Commission. Unpaid Item

[Jase1982]

Hi all,

Question for any smile customer -

Has anyone ever been charged £50 in one go for 'COMMISSION. UNPAID ITEM'?? That seems a little odd.

Also, does anyone have a loan with Smile? I do and they decided to take the fee out a week before I get paid - They said their system could not handle the date change to when i get paid. Would that be truthful? That also seems quite strange.

[ian cognito]

Yes I have hundreds of commission charges for Co-op, and yes, they are an unlawful cahrge and can be claimed.

As for the Smile loan think, never heard such a load of rubbish (notice the restraint), I had A&L transfer all my direct debits over when I opened the account and they set every single one up to go out before payday, If I didn't know better i would swear blind these banks do it on prupose to make money out of us........tell them to change it or change either the payment date or their statement period

[Jase1982]

Hi,

Cheers for the reply. What would telling them to change it or change either the payment date or their statement period do for me? I mean, they could just say no, sorry 'our system' can not do that??

Is there any kind of legal talk I can use to make them change the payment date?

[ian cognito]

well every other bank can manage it! doubt theres anything legal but you could threaten to go to the ombudsman (not terribly effective tho) Worst case scanario they have to give you a new loan with a start/statement date to suit you, just a bit more work for them, try going to their complaints department.

[Bookworm]

Or you could cancel the direct debit, and take control of your finances by not allowing them to help themselves to your money when they want, and set up a standing order which allows you to say when the money goes out.

[Jase1982]

I can't do that as I bank with Smile and have the loan with smile. Don't think I can cancel the direct debit.

I still don't know what to do?? There appears to be nothing I can do to change their mind.

[ian cognito]

Don't think it paid by direct debit when its a smile loan from a smile accoutnbw, they just sort of take it!

[Jase1982]

I think I'm stuck on that point for now. I intend to open another current account any way once I claim back my unlawful bank charges.

On another point, I sent the request for statements on Tuesday by recorded delivery. Do they normally acknowledge receipt of this request? and how long do they take to reply?

[Welshman]

Yes, they acknowledged mine about 4 days later. However, the statements were not sent until 38 days later.

[ian cognito]

I sen two cheques, one for smile and one for co-op, they returned one and so acknowledged my request but heard nothing else - they've got until 15th....

[wnettie]

First, in answer to the original question, I've had charges of up to £140 taken out in one go - these are multiples of £35, in the case of a Co-Op current account.

Regarding money simply being taken, I've had a similar issue with a Co-Op Visa, where they would just take money out at a fairly unpredictable date. The biggest laugh I had recently (which really prompted me to take action) was when they took out the money (I had just put enough money in the day before), and then returned it 3 days charging me a £35 unpaid charge PLUS £11 for the Visa fee. I then got a call from a very cocky chap telling me I as in arrears on my Visa and could I just pay by debit card. Since this was news to me, and I was on holiday abroad at the time I told him since they're so good at transferring money in and out of my account just like that, he might as well transfer it back to my Visa, given that there was enough money there in the first place.
He did, only he took TWICE the amount than should have been paid in the first place bringing my current account within just 5 pounds from the overdraft limit, all this without any declaration or confirmation requested from me.
When I tried to check my balance online, I couldn't log in, because the account had been blocked. I phoned and was told that this was because my Visa was in arrears. The next day I checked again, and saw the damage (luckily, no other transaction had taken place since), and then phoned immediately again, to tell them to revert the transaction. After much tooing and frooing (and several international calls at my charge), the promised to return the payment by 5pm the same, and now here comes the absolute GEM from the Co-Op:

They advised me, now WAIT FOR THIS, that a direct debit payment would be returned, IF THERE WEREN'T ENOUGH FUNDS IN THE ACCOUNT 24 HOURS BEFORE IT WAS DUE TO GO OUT!!!! (ie. not even the day before would be good enough)

When I said, cheers for telling me now (it's great being informed by the bank about this, since it's not stated in their Ts&Cs), he said : "Oh, this is clearly stated on OUR Direct Debit form". To which I obvious reply was: "Well, normally, when setting up a DD, you don't fill up YOUR form but the other organisations (if at all), so nobody would ever see this."
I honestly didn't argue with the chap, he knew it was absolute nonsense himself, and just had to say what he was told.

But to top all of that, when I checked later that day, of course the payment hadn't been reversed already, so I phoned again to complain, and then the next day, TWO payments had been returned to my account, from my Visa account, which was not seriously in arrears.

As I said at the beginning, this was the final straw for me. I think the Co-Op are not only unethical, but incompetent, and I am now doing all my preparation to do a full reclaim on my current account with the Co-Op, current account with Smile, Visa Classic account (recently closed), and Visa Gold account (soon to be paid off in full, but not closed), though I will be waiting, just for fun, for the penalty charge date later this month, just to add all these wondeful new illegal fees to my claim.

I hope some of you find the above interesting and supportive if you have any doubts as to whether it would be right for you to reclaim your charges.

All the best to you all!

WNettie