How charges get refunded for personal (ie no business) RBS customers

In Branches:

Any member of staff can take your complaint / request for charges back (at the counter, by letter or phone)

We are trained to log this an official concern (complaint) on the sytem but be wary not everyone will take the time to do this as its time consuming. The staff member should at the very least refer the matter to the relevant person (branch manager / area manager / customer relations)

Branch managers only have authority to refund up to £50 in each case (i believe its the same limit nationwide) and they actually have a budget set aside for how much their branch can "spend" on personally refunding charges!

Area managers have authority to refund more charges, regional managers higher amounts still; though to be honest if you're wanting more than £50 back you should go direct to customer relations.

Customer Relations: (Freepost PO Box 1727 Edinburgh EH12 9JN / 0800 015 5035 / [email protected])

This is a department of the bank dedicated to sorting out complaints before they are taken further. They have a lot more authority to take action / refund charges than branches and this is probably your best port of call. It's in the banks best interests to settle with you within 8 weeks of making your complaint (has to be logged) otherwise you are free to complain to the Financial Ombudsman and this will cost the bank at least £370 (i read £370 on another part of the forum but we've always been told it's £500?). If the Ombudsman decides you were right the bank has to abide by their decision and do what it says. If they disagree with you and take the banks side the bank is still charged and you pay nothing.

I believe you can also take court action at any time regardless of who is dealing with your complaint.

Internet/Phone Banking:

I am not 100% sure but i believe they either send the home branch a message to investigate or use the same concerns system to log and try to resolve it as branches do.

New department (I don't think customers can contact this dept directly)

There's been a new department set up last few weeks (MCC i think?). Originally we were told it was a help centre to give advice on how best to handle complaints that we are trying to resolve. But now it looks like its part of a bigger plan...

Just a few days ago in our morning staff meeting we were told all about the growing consumer movement that "bank penalty charges are illegal" and the court case v Lloyds, and alsoshown a letter like the ones available on this site. We were advised that if we received a letter like these we were to send them immediately to this new department and that they would handle it from there as we didn't want to "get to the stage that there were baliffs coming into the branch". Interestingly enough my manager who is normally a right jobsworth didn't try to dispute the statement that bank charges are illegal.

I've heard of cases where customers are made to sign a letter saying that they "understand they will be refunded this one last time but they are not to ask for any more charges back and we will not refund anything else unless it is a proven bank error........."

......only for them to be refunded again the very next month!! So generally speaking always accept the charges we offer to refund at the time, but then ask for the rest back as well.

Remember if you want your entire lot of charges back the best chance of success seems to be using the "bank charges are illegal penalties" letter templates on this site. From the look of it they seem to meet with success everytime (as long as you follow through on everything)

And finally remember next time you come into the branch that, believe it or not, the majority of bank staff are on your side. We're just not allowed to tell you that we also think that charges are excessive and unjustified or anything other than the banks policy on charges or refund more than our department is allowed to otherwise we could end up being disciplined or even sacked. Its something we regularly talk about amongst ourselves and i am yet to meet a non-manager who doesn't think the charges are disgusting or obscene. So please be nice to us

I'll try and post something useful in the next few days...

In the meantime I'm off to send a letter to Barclaycard and one for a mate to RBS.

Power to the people!

It's in the banks best interests to settle with you within 8 weeks of making your complaint (has to be logged) otherwise you are free to complain to the Financial Ombudsman and this will cost the bank at least £370 (i read £370 on another part of the forum but we've always been told it's £500?). If the Ombudsman decides you were right the bank has to abide by their decision and do what it says. If they disagree with you and take the banks side the bank is still charged and you pay nothing.

Fantastic info, thanks!

That explains the footnote on the bank's (unsatisfactory) letter in reply to my complaint:

"To ensure you have ample time to consider our comments, we will keep your file open for eight weeks. If you wish to take your complaint further, we would be grateful if you could let us know within this time." Care Team Advisor, RBS, Glasgow.

Good info thanks - think this should go in the section "A word from the Banks" so that no-one misses it.

I'll try and post something useful in the next few days...

You mean there is more...and that this is not useful? I don't think you understand how much confidence this sort of info will give to waverers and the 'I'm not quite sure...'

If anyone is able to face up to their bank, knowing these processes, you will have done those people a glorious service, and also helped everyone to demonstrate that the bank is not above the law, that it knows this, and it is now running scared...

You get my vote for Local Hero anytime.

here's some more i forgot to metion...

Customer Lending Centre

If you get lots of charges and go way over your limit it is more than likely at some stage responsibilty for all your accounts will pass to the Customer Lending Centre, otherwise known as the Personal Account Centre or PAC (think like wolves). Business customers could see their accounts passed to the BAC if they had problems.

When this happens you'll receive a letter informing you of this. Any request for charges back should go directly through them (or customer relations - see above)

Income Managers

These have recently (last few months) sprung up to help deal with the growing issue of refunding charges. They're based centrally and sort requests for charges back. Basically they are there to deal with the issue of bank charges and free up the branch manager to concentrate on hitting their sales target for the week. (Not all branches have an income manager assigned to them though)

Hey, that's great. I sincerely hope my branch DOESN'T have an Income Manager - I want MY bank manager to deal with my issues personally...and if the branch does have an income manager, I may consider moving to a branch that doesn't...

This topic was closed on 03/07/19.

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