Unpaid d/d £38 charge - advice needed

[Neb62]

Hi all,

 

Firstly, I would like to thank all who created, monitor and advise on this great site, which has given me the bottle to take my whinge further.

 

Let me explain my predicament....

 

On the 11th I checked my on-line account and could see a d/d coming out, which would have put me £9.24 overdrawn.

Worried that Nafwest would charge me, I hotfooted down to the bank and deposited £10 cash, naively thinking all would be sweet.

However the following day the d/d had been returned and a whopping £38 fee imposed, putting me back into the red to the tune of £11.53.

 

I have spoken directly to the assistant manageress, who quite robotically advised me that: as it was my error the bank are within their rights to charge me. Also, there was no chance of a refund because, I had £19 of a similiar incident refunded in January, so therefore knew that monies for a d/d must be in the account the day before it was due out and the depositing of £10 cash would not have stopped the automated return of the d/d.

 

To a point I can understand and grudgingly accept (but not to them). However, what I really can't get my head around is how can they return a d/d because it puts me £9.24 overdrawn, then take their charge which puts me further overdrawn? It really doesn't make sense. It's ok to go overdrawn if you're paying the bank then?

 

I have had a 15 min phone conversation with the manageress, who basically repeated what I had already heard (must have been programmed the same) and continued to say she did not have the authority to refund me because it was company policy to only offer to refund once.

Not being happy with this I have arranged an appointment with her for the 23rd, where I was going to do nothing more than waffle and just waste her time. Petty, I know, but I want £38 worth of their time.

 

The other thing about this incident is it's now the 16th and I have had no written communication from the bank about the charges that they mugged me for on the 12th. Basically, if I hadn't look on-line I would be blissfully unaware about the charge.

 

What advice I would you kind folk is....

(a) Is it worth taking this further? Do I have a case? I personally feel I have been treated unfairly when you consider the amounts involved, the original d/d was only £25.71. (of which £16.47 was available)

 

(b) What questions/statements can i ask/quote at this meeting which will make her work for her money or even get her all tangled up in litigation. Basically I want to string this out for ages causing as much un-neccessary work as possible.

 

I hope you can advise me and thank you in advance for your help

(and yes I have read the FAQ, but feel I still needed to post this)

 

Cheers

Neb

[alanfromderby]

You can claim back all charges that have been made over the last six years - have a read through the FAQ's, and spend a couple of days looking through the NatWest forum - you will then be prepared to take them on.

[thecornflake]

The point about the bank retruning the DD rather than allowing the account to go overdrawn but then taking the charge is an interesting one.

If they charge you for an unauthorised overdraft as well there could be a good argument here. Their standard defence is that their charges are for a service - therefore they chose to provide the service when they took their charge but not when the DD failed. I'm sure a service should either be provided or not, and the bank can't just chose to use it when it suits them.

 

Of course, arguing this point with them means acknowledging the service defence...

[Neb62]

This topic was closed on 10 March 2019.

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