Wonder if anyone can give advice.

Last Saturday went to a doo over in Sale and needed to draw some money out on the way home to pay for the cab. Pulled into the new petrol station on Wellington Road and the machine read service not available, to cut a long story short tried 3 othjer cash machines only to get the same error message. I ended up going home and counting out over £25 in shrapnal to pay for the cab.
Called the lost card number only to be told that it was schedulded maintenance!!! visited my branch on Monday and was assured that they picked the quietest time of the week to close the ATM service for repairs (I doubt Saturday night is the queitest night).
Asked for compo as I was £12 out of pocket and have just recieved a letter from Nationwide saying that they are not liable as they had a notice that this was going to happen on the front page of the website, this is no use to me as I don't do online banking.

Anyone know who migt be able to help with something like this??

I don't understand, where did the £12 loss come from?.

The driving round to try and find a ATM that worked and waiting while I counted out shrapnal.

Cost me £13 going and £25 coming home.

Write to: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk and I'd recommend the Co Operative bank. Been with them 6 months and had nothing but excellent customer service.

Write to: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk and I'd recommend the Co Operative bank. Been with them 6 months and had nothing but excellent customer service.

Typical Banks MR - nice letter here though :-


A 98 year old woman in the UK wrote this to her bank. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the Times.


Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month.

By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my Pension, an arrangement, which, I admit, has been in place for only thirty eight years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account £30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become.

From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.
My mortgage and loan payments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank by cheque, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

Be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope.

Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.

Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Solicitor, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof.

In due course, I will issue your employee with PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me.

I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Let me level the playing field even further. When you call me, press buttons as follows:

1. To make an appointment to see me.

2. To query a missing payment.

3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

7. To leave a message on my computer (a password to access my computer is required. A password will be communicated to you at a later date to the Authorized Contact).

8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through to 8.

9. To make a general complaint or inquiry, the contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service.

While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous, New Year.

Your Humble Client


(Remember: This was written by a 98 year old woman; DOESN'T SHE MAKE YOU PROUD!)

Sorry but yet another internet urban myth -this one has been doing the rounds since 1999

rlhttp://consumerist.com/2011/01/apocryphal-and-hilarious-letter-a-98-year-old-uk-woman-wrote-to-her-bank-making-rounds-again.htmlrl

a voice from the enemy (i work for a bank)

Rightly or Wrongly, banks will only give out compensation when they acknowledge that they are at fault.

ATM shutdowns like this are necessary and although banks try to keep quiet about them, occasions where the ATM for an entire bank will shut down. This normally happens in the early hours of the morning.

As this is unavoidable, the bank will not see it as their error and a standard response will involved a written letter of apology (normally standardised) and no compensation.

Complaints are expensive for banks and the cost of handling a complaint can get costly as they are investigated, actioned, and checked. For the sake of £12 in most instances the complaint would be cutting its losses in giving the compensation and avoiding a more costly investigation.

That said i would normally always complain to the bank in person, or on the telephone as opposed to written forms. In these forms a person is there with you and will be able to sort it out there and then. The problem with writing letters is that the person who looks at the complaints in this way, just picks a template letter and sends it back in the post. 5 mins work in a service centre somewhere and at not much cost to the bank.

On a related note, i dealt with a customer who had similar complaint to this. Within 5 mins i told him his £20 compensation (the sum he had asked for) would be in his account in the next hour. Whilst actioning this the customer had decided that £1000 would be more appropriate. The complaint then had to be escalated and he ended up getting nothing.

Well you musn't work for Nationwide, think it's pretty appauling that you can't get at your own money when you want. Feel very poorly treated to just get a generic letter sent out and will be closing my account and taking it further as the banks charge through the nose if you err slightly from the party line and yet they blatently prevent you getting your money and see fit to do nothing to appease customers. Still not excepting that Saturdat night Sunday morning is the right night to do this as the ATM transactions must be massive with people being out and about on the town.

Stand by for more Bank Charges, when gormless George Osbourne brings in his bank regs, splitting up retail and international, I can see a charge of 2 quid per withdrawal and a quid for a direct debit and standing order, or a monthly fee of at least 20 quid to look after your money.