Natwest

[snoopy1239]

I have two current accounts (or post grad, not 100%) with Natwest, both debit card jobbies. One has no dosh in it and is pretty much never used, but when I wrote a cheque for £240, I picked up the wrong cheque book (I am assuming although I shall double check) and thus accidentally asked for it to be withdrawn from the account with nothing in it. A few days later I was charged £38.00 for 'UNPAID ITEM(S) , CHQ 240.00'.

Two questions. Are they allowed to charge me this amount and don't Natwest debit card accounts have overdrafts? They didn't hesitate to put the account into negative £38.00.

[Longy]

I have a Natwest account which is a post grad effort which i pay my bills from, social costs etc (have a seperate one for my poker) and that has an overdraft with a debit card. Whether all accounts have this facility i doubt it.

As for reclaiming charges, I don't know but i know there was a lot of hooha a year or so ago but ppl doing so.

[ItsMrAlex2u]

Hi Snoops, if you write in and explain the situation, then as long as you had covering funds in the other account then they should refund that charge.

If they dont then address the letter to a higher position, always works in the end with banks. In the end they get fed up and refund people just to get rid of them lol

[Indestructable]

Yes they were right to make a charge (although amount is up for debate) as you had no money in the account that you wrote the cheque on. Most of this process is automated ie no-one will look to see if you have money in other accounts.
If you had an overdraft then the cheque would have been paid, so presumably not. Best thing to do is to ask for an agreed overdraft to cover possible situations like this again. Assuming this bounced cheque hasn't damaged your rating with the bank.
As said above, if you write to the bank explaining the error they will consider a refund based on your reason and your record with them.
Good luck
 

[DaveShoelace]

As an interesting little aside, £38 is approximiatley the amount the large financial instutions are prepared to write off and refund if a customer is kicking off, they all have a certain limit that lower level employees are allowed to refund without supervision. Id send a letter kicking off and saying you will report them to the FSA, they'll refund it.

Prior to being a poker type person I used to be a financial services complaints handler type person.

[Rooky9]

no good can come from using cheques! A letter explaining the situation with reference your good history with the bank etc and they refund them.

[snoopy1239]

Hi. Thanks for those responses, very helpful and much appreciated. You mentioned writing a letter. Do you advise doing this rather than going in in person. Also, who do I address the letter to?

On a side, the bank fucked up my automated rent when they entered my landlord's account number incorrectly. Caused me a right headache and wasted loads of my time. I don't remember charging them!

[steeveg]

i have Nat West account ,same thing happened to me, wary of using my main bank account on the internet i decided to have a separate bank account just for the internet,transferring money when i needed to buy things.
paypal messed up a payment and the account went into the red for £70,i had no problem getting the charges squashed after a i phoned to explain, that wasn't the end of it though,you may have gone into the red for 2 months,
next month a statement may arrive charging you for being in the red again for this month,
quick phone call and that was squashed as well.

[gatso]

wow, do people still use cheques?

you may have to wait 2/3 months now without any more charges on your a/c before they'll give you an o/d on it but it's worth putting one on even if you never use it just to cover yourself against being stupid again

[sovietsong]

Hi. Thanks for those responses, very helpful and much appreciated. You mentioned writing a letter. Do you advise doing this rather than going in in person. Also, who do I address the letter to?

On a side, the bank fucked up my automated rent when they entered my landlord's account number incorrectly. Caused me a right headache and wasted loads of my time. I don't remember charging them!

Hi Snoopy,

Just ring up, explain what happened, be nice to the person you are speaking to, its likely they will decide to refund or not.  If they dont write a letter and 99% of the time you will get your money back.  Ringing is easier and saves you alot of hassle.

I work for a bank and about 3 years ago i used to give refunds on overdraft charges, however if people rang up being rude i would never refund charges.

[Graham C]

Not really relating to this, but

One of our business accounts is NatWest.  We get the statements through each month along with the months charges and this months charge was

£6.40 - for fees but we have a minimum charge of £10 so you have been debited £10!

Cheers for that, cheeky sods.

[PocketLady]

I've got a Natwest grad account but I have an overdraft with mine (which you have to ask for).  As far as my understanding goes, a couple of years ago people could sucessfully claim their bank charges back over the amount of £12 per item.  This was what was deemed to be reasonable by whoever decides these things.  Not sure what the situation is now because it all when to court and I'm not sure of the outcome.  But I do know that some banks decided to close people's accounts if they asked for the charges back (after refunding them), so if you do go down that route you should find out Natwest's stance on it.

[KarmaDope]

I've got a Natwest grad account but I have an overdraft with mine (which you have to ask for).  As far as my understanding goes, a couple of years ago people could sucessfully claim their bank charges back over the amount of £12 per item.  This was what was deemed to be reasonable by whoever decides these things.  Not sure what the situation is now because it all when to court and I'm not sure of the outcome.  But I do know that some banks decided to close people's accounts if they asked for the charges back (after refunding them), so if you do go down that route you should find out Natwest's stance on it.

Latest on that is that people could claim them back. Then teh banks appealed. So we're waiting for that to be heard.

[PocketLady]

P.S I'm sure they won't close your account for claiming back one charge, but just for info if anyone else decides to try.

[TheChipPrince]

Prior to being a poker type person I used to be a financial services complaints handler type person.

Hey Dave, don't let anyone tell you that you aint lived the high life son, you lived the dream, f*ck the doubters!