FNB transfer of funds without my conscent

[bluepoole]

I have a cheque account with FNB that has been dormant since October 2011. There were a few hundred rand negative balance on it for monthly account fees.

They have now closed the account and took money out of my credit card (which is linked to my portfolio) to settle the balance.

I don't mind them closing the account, since I do not need it anymore, and yes I realise I am in the wrong for not keeping up with the monthly fees - I did at one stage last year try to transfer funds from another account via internet banking but the system did not want to process it. But it still was my responsibility, I admit.

But it would have been nice if they first obtained my conscent to do so. I could have settled the outstanding balance with two or three cash payments, now I will incur additional interest on that amount since it came from my credit card.

Are they allowed to do this? And even if they are not - would it be worth taking them on about it or is it a waste of time?

 

[Messugga]

I have a cheque account with FNB that has been dormant since October 2011. There were a few hundred rand negative balance on it for monthly account fees.

They have now closed the account and took money out of my credit card (which is linked to my portfolio) to settle the balance.

I don't mind them closing the account, since I do not need it anymore, and yes I realise I am in the wrong for not keeping up with the monthly fees - I did at one stage last year try to transfer funds from another account via internet banking but the system did not want to process it. But it still was my responsibility, I admit.

But it would have been nice if they first obtained my conscent to do so. I could have settled the outstanding balance with two or three cash payments, now I will incur additional interest on that amount since it came from my credit card.

Are they allowed to do this? And even if they are not - would it be worth taking them on about it or is it a waste of time?

Have you received any notification from them requesting you to settle the outstanding amounts owed at any point in time?

 

[lived666]

waste of time, ignore and move on

 

[I.am.Sam]

imagine if they did that to everyone who left money in one account ..and the account holder took them to court and won couple thousands

where do we sign up

 

[bluepoole]

@ Messugga - yes they did send an sms every now and then asking to settle the balance...ouch, the more I think about it, the more I realise I am in the wrong here...it wasn't a case of me ignoring them but just my own stupidity for forgetting to handle the situation...

But I still want to know if the terms and conditions allow them to take money from another account. The card that the money was taken from is fairly new - I just want to know what would have happened if there wasn't a card to take the money from in the first place? Would the cheque account have remained open? Or did their system detect there is a new account linked with available funds and then went ahead and executed the closure?

@ lived666 - yeah, I tend to agree with you - it had to be done I suppose - let them have the funds, in a month or two I can replace the funds on my card again I suppose!

 

[Griz]

imagine if they did that to everyone who left money in one account ..and the account holder took them to court and won couple thousands

where do we sign up

He never left money in his account.

 

[Captain Morgan]

Same thing happened to a friend of mine about 8 years ago. Turns out that if you have an existing FNB account (credit card / cheque), and you apply for a new account at the same branch where the existing account is held, they will let you sign a form which permits them to do this. They will throw this form between the heaps of paper you have to sign.

Since I've learned about this practice of FNB, I've never opened any of my FNB accounts at the same branch, just in case.

 

[Captain Morgan]

@ Messugga - yes they did send an sms every now and then asking to settle the balance...ouch, the more I think about it, the more I realise I am in the wrong here...it wasn't a case of me ignoring them but just my own stupidity for forgetting to handle the situation...

But I still want to know if the terms and conditions allow them to take money from another account. The card that the money was taken from is fairly new - I just want to know what would have happened if there wasn't a card to take the money from in the first place? Would the cheque account have remained open? Or did their system detect there is a new account linked with available funds and then went ahead and executed the closure?

@ lived666 - yeah, I tend to agree with you - it had to be done I suppose - let them have the funds, in a month or two I can replace the funds on my card again I suppose!

No, they would have still closed the account, write the negative amount off as bad debt and put a "default" listing against your name at the credit bureaus. So they will basically blacklist you.

 

[bluepoole]

Same thing happened to a friend of mine about 8 years ago. Turns out that if you have an existing FNB account (credit card / cheque), and you apply for a new account at the same branch where the existing account is held, they will let you sign a form which permits them to do this. They will throw this form between the heaps of paper you have to sign.

Since I've learned about this practice of FNB, I've never opened any of my FNB accounts at the same branch, just in case.

Interesting...but not the case in my situation. The mentioned credit card is actually a Discovery Card (just administered by FNB, and linked to my online banking portfolio)

As said, it is alright that I at least don't owe them any money anymore, and avoiding blacklisting or whatever consequences, I still just wonder if they are allowed to do it the way they did.

 

[broken1]

No, they would have still closed the account, write the negative amount off as bad debt and put a "default" listing against your name at the credit bureaus. So they will basically blacklist you.

And I would rather them 'taking money from another account' than being blacklisted by a bank.

 

[bluepoole]

And very ironically the first option on my cellphone banking after this happened, is "Get a cheque account"...I actually selected the option to see what would happen, and it furthermore said "you qualify for a cheque account, do you wish to proceed, etc...", at which point I cancelled...

It is almost as if they want to say "hey, we still want you to have an account with us...so go ahead and open a new one...we just wanted those outstanding fees and are very glad that we got it now.."

 

[Messugga]

And very ironically the first option on my cellphone banking after this happened, is "Get a cheque account"...I actually selected the option to see what would happen, and it furthermore said "you qualify for a cheque account, do you wish to proceed, etc...", at which point I cancelled...

It is almost as if they want to say "hey, we still want you to have an account with us...so go ahead and open a new one...we just wanted those outstanding fees and are very glad that we got it now.."

I can't believe you're trying to justify what you did in any at whatsoever. You basically stole money from them and now you're grumpy because they took what you owed from you? They should've just blacklisted you and be done with it, then losing out on a few hundred rand would be the least of your worries.

 

[Freaksta]

I can't believe you're trying to justify what you did in any at whatsoever. You basically stole money from them and now you're grumpy because they took what you owed from you? They should've just blacklisted you and be done with it, then losing out on a few hundred rand would be the least of your worries.

+1.. How would you feel if your employee didn't pay your salary?

 

[Gnome]

You basically stole money from them and now you're grumpy because they took what you owed from you?

Still, the man has a point. A legal transgression was made, unless a document was signed.

Some info (pretty much mentioned here already):
http://www.justanswer.com/south-africa-law/4zjyt-owe-money-credit-card-standard-bank-just-money.html

EDIT:

It isn't legal, but the banks do it anyway:
http://www.obssa.co.za/documents/cin_005_setoff.pdf

No one has the balls and/or funds/time to take them on.

Moral of the story, they expect you to suck it up

 

[HavocXphere]

Presumably you gave them instructions to close the account, no?

 

[bluepoole]

@ HavocXphere - no I did not ask them to close the account.

@ Messugga - where do I try to justify my actions? On the contrary, read carefully through my posts above, I used phrases like "I realise I am in the wrong here", etc. and I am not grumpy at all, I was just a bit surprised by the way they did it. The link Gnome posted proves that they could have done it differently. Maybe I just expected them to contact me out of courtesy and tell me they want to close the account, so I must pay up. Maybe I just wanted to be given the opportunity to select the way I pay the outstanding amount.

Since it is not a huge amount and not affecting my financial position, I do not feel it is worth making a fuss over it. And as I mentioned, it needed to be done, and I am glad the outstanding balance is settled.

 

[ichigo]

@ HavocXphere - no I did not ask them to close the account.

@ Messugga - where do I try to justify my actions? On the contrary, read carefully through my posts above, I used phrases like "I realise I am in the wrong here", etc. and I am not grumpy at all, I was just a bit surprised by the way they did it. The link Gnome posted proves that they could have done it differently. Maybe I just expected them to contact me out of courtesy and tell me they want to close the account, so I must pay up. Maybe I just wanted to be given the opportunity to select the way I pay the outstanding amount.

Since it is not a huge amount and not affecting my financial position, I do not feel it is worth making a fuss over it. And as I mentioned, it needed to be done, and I am glad the outstanding balance is settled.

What they did is a bit unethical but least you in the clear now except for having to pay off the credit card

Dont get how Messugga misread your posts

 

[Cube3]

You would be lucky if you didn't get blacklisted.

 

[Sinbad]

Pretty sure there's something in the terms and conditions somewhere that lets them offset a delinquent debt against other accounts...