Come home today to a statement from Nationwide. The bank (building society) I've been with since I was about 13 (so a good six years). Actually, I think it's been since I was a lot younger, my parents always tried to teach me the value of money and I remember having one of those little books when I was a very small child. ...Anyway... Since February 2009 I've had a good £400 minimum going into one of my accounts (which I use as my banking account) each month and since March of this year I've had over a grand go in each month. I have a separate account with them that I use for my savings which has a considerable sum of money in it. Each month I get paid into my banking account and move money about; this goes to my savings and to another account with Barclays and I keep some in the original account for direct debits and what not. So this month I get paid, as usual, and move money about as usual. However, I forget to keep money behind to pay my £50 direct debit to my gym, it just slipped my mind. So, yes, you guessed it, the direct debit bounced. 'Whoops' I though, but at least I have the money to pay for it. The statement I received today, however, tells me that I have a £30 pound charge on this bounced direct debit. What? 60%? And yet you know I have the money and a steady ****ing income. Does a £50 bounce really cost you thirty ****ing quid to rectify? You really are robbing arseholes. I couldn't be more annoyed, how can this really be justified? I know it's my fault that it bounced but can they not see I clearly have the money to pay for it? Disgusting. So, can anyone recommend a bank that I can go with that will actually be any good and care about the customer. I've always received 'satisfactory' service from Nationwide, nothing above and beyond the call of duty but nothing to whine about. I'd probably get a better interest rate sticking it in a sock under my mattress so, any tips? TLDR: Need a new bank, recommendations?
Every other bank would do the same pretty much. If they're not doing anything over the phone you could try in branch. If it's your first you might get let off. When I was about your age I made a petrol payment that was 4p over the limit of my account, I got charged £38 for going over my limit and £35 for using the card without the funds that sent me into a spiral it took me years to get out of. Claiming back £2,194 was a good day . But yes! If it's your first offence they might let you off if you're nice. That's the important thing, they don't have to let it slide and refund it so if you're an arse about it you have not got a chance.
They are all a shower of ***** not sure one is demonstrably better than the other... I think RBS reduced their charges but since they own nationwide i wouldn't think of that as much of a recommendation.
I can highly recommend First Direct. Been with them for nearly 20 years now. A few years back I shoved some money into my savings account for 10 days before paying out the amount with a cheque. I completely forgot to transfer the cash back to my current account to cover it in time. Most banks would have bounced the cheque and served a charge on my current account - First Direct phoned me up and asked if I wanted to move money from savings to current account to cover the cheque
Write a letter to the bank appealing against the charge. Keep it short, include only the facts. Do not include negative words such as angry, furious, etc as this will make you look like a tool and automatically put the reader on the defensive. Also, link: http://www.nationwide.co.uk/contact_us/making_a_complaint/making_a_complaint.htm
Cheers for the link Silver, was going to ring them up tomorrow as I think it's a bit of a joke to be honest. Banks really do shove it up your arse if you put a foot wrong, like they're so perfect... Will have a ganders at FD, cheers RMA. Just as a quick note for recommendations. Physical branches within my local area are N'Wide, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, and Natwest I think.
+1 Just a polite phone call would be good, as you'd be asking for a favour! A letter can be less effective, as a polite tone of voice makes a huge difference, and if the person on the phone doesn't come across as helpfull or in a good mood, you can just ask a random question about the bank and try again later. Don't forget that you have broken the bank's rules, rules which you agreed to when you signed up with them. Even if you had thousands being deposited every week, and you go over the agreed limit of anything on any of your accounts, you've still gotta call up and plead for mercy Just imagine you were the bank, and you've got thousands of customers or more... doing this to you everyday...... it can add up to alot of money If the fee/fine was small, then heaps of people would be going over thier limits all the time, so then the bank would need a heap of money in reserve to cover this.... this heap of money would be like a huge unsecured loan
Just imagine you were a bank that screwed up on a mahoosive scale and were bought out by the public.....
Yeah, that'd be a crazy world eh! @ MV: completely agree, and know it's my fault and it's their policies yadda yadda yadda. But I just feel that I've been a life long customer but never actually had anything positive. No pat on the back, no hug for being with them for so long. Just a 30 pound fine for missing a payment. If they had contacted me and said: "Hey Dave, how you been, you're a cool fella, we know this due to how long you've been with us. Look mate, you've missed a payment-" "Oh yeah, Gym fees, yeah sorry Nationwide, mate, I forgot about that" "Yeah, no worries Dave, we've covered you for it as we know you'll have no trouble paying us back but if you wouldn't mind shifting some money over ASAP then it'd be sorted" "Yeah, no worries guys, I'll do it right now. Thanks a lot" ... I live in my own dream world don't I?
lol yeah, it would be nice but you're dreaming I once copped a fee for going over the limit on my credit card, which was setup to be automatically paid out at the end of every month So I had to call and suck up a bit to get the fee refunded There is no one to look at how much money is available in the other accounts, or the history of money regularly being deposited into other accounts, it's all automated. If the software was written to take all the customer's account activity into consideration, and then automatically register a phone call to inform the customer... then the bank would have to employ who knows how many more phone staff.... = more costs = more fees & worse interest.
www.smile.co.uk Operated by the co-operative. Free £500 overdraft, so if you slip up again you've got a big cushion to avoid nasty charges. I've been with them over a decade and never had a problem. If you actually need to speak to them, dial 0870THEBANK.
I'm pretty sure I've had a few direct debits bounce on me over the last few years, when I was still in college the account was alllways empty at the end of the month and the odd time those charity mugger people would catch me on a generous day Used to add up to a lot of missed payments... Don't think I've ever been charged for them, never got any letters anyway and they couldn't just put a charge on the account without telling me right?
Depends on the terms and conditions, but on many accounts out there including mine, they do not have to inform the customer of any fees charged for late payments. I remember this one time, when due to another bank error, a home loan had $100,000 added to the amount owing instead of being subtracted, which caused the loan to enter default I wasn't informed of the default fee being charged, I simply recieved a letter informing me that my loan had entered default, and how if the money owing isn't immediately paid, then legal action will be taken I wanted to spit the dummy, but I politely called them about it and everything got fixed up quick smart You'd think they could have given me at least a $50 credit to compensate me for the hassle and stress, but no, got nothing Even maccas will give you a free upgrade if they keep you waiting for 5 minutes!
yeah bounced over 200 once.. but have overdraft protection- they pay the bill but stick you with a 25 dollar fee for each (that's a credit union too- good as it gets)
One fix is to go with any bank which offers you a free £100 overdraft, so the dd wouldn't bounce and you've got headroom to fix the problem. Natwest do this, dunno if anyone else does. I personally am with HSBC. I like the fact that when I ring up its mostly UK helpdesks, or at least the foreigners have good english (better than most) but the interest rate on their credit card is sheer extortion at 22.9% so I recently switched that. They also charge an annual arrangement fee for their overdraft >_<
I left my previous bank and went to Lloyds. I won't go into details but what they did was a joke. Since arriving at Lloyds I couldn't be happier.
Call them up. I used to work in a bank call centre. We were allowed to refund one charge a year as goodwill. But it was up to us really. Seeing as this is your first charge they should refund it no problem. One other tip, if you find out when the call centre closes and call up 5 mins before time the people will quite often jsut give you it so they can leave on time. In never did that myself, I once stayed on the phone to some guy 40 mins after closing over two charges amounting to 60 quid. I became pretty unrelenting in the end with regards to refunds. But of course I would give every single one of them the details to be able to take the complaint all the way to the FSA if they wanted.
I use nationwide and find them really good. Set up an overdraft facility for a nominal amount. The interest on it is alot but you don't get these fees and it gives you the stability. I think they just gave me a grand or so. I never use it but its nice to know its there. For the good of everything thats holy please please please do not let those swines at abbey get your money. They are useless; something they accept but seem to think its not their fault.
Yeah set up an overdraft. I got my Nationwide Flexaccount when I was around 17 or so. It came with £250 of agreed overdraft and at the time I was unemployed. I have only once gone into the minus, it was this year I went into -£106 and was charged 10p interest the following month (yeah I wondered why the charge was that small when I checked it just now).
