@asknationwide Nationwide "Flex" account sold as basic account; charges and unauth overdraft forced onto account

[mfpa]

In August or September 2011 I accompanied my wife to a Nationwide Branch to open a basic bank account. The specific requirement I outlined to the salesman was:-

 

* an account for her wages to be paid into.

* a cashpoint card to draw money out.

* no facility to go overdrawn and incur charges.

 

The salesman listened, asked all sorts of irrelevant questions, then said the account asked for was called a "Flex" account and opened it for her.

 

It all worked fine for her until November, when the day she was paid the cashpoint machine refused to give her any of her money. Nationwide claimed she was overdrawn and had incurred over £200 worth of bank charges.

 

The staff were adamant that there is a charge of £20.00 per month for this "unauthorised overdraft" they have placed onto the account without my wife's permission, plus a charge of £15.00 for each cashpoint withdrawal while the account is "over its overdraft limit" plus interest at some unspecified percentage. After much argument, the manager allowed her to withdraw some of her wages and agreed to have the charges refunded, but refused to refund the negative balance the bank had applied to the account without my wife's permission. He agreed to lodge a complaint with head office for her but refused point blank to show us the text of the complaint he submitted on our behalf. He promised to ring back in a few days and follow up with a letter. He phoned when we were out and left a voicemail, my wife phoned back when he was out and left a message, no letter ever arrived. Charges continue to be applied to the account, even though she is no longer using it because she lost her job at the beginning of December and currently has no income.

 

Being generous, I would say Nationwide are seeking unjust enrichment on the back of repeated mistakes.

[mfpa]

Does anybody have any views or advice how to play this, as my wife is being majorly harassed by these buffoons?

 

In particular, isn't it against BCOBS to force an overdraft when the product requested was a basic bank account, and to charge £15 a time to use a cashpoint machine?

 

Anything specific I need to request in the SAR, apart from the text of the complaint the branch manager submitted on my wife's behalf but refused to show us?

Edited January 15, 2012 by mfpa

[ims21]

Hi

 

BCOBS may be your friend o9n this one...see here

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php

 

Your complaint/ation would be on unfair treatment by the bank, both in terms of mis-selling the product in the first place and the way they have dealt out charges on the account.

 

What correspondence have you had with them thus far about this?

 

ims

[mfpa]

Thanks for the reply, and the link.

 

The only letters my wife has had from them (as far as I know) are a couple of the "you are overdrawn without our agreement, charges have been applied, additional charges will cause the balance to continually increase if it is not resolved" type - one in late December and another in early January. The January one shows they had invented another hundred pounds worth of overdrawing during that fortnight even though she had not used the account during that time.

 

There has been no sign of the letter the branch manager promised in November (when we discovered the situation and made the complaint in person that I mentioned in my opening post), and there has clearly been no resolution since they are still claiming there to be a negative balance to which they are adding interest and charges. I seem to recall they are supposed to resolve complaints within eight weeks. Would you suggest mentioning BCOBS when chasing up this complaint, or leaving that for a later round?

 

The harassment I mentioned is frequent phone calls on both her mobile and our landline, often in quick succession.

[ims21]

Hi

 

You could mention BCOBS and how it places a statutory duty on them to treat their customers fairly and that you feel you have been treated unfairly because of x, y and z.

 

Have you sent them a SAR? If not it might be worth doing as it may reveal some more information which is currently in the background.

 

ims

[Chapster]

I'm going to start my own thread soon with a similarish situation to yours. I'm getting nowhere fast with Nationwide. I have a Flex Account with no overdraft facility.

 

I've had lots of charges on the account over the past year and when looking through them, I saw that most of them were after the debit card from the Flex Account was used in shops and cash machines and the payments and withdrawals were accepted despite there not being sufficient funds in the account. This of course meant charges were levied on the account. I also got charged in November for unauthorised overdraft despite the fact that in the proceeding two months the account had been in the black the whole time.

 

I wrote to them kicking up. Received back a generic letter telling me to fill in the included income and expenditure form if I wanted to try and get money back. No response to any of the questions I'd asked regarding how it was possible to withdraw money if account doesn't have enough funds, etc.

 

So I wrote a 2nd letter. This time, along with the I & E form, there was mention only of the above point regarding insufficient funds and payments/withdrawals: apparently, to "avoid embarrassment caused by payments being declined" the account has a reserve overdraft set at a limit which the bank "reviews" regularly, the current amount of which I still do not know! Going into this reserve overdraft incurs a 'paid item' charge of £15.00 each time. They haven't mentioned it in their letter, but my statements show that they also hammer you with a £30 unauthorised overdraft fee as well.

 

The letter goes on to say that they "genuinely believe it is better for customers to be able to use such a facility". Really? Does anyone here prefer a £15 charge instead of a bit of embarrassment when your card is declined? What about cash machines, do you get embarrassed in front of that lump of metal too and prefer a £15 charge? Conniving ****. This world, I don't know, any opportunity to fleece you. Never knew about this reserve overdraft feature, they don't tell you the amount, you have to telephone to cancel it which can take 7 weeks, and they never send a letter warning of charges to be applied to the account, which often causes us to go into the red and immediately incur more charges.

 

I hope you get somewhere mfpa. You're dead right though, it is enrichment from mistakes, and they help ensure you make the mistakes, with such facilities as 'reserve overdraft' that you don't even know you have.

[mfpa]

they help ensure you make the mistakes.

 

Allowing cashpoint withdrawals when there are insufficient funds in an account that was specifically set up without the ability to go overdrawn is a mistake by the bank, not by the customer.

 

with such facilities as 'reserve overdraft' that you don't even know you have.

 

They surreptitiously put one of those on my wife's account without asking or even telling her.

[BreadAndButter]

On a plus note - all im offered are cash /basic bank accounts with rubbish restrictions like no overdraft-ever, cant use other firms cash machines, etc etc.

Despite putting in over £40k into a basic accoutn each year with halifax, 7 years on they stil ldont want to give me a normal account!

 

however, opening a Nationwide account I dont get basic, I get a real current account!

 

so... im moving, and one day will get an overdraft again hopefully, to get me out of trouble as and when i need it for emergencies.

[mfpa]

however, opening a Nationwide account I dont get basic, I get a real current account!

 

Good if that is what you want. But not when the customer requests, and the service provider agrees to provide, a basic account with no overdrawing facilities and no card payment facilities.

 

The situation at the moment is that they have reviewed the circumstances of my wife's account twice and (surprise!) concluded both times they are in the right - without addressing things like their repeated errors, breach of contract, or breach of statutary duty to treat the customer fairly.

 

I have not yet sent an SAR as finances are really tight and the £10 is a significant chunk of our disposable income.

[simonjohn]

On a plus note - all im offered are cash /basic bank accounts with rubbish restrictions like no overdraft-ever, cant use other firms cash machines, etc etc.

Despite putting in over £40k into a basic accoutn each year with halifax, 7 years on they stil ldont want to give me a normal account!

 

however, opening a Nationwide account I dont get basic, I get a real current account!

 

so... im moving, and one day will get an overdraft again hopefully, to get me out of trouble as and when i need it for emergencies.

 

Out of interest what kind of card have the nationwide provided, if it is the cash card + then this is still classed as a basic account. I would also check on their cheque clearance times for paying in a cheque. most fully functional current accounts allow you to draw on the cheque after 2 working days

The nationwide flex account with cash card+ take 7-10 working days for cheque clearance.

[mfpa]

Various letters back and forth last year, with Nationwide steadfastly refusing to budge from their pretence that my wife owes them money. (One of their letters even states that a basic bank account is not a facility Nationwide offers - they did not reply when I wrote back pointing out that several such accounts are advertised on their website and their "Preliminary Results Announcement for the year ended 4 April 2011" proclaims: "we also offer a basic bank account to our customers, supporting the Government’s agenda on financial inclusion; during the year we opened 89,000 such accounts." )

 

We heard nothing for 4 months, then a couple of weeks ago a letter from Nationwide saying "management of your account will now be carried out on our behalf by Frederickson International Limited." Sent Nationwide a reply reminding them the account is in dispute and my wife does not owe them any money.

 

First letter from Frederickson International Ltd came the next day: a demand for payment with a threat of "further action." Replied to that saying I acknowledge no debt, the account is in dispute, and stop harassing me about a non-existent debt.

 

Frederickson International followed up with a Letter Before Action, giving my wife 7 days to pay up or they say they will take immediate legal action and seek to add £30 court fees and £50 solicitor costs to the "debt." Replied again that the account is in dispute and acknowledge no debt, also pointing out that Nationwide are in breach of contract and of statutory duty.

 

Any ideas about this Frederickson outfit? Is it likely Nationwide have witheld the facts from them, or are they another cowboy outfit? And what is likely to happen next?

[Old Cogger]

Fredrickson, send account in dipute letter, and state any further correspondence from them you will report the situation to Regulators == they usually run.

[harryb1982]

Hi mfpa,

 

I have also been subjected to Nationwide's bull**** tactics, being charged over and over, the account is now over £300 down and today I

have got a letter from the Fredrickson tribe.

 

I want to let you and other people know of 2 examples of service I have received from NW over the years.

 

I had a monthly paid job and it was 1 day before I was due to

be paid, I had a cash only card that couldn't be used to pay in shops and around £9 in the account. I needed the money to put electric on the meter, it had run out completely and was told by the Truro branch that I could not have money from my account because the minimum withdrawal at the counter £30 and the minimum withdrawal at the cash machine was £10. I was told to go and find an extra £1 to pay in and then use the cash machine. They point blank refused to give me my money so I made a stand and refused to leave until I got my £9 and was only able to do so by closing the account.

 

The second incident was in the bromley branch after they closed my local branch, it was noticed by the cashier that I didn't have a credit card (what a stroke of luck ), the guy

in the back office asked me to apply, he said it was a guaranteed thing and put my wage down as £20,000 after me telling him I was unemployed.

 

 

I am sure they do this sort of thing to many people on a daily basis, being both deceitful and dishonest and if the Fredrickson crew are involved then they are the same.

If they have any sound legal claim against you they will pursue it but I think they are relying on you to panic, be scared of them and pay up.