Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander customers face new £100 charge 'through no fault of own'

UK bank fraud victims could face £100 excess on refund claims. Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Chase, Co-op Bank, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds, Metro, Monzo, NatWest, RBS and Santander may charge an excess, Money Saving Expert warns.

New rules requiring banks and other payment companies to reimburse fraud victims who have been tricked into sending money to scammers took effect last month, and included an optional £100 excess that firms can apply to a claim.

The rules mean that if you are scammed out of £90 through no fault of your own, you could still end up empty-handed, and if you lose £300, you might only get £200 back. Nationwide building society, Virgin Money and TSB have opted not to introduce the excess.

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HSBC said: “We want to encourage customer caution, particularly when it comes to lower-value purchases made online. This is why we will be applying the [£100] excess to the total amount reimbursed to customers, while taking into account the specific circumstances of each customer where appropriate.”

Nationwide said it had decided not to charge an excess because “it is vital we support victims of crime in their time of need while identifying ways to crack down and prevent fraud and scams before they take place.”

But the Guardian reports Lloyds has started flashing up messages about the £100 excess when customers are making payments online or via its app, while NatWest is alerting customers via bank statements and digital displays in its branches.

MSE warned: "For many, £100 is not a trivial amount to lose, and our concern about having this limit in place is that it could lead to scammers evolving their tactics to defraud people via smaller individual payments of less than £100 in the hope that victims won't report it as they won't get it back."