Natwest threatening to close account

[NatwestHell]

Hi.
My DH had a letter today from Natwest. I have my own account but the main bulk of money including our sons DLA is paid into his account.
He has banked with them for at least 13 years. He has (at his request) no overdraft facility on this account and we are very careful with our money.
Today he's received a letter stating they will be closing this account down on the 13th May and any monies paid in or out of it will not be processed. It states this is due to "unsatisfactory operation of your account". It also gives the wrong name of the account as being a Select Account with overdraft control.
The account is not in arrears. It's used to pay for shopping, car tax and insurance, rent and the odd school cost.
The last time he received an unarranged overdraft fee was 2 years ago.
It also has a means form attached which makes no sense.
The only thing either of us can think of is, just before the end of November last year he tried to use a cash point and it said insufficient funds which he couldn't understand. On checking online, he had been scammed out of close to £600 over a period of three months by an online site. He thought he was using the national lottery site but it turned out to be a mirror site which helped itself to tiny amounts then bigger and bigger at 2am. He felt very silly not noticing (and has been far more careful around checking in and outgoings). Natwest were very unhelpful, at first saying it was fraud and they would get it back and then, after going silent for two weeks and being chased, that actually they wouldn't do anything and tough luck.
After going to the Ombudsman, they agreed to attempt a chargeback but warned up until the end of January this left the amount open to being requested back again. However this never happened and Action Fraud are investigating the site itself.
The worry I have is everything is paid in and out from there. We do receive help with our rent and of course we get child benefit and tax credits too. We would be high and dry without this account and of course worry that changing bank accounts for these would mean universal credit due to a change which we're trying to avoid for as long as possible.
We have emailed a complaint but this takes up to 56 days so that's no help due to the cut off.
What can we do if anything? It's an utter nightmare!

Sadly they don't owe you a bank account and can close it for any reason - and in your case it may well be that they aren't seeing any profit as there's no overdraft and they've lost the money from when your husband was scammed.

You'd be best to open a new account asap. From memory I don't think changing bank details is enough to trigger UC. I'd be concerned that even if they accept your complaint; they'll still want to close the account in the foreseeable future.

But then thats not what theyve said in the letter, and they didnt lose the money when he was scammed, they issued a chargeback to the company who stole it and got it back from them.
And why send a means form? They're acting like he's in masses if debt but he isn't.
I dont doubt they don't "owe him an account" and I'm not suggesting they do. But it's saying due to "unsatisfactory operation of the account" concerns me as a) I worry it could prevent him from opening an account else where, b) be used as a black mark on his credit file especially due to the means form and incorrect account name used and c) the nightmare and costs involved of changing banks for direct debits and such when he's done nothing untoward.
It does ask him to contact them asap but to downgrade and discuss repayment but there's nothing to repay. Even if they downgrade it may mean new details.

Primarily your issue is to ensure you continue to receive money. Call everyone and have the monies paid into your account. Also calm everyone to reset direct debits.

Then worry about why the bank are closing the account.

Incidentally it has never cost me to change a direct debit to a different account. I wouldn't entertain a company that charged me to do this.

I meant most of those we would be calling are premium rate numbers. And I know from changing address the dwp are slow as anything to implement changes (child benefit took 3 calls alone) and I worry would continue to pay money in to the old account. Our local council also takes 8 to 12 weeks to update changes to bank details due to staffing and backlog issues. We could genuinely face financial oblivion as our landlord warned us before when we moved in not to make changes as a simple change of house number before took 8 weeks to implement.

Get a switcher deal with another bank. I think HSBC are paying £200 for switching if you pay in £1700 a month. Go in money saving expert dot com and have a look at their bank accounts guide. It’s very good.

Btw when you go through a switching service they handle all your direct debits and standing orders so you don’t have to inform the companies.

Sorry if I've missed it but has DH actually spoken to them since you received the letter? If not it might be a simple error which can be sorted easily, it does seem odd that they've sent a means form and are talking about repayments if there is no debt/arrears so it could be a mistake on their part.

Ok that sounds good. Would that include things like DLA and our housing benefit though?

Sorry for asking questions but I can't believe we're in this situation for being straightforward customers and the worry is why I'm wide awake at gone midnight

@YesItsMe1 no he hasn't. We only got home (had a school thing this afternoon) late evening so he didn't open it until after dinner. He's not worried but he's so bloody laid back I could scream sometimes.
I know though from dealing with them on the phone before that every time you speak to them you get told different things and then they promise to contact by a certain date which rapidly passes with not a word. Then when we call we get told something completely contradictory to the previous conversation.
I've wanted to switch for ages but DH is useless at anything which means forms, telephone calls etc. Even after being scammed and barely getting help he wouldn't switch.

Would that include things like DLA and our housing benefit though?

It did for me when I switched last year to Santander but check with the bank you are switching to just to make sure.

I didn’t even have to go into a branch to switch. I applied online. It was very easy.

And I know from changing address the dwp are slow as anything to implement changes (child benefit took 3 calls alone) and I worry would continue to pay money in to the old account. Our local council also takes 8 to 12 weeks to update changes to bank

This is all nonsense. You can call them and give the new details which they will update there and then when you are on the phone. Or use a switching service. It's not difficult.

8-12 weeks for someone to input bank details? Someone should be losing their job. How is this happening. If you phone or go in to the office they will change it as you talk to them

I know though from dealing with them on the phone before that every time you speak to them you get told different things and then they promise to contact by a certain date which rapidly passes with not a word. Then when we call we get told something completely contradictory to the previous conversation.

But you haven't spoken to them.

There is an awful lot of 'I know' for someone who actually hasn't questioned the bank.

I worked in a bank for a long time although its been a while now, from what you've said it doesn't make sense.

There are 2 things you can do, pop into the branch (avoiding the premium rate numbers, but they should just be local rate these days, not premium) and ask them to explain why. Usually the only reasons for closure are uncontrolled debt or if they have issue with your nationality/identification etc. You've clearly had bad experiences with talking to them before so make sure you take names of everyone you deal with so you can query any inconsistencies.

Or as mentioned before switch accounts there are plenty of good deals out there and all of the new account notifications and redirects including DSS payments are taken care of.

no he hasn't. We only got home (had a school thing this afternoon) late evening so he didn't open it until after dinner. He's not worried but he's so bloody laid back I could scream sometimes.

In my post work tiredness; I somehow missed that he hasn't talked to them - you need to do that first really; it's not worth complaining yet. If they're asking about repayments and mentioning an overdraft that doesn't exist; then either someone has an overdraft or debt that's been linked to you, or they've got some information wrong.

I'd still move accounts though. It sounds like your experience with this one so far has been poor anyway and I wouldn't want to risk being left without money if they do close the account when they said they would.

The most sensible thing to do is to go into the branch and talk to them.

I agree it’s others.

*Go into a branch, with the letter and ask to speak to someone.

They may have sent the letter by mistake and you have nothing to worry about! Banks do make mistakes(all the bloody time).

Thank you everyone for talking me down and the advice.
To clarify an earlier poster I was referring to him and I having spoken to them regards the fraud before and not this matter.
We went into the bank this morning and had to speak to theor ma8n head office on the telephone but the in branch woman was baffled as we were.
It appears that the letter was sent due to the previous chargeback logged against the company I mentioned. As I said they had until the end of january to lodge a reversal and hadn't done so.
It wasn't put on the letter (and should have been) that they did indeed notice but lodged a reversal at the end of February. It wasn't flagged until now because obviously the time had lapsed but due to an error was marked as an outstanding amount to the account.
The main people on the phone did try and argue that it was now going to be paid back until I asked them to look up the original reference and they did to their credit sound a bit shamefaced.
So a very terrific error and what could have been awful through yet again their banking systems being wonky.
Much apologising was done though so no doubt DH will now do nothing much to my annoyance.

Why would they be closing his account because you had a chargeback done?

Make sure you get it in writing that the issue is resolved.

Its worth changing accounts anyway, plenty of good deals out there.

We've requested it be sent in writing and I got the name of the woman he spoke to on the phone. Im going to look into deals etc and then show him and see whether I can persuade him.
They wanted to close the account as the chargeback of £600 was requested and they'd rather cheekily added an interest amount of £400 to it and at the moment there would have been insufficient funds to cover it (as we just paid our rent). They marked it as his account being mismanaged as it hadn't been properly logged on their system that they made the chargeback happen, so it was treated as a fraudulent request.
I think there has just been a massive computer cock up and this was the result. The woman as I said to begin with was very much computer says no about it so it was lucky I keep notebooks and it had the reference number for the complaint in from before or we'd have been screwed.
I've now updated Action Fraud as clearly this lot are seriously cheeky.

Banking rules were recently updated and everybody should have received a letter or online statement explaining the rules, it means they’ve cleaned up a lot of accounts but I don’t know the criteria.