Bank Charges Unfair?

[mp3loverontoast]

I had a bank charge coming out of my account on Thur 7th April that would take me overdrawn

 

on the Thursday morning I asked my husband to pay in enough money to cover it.

 

On arriving at the bank he was advised that the systems are down and they could not take any payments and to try again later. As he was working he managed to pop in again in the afternoon but they still had the same problem.

 

 

As we where both working we had no way to get to the bank again until Saturday morning to pay in the money (at a different branch) I advised the bank as I was paying in the money what had happened and was told take it up with the branch involved.

 

I waited until my new statement arrived to see that they had charged me for being overdrawn for 6 days £30.00 as the money I had paid in did not clear to my account until the Monday. I went to the branch where the problem had happened (26th April) and was told it should not be a problem and that the bank manager would need to have a look at the problem.

 

Today I have looked at my on-line banking and they have taken the charges that where due and I am now overdrawn again..... It's been 3 weeks since I went into branch to advise of the problem and they don't seem to have done a thing.

 

I am going to call them when they open today to see what's going on.

 

Will they do anything or am I just kidding myself?!!!!

Thanks Dani

[BankFodder]

this is exactly the kind of situation where the banks unfair treatment of a customer has caused bank charges, and general difficulty.

 

I suggest that you recover these charges and also look for a sum in compensation – £50 to £100 is probably reasonable in the circumstances. I noticed that you seem to have done nothing so far in writing. I think you should write out a detailed chronology of everything that has happened and submit it to your bank immediately. Your bank is likely to say that they want eight weeks to deal with the problem. This is far too long. You should not accept this.

 

You should require that the matter is put right and that you are compensated within seven days. If not you will begin a County Court action to recover the money. A County Court action is extremely easy and in the circumstances your chances of winning are close to 100%. There is no reason why you should have to suffer this from your bank.

 

Furthermore, if you have been caused any additional loss – for instance if because of charges you have been unable to meet bills in your compensation level should go up. The bank should also be required to pay any charges that you might have incurred from anybody else and also I would be insisting that the bank wrote to any other creditors who were affected by the mistake giving a full explanation and apology.

 

If it were me, I would not accept anything less than all of this.

 

Finally, I noticed that you say that you're going to call them again. Don't do this unless you record the calls – but anyway in this case you should be putting things in writing. It is about time that you became formal about this. One of the reasons that this is going so badly wrong is because you are relying on word of mouth. Bank staff nowadays are poorly trained and generally speaking I think that are demoralised and they can't be bothered. The bank doesn't listen to you and they won't start now. The only thing that makes them sit up and take notice is when they receive the court papers.

 

Have you checked your credit file? You may find the already these overdrafts and these charges are being reflected in your credit file. If they are then you should be complaining about this as well because the situation and is starting to get very serious and very dangerous for you.