Frozen Abbey bank account

[superclio]

Hi have a question.

 

I moved to the US but kept open my current account in England as I had credit card debts I was paying off. I incurred various charges over the years for bouncing cheques, etc, so I could possibly try to claim for them except for this...I was sending money back to my account from the US every month to meet my card payment, one month the money didn't arrive but since it left my account in the US I didn't realize this was the case until all sorts of letters were forwarded to me - very late in the day - showing fees from the bank for my debits going out when I was over my overdraft, and needless to say enormous charges from the various different credit card companies who didn't receive my payments as a result.

 

After 6 months of arguing with the bank here (in the US) and the bank in England, they finally found my money which was, I quote 'sitting on a ledger' as my the UK bank didn't know where to process it (my bank in the US had filled in my account number incorrectly, so I believe. Either way, they had my name - my parents and I are the only people in the entire United Kingdom with my last name - and I was calling their Global Wire Department so often that the people on the other end of the line began recognizing my voice and name, eventually greeting me with mounting incredulity: “you still haven’t found your money?” So incorrect bank account number or not, it should have been pretty easy to figure out the money ‘sitting there’ was mine). I managed to get some fees refunded from the bank in the UK, about 70-80% that were incurred from this specific transaction, but none from any of the credit cards. The credit card fees put me so in the red that I couldn't cope with the amounts or the stress and eventually arranged IVAs with them all.

 

Then the bank in England FROZE my account in December as the last time I had made a payment had been two months previous. They told me that money needed to be put into my account every month in order to keep it open/keep my overdraft. I explained my situation, the errors that had been made, none my fault, and how it had set me back, etc, etc. That I had been so patient with them why could they not show the same understanding and respect for me? That made no difference. I explained that they could take my overdraft away – I had no problem with that, just please, please give me the time to pay it off, and keep my account open. I managed to get a payment sent to them to bring me out of the red - although when they froze my account I was WITHIN my overdraft limit. I am now in the black, but cannot use my debit card (which means I can't access my account online to keep up to date), but most importantly I cannot pay my IVAs as all my direct debits, etc are suspended. Instead I have to send money from the US and pay to send it to each individual credit card company instead of paying just once to send it to my UK account which then pays the companies. I told the bank that I was going to put in a complaint to the financial ombudsman, they said fine they would wait on my account to hear back from them. That was in January and truth be told I have not actually finished filling in the complaint to send in, but I think since I am now in the black the bank don't care so much, since I haven't heard a peep out of them other than receiving my monthly statement.

 

Can I get them to unfreeze my account? Could I try to recoup all the other costs over the years? And what rights do I have regarding compensation for all the credit card fees that I incurred as a result of this? (I am no longer in direct contact with the credit card companies as I made the slightly rash decision to pay a company to arrange my IVAs as I was so freaked out by the whole situation and couldn’t bear to open another bank letter. So I think getting the fees back from the actual credit cards is a non starter).

 

Any advice is greatly welcomed. This has been the bane of my life since the money first went missing in March 2005, and it would alleviate so much stress in my life if I could put this whole thing to bed once and for all.

[BankFodder]

How many payments were sent, over what period an what was the value of eachone?

[BankFodder]

Hang, I misunderstood. Only one payment went astray. How much was that for? It was found in a suspension account. Whose account? The transmitting bank or Abbey?

 

I understand that the money received in your Abbey account was then used to feed credit card etc accounts. Were these linked to Abbey or were they different companies?

 

Are you able to produce a schedule of all of the costs which you have incurred as a result of this problem and other disproportionate penalties.

On the matter of the lost payment, has anyone made any statement which could be seen as some kind of admission of responsibility.

.

[superclio]

The payment was for $1000, about £500. I had about 4 or 5 monthly payments to credit cards and a loan. Once a month or so I would send this amount back.

 

The money was sent in March, and was eventually tracked down in August, after months of the bank in the US telling me that the UK said I had it, but when I called Abbey they said they hadn't received any money, and there was no deposit in my account. Eventually Abbey National told me that it had been sitting on this ledger. Unfortunately becasue of the time difference (Abbey's Global Advice Line is only open between 1am - 9am my time) when I found out they had it I was half asleep on the phone and didn't remember the name of the person who admitted where it was, but I know they were with the Global Advice department.

 

Abbey didn't suspend my account then, some charges were refunded from Abbey after I wrote and called repeatedly. I was mostly using my overdraft, sending money over which brought me back to zero, then the monthly payments would bring it back into the overdraft. I sent money in October, then in December started getting letters telling me I needed to make regular deposits, every month, in order to keep my overdraft. I ignored them as I was going to be sending another £500 soon. Next thing I know I can't log onto my account online, and my direct debits are being returned again - I called the bank and they told me my account was suspended, as I wasn't making enough deposits in it. I explained that they had lost my money for months, as a result it had cost me hundreds in fees, that they should keep my account open, reinstate my banking services, and I would pay off my overdraft - then they could take that away. But they refused, told me the account was still suspended, and that I needed to make a payment immediately. I managed to get 500 in it, which brought me into the black by £100. I told them I thought they were being grossly unfair and that I was going to lodge a complaint with the financial ombudsman. I have yet to do this, and have heard nothing more from Abbey since paying off the overdraft, but my debit card, online banking, etc, nothing works so I presume my account is still suspended.

 

I have all the credit card and Abbey statments indicating the fees incurred. No one has fully admitted responsibility. As I understand it, the bank in America didn't fill in the form for the wire correctly (it was about the 4th time I had done this so there was no reason for this). Either way, my full name was correctly filled in. Abbey National said that they didn't know who to credit the money to as my account number was wrong.

I have the receipt from the bank in the US with all the wire info on it.

[superclio]

Sorry, forgot to say the credit cards were mostly from other banks, Barclays, Egg, Alliance & Leicester, but there were also two Abbey cards as well.

[superclio]

I need to go to bed now, it's late here. But any questions you have I will reply to tomorrow. I all the relevant paperwork and notes on it. The only thing I can't find is the name of the individual at Abbey who told me the money had been sitting on a ledger for six months.

Thank you for your help.

[superclio]

Hi there,

I posted a couple of days ago about the ridiculous issue I've had with Abbey not being able to find a wire transfer of £500 that was sent from America for six months. Do you want me to send you their correspondence for your case?

 

And how should I proceed, should I just go after the money they've charged me over the years and call it a day, or should I try to have my account unfrozen and seek compensation for the direct debits that bounced to the other banks thereby incurring their fees as well?

[BankFodder]

recovering the charges is fairly straightforward. you will have to obtain a list of all of your charges if you haven't done so already and then send the letters and the calim if necessary.

 

Taking action on the frozen account is going to be more difficult. Whereas the bank doesn't especially care about the money, they will care about unfreezing the account as they will take this as an admission of responsibility - which of course it will be in a way.

 

Also, because the event which caused the mess is not neceesarily caused by a contractual failing by them - it again gets a little more complicated. Contractual duties are fixed and they are strict.

 

Here you are more likley to be talking about a duty of care in negligence. You will have to ask the question whether a reasonable bank carrying out its function in a reasonably diligent way would not have interrogated their customer database to identify a customer whose name was so unusual that it might have occurred less than five times in their records and then attempted to reconcile the orphaned payment with its rightful owner. Preumambly if you had a history of identical payments coming in from the same source, this would make it all the easier to identify you as the customer.

 

I think that I would begiin with DPA requests for all for your account history - everything, screen notes, payment history BACS or CHAPS payments, the lot.

Also you need to make a list of the ways in which you consider that the banks failed in its duty. This means thaty youwill have to identify reasonable banking steps which might have been taken and were not taken. You would need help of a banker to be able to do this.

Also you will have to list the damage which you suffered as a result of this including the value of the damage where there is a specific value or a general figure where the head of damage is unliquidated - stress, time, inconvenience etc.

Then come back here.

[superclio]

OK, thank you. Not sure how I would find a banker to help with that part but I will start the process in getting all my fees, etc gathered.

 

My only other queries are should I continue with the complaint to the financial ombudsman in the meantime? Will this help the process of unfreezing my account in any way? I'm guessing that the first step is to get them to unfreeze my account as asking about the claims over the last six years might annoy them enough that they refuse to consider unfreezing my account.

Lastly, if my account is still frozen would this in anyway affect my rights to claim back past fees?

[BankFodder]

Frozen account will not prevent claiming of charges.

 

As far as the Ombudsman goes, I would normally say don't bother. However in this case I think that it can't hrt to have him investigate. However, you have to be very specific about your complaint. I think that you want to complain that the bank could have discovered your ID and applied the funds to your account but failed because they took no action or no adequate action.

[superclio]

You're right I need to be clear about my complaint. The bottom line is I was happy bumbling along sending my money over after the fiasco of them losing it until they forze my account. This made me LIVID. I was within my overdraft, and feel like I tolerated their ineptitude and let slide the financial hardship the credit card fees had incurred due to Abbey's inadequecy, how dare they come down on me so hard. They have incurred my wrath now!

 

So I want to complain that since I showed such loyalty with them not pushing them for any further fee recoveries how dare they be so harsh with me a few months later for not making enough deposits into my account. In a nutshell I don't feel their reason for freezing my account is valid, I do not think I merit that and certainly not considering what they put me through over the last year.

 

I'm not sure how valid that claim is, but like you say, complaining to the ombudsman (hopefully) can't hurt.

[superclio]

This topic was closed on 03/06/19.

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