Account Closure Before or After Claim

[jo5ephedward5]

Hi.

I have a basic account with the Woolwich; it’s had a few charges over the year’s maybe a few hundred pounds. (have just sent off for my statements)

I want to claim these back following this chain of events:

In December (I think) paid £60 to bring my account back to zero as I have no overdraft facility and they were charging me £3 a day for going below zero by £1.20 – I cleared the balance and asked to close the account, they said I couldn’t close the account as it would take 24hours to update the system to zero…bearing in mind I paid cash in I don’t understand why this was a problem! – anyway to cut a long story short another £3 went on as a charge for the day I paid the money in, this then over-drew me yet again…the £3 a day continued until the balance said -£43 and that’s where its stayed for months now…I want to close this account but I don’t want the same thing to happen again…I will be applying for all my charges back but what I would like to know is should I pay in £43 now and close the account before they get my claim, and decide to close it with a minus balance (and prob put a default mark for -£43 on my file), or should I just claim and hope they refund my account back to credit then close it?

This account has always been recorded as a good one on my credit file, even now its showing an OK by it as it always does…(the credit file shows a £50 buffer that the bank tell me I don’t have!)…I would like it to be closed showing this too!

So what would be best – pay in £43 and close it then claim or claim now…answers on a post card please.

[Mumofthreeboys]

IMHO as it's such a small amount, I would say pay £43 then claim your charges back. If you do it the other way round, you can apply to have the default removed (if they enter one), but it's hard to do and I don't think it's worth risking for £43.

I hope this helps xx