dolly v Nationwide : * * WON * *

[dolly]

20 mths ago I stopped using my nationwide flex account. I never got statements for it, just once a year I think, and never really did much withit - paid money in, had a few small DD's coming out that sort of thing. Anyway, I went into the branch this morning to pay some money into the childrens accounts and it flagged up that they needed to speak to me about my account.

 

Apparently when I last used my account - July 2004 - I was 27p overdrawn. Want to know what my balance is now......

 

-852.55

 

 

Looking at the printout she gave me, they are charging me 30 a month for unauthorised overdraft usage plus an interest charge of around 27.28 a month, which obviously increases each month.

 

I guess I need to write them a letter?!

[Guest stephen]

wel your doing well. I wonder how long it would take for them to ask you for the money? or if the would be stupid enought to try and claim it via the courts

[dolly]

Oh they asked me this morning what I planned to do - as I was in a rush and the baby was yelling (good girl, trained her well ) I said I would look into it....so I have, here!!

 

Funnily enough I have never received a letter from either them or from a debt collection agency about it which did strike me as odd at the time.

[Guest stephen]

Personally, I would send them a letter saying here is the 27p i owe you if you want the rest see you in court. (However, that just me)

 

I would suggest you write to them and explain that these are penalty charges and enclose a cheque for 27p in full and final settlement.

[gothicf0rm]

dont you know how much money you can make from this though! see... you owe them 27p plus the interest on that original 27p. they owe you the bank fees, plus the interest they charged on the fees plus 8% APR. thats running at £68.16 per year so far. id work out how much they really owe you and then sue them for it you should make a nice little profit

[Guest stephen]

soory guys but she want make any money, all she will do is get the amount wiped form the balance, that they say she owes, she cannot claim interest on this as, becasue she has not paid it.

 

Therefore, my first advice stands send them a cheque for the 27p that you did owe and inform them that the rest are illegal charges.

[dolly]

Thanks Stephen, that is great.

 

Also have other charges over the years, namely when they decided to clear a cheque for about £180 and then 3 weeks later decided that it had not cleared at all and that it was written from a cancelled chequebook, debited the money from my account which left me over the limit with a few small DD's not coming out.

 

How on earth can they do that? How can they say a cheque has cleared, give you the money only to take it away again?

[gothicf0rm]

but if you have the money to clear the account, pay it off then start toting up the interest. its up to you what you do. you could leave it several years and think of it as an investment.

[dolly]

Well, I took your advice Stephen and sent them a cheque on Saturday for 27p along with a copy of the letter due to charges over the past 5 years.

 

Will let you know how it goes - not expecting them to bow down without a battle but you never know.

 

Thanks again.

[dolly]

OK, paid the 27p and asked for the charges to be paid back. Today got this letter:

 

Dear Mrs Dolly

 

Account No: xxxxxxx

 

I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 9th February and note the comments rgarding the charges made to your account.

 

I am sorry you are dissatisfied with the charges and feel that they are unreasonable. However, to help clarify the situation can I please draw your attention to the enclosed Terms and COnditions and flex account interest rates and charges leaflets. These terms and conditions were agreed to on 23rd July 2001 when the account was opened.

 

I am also enclosing duplicate statements as requested showing all transactions made on the account since it was opened.

 

I hope this explanation is satisfactory. However, in line with our internal complaints procedure detailed in the leaflet provided I can escalate your concerns to my senior manager.

 

 

Got loads of sheets of statements, the leaflets as mentioned. It was sent from the Customer Services Manager at my local branch. No mention made anywhere of the 27p!

 

Onto step 2 then! Onwards and upwards!!

 

Edited to add: have just totalled up all the charges since opening the account and it stands at £1508.61, not including the 8%.

 

Thanks

xx

[dolly]

Just got a reply today - was a bit lax and didn't send off my second letter until Friday last week but today got this reply:

 

Dear Mrs Dolly

 

Thank you for your recent letter, your concerns regarding your Flexaccount have been passed to me for reply as the senior manager responsible for the **** branch.

 

The Nationwide Group uses the FSA rules when dealing with customers concerns. I've enclosed a leaflet that explains our Internal Complaints Procedure.

 

I'll send a full response to you by 26 March at the latest, but hope to do so before. Please bear with me till then.

 

If you'd like to raise any queries with me, my address and telephone number are at the top of this letter.

 

Thank you for giving me the chance to deal with your concerns.

 

Quality Manager North West.

 

In my letter I gave them 14 days, so am going to respond to this saying that the 14 day time limit I imposed still stands.

 

Must say that I am really impressed with the speed that they have responded on both occasions - it has always been by return of post. Incidentally, they should be reported to Royal Mail as well as they are sending out first class letters with only 29p on as the stamp value instead of 30p

[dcefx]

Royal Mail offer a discount of 1p on postage for if you do any of the following..

 

..use electronic stamps / franking machine / prepayment

..pre-sorting your mail

..printing with barcode data

[dolly]

Well, got the final response to my letters just now in which I said I would take them to court if the charges weren't refunded.

 

Seems to be a bog standard letter of refusal really, nothing interesting stands out: thanks for getting in touch, blah blah. Paraphrased below:

 

"We are grateful for the opportunity to explain the rationale behind our charging policy. As you know, if we allow items to be paid and it means you exceed your agreed overdraft or we have to return an item unpaid on your account, then we will make a charge in accordance with the terms and conditions.....and these are agreed to by yourself when you sign in acceptance of our terms, when signing the application forms.

 

Nationwide believes it is open and transparent about charges....I hope that this has helped clarify our position and you'll appreciate why I'm unable to refund any charges on your account'.

 

Particularly loving the use of the word 'appreciate' in there!

 

Oh, and if they don't hear from me within the next 56 days they'll close the file. Guess they won't be doing that then because next Tuesday, 14th March, I am filling in the court papers.

[Dave Johnson]

Bedford branch have sent only one reply to me.

 

(Claim 6BE00544)

 

Is that because they know I do want to see them in court :twisted:

 

Cheers

Dave

[dolly]

Hi all.

 

Just following up this thread - have had a really rough couple of months so everything went on the back burner but now I am up and ready to fight again.

 

Have completed the moneyclaim form as went through all the procedure a couple of months ago, (just about to pay for it)but since then there have been extra charges added so the original letters I sent out now have an old figure on.

 

Do I need to go through it all again or can I just fill in the correct figure? Difference is about £400. Got a comprehensive 'bog off' from the bank anyway.

 

Thank you as always.

[Bovvered]

Personally I would just amend the amount on the moneyclaim form as in principle the bank have already told you to bog off...

[crusty git]

but you must admit they do like to be different

Good luck

 

J

[dolly]

Addressed all my correspondance to my branch but received letters back from NW Regional Office......who would be best to serve papers on?

 

Thanks....getting excited now, just about to pay

[dolly]

Done it!

 

Claim Ref: 6QZ38787, £1821.15 + £120 Costs.

 

Must be a sign as well as my first charge was made 14/06/2002, exactly 4 years ago!

Fingers crossed guys

[juicy]

Hi Dolly,

 

I am just off to court too. Haven't started proceedings yet though, Am scared! Can you have a look at my thread I have asked a couple of questions but had no response, also how did you change the title of your thread??

 

Thanks Dolly,

 

Juicy

[dolly]

Got my acknowledgement through the post. It is deemed served on the 20th June and Nationwide have until 4th July to respond.

[joneshousehold]

Good luck and well done for making the claim. We are slightly further on. We did Moneyclaim on 31 May, notice deemed to be served 5 June but they must have got it sooner as we have a letter dated 2 June (but not received until a whole week later so this may be wrong) saying charges have been refunded. It's not yet confirmed but at least it's a good positive step. The amounts are very similar to yours.

 

Also the claim was acknowledged by Nationwide on 9 June.

 

Based on that I expect you to hear something very soon. Fingers crossed for you.

[sunnyjools]

Hi, I also did my moneyclaim on 14/6 so they must be very busy,does that mean we wont have long to wait either, jools

[dolly]

Thanks joneshousehold - let's hope they do the same for me, and you Sunnyjools as well They must be busy at the moment!

[joneshousehold]

Here's hoping! Mind you I still haven't seen the money in the account as my on-line access has been blocked which is very naughty of them!