Abbey has 'frozen' my account!

[NeilP]

Went shopping on Thursday, first shop paid by card, and the machine needed a verification phone call from the shop to HSBC (card machine supplier) who in turn needed to call Abbey. After loads of questions in a four way conversation (me, shop assistant, HSBC and Abbey) the transaction was allowed.

Second shop, about 20 mins later, same thing, go the assistant to cancel the card transaction and paid by cash.

Friday, tried to pay my mortage on the internet. Was confirmed as being done. Also tried to move money between my Abbey accounts, and was told i couldn't do this. I presumed it an internet glitch.

Saturday morning, noticed mortgage payment had not gone out, so did it again. Again it confirmed that the payment had been made.

Saturday afternoon, 2.30pm ish, money still not gone out. So i phoned the Abbey, got put through to India, and was told that my account was restricted, and that i would need to visit an Abbey branch, with ID, to resolve the problem.

Went into town to find the branch closed at 12.00pm! Not impressed as i am recovering from a dodgy back, and the car journey really didn't help.

Phone back Abbey (in India no doubt) to be told that the department that had restricted my account had also closed. I would have to phone back on Monday.

Thought it about time to look elsewhere, looked on Martin Lewis's site, and glad to have found this site.

Having trawled through the last 5 years statements, Abbey, it seems owes me £4,700 and my wife £1,700, and Barclays owe my wife another £1,300. Grand Total of £6,700! Nearly makes the back pain worth it if we get this little lot back. (Needless to say the wife has already earmarked the money.......)

Letters away in the post tomorrow, I'll keep you posted.

Neil.

Needless to say,

[alf_child]

Hi do not give in to Abbey. They did similar to me last year, took 2 months to get restiction lifted and able me to get money. I'm now with ombudsman as abbey didn't give me a reason or notice they were going to do the restriction. Go through the complaints process then to the Omb as abbey don't seem to give a toss.

What happened to me is on one of the other subjects.

DON'T GIVE IN!!!!

if you find out why abbey has restricted your account please let me know

[NailPost]

Grabby restricted my account because they thought I had defaulted on a loan. This was put in place in 1996 and the restriction was on the issue of new cheque books but they never told me!

The magic cheque presented a new book is authomatically sent. But a couple of years ago a new one didn't materialise, probably because the magic cheque wasn't written/cashed/whatever and I unsuccessfully tried to order one from the ATM. Turned out one payment wasn't made (their mistake) and they put a default on it.

They tried to recover the default - plus interest and charges, £2,200 in total - but I was able to argue they were statute barred having never alerted me, asked me about it etc. They made whinging noises about taking it from my account anyway but didn't because they would have been on very shaky ground legally.

Just to make sure I got a mate, who is a solicitor, to write a letter stating action would be taken unless the restriction was removed, a cheque book issued and a note sent to the three credit agencies that the default was wrong.

My account was restored to "good standing" but I am currently in dispute with them again over charges. £170+interest for £13 overdrawn for one day!

[NeilP]

Spoke to both India and England today about this (having been put on hold for a total of 30 minutes!).

The issue was regarding a business bank account i have with them which had gone overdrawn. So, instead of phoning me (they had written a couple of letters i do admit!) they simply restricted my personal account and to quote "hoping to intiate some sort of response".

It does gall me that in this day and age, businesses can survive with such poor customer service, that a simple phone call to the customer is deemed unappropriate. It always seems to be left to the customer to call them at local call charge rates (which aren't included in the free call allowance of either your home or mobile phones!).

All sorted though, restriction lifted and back to normal. I did struggle not to mention that i was in the process of claiming back all my bank charges for the last 6 years, and that they may have felt that they had won this battle....... Just waiting to see their response to my claim for just over £4,700!

[NeilP]

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Wrote to Abbey on 5th March, and have received a reply today! Bearing in mind it was posted on 6th, probably received by them on 7 - 8th, that is a reply in 2 - 3 days. They were never this speedy when i needed them to be!!

Seems to be the norm, 'one of my colleages will be responsible for investigating your complaint' yada yada yada, 'I know that it's important to you that we resolve your complaint quickly but we want to do a thorough investigation and sometimes this can take time. We will write to you within the next four weeks to let you know what's happening.

Although i don't know what the outcome will be, i hope we'll be able to find a solution that you're happy with.'

I suppose i should send them a letter saying something along the lines of

'Dear Sirs,

To save yourself up to 4 weeks work, simply refund my charges as this is the only solution that i will be happy with.'

2nd letter in the post tomorrow about not waiting for 4 weeks.

Just a thought. Since my initial letter with the sum being claimed has been posted, due to Abbey putting more charges on my account, i have gone overdrawn again! Do i have to put in another claim for the overcharges since the initial letter was sent, or should i put in a revised figure with my second letter?

MODERATED moved .please keep to original thread when updating this is for your benefit and the benefit of everyone who is following your claim

[comanche]

I'd put the revised figure in your second letter and make it clear that any further punitive charges will be recovered through the courts as well if necessary.

[NeilP]

I e-mailed Abbey on 14th (at 4.15pm) my Letter Before Action letter, so by my reackoning i am due a response tomorrow or get ready to take the plunge!

Who's up for a Poll?

Will i get a response from Abbey in the post tomorrow..... or not?

Neil.

[comanche]

I think their reputation is for letting it go to the stage where proceedings are issued,

[NeilP]

In the Post: 0
Not in the Post: 1

[rivendale0506]

So..............Good News time Good Luck..

[Jane Austen]

Sent preliminary letter to Abbey16th March. Received reply today - 1 day before 14 day deadline. No co-operation; charges are in line with published tariff etc etc
Now applying to court.
It's a pity the online service does not accept Electron! As usual, you don't get to know this until final pages.
Ithink there maybe an error (deliberate???) on their letterhead for the Bradford address because when you use Lookup on the moneyclaim site it rejects BD1 1BR and comes up with BD1 1YR.

[JWG]

Should you not check with someone which address to use to file court papers?

In my limited experience I have received letters from the Abbey from Bradford, London, Milton Keynes and they still say I should writeto the branch with any queries!

[richardc]

You cannot go wrong if you file against your local branch.

[NeilP]

Currently typing up on Moneyclaim, was in the process of filing against the head office address in London.

Which is generally seen as 'the better' way. Local Branch, Head Office or other?

[alanfromderby]

I have used the head office for my correspondance so far. However, I just have this lingering thought of what fun it would be to see bailiffs walking into my local branch.

I am not vindictive really.......

....oh alright yes I am!! LOL

[NeilP]

All done and dusted. Claim sent to Abbey at their Head Office.

Hey Ho, Hey Ho, it's off to court we go.......

[NeilP]

Abbey have until midnight tonight to file a defense. Not likely to happen now ( i hope!), so i will be looking at Judgement by Default.

How long should payment be forthcoming?

Neil.