Hi there,

My friend has recently got divorced and currently has a joint account at the Nationwide, unfortunatley his ex-wife regularly empties the account so it goes over their overdraft limit and he ends up paying the charges, she doesn't earn and he does and he is getting depressed and distressed at this situation. He has tried to close the account but staff at his Nationwide account tell him this is not allowed, what can he do please?

Ps- i thought i read once that it is possible to freeze a joint account but not close it?

I think this has been asked already on the forum tonight, but I will answer. He can ask that the account is frozen due to a marital dispute. Is the account in credit or debit?

Hi thankyou for that, it was £1000 overdrawn/in the overdraft but yesterday he put £1000 in to bring it back to credit!! Why?

Because I assume his ex wife won't sign anything for the account to be closed so clearing the overdraft and having the account frozen will do the job to get the account on lock down forever until such an agreement is reached.

If the account is joint then he should be able to close it. You mention charges therefore I assume it is a flex account, you cannot have a flex account which is either to sign.

I suppose technically you are supposed to return both cards and chequebooks etc.

In answer to your question yes he can put the account in dispute, I forget the exact term as I no longer work for Nwide but essentially the account would be frozen.

I would suggest doing this in the branch and pointing out to the manager that the staff were IMO negligent in not informing him of this (assuming he's been in and asked about this).

He'll need to make alternative banking arrangements as the dispute thing can't be removed unless both parties sign something (which doesn't seem likeky from what you have said).

Get him to put this in place ASAP, it solves the immediate problem, however I would certainly question the information he's been given re closing the account.

Hi, that advice is great, thankyou!! Please can i ask what 'IMO' is? Ps- i believe my friend rang Nationwide national number today (not local branch) and the lady on the other end assured him that she could cancel his overdraft with only his authorisation so i believe he has done that for now!!

Please can i ask what 'IMO' is?

In My Opinion

Sytra

IMHO = In My Honest Opinion

I'm glad to be able to help, please feel free to click on the scales of justice, these seem to have grown neglected by users in recent times

Now back to the matter at hand, now that your friend has done the thing I can't remember the name of my understanding is that nothing can happen to the account unless both parties come to some agreement. This doesn't seem likely from what you have said but at least it brings an end to the situation.

Hi,

I had a similar issue happen to me whereby our relationship has ended and I need to close our joint account. I have tried going into the branch but was told that the only option was for my ex to cut up her card and send it into a branch, which is not possible with the current situation.

Any advice as to how I get the account frozen/closed?

It seems you can go in with ID and ask for it to be closed.

Stand firm and if the bank so no ask them to sign to confirm you have been in and asked for them to close the account, and that they know you no longer want to be on the account, and that the other person is now to pay all charges on that account. This should make them remember you can close it.

I believe they ARE supposed to have both cards returned but in this situation it is not possible. They can get the dispute kind of thing mentioned above put on the account but this is not ideal since there will stil be a joint account and thus a financial association with CRAs.

A current account is always either to sign so they should be able to close it. It can definately be closed without a card because that's what they do if someone has been paying off a reducing overdraft. They wouldn't get sent a new card if the account was only open to pay the OD off.

Ask to speak to a manager, perhaps make an appointment to do this, they are just sales managers now but have more discretion than regular staff so they will be eager to get it sorted and get back to 'motivating' thier staff to sell.