Mcron Vs Natwest

[Mcron]

Hi everyone, firstly I would like to say thank you for such an excellent website which has already helped me so much.

 

To explain briefly my situation with Natwest; I have their most basic type of bank account and have been told I cannot have an account with an overdraft or lending facilities due to my poor credit score. The reason for my poor credit is due to problems I had a few years back when I was caring for a loved one with cancer and was only able to work limited hours, I got myself into debt to cover the extra cost of all this and am still paying for it now.

 

I have never had any problems with Natwest, I have been budgeting very carefully for the last few years. In December I had a problem in that a Direct Debit went out of my bank which was not expected yet and left me about £5.00 over drawn. Natwest promptly returned it and charged me £38.00 for the pleasure. Because of this the next direct debit to go out, which would have been fine, was returned and another fine was issued.

 

I phoned them straight away to complain, their service was awful, they were rude and unhelpful and one woman even slammed the phone down on me after telling me she was not trained on how to deal with my concern! Eventually one person offered me £19.00, half of one of the fines, as compensation for the lousy service and the hour spent on the phone to them. I told her that I would not accept this as I wanted 100% of both fines refunded but she did it anyway.

 

I then found this website and printed off the standard letter found on the BBC article in PDF format. As I had a day off today I took the letter into my bank myself and asked to see the manager. After refusing to let me see him one of the staff took me aside and read the letter. She returned saying that due to the number of these letters recieved mine would be sent to their head office and she could not comment further. I did make sure to ask her to copy me the letter and stamp and date it and sign it as proof for me that they have it. The letter states they have 14 days to issue the refunds before I will go to court.

 

The total they now owe me is £57.00. I realise this ammount is very small in comparision to some people here, and I certainly do not wish to trivialise this issue, but £57.00 is a lot of money to me and because of their fines I have had to cancel 2 direct debits and contact the companies concerned to explain why. Luckily I get paid tomorrow and will be able to set up new debits and pay the overdue ammounts, but I still want my money back from Natwest.

 

I was hoping that maybe some of you could offer advice about where to go from here, were you aware that they are no longer dealing with this issue in branch and have someone at head office dealing with these letters? What should I do next if they refuse my refund? Could they refuse on the grounds that they have already given me £19.00 even though I initially refused this? Are they likely to refuse or just give in?

 

Thank you once again for this wonderful site!

[Guest NATTIE]

Customer Relations in Borehamwood now deal with all charges related letters. I see you have a Step account and my gut feeling says that they will refund all of it on the first letter. Welcome to the CAG and Good Luck

[sillymove!]

Mcron

 

I am actually more upset for your smaller amount than my own larger sum, simply because Yorkshire Bank done the same to my mother. However she didnt relise for a couple of weeks, subsquently she had a lot of charges added and never told me until they had got 'out of hand'. I was able to help pay it all off.

 

However they closed her account and she was put off by the whole process that she cant/wont open another. It sums there greed up that they treat you like they did for £57!! Just shows how greedy and unhelpful they can be at times.

 

I will be helping sort my mothers calim out in the coming weeks. Your example has made me even more determined. So thanks!!!

[Guest NATTIE]

Should say that at work I would not have refunded anything, sorry. We are told that no bank error= no refund except exceptional circumstances.

[Mcron]

Should say that at work I would not have refunded anything, sorry. We are told that no bank error= no refund except exceptional circumstances.

 

 

What!?!?

 

This totally condradicts your earlier post and shows the disgusting attitude of your bank.

 

I never claimed that there was an error, but that the charges are not proportionate to the costs incurred by the bank.

[Guest NATTIE]

Just to make it clear I have not contradicted myself. I do not work for Customer Relations but for the amount concerned my suspicion is that they will refund on the first letter. That was what I said.

 

In the given situation that was given in the first post, at work my position is clearly different, I would have given nothing as there was no bank error involved. That is the bank position

[sillymove!]

Of course as a bank employee you have to folllow a set of guidelines which you may not agree with. Buts thats not the issue, the point is that for such a small amount surely common sense, espcailly at the coal face, makes more sense.

 

Sadly thats the whole point of big buisness, they (whoever they are!!) only deal in figures, numbers. They refuse to see the human misery that it causes until it impacts directly upon their profits, figures and numbers. Only than does change happen, thats a prove historical point.

 

Thats the reason why we shoudlnt have any worry/doubts about claiming back the charges. We need to rid ourselves of guilt (ie saying yes I guess it was may fault after all I did take the money out!!) becasue buisness preys on the customer having doubts and paying into the myth.