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The Banking Industry - Charging Malpractice


Ally
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Not sure if this has been mentioned before or anywhere, but it's common knowledge within RBS that Sir Fred Goodwin has detailed that anyone attempting to get their money back should be fought as far as is possible and then if it comes to returning money - give it to them and close their account down + "don't allow them to open another". The last bit there in "" I'm not 100% certain about .. the rest is a goer.

 

Nice.

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Sir Fred Goodwin has detailed that anyone attempting to get their money back should be fought as far as is possible and then if it comes to returning money - give it to them and close their account down

 

Yeah, it's always recommended that you are prepared to close any account that you pursue this action against.

 

But, get this....

 

As you may know from above, I chased Smile for several hundred pounds recently and they refunded my money pretty sharpish. So, to avoid any future charges, I decided to leave £50 in the account and stopped using it entirely. I thought that, by leaving some money there, if there was a charge pending somehow, this would cover it and avoid any other nastiness.

 

Well... recently I received a letter from them demanding £150! When I phoned they explained that they'd taken my £50 in fees because I hadn't been using the account! Since these 'fees' took more money than I had in my account, they started hammering me with overdraft charges again!

 

Excuse my French but.... sphincters!

 

The long and short of it is that, because I didn't use my account (which was in credit) because of their shocking practices, they have charged me another £200.

 

The worst is that this is a sodding internet account where the service consists of sending me an email once per quarter to let me know that my (empty) statement was online.

 

Seriously... avoid this bank.

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Maybe you should get the bailiffs in?

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=430129&in_page_id=1770

 

"...Stunned customers at his branch of RBS watched as debt collectors seized four computers, two fax machines and a till filled with cash.

 

The branch manager was told that the items would be sold unless RBS came up with the money owed to Mr Purcell.

 

Only when the manager gave an undertaking that the debt would be paid did the bailiffs leave.

 

Mr Purcell said: "I think the bank was pretty shocked when the bailiffs went in. But my view is that this is exactly what they would have done to me."

 

The move, which will raise a cheer from millions of other bank customers, is part of a consumer fightback against bank charges, which net an estimated £4.5 billion every year..."

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Dir wis a bit on Watchdog last night on BBC1 aboot dis very subject and featured the stories of 3 different folk taking 3 different banks to court to get repaid money the banks had taken off in charges. All 3 won their cases and the banks were ordered to cough up for the charges and costs.

 

Two had to resort to threatening to get the bailiffs in before the banks paid up. The third had his money paid but then received a letter from the bank saying he had 32 days to close down all his accounts with them or they'd take him to court. Sour grapes or what!

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Fjool - have you tried contacting the banking ombudsman about the Smile carry on?

 

Doesn't matter how many times I read it, I just can't work out how they could get away with that.

 

There was a rep from the ombudsman on watchdog and he seemed to be pretty anti bank attitude, so you might get somewhere with that.

 

Only other thing I can think of is contacting some of the national press. bad publicity might do wonders...

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Dir wis a bit on Watchdog last night on BBC1 aboot dis very subject and featured the stories of 3 different folk taking 3 different banks to court to get repaid money the banks had taken off in charges. All 3 won their cases and the banks were ordered to cough up for the charges and costs.

 

Two had to resort to threatening to get the bailiffs in before the banks paid up. The third had his money paid but then received a letter from the bank saying he had 32 days to close down all his accounts with them or they'd take him to court. Sour grapes or what!

 

I thought it was a disgrace the banks threatening to close the bank accounts when it was them who were in the wrong.

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  • 1 month later...

So, a few weeks ago, I chopped up my Smile debit cards (into many pieces) and stuck them in an envelope. As an afterthought I hastily scribbled a note to the effect of 'Bah, you're a bunch of jerks and I wish I'd never opened this account'.

 

Today I received a letter saying that they were sorry I had felt the need to complain and have refunded me another £171 (and pennies). I was not anticipating any more money returned.

 

I'll certainly give Smile this: they're keen to correct their mistakes. Now if only they'd update their T&C to remove the 'Shaft customers clause' in the first place...

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About 3 years ago I got stung by a £20 "unauthorised overdraft" charge by the TSB. I had long forgotten about this, until yesterday, when I got a letter saying they had been reviewing my account and they were sorry that they had charged it and they were refunding the charge + interest. Anybody else had anything similar?

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They had been reviewing my account and they were sorry that they had charged it and they were refunding the charge + interest.

 

I'm, cynically perhaps, guessing that they've produced a report of all customers stung by such charges over the last 6 years, sorted it by least expensive and paid them off quickly.

 

This looks good for them. It means they can proudly announce how sorry they are and, look we're already taking action to rectify this, Mr. Ombudsman. It is also more cost effective.

 

How much interest did they pay you, if I may be so bold? I've no idea what the compund interest on £20 for 3 years would be.

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