Nationwide: Money removed from savings account for charge incurred in current account

[Maverick_Bowen]

Hi all,
I have been a busy body in my home town this last year and I'm sitting very smug to finally see that the banks are on the back foot.
After I was succesful in claiming back charges with the Nationwide I informed everyone I knew that should they have a problem just to give me a ring.

The other day a someone gave me the following issue:
She incurred a bank charge on her current account, and recieved a letter informing her that they would be taking £30 from her joint savings account which she shares with her grandad.

Now I don't know how you feel, but to me this kind of behaviour is simply shocking. My question though is that is this kind of practice legal? The charge as we all know is not, and I have advised her to claim back it back. But taking money out of a seperate account due to a charge in a different one, especially when its a joint account and her grandad was given no notification....that just doesn't sound at all legal.
Surely the two accounts are formed from two seperate contracts meaning they could not overlap?

Furthermore she claims that they did not even give her 28 days notice.
Isn't this breaking thier own terms and conditions which they always seem to refer to?!


Any thoughts or answers to this would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks

[mutzi]

Unfortunately they can and will. All the banks tend to do this (that sounds familiar.)

At any time we may, without notice, combine two or more accounts
or set off any debit balance on one account against a credit balance
on another account.

They will likely close her current account when she makes a claim, so they can't do it again at any rate. To be honest I would just tell them where to shove all of their accounts

As for the notice period, this is set out in the banking code. The best I would imagine you would achieve by going down that route is simply a refund anyway.

[Maverick_Bowen]

Though it appears that they set it out in their terms and conditions that they can do this, is it actually legal? I mean they state in their terms and conditions that they can charge us 30 quid; and thats what all this is about. Banks just take advantage of grey areas of the law and hope us, the ocnsumer, don't challenge them.

Like I said before, surely if the two accounts represent two seperate contractual agreements they can't be made into one lump sum as in implied by your quotation - especially not without the consent or atleast notification of the customer.

Then again I am no lawyer. But anyone who is a lawyer...please comment!

[Leeds-Blokey]

Hiya

I've the exact same issue but my bank took £800 from our joint account and hear this - they took it assuming we're people we are not! Shocker!

I have been advised just to sue the bank so that's what i'm doing!

[indebtstudent]

Why not try the Ombudsmen first? It costs the bank money AND you can still go to court if they find in favour of the bank. Oh and it is free to you, from your post they look like they haven't got a leg to stand on.