They closed my account!

[Acol111]

I started the refund my bank charges process on the 19th April which gives them until the 27th May to send through my statements. My issue is that they had sent me a default notice on the 9th April because my overdraft was over the agreed limit by £68.

My salary went in on the 30th April clearing the overdraft completely, however as the overdraft has approach its limit again this month, they have sent me a notice saying that because my overdraft is ‘still’ overdrawn that they have decided to close the account and that I should make arrangements to pay them the overdraft completely as soon as possible.

I’m really annoyed with them because the overdraft when they sent me the default notice on the 9th was cleared on the 30th, but because it has strayed into the red again this month, they have sent notice to close the account based on the original default notice?

Does anyone know if they can do that or should they have served a new default notice based on the overdraft having been repaid now being overdrawn again?

Does this mean I can’t pursue them for the bank charges now? Is this the real reason why they have closed the account?

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

[puressence73]

Hi Acol,

You may have heard that the A and L have been penalised by the obudsman for taking this sort of action and in some cases have had to compensate clients.

I am sure there are a few details in the forums about this type of thing.

In my mind the banks are getting away with all sorts at the moment. I was effectivley black mailed by the A and L in a letter saying that if I was prepared to settle for a tenth of the amount they would leave my account open.

How on earth are they allowed to continue trading in this manner is beyond me.

[itsamomentintime]

Originally Posted by puressence73

How on earth are they allowed to continue trading in this manner is beyond me.

money talks

[Acol111]

Thanks - What a joke, I’ll be contacting the ombudsman tomorrow morning about it and will see what can be done, they owe me thousands, I wished Id seen this coming from them and I wouldn’t have given them the chance to close it.

What a nightmare… the issue is highlighted even more when you understand that the account has been over the agreed overdraft limit by hundreds before and they never took action then? They’re taking it now because they know how much they owe me and there trying to cut their losses.

[Acol111]

I spoke to as guy from the financial ombudsman today and related the story so far with the Alliance & Leicster closing my account as a result of my being £86 over the agreed overdraft limit, his initial thoughts were that he thought it would be something that they would take up on my behalf and that he would send out the paperwork for it to arrive at mine tomorrow. I asked him about whether or not the bank closing the account would have an effect on my reclaiming the bank charges that they owed me and he said that because I had been a customer, that they still had an obligation to answer my request whether or not they closed the account. I’ll keep you posted.