Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

natwest r mean and evil and i hate them :(

36 replies

jinglybits · 10/02/2006 23:15

just found out have charge me 28.oo for going 4.38p overdrawn for just one day last month. thats less than 12hours. have banked with them for 9years and don't think i've received 28.00 in interest payments in that whole time. how can they justify this for one nights 'borrowing' by me. got the letter yesterday so went into my branch today to complain, and was spoken to extremely rudely at enquiry desk in front of everyone. they wrote to me and changed my student/graduate account to a card-plus a few months ago and told me to all intensive purposes it was the same, and as i always used to have an overdraft arranged i assumed this still stood anyway (not that i ever usually go overdrawn). the 'banker' at the enquiry desk told me i would have to bring in written proof of this overdraft agreement for them to consider wiping the fine , it was given to me 7years ago for goodness sake, shouldn't they have a record anyway?! am a lone parent and am so broke right now, i hate them i hate them :..(

OP posts:
motherfunkerhunkermunker · 10/02/2006 23:16

Ohh, you can appeal this - they have to prove it's reasonable to charge you that amount for the amount you went overdrawn. Part of some code of practice or other - someone else might know.

JanH · 10/02/2006 23:20

They were talking about this (charges being reasonable) on Moneybox this week but I was listening on the way to work and missed the end. Transcript here . I will scan through and see if I can find the relevant bit.

Original poster
jinglybits · 10/02/2006 23:22

will definately complain about the woman on the enquiry desk! just feel that nobody will care, am just one in a million 'customers' for them. it's just like the flipping underground, they act like they're doing you a favour, not that you are a customer or anything. am so enraged am coming over all incoherant! thanks for your sympathy munker, big congrats on the baby x.

OP posts:
kid · 10/02/2006 23:23

I've been with Natwest for almost 15 years and have only experienced one problem. The lady on the enquiry desk was useless at trying to open a Young Savers account for my kids. In the end, I complained to customer services and said I was considering closing all of my accounts with them. I then had a phonecall from the branch manager inviting me in for an appointment to sort out the problem. If I have needed to see someone since, I just phone the branch manager for an appointment, its really effective!

I'm sure if you push it hard enough, they will cancel the fine. They will want your custome much more than the £28 they have fined you. Good luck.

JanH · 10/02/2006 23:24

It was this bit:

If you are really skint, jb, I guess there's no chance of you moving your account to another bank? First Direct, Cahoot and Smile are all big favourites among anti-Big 4 customers - you could threaten to close yours at Natwest and see what they say to that?

expatinscotland · 10/02/2006 23:24

halifax charged me £30 for £3 o/d for a day - i forgot to transfer some money into this account to pay some direct debits. fuckers.

Original poster
jinglybits · 10/02/2006 23:27

thanks janH jsut read it, who is the ombudsman? i could threaten to contact him but i suppose i should really know how to actually carry out my threat before i make it!

OP posts:
sparklymieow · 10/02/2006 23:28

barclays charged me 25 pounds last month for being 2 pounds over my overdraft, but they then refunded it because 'you have not incured a charge in the last 12 months, so as a guesture of goodwill, we have refunded the charge'

Original poster
jinglybits · 10/02/2006 23:29

i did threaten to close it janH and at that point so went out the back to speak to her manager before returning 5mins later to tell me he would do it if i could produce the (7year old) letter! I then asked her for his name which she wrote down merely as 'Zeke' and told her i would be writing to him

OP posts:
Original poster
jinglybits · 10/02/2006 23:31

really want to sulk off and change banks now, but with everything coming in and going out on direct debits and the usefulness of internet banking i'm using it seems like such a chore

OP posts:
Original poster
jinglybits · 10/02/2006 23:31

well done sparkly

OP posts:
cyan · 10/02/2006 23:41

jingly, you can def complain. i have an account with natwest, not my main one, i also have a graduate account with barclays. WHen I first joined natwest that set up an accoutn which i didnt even ask for. They were charging me a few pounds a month for a service i hadnt even requested, and as it was not my main acct i was not putting any regular funds in (i had opened it because i was going travelling and just wanted another acct). Subsequently, i kept going overdraw by like £2/3 and they would then whack the £25 or whatever the amount charge. I complained and regurgitated all of what I had said above and they refunded all the money/charges and changed the type of account I had. I agree they are absolutely f*ing useless at times.

JanH · 10/02/2006 23:41

Changing accounts is supposed to be dead easy these days, the new bank is given all the DD details etc by the old bank and should notify everybody but you do have to allow c 6 weeks for it all to get changed over so you do need a financial cushion to get you past that.

Will see if I can find ombudsman details for you, jb

cyan · 10/02/2006 23:42

excuse spelling but is now late and my contact lenses are going blurry!!!!

JanH · 10/02/2006 23:43

Here he is , jb!

chipmonkey · 11/02/2006 00:00

Jinglybits, my friend went into the bank one day after something like this, didn't mention the incident but just said that she'd like to close all her accounts.
The manager arrived out VERY quickly and asked why.
She explained why.
He bent over backwards to rectify things and got rid of all the extra charges.

ShaysMummy · 11/02/2006 00:07

i am a 'banker'. customers who whinge and moan long enough get a refund. staff dont though!!

DominiConnor · 11/02/2006 18:23

The least wretched bank is First Direct.
I'd pay money to have the staff at Barclays hurt.

Latz · 11/02/2006 18:28

Nat West done similar thing to us been with them over 20 years - refunded half of charges but refused interst charges.

Anyone know a good bank - First Direct no good cos live in Scotland and nowhere to pay in money.

JanH · 11/02/2006 18:39

Latz, apparently you can use the PO to pay into First Direct in Scotland - see kikidee's post here

Potty1 · 11/02/2006 18:40

I used to work for Natwest and yes they are mean and evil.

Latz · 11/02/2006 18:46

Thanks JanH

emily05 · 11/02/2006 19:07

I used to work for them too - they can lift the charge - especially if this is the first time you have been od. Have you tried ringing the call centre? Explain to them and tell them how rude the branch were.

Passionflower · 11/02/2006 20:00

Oh me too Dominiconnor Barclays stink too, they charged me £25 for being 23p over the £5 buffer for less then 12 hours.

Luckily managed to get it wiped cos DH does loads of business with their corporate guys. I now refuse to bother with the bods downstairs (like Natwest they lacked 'bedside manner')It annoys me that this means that those who can least afford it are getting skanked.

I think all the banks are taking the p*ss on OD charges TBH. It recently seems to have changed and they've reduced the 'buffers' and increased the charges.

Dustanyone · 11/02/2006 20:38

Def complain in writing.

I tried to transfer money from one account to the other last month for dds going out the next day. The site wasn't working so 4 dds were returned. Rather than wait for the charges I took a letter into the branch, which was sent to head office and I had a letter back 3 days later saying they were prepared to cancel £130 of charges!