banks

[BrokenBiker]

i hate them!

i got a letter today from the finance company dealing with my car insurance, telling me that my bank has cancelled the direct dibet to them!

i ring up the bank, and theyre excuse is...the cancelled the direct debit without consulting me because it looked suspicious!

when i asked why it looked suspicious they had no answer except that they thought an amount above 100 quid was requested by a company, and it seemed unusual, so they declined the payment and canceled the direct debit for my security.

when i asked them why they didnt contact me, they said they didnt feel the need as i very rarely spend over 100 quid in one go. this annoyed me

i have had that direct debit running since january, it appears on my bill as the name of my insurance provider, and is the same amount on the same date each month.

now, because they have declined payment i have incurred a 20 quid late payment fine from the insurance, and have had to pay 35 B*****d quid to start my direct debit again, because in the eyes of the insurance, i am changing my details, which incurrs a fee.

the bank wont even acknowledge that they have done anything wrong, and flat refused to compensate me for the money i have lost through their incompetence.

citezens advice in the morning, and maybe a phonecall to my union rep, as i believe Unite the union represent its members in any legal situation they think they can win

 

[mike os]

banking ombudsman... and change your bank on monday

 

[BrokenBiker]

hadnt thought of the ombudsman, cheers

i went straight into town after getting off the phone and opened a new account with a different bank.

HR are getting the new details monday morning and as soon as my wages are in there, this account is going

 

[rtbcomp]

Good on yer. Treat them with the same contempt they treat you with, it's only fair.

Get the name of the CEO of your bank and write him a letter, naming the manager of your branch.

Copy the letter to the CEOs of all the other banks, make sure you add a "cc" line to your original letter.

I complained to a minister in the last Tory government after he asked for small businesses to contact him if they were having problems with their banks. I copied the letter to my manager and the CEO of the bank. Boy, did the poo hit the fan!

 

[breezer]

You can't go directly to the ombudsman, the bank have to give you referral rights, basically saying they have done everything they are prepared to, and will do no more.

Whether that's right or wrong, it will just waste time and increase frustration if you go to the ombudsman first as they will refer you back to your bank.

If your bank will do no more then ask them to give you full and final (or whatever they call it)

It does seem strange that the DD has been set up for several months and they cancel it now. A lot of these sort of things are based on what a reasonable person would resonabley expect.

I don't think a reasonable person would expect an existing payment to be stopped, and I also think that a reasonable person would expect the bank to AT LEAST reimburse you for any costs incurred as a result.

The other thing to check with the insurance company is whether you were uninsured as a result. If so then that adds weight to your argument.

Which bank was it?

 

[Hitch]

If they refuse every DD over £100, id have changed banks years ago

 

[rtbcomp]

I think the document Breezer mentions is called a "letter of deadlock" or similar.

 

[BrokenBiker]

i have already checked with the insurance and i am still insured, as they gave me 14 days to clear the payment before they took action

the bank in question is natwest.

when i go in to close my account i will be asking for the branch manager to personally deal with my request, and i am going to want to know what his feelings on the matter are, and i will be taking notes. if he realises it is the banks fault, and is willing to reimburse me, then all is well, but if he tells me there is nothing he can or will do, then im off to the ombudsman with my notes. have emailed my union rep, and he has got back to me and has agreed to support me all the way, as he cannot belive they cancelled it without my permision, and refuse to help me in anyway.

the car insurance have told me also that due to this problem, and me being charged for starting the payment again, if i ask for the woman i spoke to earlier today, she will deal with me when i change my account to the new one, and will wave the fee for me. she was a very helpfull woman and even she couldnt believe what had happened.

anyway, im going to have a cup of tea and calm down a bit now...lol

 

[rtbcomp]

the bank in question is natwest.

Same here.

 

[breezer]

Yeah, something like that. I have a feeling different banks refer to them by different names.

Basically, ask them to re-imburse you your costs, if they refuse ask for rights to go to the ombudsman. It costs them everytime the ombudsman reviews a case regardless of who's favour he finds in, and it's a damn sight more than the £55 you are out of pocket, so really they would be crazy not to just pay up.

Are you going to have to pay another £35 to change to your new bank?

To be fair their story sounds like rubbish, I don't believe a bank would review existing DD's for potential fraud, if it's been running for 4 months you would have already reported it to them if you knew nothing about it. It sounds like there has been some other 'error' which they are covering for by saying they were trying to protect you from fraud.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Are you going to have to pay another £35 to change to your new bank?

To be fair their story sounds like rubbish, I don't believe a bank would review existing DD's for potential fraud, if it's been running for 4 months you would have already reported it to them if you knew nothing about it. It sounds like there has been some other 'error' which they are covering for by saying they were trying to protect you from fraud.

the insurance woman i spoke to was kind enough to give me her name, and said if i spoke to her when changing it again she would wave the fee due to the circumstances

i also think they have f****d up bigtime somewhere else and are using this to try and make themselve look like they were protecting me.

 

[Wedg1e]

when i go in to close my account i will be asking for the branch manager

Branch manager?! You'll be lucky, unless it's a big branch.
When I left school I joined Yorkshire bank and did 2 years as a cashier/clerk before binning it when I got sick of 13 women telling me what to do. We had 16 staff, only 3 male, they were the manager, deputy manager and me.
The women formed cliques which seemed to change every week (probably every month, these things go in cycles, ahem ) and if you offended one (which I did, often) you offended them all.
Anyway, within 18 months of me leaving, Barclays and Natwest lost 50,000 staff across the country and nobody noticed. The other banks followed suit. Why? Computers.
Now the branch I worked at has FOUR staff, not one of whom is a manager. They are a satellite of the big town branch, with one manager to about 6 or 7 branches.
So much for the 'job for life' it was touted as when I joined...

 

[BrokenBiker]

this is the main bracnh in newport, situated in the city centre, with only 2 other smaller branches around it. ive seen the manager walking around the place before, so i know he is there

 

[Wedg1e]

this is the main bracnh in newport, situated in the city centre, with only 2 other smaller branches around it. ive seen the manager walking around the place before, so i know he is there

Go get him

 

[rtbcomp]

The other banks followed suit. Why? Computers.

In the early '70's I worked for Burroughs Machines Ltd - installing the computers that lost all the staff their jobs

 

[BrokenBiker]

The other banks followed suit. Why? Computers.

In the early '70's I worked for Burroughs Machines Ltd - installing the computers that lost all the staff their jobs

i feel a lynching coming on

 

[Country Joe]

In the early '70's I worked for Burroughs Machines Ltd - installing the computers that lost all the staff their jobs

Burroughs - That's what it used to say on the old TSB Cashpoints. Long before they teamed up with Lloyds.
Feeling sort of nostalgic, now.
CJ

 

[rtbcomp]

Thankfully I left before I got trained on those ATMs - didn't like the idea of clearing all the vomit out on a Monday morning.

 

[Wedg1e]

The other banks followed suit. Why? Computers.

In the early '70's I worked for Burroughs Machines Ltd - installing the computers that lost all the staff their jobs

Well this was the early-mid 80's (I left in '82). We had two teleprinter-style terminals in the back office, three mechanical adding machines (possibly Burroughs now you mention it!) and one Commodore calculator, that was the sum of techno when I worked there.
I remember the fist 'Minibank' being installed: two of the staff had to go on a special training course to open and load it with cash - they used to moan about it 'because it was dirty'. It wasn't, it was surgically clean in there! The installers had to actually modify the stonework of the building to get it to fit!
You called the boss 'Sir', there was the most stringent hierarchy ever - if you joined as a junior, and someone else joined a month after you did, you could order them about even though they were on the same grade/pay as you.
However (going back to the bitchy women) when a girl joined about a year after me and I suggested she might like to make some tea for the staff () she told me to go and make it. I refused, saying it was her job, so she promptly went and got one of the other women to pull rank on me and I had to make the bloody tea I can't stand the stuff: carrying a dozen cups of stinking tea downstairs on a bloody tray was not my idea of the way to start the working day

 

[drivewasher]

I'll bet owt that if it was for natwests own fees of over £100 it would get paid