That is so true - I'll call them tomorrow and ask to speak to a local business manager asap, and if that doesn't work I'll do the sneak trick because when I called to open the account they wanted to see me the same day!! Thanks so much.

Well that is a good start, but they will only let me speak to my business manager over the phone and not in person - I'm in Cornwall, the business manager call centre is miles away. I went in my branch today and they said as its a business account I can only speak to a business manager and therefore that means doing it over the phone only. Moving banks - thats the only way - once this is sorted I'll move banks to someone that lets you see a manager in your local branch. I should have known better...

A customer of mine sent me a CHAPS transfer and put the wrong name on the payment so it was not likely to clear and credit my account. I called my bank on the day it should have arrived (last Friday) to let them know of the problem (I knew the problem because my customer told me a few hours after they sent the same day payment) and told them the situation. Lloyds TSB said we can't tell you if it rejects or not today (Friday), but if it is in your account on Saturday then it has cleared. I called saturday and my account balance had increased by the value of the receipt. I asked the operator if it was a cleared balance and they confirmed it was. I withdrew cash Monday morning, more than I had in my account before the CHAPS payment had arrived, but as it had arrived I withdrew a large amount of money. I also paid my suppliers by cheque including VAT for Customs... The bank gave me cash without issue - obviously I had the money (and my overdraft limit is £0). Later in the day I make a transaction at a shop on my business debit card and it wasn't authorised, and based on the CHAPS payment that was cleared in my account Saturday and Monday morning it should have easily cleared. I called the bank and they tell me they sent the receipt back. I said but it was a cleared payment and they said but the information on the receipt was incorrect so we had to send it back. I repeated that it was cleared on Saturday and earlier today, and cleared means cleared when using CHAPS. If it wasn't then solicitors couldn't rely on CHAPS payments for completing on houses and all sorts of things. Still they wouldn't have it and said tough luck. I asked for an overdraft (as I never use one normally) then they said no because I hadn't been with them long enough. I said but clearly what has happened is wrong, and I'm going to end up with loads of bounced cheques here, and charges, and you must be at fault. I also pointed out if it was cleared how come I could take cash out on that balance? They kept saying this wasn't there fault. So today I started receiving Lloyds bank charges for unauthorised overdraft usage on the money I took out in cash on Monday morning and here we go again. I will ask them to refund it all of course because I guess from reading these forums on bank charges I have the right to do that anyway, as it seems like they can't really charge on these penalties. Am I right or barking up the wrong tree here? Also does anyone know what 'cleared' means on a bank account? Doesn't it mean its yours? If this was a cheque I would understand you should wait several days and seemingly if you look around on the net you'll find cheques can be recalled months later for certain reasons. But CHAPS is a secure guarenteed cleared payment, and as it was on my account balance, and as I was told by more than one person at the bank it was really cleared isn't there something I can do?? It just seems so wrong, and now I'm overdrawn, with several thousand pounds of cheques bouncing probably tomorrow, and as far as I can tell I've not done anything wrong!! In fact I waited for a real cleared balance, and paid with money I had - I wasn't sending cheques out without funds to clear them. Someone please tell me if I'm right or wrong. I'm going mad. And of course the bank have basically said stuff you its not our problem. Its completely stressing me out and this is a new business venture which is going well up to now. As it happens it took 48 hours for that money to go back to my client, who are now trying to send it again with the correct details. Regardless of the details of the first receipt, if Lloyds had said, I'm sorry we sent it back because the transfer was incorrect I would have been fine, I wouldn't have withdrawn cash, and I wouldn't have written cheques. But they said it was cleared. I'm going around in circles. Any advice?

Pauldean didn't barclays close your account and you had to hand back your debit card etc? I was just wondering because you said they refunded your settlement figure back to your bank account. Does this mean they threatened to close the account but didn't?