Natwest charging for £3.01 Direct Debit unpaid

[derekpayne]

Hi

My Son-in-law has been charged by Natwest for an unpaid direct debit of £3.01.

First they charged him £38 for not paying the direct debit, and as he only had 97pence in the account with no overdraft facility, they are also charging him an unauthorised overdraft fee, which we believe is another £38.

The DD was collected on a date that he did not have notification from the payee Scottish Power. It was the reconcilliation amount of a final bill, they normally take the monthly payments on the 5th of every month but on this occasion decided without warning to take the amount of £3.01 on 12th of January.

He contacted both the bank and Scottish power, got cut off from Scottish power just as he was about to speak to a manager after about 1 hour on the phone, and when he went into the bank they fobbed him off by saying they couldn't do anything about it as the charges were above £50, and would notify an area manager who will be in touch.

I thought that as this DD was under the value of £10 there would be no charges, or is it just some banks like Alliance & Leicester that don't charge if the amount is below £10.

Any advise as to which way to go would be helpful.

Cheers

Derek

[WendyB]

Re: Natwest charging for £3.01 Direct Debit unpaid

Natwest will charge at the drop of a hat, they don't have a £10 buffer, as far as I know. I got charged for being 32 pence over my limit! The unauthorised overdraft fee will be £28. not £38, and will be taken out at the end of the next month, usually. Managers used to have the discretion to refund one-offs up to £50, but I believe that this has been tightened up and is no longer the case. Nattie would be able to confirm that for you.

Probably the only way to go would be to start a reclaim, but then that would be subject to the current OFT case and would get stayed once it went to court.

It might be worth havng a go at Scottish Power and possibly trying to get the charges from them, as they were not authoirised to take the DD in the first place, but they may have something in the small print or on the bill which states that payments will be taken 14 days after the bill date, or similar.

[natweststaffmember]

Re: Natwest charging for £3.01 Direct Debit unpaid

Hi

My Son-in-law has been charged by Natwest for an unpaid direct debit of £3.01.

First they charged him £38 for not paying the direct debit, and as he only had 97pence in the account with no overdraft facility, they are also charging him an unauthorised overdraft fee, which we believe is another £38.

The DD was collected on a date that he did not have notification from the payee Scottish Power. It was the reconcilliation amount of a final bill, they normally take the monthly payments on the 5th of every month but on this occasion decided without warning to take the amount of £3.01 on 12th of January.

He contacted both the bank and Scottish power, got cut off from Scottish power just as he was about to speak to a manager after about 1 hour on the phone, and when he went into the bank they fobbed him off by saying they couldn't do anything about it as the charges were above £50, and would notify an area manager who will be in touch.

I thought that as this DD was under the value of £10 there would be no charges, or is it just some banks like Alliance & Leicester that don't charge if the amount is below £10.

Any advise as to which way to go would be helpful.

Cheers

Derek

NatWest do not have an amount where you will not be charged for a Direct Debit being returned. Unauthorised overdraft fee is £28 which is a maintenance charge. Does he have a current plus or step account? I am aware that some of my colleagues have no idea how bank charges work for both the accounts. For a step account there would be no £28 charge. There has been a return to the branch of managerial refunds HOWEVER the grounds for doing so are very tight. I suspect that the regional refunds team may decline the refund on the basis of no bank error and that the company making the claim have triggered the charge. They will probably suggest speaking to the company to refund the money as there is not bank error. However, he could claim the charges back of course.