Posts Tagged ‘ bank ’

Bank – address change problem

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Last week I went to the shop in the morning to buy something for breakfast.
I’ve collected my items and went to the till to pay for them, but when I’ve put my pin to the card terminal – it said that the card was blocked.

Without thinking twice I went straight to the bank to ask what’s happened.

The bank representative kindly told me that my card has been blocked as I should now be using the new one which they’ve sent to me some time ago.

Since I haven’t received anything, I’ve asked when has it been sent and the answer was about 2 months ago.

I told her that I didn’t receive anything and she’s asked me to confirm my post code – which I did.

The next question was whether I’ve moved recently – and I said – well, not that recently because I’ve moved about a year ago and I’ve already changed my address in this bank 3 times because it hasn’t been updated.

So – guess what – I had to give her my address again – and put my signature on the piece of paper to confirm that I am who I am.

She said that my signature isn’t exactly as the one on the system – it misses 2 letters.
That gave her an idea of explaining that perhaps because of my signature didn’t match last time – they didn’t update the address.

Now I have to wait 1-2 weeks for them to change my address again and 2 weeks for my card to arrive.

Now – I’ve also asked – why they didn’t contact me if I haven’t activated my card after such long time – and she said that the card was sent activated as it’s a replacement.

I asked – that’s not very secure – is it – sending the activated card – and the answer was – it’s normally ok.

That really worries me, as some time ago my card was cloned – which means someone got hold of my pin and card number. Since then I had a new card and new pin – but you can’t really say whenever you pay with your card whether someone is copying your pin or not.

Now, if my card was sent without activation and someone by any chance knows my pin …. – anyway – you get an idea. Scary thing is that banks don’t think this is important enough.

Anyway, after I came back home I’ve realised that I’m actually receiving my statements to my new address so they have to have it right on the system – unless each computer station in the bank uses its own database?

It sounds such non-sense when I hear that it takes 2 weeks to change your address, that every time I go to the bank they have different address of mine, even thou my statements are arriving to the right one.
These days everything is stored digitally and how long does it take to change the address on the computer – 2 min if you are really slow typer?

And I’m sure it’s not the security measure – because in that case they should also think about sending the card which need to be activated by the owner first – before being used.

It really is sad that we all have to use Banks to deal with our own money.
Banks are private organisations, which dictate how we’re going to live – if you think government is running the country – think again, because you’re really mistaking.

Did you realise that to get a job and get paid you HAVE TO have a bank account – there’s no way around it.

People talk about freedom and democracy – which is just another word for a “Modern slavery” – we are all slaves of the system run by the private organisations – and government is just a bunch of marionnettes who do exactly as they’re told.

None are more helplessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749 – 1832

One movie I recommend to all of you is called Zeitgeist and you can watch it free here:

NatWest additional (hidden) charges?

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Today I had to transfer some money from my business account to the supplier abroad.
The transfer was for £1300.00 and according to NatWest’s website, I should be chared £20.00 :
NatWest Sending money abroad.

However, this evening I’ve checked my account on-line and found out that NatWest charged me £28.50.

This wasn’t the first time I was sending payment to my suppliers abroad and the charge was always £20.00 -- today however it raised up to £28.50.

I have called NatWest, but all they could say was to go to my branch and ask them -- as if I didn’t have anything better to do.

NatWest charges their business customers for the account on the monthly basis -- clearly that’s not enough.

UK Banks and unlawful charges

Career Development Loan – Arrears Notice sent in Error

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Yesterday I’ve received a letter from Barclays – Career Development Loan which I’m paying for the course I’ve taken 5 years ago and have been ripped off by the company called Top Choice – which suddenly, after 2 months I’ve started my course has dissapeared.

It was the Career Development Loan – Arrears Notice.
It did raise my temperature as I know I’m paying all my bills on time and as it’s a Standing Order there shouldn’t be any problems – I’ve checked my statement and all payments went on time.

The Arrears was for £1.40 – which was really strange, but I wanted to find out what do I owe this amount for – so I called their support team.

Below you can listen to my conversation over the phone with Tracy – who explains the reason behind it.

Did you experience something similar?

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Banks and their Rip-Off interest rates

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Today I came across the article published on the telegraph.co.uk website about the banks being accused of ripping off customers by charging extortionate interest rates of up to 21% on personal loans.
You can read the entire article here: Rip-off interest rates on personal loans.

My favorite quote from this article is the money-saving expert Martin Lewis’s:

“If you walk into your bank for a loan without checking the market for the best deal you may as well have the words ‘rip me off’ tattooed across your forehead.”

The truth is that last year I had to take a loan to buy a new car – if I knew what’s just about to happen (with the Credit Crunch and all prices going down) I would most probably wait a little bit longer.

I’ve been with NatWest for several years now. My wife and I have personal accounts with them and our business account is also with them.
I blindly believed that because of this and because we are good customers (regular payments etc.) we can get a good interest rate on our new loan.

At the time they were advertising their loans at the interest rate of around 7% APR – which sounded extremely attractive.

Without thinking twice I’ve decided to apply and my loan request has been approved, but for some reason interest rate has jumped up to 15.9 % APR.

I needed the new car so I had to accept it, but one decision I’ve made after this, was that I will never go to NatWest asking for a loan again.

These days we have many options, there are price comparison websites – try them first and do not blindly believe that your bank is going to care about your interest – because they won’t. They are only interested in making profit and by becoming their client – you’re becoming their target.

NatWest credit cards

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

A few months ago my NatWest Credit Card has expired and for some reason I wasn’t able to renew it.

I went to the bank to find out why, as all my accounts are paid on time, no major problems etc. and for some reason they’ve decliend to issue the new card.
Well – I wasn’t too worry about it as I didn’t use this card that much anyway, but a few weeks ago, when I wanted to close the account associated with this card over the phone, I’ve been told that my new card has been sent to me a couple of weeks ago.

As you can imagine I was quite surprise, and I have explained to the NatWest Credit Card representative that my application for reneval has been declined just a few months ago. He couldn’t say why this has happened, but did try to make me stay with them oferring me some “Great Deals”.

I’m quite fed up with NatWest – a few weeks ago I was 2 days late with the payment on my credit card which had balance of £60.00 and they’ve charged me £12.00 for the late payment.

So even thou the NatWest representative was trying to convince me to stay, I said that I definitely want to cancel my account.

Today I’ve received the letter from NatWest confirming the closing of the credit account, however what I’ve found out is that even thou your card is cancelled, they can still charge you money if someone will request the money from them in the form of any recurring transactions (annual subscriptions or memberships ect).

Well, this means to me that even if I have cancelled my memberships, payments etc. and the company still keeps my Credit Card details, they still will be able to take money from me because NatWest simply won’t stop it.

Here’s what the letter says:

“Please make sure that any recurring transactions (e.g. annual subscriptions or memberships) are stopped with the relevant retailers, as we will have to continue to pay these until the authority has been cancelled by you.”

NatWest doesn’t seem to be very helpful here – do they?

This simply means that if someone has been taking money from you and the only way for you to cancel these payments is to cancel your credit card – than with NatWest it’s not going to solve the problem at all – as they will still allow the other party to take the money of your non-existing credit card.

Correct me if I’m wrong – but this is what I understand from this statement.

 

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