I am trying to switch my bank account from Natwest to Abbey. Abbey said I needed to go to Natwest and get the last 3 months bank statements and Natwest charged £2.50 per sheet. A statement is usually about 4 sheets so it cost about £30. This is unbelievable. Lookily Abbey offered to refund the cost if I got a receipt but Natwest don't give receipts - the charge (whatever it comes out to) will just turn up on your next bank statement.
"alfi" wrote
You should have asked for *all* the data that they hold on you (including all statements!) under the Data Protection Act rules. The *maximum* charge they can ask for under those rules is (AIUI) just 10.
It may be too late to do it this way now, though.
Use your bank statement as the receipt/proof of purchase.
What happened to the original statements? Did you throw them away?
Why didn't you have the statements ?
It isnt for a sheet of paper you dimwit. Its for the info on them and the time it takes to get that. besides which obviously you didnt even think was worth a few p since you threw them away or lost them in the first place.
Surely the computer just prints it back out and sends it off. It isn't through somebody has to go through paper records and manually recompile them. Besides they got lost during a recent house move, probably in one of 14 refuge sacks of rubbish I took to the tip. Anyway at least Abbey had the decency to offer to pay for the things.
Unfortunately (?) they havent yet invented the computer with ESP that knew you wanted a duplicate bill and automagically sent it to you. Someone has to understand & enter the request, that takes time. Someone had to write the program, that took time. The computer resources took time. It was mailed to you. If those people or computer resorces werent doing that, they could be doing something else, or using less resources or people. In the mass, it all adds up. All that has to be paid for somehow.
FWIW not all banks charge for duplicates or it depends how old they are. IIRC barclays only make a charge after 6 months. They have (probably) decided that the cost is best paid for by retaining customers through increased customer satisfaction. Your bank either dont think that equation works, or didnt even make it. Only one of them is right but I suspect that Barclays/Abbey are making the best decision since in all probability the resouces used are marginal. But it may be that someone at your bank did the sums and worked out that for every person like you they lose they save much more in resources.
If you are on an online banking service you could just print these details off the computer yourself which is what I did last time I needed a copy of a statement I had lost. Ali
Doubtful as to whether this would be accepted for the purposes they want the statements for.
Without a hint of irony, "Al Green" astounded uk.finance on 07 May 2004 by announcing:
My cahoot printouts were not accepted (by IF, I think).
However, cahoot charge 2 per statement (not per page) and never even got around to adding the charge to my account.
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