones because we have a few Polish/Hindi/Chinese/Arabic speaking members of staff around the centre so you can pass calls over if you think you need to, but I can imagine in branch it's harder.

I think we have a dedicated Polish call centre now too?