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All I wanted was security help. NatWest tried to sell me a loan
My house was burgled. I had my bank cards with me at the time but the burglar sifted though my files and so had access to personal information including bank statements. I called NatWest's fraud team to obtain a new account number and was told to visit a branch.
There I was told I would be credit-scored if I chose to close my current account and open a new one. Why, if I had been burgled, should I have to be credit-scored to open a new account? The adviser also said I should pay off and close my credit card. When I asked how I could afford to pay the credit card bill, she said she would sort it all out.
At no point during our conversation did she mention the word 'loan', even when I tried to get her to admit this was what she was offering. But then she gave me a quote for a personal loan costing £102 a month plus £10 a month for loan insurance.
KP, London
Margaret: NatWest says this was all a mistake, caused by a breakdown in communication between two members of staff. It says the person you first spoke to did not properly explain your problem when passing you over to the second customer adviser. If she had, says NatWest, the second staff member would simply have changed your account numbers and would have had no reason to mention loans.
I would like to think that this is what happened, but you remember the second person sympathising at length about the burglary and you yourself made it quite clear to her why you were there.
The customer adviser also said you could repay the loan once the insurance money came through - overlooking the early redemption penalty of up to £250 - so that shows she must have known that you were making an insurance claim for something. She even tried to sell you loan insurance, after saying you could repay the loan within weeks. NatWest insists she thought you just wanted a loan, but your report of the meeting suggests otherwise.
The bank has now closed your credit card account, given you a new number and confirms that your account has not suffered fraud.
It's taken 18 months for Equiniti to send me my cash
I used to work for BG Group and participated in the company's share-save scheme. I contributed £25 a month until I left in April 2007, when I was entitled to a full refund. I asked the registrars, Equiniti, to send the cheque to my new address. I have been trying for 18 months to get this money. The registrars sent the cheque to the wrong address, ignored my letters and now suggest there is no money due to me and that my account doesn't exist. Each time I phone, I am promised someone will get back to me within 48 hours, as it takes that long to deal with any complaint, but nobody does call back.
KB-A, London
Margaret: Equiniti still had your old address on file and wrote to you there warning that the share-save scheme would lapse if you did not maintain contributions. As you did not - indeed, you could not - it sent a cheque for £1,452 to your old address. Now that Equiniti is aware of your new address, it has instructed its bank to stop the first cheque, although a replacement cheque was not posted until a fortnight later. It admits it failed to let you know what was happening and admits there is no excuse. It has sent £50 to apologise.
How long does Barclaycard need to clear a cheque?
I have a Barclaycard which I use fairly regularly. This year I have been doing up a house and so the expenditure has been greater than usual. My July statement showed I owed £3,990. I sent off a cheque from my Barclays bank account, which Barclaycard received on 22 July. My credit card was refused at Sainsbury a week after that. Barclaycard said the cheque would not clear until 30 July and so I had exceeded my credit limit. This seems dilatory beyond belief.
JB, Hereford
Margaret: Previously, as you are a good customer, Barclaycard might have allowed you the benefit of the £3,990 immediately it received your cheque instead of waiting for it to clear. But the bank is experiencing high levels of fraud and bad debt and has tightened its rules.
Because of the clearing delay, fraudsters can spend up to a card's limit before the bank realises that a cheque paid in will bounce. Customers who are struggling to cope might also spend to their limit before their cheques clear, putting them at risk of getting deeper into debt.
Barclaycard allows seven working days for all cheques, even Barclays cheques, to be credited to card statements because, it says, this is the average time it takes for all cheques to clear. Apparently it cannot tell when any individual cheque has cleared through the system. Neither can it tell whether payments made over the branch counter are by cheque or by cash, and so the same timescale applies even to cash payments made to a credit card account.
My mum's account was closed - by accident
Earlier this year, Lloyds accidentally closed my mum's bank account without warning. Eventually the account was reopened. I then set up internet banking with authorisation to manage her account for her online. But when trying to view her statements online, we get an error message saying I am not party to the account.
TY, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex
Margaret: Lloyds has discovered that the account was not closed in error. The bank shut it down because your mother's solicitor had sent in a request, supported by your mother's signature. Only the solicitor can explain why he did this.
For technical reasons, Lloyds cannot display statements for reopened accounts on internet banking. It is not a priority for the bank to resolve the problem because accounts are rarely closed by mistake. Instead, the bank has made a note to send your mother a statement in the post each month.
You would be able to see the statements online if you opened a new account for her.
• Email Margaret Dibben at money.writes@observer.co.uk or write to Margaret Dibben, Money Writes, The Observer, 3-7 Herbal Hill, London EC1R 5EJ and include a telephone number. Do not enclose SAEs or original documents. Letters are selected for publication and we cannot give personal replies. The newspaper accepts no legal responsibility for advice.
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