If a cheque for £50 came through your letterbox, with no prior warning, you would have every right to be a bit skeptical about the validity of it.
Luckily for thousands of bank customers across the UK, this happened to one viewer of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, who decided to get to the bottom of it.
Alan got in touch with the financial guru to ask if the letter he had received from his bank, First Direct, offering him a cheque refund for £50, was a scam.
“I recognise this letter, it is not a scam so cash it and this is really important for lots of people,” Martin responded immediately during the ITV show.
The founder of MoneySavingExpert.com explained: “If you banked with HSBC, First Direct, M&S and John Lewis Finance, between 2010 and 2019 and you were in arrears at some point on one of their debt products - mortgage, credit card, loan and others, it admits its customer service was wrong and so it’s automatically sending out compensation.”
Martin told viewers that customers will receive these letters up until March, but added: “If you think you’re due one and don’t get one after that [date] I’d get in touch, if you’ve moved house and tell it about your address.”
He also warned viewers: “Watch out for these. Do not bin them, these are cash in the bank so put your cheque in.”
In June 2019, RBS, Natwest and Ulster Bank agreed to pay refunds totalling £2.2million to more than 36,000 customers, after they wrongly charged them for unarranged overdrafts.
RBS Group, which includes all three banks, said it’s made the pledge after an investigation found it unfairly charged customers for going overdrawn – without alerting them first.
Rules introduced in 2017 require banks and building societies to send customers a text alert when they go overdrawn.
