Gross misconduct - asking for advice

[luqo33]

Dear Users,

I would like to ask you for an advice on the following case. I would like to stress that I am determined to take this case to court should this be necessary. This is what happened.

 

My father is a holder of the NatWest Advantage Gold Account. He was living and working in the UK for 4 years. Last December he decided to go back to his native country for good.

Before he left the UK, he had purchased a phone in the Carphone Warehouse, and the after approximately 8 days after the purchase he withdrew all his funds from the account with the intention to go to his branch and close the account (as he was leaving for good). On the 9th day after the purchase in Carphone Warehouse, he went to his branch and tried to request the closure fo the account in vain - the assitant exploited his incompetence in English (my father is communicative but not proficient) and was determined to talk him into applying for a loan rather than closing the account. Being incompetent in English, my father decided to go to a different branch with the hope of meeting more helpful person, who would not cause so much trouble with closing an account - the second attempt also failed.

What happened next, only after 10 days after the phone purchase the transaction was concluded, and NatWest deducted the cost of the phone from the account without any funds on. - Please note that when withdrawing money from the account my father was not informed of any pending transaction nor the funds were frozen - he was let to take the money out when there were still pending transactions of which he couldn't have been aware (the Carphone Warehouse took 10 days to finalize).

NatWest paid the costs of the phone making an account overdraft -50pounds, and charged addtional 30pounds of referral fee. Then my father receiced a letter in which NatWest informed him that since there was that transaction and no funds on the account, they treated it as "an informal request for an overdraft". This left the account with 80 pounds of bad balance (the arranged overdraft was 0).

Since my father had lready left, I decided to go to the bank, pay all the overdraft off and close the account. In order to be authorized to do it on his behalf, I wrote a letter expresssing my fathers will and authorizing my to conclude the closure - the letter was signed by my father and sent back to me.

Unfortunatel a branch manager of one of the NatWest banks refused to accept the letter as it was not written by hand!!!!!!! (the letter was printed out and signed by hand by my father). They also refused to call him when I was there talking to an assistant.

As the account was still not closed and timed was passing, the charges for the account kept coming - always together with another and another referral fees (as there were no funds to cover the charges).

Next, I decided to call NatWest and ask for the account to be degraded to a basic free account - so as to avoid more charges coming. I passed the security check as my father was assisting my and asked to degrade the account. The assistant agreed to do this but said that it will take 3 months to do this!!!!! So that charges together with referral fees will be coming for another 3 months.

As a result the account has a heavy overdraft with interest kicking in.

 

In my opinion NatWest commited the following contraventions:

1. They should have informed my father fo pending transaction or freeze the funds so taht he was not able to withdraw all funds from the account,

2. The branch manager shoould have accepted the letter and close the account as I was prepered to pay the overdraft - or at least call my father to confirmed - which she refused to do,

3. They should have closed the account when my father went to the branch and asked for it,

4. The degradation of the account shouldn't be taking 3 months to conclude,

5. The referral fee of 30pounds is unlawful.

 

Plz give me your opinions.

 

Lucas

[yourbank]

Dear Users,

I would like to ask you for an advice on the following case. I would like to stress that I am determined to take this case to court should this be necessary. This is what happened.

 

My father is a holder of the NatWest Advantage Gold Account. He was living and working in the UK for 4 years. Last December he decided to go back to his native country for good.

In hindsight the Advantage Gold account should have been downgraded earlier.

 

Before he left the UK, he had purchased a phone in the Carphone Warehouse, and the after approximately 8 days after the purchase he withdrew all his funds from the account with the intention to go to his branch and close the account (as he was leaving for good). On the 9th day after the purchase in Carphone Warehouse, he went to his branch and tried to request the closure fo the account in vain - the assitant exploited his incompetence in English (my father is communicative but not proficient) and was determined to talk him into applying for a loan rather than closing the account. Being incompetent in English, my father decided to go to a different branch with the hope of meeting more helpful person, who would not cause so much trouble with closing an account - the second attempt also failed.

I apologise for asking this, why didn't you with your father the second time?

 

 

What happened next, only after 10 days after the phone purchase the transaction was concluded, and NatWest deducted the cost of the phone from the account without any funds on. - Please note that when withdrawing money from the account my father was not informed of any pending transaction nor the funds were frozen - he was let to take the money out when there were still pending transactions of which he couldn't have been aware (the Carphone Warehouse took 10 days to finalize).

 

There is no reason for the bank to say that there are pending transactions when someone is withdrawing money from their account. It is more than likely that no transaction was showing if the account had no overdraft and the balance was going down to £0.00

 

 

NatWest paid the costs of the phone making an account overdraft -50pounds, and charged addtional 30pounds of referral fee. Then my father receiced a letter in which NatWest informed him that since there was that transaction and no funds on the account, they treated it as "an informal request for an overdraft". This left the account with 80 pounds of bad balance (the arranged overdraft was 0).

£30.00 is claimable without doubt. The £50 is the amount that your father agreed with Carphone Warehouse.

 

Since my father had lready left, I decided to go to the bank, pay all the overdraft off and close the account. In order to be authorized to do it on his behalf, I wrote a letter expresssing my fathers will and authorizing my to conclude the closure - the letter was signed by my father and sent back to me.

 

How was the letter worded? Did you father write words to the effect of please take this letter as authorisation to close my account and for him to settle any amounts owing....or words to that effect?

 

Unfortunatel a branch manager of one of the NatWest banks refused to accept the letter as it was not written by hand!!!!!!! (the letter was printed out and signed by hand by my father). They also refused to call him when I was there talking to an assistant.

The bank can only use the telephone number that is on bank records. Did your father change his address and his telephone before he left the UK? Remember, they do not know who you are or whether you are a fraudster....unfortunate word to use I know.

 

 

As the account was still not closed and timed was passing, the charges for the account kept coming - always together with another and another referral fees (as there were no funds to cover the charges).

Next, I decided to call NatWest and ask for the account to be degraded to a basic free account - so as to avoid more charges coming. I passed the security check as my father was assisting my and asked to degrade the account. The assistant agreed to do this but said that it will take 3 months to do this!!!!! So that charges together with referral fees will be coming for another 3 months.

Was this specifically with regards to the charges being taken out of the account for the Advantage gold account or downgrading it. Personally I would always do that in writing.

 

As a result the account has a heavy overdraft with interest kicking in.

 

In my opinion NatWest commited the following contraventions:

1. They should have informed my father fo pending transaction or freeze the funds so taht he was not able to withdraw all funds from the account,

I don't think they were aware of the transaction. Was there any overdraft whatsoever on the account prior to the transaction being made?

 

2. The branch manager shoould have accepted the letter and close the account as I was prepered to pay the overdraft - or at least call my father to confirmed - which she refused to do,

They can only call a customer with a telephone number that is on Bank records, they are not allowed to call a number if a customer says this is their number. Otherwise, I could go into the branch and give them a friends number with a forged letter.

 

3. They should have closed the account when my father went to the branch and asked for it,

I agree with you on this point and I think you do need to complain about the fact that he did try to close the account on the first occasion and was refused as everything else seemed to stem from this.

 

4. The degradation of the account shouldn't be taking 3 months to conclude,

I'm not sure that the information was correct.

5. The referral fee of 30pounds is unlawful.

That is subject to the OFT test case hearing.

Plz give me your opinions.

 

Lucas

 

Lucas, I think you need to start a process to complain to the first branch about why your father was not allowed to close his account when he asked to do so in the branch. I would write to the branch manager, or rather, it has to come from your father even if you write the letter. You need to give a clear timeline of events. Explain that had your father been told of any transactions pending or any further advantage gold fees payable that he would have paid them. If his address is still incorrect then that needs to be dealt with as well.

Now, there is another way to do this as well.

[email protected]

Your father has to write the complaint even if you email the details of the complaint to him for him to copy and paste back to natwest.

Explain what you want to happen and I would say that you should mention you are prepared to pay the £50 plus advantage gold charges up to the point in which your father first went into the branch.

Hope that makes sense

[bigkacker]

Where does your father live now?