Can bank take money from my bank for my partners overdraft?
tawecdl
Posts: 1,095 Forumite
Hi all,
Quick question first...
1) If my partner is overdrawn £200 and we have a joint account together, can that bank take money from my sole account and put into my partners sole account to pay back the overdraft without my permission?
Another not so quick question...
2) My partner had a "control" on her account for over 12 months paying £10 a month as we were told she would not be charged any unplanned overdraft fees if she has this on her account.
She was charged 3 times in that year totaling £100 and she paid them without my knowledge. When I found out I contacted the bank and complained and they agreed to payback the £100 plus all the £10's we paid for the "Control" plus £15 goodwill gesture and they told me they will waive all charges for the next 2 months.
I was happy with this resolution so agreed.
Then a month later she received a letter stating she had incurred more unplanned overdraft fees, I contacted bank and told them I was told the fees should be waived as per complaint resolution...
(this was around 20th august)
They said they would call back and they didnt so on 31st august I contacted again and was told they will waive the charges for september. They didnt and now the bank was in more unplanned overdraft fees that we could not afford to pay.
315 minutes worth of phone calls to the bank over 7 weeks (all logged with dates times and durations) and they have now told me they are closing the complaint down as they listened to the call and he did not say they will waive the 2 months charges, but he definitely did say that and so did another call handler on 31st august(I have name date and time of call).
So now the account was £20 overdrawn and whilst waiting for the complaint to be sorted it has accrued another £200 in fees which we cannot afford.
We have a sole account each and a joint account shared, I am concerned that they will take money from my sole account when I get paid which we really cannot afford.
Can anyone advise please? I am well out of my depth here although I have tried my best to sort this out.
Quick question first...
1) If my partner is overdrawn £200 and we have a joint account together, can that bank take money from my sole account and put into my partners sole account to pay back the overdraft without my permission?
Another not so quick question...
2) My partner had a "control" on her account for over 12 months paying £10 a month as we were told she would not be charged any unplanned overdraft fees if she has this on her account.
She was charged 3 times in that year totaling £100 and she paid them without my knowledge. When I found out I contacted the bank and complained and they agreed to payback the £100 plus all the £10's we paid for the "Control" plus £15 goodwill gesture and they told me they will waive all charges for the next 2 months.
I was happy with this resolution so agreed.
Then a month later she received a letter stating she had incurred more unplanned overdraft fees, I contacted bank and told them I was told the fees should be waived as per complaint resolution...
(this was around 20th august)
They said they would call back and they didnt so on 31st august I contacted again and was told they will waive the charges for september. They didnt and now the bank was in more unplanned overdraft fees that we could not afford to pay.
315 minutes worth of phone calls to the bank over 7 weeks (all logged with dates times and durations) and they have now told me they are closing the complaint down as they listened to the call and he did not say they will waive the 2 months charges, but he definitely did say that and so did another call handler on 31st august(I have name date and time of call).
So now the account was £20 overdrawn and whilst waiting for the complaint to be sorted it has accrued another £200 in fees which we cannot afford.
We have a sole account each and a joint account shared, I am concerned that they will take money from my sole account when I get paid which we really cannot afford.
Can anyone advise please? I am well out of my depth here although I have tried my best to sort this out.
0
Comments
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Is the control feature still meant to be active on the account or has it now been removed?
It's clearly needed if your partner has repeated issues with sticking to what's in the account, so hopefully the reference to refunding the £10s doesn't mean that you've agreed to its removal.
However, even if it had been removed from the account I can't imagine how a £20 overdraft would incur £200 in fees within a matter of weeks so something's not right here, which bank and what account is it? Why would they agree to waive future charges if there weren't expected to be any?0 -
Hi
In short, no, they can't take money from your account to pay off your partner's sole account. They could take it from the joint account and pay off her account though. Banks all reserve the right to do that, but in practice though it is rare. I would imagine you would need to be quite behind on payments before they considered this - as you are in touch about the £200 they know you are trying to deal with it.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/setting-off
You definitely need to challenge £200 in charges for £20 - MSE has templates you can use for unreasonable charges.0 -
Is the control feature still meant to be active on the account or has it now been removed?
It's clearly needed if your partner has repeated issues with sticking to what's in the account, so hopefully the reference to refunding the £10s doesn't mean that you've agreed to its removal.
However, even if it had been removed from the account I can't imagine how a £20 overdraft would incur £200 in fees within a matter of weeks so something's not right here, which bank and what account is it? Why would they agree to waive future charges if there weren't expected to be any?
Thank you for your response
They explained that in November the unplanned overdraft fees will change and it will only be (something along the lines of) 1p charge per day for each £5 you are overdrawn, so I told them to take the control off as it is not worth it, and I will keep an eye on her bank and take contactless function off it.
£20 overdraft was on beginning of August, she was charged £5 a day and we received a letter on 20th august trying to resolve the issue. she was charged £100 which was taken on 1st october. Throughout the month of september she was £120 overdrawn and since accrued a further £100 unplanned overdraft fees due to be taken 1st november.
It is Halifax bank and what I believe is they told me (in july) they will waive charges for the next 2 months (august and september) but he was meant to say it is only for charges accrued up until that day of the phone call in july, but she since accrued charges thinking she would not be charged because we were told the charges would be waived for 2 months. communication breakdown I believe.
As it stands I need to fork out £220 to get this sorted but at the time of my initial phone call we were just £20 overdrawn and dead certain they would refund the unplanned overdraft charges as we we both told on two occasions that the charges would be waived/returned to us and we have dates and times of these calls but they still say they are in the right. (charging us £200 for being overdrawn £20)
Like I say this is now above my standard of knowledge and just want it sorting but I don't want them to just take £220 out my wages this close to xmas we will be totally screwed if they do that...0 -
So your interpretation is effectively that they offered to charge no fees at all for any overdrafts for the next two months?It is Halifax bank and what I believe is they told me (in july) they will waive charges for the next 2 months (august and september) but he was meant to say it is only for charges accrued up until that day of the phone call in july, but she since accrued charges thinking she would not be charged because we were told the charges would be waived for 2 months. communication breakdown I believe.
I have to say that on the balance of probabilities I'd be inclined to believe their version of the call rather than yours but if you're completely convinced that you're right you can demand a copy of the recording by making a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act.
However, that process takes time and if she's running up more and more charges by the day (and all you have to challenge their legitimacy is a recollection of a verbal conversation or two) then you really need to find a way to pay the bill while you dispute it as it'll just keep growing if you don't....0 -
So your interpretation is effectively that they offered to charge no fees at all for any overdrafts for the next two months?
I have to say that on the balance of probabilities I'd be inclined to believe their version of the call rather than yours but if you're completely convinced that you're right you can demand a copy of the recording by making a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act.
However, that process takes time and if she's running up more and more charges by the day (and all you have to challenge their legitimacy is a recollection of a verbal conversation or two) then you really need to find a way to pay the bill while you dispute it as it'll just keep growing if you don't....
Well the call in July it may have been misinterpretation on my part. Which is why I called the day I received the letter on 20th August and opened up a complaint. (at this point we were £20 overdrawn)
315 minutes of phone calls from myself to them to try to resolve this over the following 7 weeks and we are now facing £200 worth of charges.
I can 10000000% assure you that on 31st August at 17:25 I was told by a call handler (I have name and office location) that she has put a note on the system to pass this to customer relations to refund the charges we face on 1st september... this did not happen and instead throughout september we faced another £100 charges.
The reason I took down the name and time and office location of the call handler was due to the previous occasion of being told something and something else happening so I wanted to make sure
They told me they have froze the account now but not sure if I believe this either?0 -
Hi all,
Quick question first...
1) If my partner is overdrawn £200 and we have a joint account together, can that bank take money from my sole account and put into my partners sole account to pay back the overdraft without my permission?
No clear answer since it would depend on your agreement with the bank and the bank's Ts & Cs. Banks typically have "setting off" of money held in other accounts which they will take to pay for debts to that bank such as overdrafts. In that case since you are responsible for an overdraft on your joint account the bank can take money from your sole account to repay an overdraft on the joint account but they cannot transfer money from your sole account to repay an overdraft on your partner's sole account without your agreement.0 -
But with all due respect, making a note of a date/time and person will indeed validate that a call was made but doesn't (by itself) prove one way or the other what was actually said. You said that "they listened to the call and he did not say they will waive the 2 months charges" so clearly your understanding and theirs are diametrically opposed, so, as above, if you're confident of being able to prove that they're lying, roll the dice and get hold of the recordings of all calls on the matter.I can 10000000% assure you that on 31st August at 17:25 I was told by a call handler (I have name and office location) that she has put a note on the system to pass this to customer relations to refund the charges we face on 1st september... this did not happen and instead throughout september we faced another £100 charges.
The reason I took down the name and time and office location of the call handler was due to the previous occasion of being told something and something else happening so I wanted to make sure
This will help in terms of stopping the meter running, although could have consequences on credit files, etc - I'd suggest that it's time to start getting things in writing, not necessarily letters but emails, secure messages or live chat transcripts.They told me they have froze the account now but not sure if I believe this either?0 -
Well the call in July it may have been misinterpretation on my part. Which is why I called the day I received the letter on 20th August and opened up a complaint. (at this point we were £20 overdrawn)
315 minutes of phone calls from myself to them to try to resolve this over the following 7 weeks and we are now facing £200 worth of charges.
I can 10000000% assure you that on 31st August at 17:25 I was told by a call handler (I have name and office location) that she has put a note on the system to pass this to customer relations to refund the charges we face on 1st september... this did not happen and instead throughout september we faced another £100 charges.
The reason I took down the name and time and office location of the call handler was due to the previous occasion of being told something and something else happening so I wanted to make sure
They told me they have froze the account now but not sure if I believe this either?
Do you have an Android phone,if so id serious urge you or anyone reading to download from the play store a completely free app called Call recorder pro.
I've recently had issues with Virgin who despite listening to a recording which stated XYZ still lied through its Teeth to the Ombudsman...in fact it was eye watering to read the lies Virgin stated were true and how they were legally bound to tell the truth.
Simple transcript of the recording that my phone had made simply blew Virgins lies out of the water...they had no option other than hold there hands up.
Its amazing how often when your talking to a company who state they always record calls,that your also recording the call for your own benefit of making a transcript they suddenly change the tone or become helpful.
Its completely free and has helped me no end..also incredibly handy if like me you have a memory of a gold fish and you need to double check times or dates etc.0
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