T
his year I was booking a hotel room for a trip to Sydney. I found a hotel I liked the look of on a travel agent’s website but decided to book directly with it. I searched for it online and clicked on a link for what I believed was its website.
I was quoted £349 for three nights in November, so I clicked through to accept it and the website immediately asked for my card details. After I entered my details the website tried to charge me £1,703. This was a huge escalation in cost from the initial quote and there was no opportunity to review the booking dates before it went to take this payment. I was really concerned and it dawned on me that this wasn’t the hotel’s actual website.
When my NatWest banking app prompted me to approve the transaction for £1,703, I declined it. I then called NatWest to make sure that no money would be taken from my account. The customer service agent confirmed that the payment would not go through, although they did not give me any advice to freeze my card and nothing was put in place to secure my account.
Two days later, I was shocked when £1,703 was deducted from my bank account. I called NatWest but it won’t refund the payment because it said the issue was not caused by a bank error. I thought two-factor authentication was meant to offer protection, but if a company can force through a payment after I have refused it then I’m not confident that my bank account has strong safeguards in place. I have banked with NatWest for nearly 50 years and feel very angry and disappointed by the way I have been treated.
