Basic Bank Account Charges Reclaim (Santander)

[tallorder]

A friends son has been banking with Abbey all of his life. Nothing fancy, simple child saver account which eventually they changed to a basic bank account - without an overdraft facility.

 

They make purchases overseas frequently in USD (dollars) and because of a delay in the transaction time / rate of exchange, are often hit by being a penny or so overdrawn. To date, I think the most was less than £2.

 

The bank in it's infinite wisdom, basically just deduct £25 as they can extort from his account and leave it overdrawn, despite this not actually being allowed under their rules.

 

From my looking at his (disorganised) statements, he may well have paid over £400 this year alone and says it goes back much further.

 

What is the best way to proceed on reclaiming these charges, before he moves to another bank?

[fkofilee]

Move first... Because then there is no risk they will close his account willy nilly.

 

How old is the Account Holder at this moment.

 

First off sign up to Noddle and Clear Score... See if there is any negative info on his CRA.

 

Then once hes moved. Send off a Subject Access Request and £10 Postal Order. Make sure they include account notes and statements.

Then I would raise a complaint high up to the CEO to let them know that they have been put into financial hardship. Its not guaranteed to work but always worth a go. Might have some ammo to it if...

 

- Santaders Oversea charges have caused their account to go over

- Santander didnt notice there was lots of overseas transactions and didnt perhaps offer a better suited account.

 

SAR Request will go back as far needed as required. (Normally 6 years but can sometimes be longer)

 

This should be a good starter, once youve got them back please let me and the site know.

We can help draft a suitable letter...

 

FYI i faced Lloyds on this an took me 3 whole years to get a victory...

[tallorder]

Thanks for the reply fkofilee.

 

They are old enough to know better, but have never really been good with money. They don't trust credit cards and have never bought anything on credit either.

 

Apparently they have a second account (also basic) which has been in constant overdraft of £24 and change for a long time.

 

It seems that the majority of charges were from PayPal direct debits not being honoured, while at the same time extracting funds and making the account negative, then not permitting the re-presentation of the same DD for the same amount and charging again for that!

 

Noddle seems down (for me) today but Clear Score is up.

 

There is some irony in the fact they have shares and get new ones with each dividend. The difference (if less than £5) is just pocketed by santander.