26 Feb 2015

A question about : NOCHEX

I thought I'd post this warning about NOCHEX in the hope of preventing others from being caught like I have been.
My NOCHEX account hasn't been used for 2 years, simply because nobody buying stuff from me on ebay wanted to use it but out of the blue, a buyer said they wanted to pay me via NOCHEX. When I tried to log in I found that the account had been disabled and I was required to download a form, fill it in and post it off to get the account reactivated. That was fine so I did as requested but when my account was made live again I found that the balance of Ј17.11 that I had in there had been taken to cover Dornamt Account Charges so I had a zero balance. There had been no email warning about this, otherwise I would have accessed the account every now and then to keep it alive. Their T&C's state as follows :-
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3.11 Nochex reserves the right at their absolute discretion to apply an administrative charge of no more than Ј5.00 per quarter on dormant accounts.
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Now, they don't actually appear to say what constitutes a dormant account so anyone with money sitting in a NOCHEX account would be advised to go and look to see if they have been stung.

Best answers:

  • Thanks for the heads up...
    Just checked and mine has had the same happen.... can't for the life of me remember if I had any money in there but its a bloody STUPID way to do business. You would have thought they could have sent a warning e-mail out before doing anything....
    Well I certainly won't be re-opening my account. When they treat customers like this, they will die out the way QXL did in the face of competition from ebay!!
    M
  • Yes, I spotted this in the T&C's and cancelled my account just in time. The CS person tried to convince me that the charge was just a small print thing and was never actually applied! Then they switched from nice cop to nasty cop, warning me that I couldn't reopen my account with the same debit card later. I'm glad I didn't listen now.
  • Well done mate, lucky escape!!!
    Who uses nochex these days anyway!??!
    M
  • https://greenroom.nochex.com/showthread.php?t=9919
    ( just transferred my balance out)
  • Does anyone know:
    When I re-activate my account, will I be able to see if they have charged me or not?!?
    I cannot for the life of me remember if I had any money in there and will want to know if they have charged me. If they have then I will kick off and make a fuss but I would obviously need to know if they have charged me or not!
    M
  • this could be affecting more people than we think......
  • morph: I thought nochex was cheaper than paypal. Other than the overheads of a merchant account is there a provider that I'm not aware of?
  • just login the other day and i got 4£ odd there ,.. yess!
    havnt been charged anything,. i guess i login atleast once every 2 months
  • Rediculous that they require you to post the reactivation form back to them on paper. Are they trying to alienate all their customers? Don't do business with them.
  • yeah same thing happened to me
    i prefer nochex and would rather use them over paypal but when they do this its beyond a joke
    i certainly wont be reopening my account
    its the worst business sense i have ever seen from a company
  • I've just checked and I'm appalled to find that my account has also been suspended - there was money in it too.
    What galls me is that they can send out emails to warn you that your registered card is about to expire, but not that they are going to take your money and suspend your account!
    Unbelievable!
    I have also checked the T&C which were in force at the time I joined, and it says that a charge of no more than £2 per quarter could be made against dormant accounts... this should be interesting...
  • Hi,
    Missed out on this and just got done myself. Lost Ј8. Logged in May 06, so must have had 2 charges taken. 180 days before deactivation means that should have occurred in November.
    Started a thread on the forum and it was removed within minutes.
    Anybody taken a complaint any further, as I am prepared to persue it
  • Same here. Should be reported to the OFT. Users cannot even access their details to CHECK what is going on in the account, never mind use it.
    [ADDED] I managed to get into the account for a peek anyway (found a way) and saw that NOCHEX had drained the last pound or two. Logged a complaint about why no notice. Doubt I would want to upgrade to Merchant account with such a co.
  • I have finally regained access to my account and I am absolutely appalled to find that they have virtually cleared out my account with charges.
    They have take a £40 'dormant account charge' in November 2006, which I assume is due to the fact that the last transaction on the account was two years ago, although the account has been accessed in this time, so it seems that simply accessing the account is not good enough. I have had absolutely no warning or notification from them of any charges or account suspension, can this be legal?
    The £5 per quarter charge is there in the T&C, however note that this charge was only introduced in the T&C dated 10th Aug 2005 - previous to that the charge was £2 per quarter. I have copies of the T&C for various dates supporting this. That means they have charged be £5 for quarters which their own T&C in force at the time state that a charge of £2 may be applied.
    It seems that they think they can also backdate changes in the T&C, as well as failing to notify you! I also notice that their T&C doesn't require you to check regularly for changes as some do, so I cannot see how they can enforce T&C which are different to the ones you signed up to, without them notifying you of any changes.
    I am so angry with this outfit at the moment, but I am not sure what action I am going to take yet. This just looks like robbery to me...
  • Error! Due to inactivity your account has been temporarily suspended.
    In the interest of Privacy and Fraud Prevention temporary suspension ensures no information is sent to an out of date email address which could potentially be accessed by a non account holder.
    If you wish to reactivate the Account please click here
    WHAT DO I DO? CLICK HERE OR NOT??
  • By doing a password change request I was able to get into my account long enough to peek at the transaction history (on entering your acct via a link after password change you get a chance to look). The remaining balance showed that it was not worth reopening the Nochex account.
    This experience 100% put me off wanting to try out a merchant account with Nochex - the main reason for acct inactivity was that they don't accept larger than £100 purchase transactions with a non-merchant status.
    Pity there isn't a viable alternative to Paypal then...